Final answer:
The Northwest Ordinance aimed to prevent conflicts with Native American groups by regulating the continued westward settlement, recognizing the rights of Native Americans to their lands, and aiming to expand with honor. Option a is the correct answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
This section of the Northwest Ordinance sought to prevent conflicts with native groups brought on by continued settlement to the west. The ordinance was part of a broader federal policy to manage frontier violence and promote peaceful settlement of western lands, recognizing Native Americans' rights to their lands and protecting them from being taken without consent, except in sanctioned wars by Congress.
The United States sought to assert its claims east of the Mississippi River while minimizing conflict through acts like the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the subsequent Indian Intercourse Acts.