When Christopher Columbus landed on America’s shore, he encountered copper-skinned people whom he promptly called "Indians". Current estimates indicate that there were over a million Indians inhabiting North America then. There are approximately 800,000 Indians today, of whom about 250,000 live on reservations. The early settlers had an amicable relationship with Indians, who shared their knowledge of hunting, fishing, and farming with their uninvited guests. The stereotyped stealthy, wicked Indian of modem western movies was created by indifferent, faithless white men; the Indian was born friendly. Disgust developed between the Indians and the settlers, whose encroachment on Indian lands provoked an era of turbulence. As early as 1745, Indian tribes joined together to drive the French off their land. The French and Indian war did not end until 1763. The Indians had succeeded in destroying many of the western settlements. The British superficially submissive to the Indians, promised that further migrations west would not extend beyond a specified boundary. Evicted from their land or, worse still, frankly ceding their property to the whites for a few baubles, Indians were ruthlessly pushed west. The battle in 1876 at Little Big Horn River in Montana in which Sitting Bull and the Sioux bribes massacred General Custers cavalry, caused the whites to intensify their campaign against the red men. The battle at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890 put an end to the last vestige of hope for amity between Indians and whites. Although the Bureau of Indian Affairs has operated since 1824, presumably for the purpose of guarding Indians’ interests, Indians on reservations lead notoriously deprived lives. In recent times irate Indians have taken a militant stand and have appealed to the courts and the American people to improve their substandard living conditions. Recently the Indians have begun to stand up for their rights as people because they lead ______ lives.