Conversely, the Native Americans fought for their way of life. The garrisons at Fort Davis were pledged by the federal government to keep the peace. Unfortunately, to America's shame, that meant the extermination of an ancient and successful way of life. Ultimately the Native Americans in the Trans Pecos were only as successful as other tribes had been on the east coast, the Appalachian area, the northern plains, and the west coast. Their lands were eventually taken and their peoples decimated.
History often provides no easy answers.
We live in a different time with different morals. But, of all the region's history, at least one major positive American beginning must be emphasized. At the conclusion of the Civil War, Congress passed an act permitting African American men to enlist in the peacetime federal army for the first time. Negro troops, as they were then known, had already fought in every American war since the Revolution. Perhaps 180,000 African Americans served during the Civil War.