History: American Old West, United States

The decreased presence of Union troops in the West left behind untrained militias which encouraged native uprisings and skirmishes with settlers. President Lincoln appears to have had little time to formulate new Indian policy. Some tribes took sides in the war, even forming regiments that joined the Union or the rebel cause, while others took the opportunity to avenge past wrongs by the federal government. Engagements were fought against natives in Utah against the Shoshone, all across New Mexico Territory against Apaches and the Navajo, conflict also occurred in Oregon. Within the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, conflicts arose among the Five Civilized Tribes, some of whom sided with the South being slaveholders themselves.
While the question of whether western territories would be free or slave-owning had preoccupied antebellum political debate, in 1862, Congress enacted two major laws to facilitate settlement of the West: the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railroad Act.