In the review of the article "How the West was Lost", the author, William T. Hagan explains that on a brief period of thirty-eight years between 1848 and 1886, the Indians of the western United States lost their fight against the United States to retain their lands. Although nothing in the article tells us who Hagan is, or when the article was written, the central theme of his article is to inform us of how Indians lost their land to white settlers. I found three main ideas in the article that I believe Hagan was trying to get across to us. Hagan classified these events geographically and chronologically first by the Plains Indians and then by the Western Indians. The first point he made was how westward expansion affected the Plains Indians. The Plains Indian tribes were primarily composed of Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, Comanche, Sioux, and Cheyenne. As white settlers moved across the country to take land, the Indians pushed back by attacking the settlements and occasionally killing settlers. More and more white settlers flocked to the West in search of gold and silver. As settlers came into the territories, large herds of buffalo were killed, mostly just for fun. This had a negative effect on the Indians, as they relied on the buffalo not only for food, but also for hides and blankets as well as to make teepees. Another factor was the pony herds; the U.S. Army frequently seized herds and one herd of over a thousand was killed simply so the Indians could not use them. The soldiers patrolling the West kept pushing the Indians away from their hunting and fishing grounds. The second point Hagan made in the article was peace treaties. Most Indians have had a revelation of the greed, lust and desire that resides in humanity. It really makes you think that almost entire races of people were wiped out just for gold and land. This article by Hagen made me aware of how American Indians were treated. I'm a non-traditional student, so I've studied what happened to the American Indians in other history classes and know a lot of the information in the article, although I didn't know that it had happened in such a short time. The article was fascinating from a white man's perspective, but as an avid student of history, I would like to study some of this information from an Indian perspective. I'm not sure there are many articles like this; nevertheless, I would like to know what caused the Indians to fight back and what they wanted to accomplish.