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Looking to the West (1860-1900)
The Life of the Plains Indians
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Eastern settlers changed the lives of N. A. on the
Great Plains
Indians & French traded buffalo hides for guns,
making hunting easier
Horses made N. A. warfare much more intense and
violent
Many N. A. became nomads b/c of the horse.
Became more mobile to follow food sources
Warrior societies led to much more violence and
instability
Indian Wars and Government
Policy
• N.A. lived on traditional lands W. of
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Mississippi
N. A. viewed settlers as invaders, Settlers
took land from N. A.
• (Settlers vs. N.A.
= invaders vs. owners)
• Gov’t treaties forced N. A. onto reservations
• Settlers ignored treaties
• Acts of violence led to cycles of revenge. Both
sides guilty.
Brutality, Unfulfilled Promises,
and Butchery
• Treaties:
• Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867
• Fort Laramie Treaty (1868)
• Most Indians angered by the treaties
• By 1868, war parties were raiding cities in
Kansas and Colorado
• In response, army troops killed any
Indians who refused to stay on
reservations
Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867
•The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for
three treaties signed between the United States
government and southern Plains Indian tribes in
October 1867
•Under the Medicine Lodge Treaty, the tribes were
assigned reservations of diminished size compared to
territories defined in an 1865 treaty
• the Congress effectively further reduced their
reservation territory
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
•In the treaty, as part of the U.S. vendetta to "divide and
conquer", the U.S. included all Ponca lands in the Great Sioux
Reservation.
•Conflict between the Ponca and the Sioux/Lakota, who now
claimed the land as their own by U.S. law, forced the U.S. to
remove the Ponca from their own ancestral lands in Nebraska
to poor land in Oklahoma.
•The treaty includes an article intended to "ensure the
civilization“…
•minors should be provided with an "English education" at a
"mission building."
Key Events in the Indian Wars,
1861-1890
Wars/Battles
Native American
Nations/Homelands
Key Players
Description/Outcome
Apache and Navajo
Wars (1861-1886)
Apache in Arizona, New
Mexico, and Colorado
territories; Navajo in New
Mexico, Colorado territories
• Geronimo
• Col. Christopher
“Kit” Carson
Carson kills or relocates many Apache to
reservations in 1862. Clashes drag on until
Geronmino’s surrender in 1886. Navajo told to
surrender in 1863, but before they can, Carson
attacks, killing hundreds, destroying homelands.
Navajos moved to New Mexico reservation in 1865.
Sand Creek
Massacre (1864)
Southern Cheyeene, Arapaho, in
central plains
• Black Kettle
• Col. John
Chivington
Cheyenne massacres prompt Chivington to kill up to
500 surrendered Cheyenne and Arapaho led by
Black Kettle.
Red River War
(1874-1875)
Comanche and southern
branches of Cheyenne, Kiowa,
and Arapaho, in southern plains
• Comanche war
parties
• Gen. William T.
Sherman
• Lt. Gen. Philip
H. Sheridan
Southern plains Indians relocated to Oklahoma
Indian Territory under 1867 Treaty of Medicin
Lodge. After buffalo hunters destroy the Indians
food supply, Comanche warriors race to buffalo
grazing areas in Texas panhandle to kill hunters.
Sherman and Sheridan defeat warriors and open
panhandle to cattle ranching.
Key Events in the Indian Wars,
1861-1890
Wars/Battles
Native American
Nations/Homelands
Key Players
Description/Outcome
Battle of Little
Bighorn (1876)
Northern plains Sioux in
Dakota, Wyoming, and
Montana territorries
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U.S. tries to buy gold-rich Black Hills from Sioux.
Talks fail. Custer’s 7th Cavalry is sent to round up
Sioux, but meets huge enemy force. Custer and
some 200 men perish in “Custer’s Last Stand.”
Nez Perce War
(1877)
Largest branch of Nez Perce, in
Wallowa Valley of Idaho and
Washington territories and
Oregon
• Chief Joseph
• Gen. Oliver O.
