Native Americans and the Railroad

         The "Native Americans and the Transcontinental Railroad" article from the American Experience website concludes with these highly impacting words in the section titled "A Lost World":
"In 1876 the United States celebrated its might, gathered in part from the completion of the railroad, at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. There on exhibit were the "very aristocracy of the Indian nation." The tribes who had roamed and hunted in the woods of the Northeast and the plains of the West found themselves a curiosity for the fair's visitors. The struggle was over, and Native American tribes had lost it, leaving the world of the West forever changed."
         Americans celebrate their accomplishments; no one likes to be reminded of the bad things that happened in America's past.  Before reading this article, I had not taken time to think of the impact of the railroad on the Native Americans.  Yet, it is significant enough to title this impact "A Lost World".  So much culture and influence from the Native Americans was lost as a result of the railroads.  We can never get this back.  The railroad destroyed a way of life for an entire culture...which is so drastic that I am surprised that I have not really studied it before this. When transcendentalists and other critics of the railroad of that time denounce the railroad due to other factors, I can't help but think that none of those bad things can top the degree to which the railroad hurt the Native Americans.  In my opinion, destroying a culture seems to be way more of a problem than straying away from nature, becoming more industrially involved, or any other reasons that have been mentioned by the transcendentalists that we have studied.