Final answer:
Farming in the west disrupted traditional Indigenous lifestyles and forced dependence on settler systems. It was part of a broader assimilation policy that included living on reservations and attending boarding schools designed to teach settler ways and erode Indigenous cultures.
Step-by-step explanation:
Farming in the west was an assimilation tactic primarily because B) It disrupted traditional lifestyles and forced dependence on settler systems. The establishment of farming practices among Native Americans was part of a broader policy designed to assimilate Indigenous peoples into European-American ways of life. Farming, as encouraged or enforced by settlers and the government, often conflicted with traditional Indigenous practices, which were more focused on communal living and did not involve such intensive cultivation of land. The switch to agricultural practices also facilitated the control of Indigenous peoples by making them more dependent on the tools, seeds, and other supplies that came from settlers, and further isolated them from their traditional means of subsistence.
Forced to live on reservations with often poor-quality land, Indigenous tribes found it difficult to support themselves through their traditional hunting and gathering or even through agriculture and thus became reliant on the Bureau of Indian Affairs for assistance. Additionally, the boarding school system was established to educate Native American children in the ways of the settlers, including farming, and to separate them from their culture and languages, accelerating the loss of Indigenous traditions.