American Indian Wars is the name used in the United States to describe the multiple conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America from the time of earliest colonial settlement until approximately 1890. The wars resulted as the arrival of European colonists continuously led to population pressure as settlers expanded their territory, generally pushing indigenous people westward. Many conflicts were local, involving disputes over land use, and some entailed cycles of reprisal. Particularly in later years, conflicts were spurred by ideologies such as Manifest Destiny, which held that the United States was destined to expand from coast to coast on the American continent. A main driver of many of these conflicts was the policy of Indian re