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How was life different for Indians after The Indian Wars in comparison to life before?

The Indian Wars in the US ended in 1886 when Geronimo and his band of Apache Indians were captured.  This ended a period of wars that had begun in the 1860s, moving westward across the country with the settlers.

The major before-after effect on Indians was the change from living wherever they wanted (and in many cases, having a nomadic lifestyle) to being put on reservations.  (The third link below is a history by and of the Umatilla Tribe in Oregon.  This page is entitled "Going to the Reservation.")

A second important effect that goes along with the first, came when the Americans started to try to assimilate the Indians by means of changing their culture.  This was done especially through the use of boarding schools where Indian children were expected to lose their Indian ways and become culturally more like white Americans.  (The first two links below have pictures and facts about this process.)

Did the Indian Removal Act become before or after Indian Wars?

The Indian Removal Act came quite a while before the Indian Wars.  The Indian Wars are generally seen to have lasted from the 1860s to the 1880s and they occur in the Midwest, the West, and the Southwest.

The Indian Removal Act was signed by Pres. Jackson in 1830.  Its aim was to remove Indians from the Southeastern US (Georgia, etc) and move them to the Midwest.

So the Indian Removal is an earlier step.  The Indian Wars come later when white settlers want to move out into the Midwest and beyond.

okay i think i got confused with Dawes Act..

Dawes Act was a response to the Indian Wars correct?

And how/when did the indian people "die off"..i have in my notes that within 40 years after 1887, 60% of reservations were lost.

were indian problems put to rest by the indian reogranization act of 1934 which returned some land to tribal ownership?

Yeah, the Dawes Act is part of the assimilation process -- makes it so tribes can't own land, just individuals.  That way they can hopefully become small farmers like the whites.

Some of the problems were "put to rest" by the 1934 thing, but clearly not all.  Just 10 years or so after this there was thing called "termination" where the US Government was going to stop recognizing tribes as sovereign governments, going to stop having reservations, etc.  That lasted until the '60s.

Nowadays there are still all sorts of issues with tribes about stuff like taxes and casinos and such so not all the issues are resolved.

The Indian Wars were brutal.  The reason why they were as brutal as they were was because they were fought between two different species of humanity. On the one side there were a people who understood the economic concept of land ownership, and on the other side was a people whose conception of the land was spiritual.  These conflicting ideologies would meet on the battlefield.  The beginning of the end with regard to the Indian Wars began with Fort Larminie treaty 1868.  The warrior Red Cloud tried endlessly to prevent the further tension between the Native Americans and the U.S. government with little success. The Great Sioux War between the Lakota Sioux and the U.S. government followed in 1876-1877, American history refers to it as 'Custer's Last Stand', a perfect argument for the value there is in historical perspective.  The Sioux victory of 1876 was followed by a series of a 'will of force' mentality by the U.S. government which ultimately resulted in the 1886 surrender of Geronimo.  Usually interpreted as the final blow to Native American autonomy, in 1890 a Native American religious movement emerged referred to as The Ghost Dance.  The ritual dance was performed in the hope that the earth would open up and swallow all the white men, thus returning the land back to the Native Americans.  This philosophy grew rapidly, being incorporated into many Native American rituals.  However, later that year the masscre at 'Wounded Knee' finally destoyed the will of the Native Americans.  It is interesting to note that in 1924 the Indian Citizenship Act made all Native Americans U.S. citizens, without ever consulting them.  In essence Native Americans were made the official orphans of the U.S. government as they were not given voting rights until 1948.

Indeed, the wars between White Settlers and the Native Americans owed much to the fear of "the other."  There seems to be two elements at play.  The first is that White Settlers coveted Native American land for economic wealth.  The second is that White Settlers feared the "other" in the Native American.  This might help to explain why forced assimilation and the removal of the communitarian aspect of the social order was such a prevalent force in the manner which American government interacted with Native Americans.  One can see how much fear was held towards them, hence the desire to make them "American."  This can be seen in assimilation schools that sought to remake the physical appearance of the Native American into something more socially acceptable to White Society. Both forces- the desire for economic wealth as well as the fear of "the other"- played formative roles in the Indian Wars, which can also be seen as one of America's first examples of culture wars.