Howard
• Col. Nelson
Miles
Howard orders Nez Perce to Idaho reservation;
violence erupts. Joseph leads some 700 men,
women, and children on 1,400-mile flight. His 200
warriors hold off Miles’s 2,000 soldiers until
halted 40 miles short of Canada. Sent to Indian
Territory, many die of disease. In 1885, survivors
moved to reservation in Washington Territory.
Battle of Wounded
Knee (1890)
Sioux at Pine Ridge
Reservation, South Dakota
• Sitting Bull
• U.S. 7th
Cavalry
Ghost Dance raises fears of Sioux uprising;
Sitting Bull killed in attempted arrest. His
followers surrender and camp at Wounded Knee.
Shots are fired; some 200 Sioux die.
Sitting Bull
Crazy Horse
Red Cloud
Lt. Col. George
A. Custer
page787.jpg
Warring Sioux
• Several Sioux tribes fought to stay on
their land and protect their hunting
grounds
• Raided settlements and harassed miners
• Sitting Bull
• Leader of non-treaty Sioux
• Strong fighting expertise
Rising Tensions
in the West
Sand Creek (1864)
•US army massacred
Cheyenne, Arapahoe
Older men, women,
And children.
•Eastern Colorado
General George Armstrong Custer
• General in the Civil War
• Infamous Indian fighter
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during the Sioux Wars
Wanted to find gold in Black
Hills
Defeated in the Battle at
Little Bighorn (1876)
The Sioux Wars
The Sioux Wars were a series of
conflicts between the United
States and various subgroups of
the Sioux people that occurred in the
later half of the 19th century.
Sitting Bull
• was a holy man who led his people as
a tribal chief during years of resistance
to United States government policies.
•Sitting Bull's leadership motivated his
people to a major victory.
•He was killed by Indian agency
police on the Standing Rock Indian
Reservation during an attempt to
arrest him
Little Bighorn
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Army moved to assault roaming
Sioux in 1876
600 troops marched on Little Bighorn
River
• Custer separated his men and sent
half of his forces straight into
battle
• This group and the rest were
wiped out by Cheyenne and Sioux
Defeat angered the army who became
even more ruthless
Battle of the Little Bighorn
(Custer’s Last Stand)
The Little Bighorn today
19_19.jpg
Wounded Knee Creek
• The Ghost Dance
• In honor of Wovoka
• December 29, 1890
• Seventh cavalry was sent to round up a
group of Indians at Wounded Knee
when an ‘excited’ Indian fired a shot
• The soldiers then open fired
• More than 300 Indians killed in minutes
“Saving” the Indians
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More and more Americans disagreed with
Government Indian policies
• The Women’s National Indian Rights Association
• Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson
They thought breaking up the reservations and
assimilating the Indians into society was the
best thing
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Dawes Severalty Act
• Gave individuals acreages
of land and made them
citizens of the U.S.
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Attempts to Change Native
American Culture
Many people believed that Native Americans needed to give up their traditions
and culture, learn English, become Christians, adopt white dress and customs,
and support themselves by farming and trades.
This policy is called assimilation, the process by which one society becomes a
part of another, more dominant society by adopting its culture.
In 1887 the Dawes Act divided reservation land into individual plots. Each
family headed by a man received 160 acres.
Many Native Americans did not believe in the concept of individual property,
nor did they want to farm the land. For some, the practices of farming went
against their notion of ecology. Some had no experience in agriculture.
Between 1887 and 1932, some two thirds of this land became white owned.
Assimilation and the Indian Schools
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Carlisle, PA, other sites
around the U.S.
Genoa, Nebraska
Attempted to ‘save the
Indian’ by making them
assimilate into American
culture, manners and
customs
Formed by people who
empathized with the plight
of the Indians and wanted a
“humanitarian” solution
Before and After
The Opening of Indian Territory
• Fifty five Indian nations were forced into
Indian Territory, the largest unsettled
farmland in the United States.
• During the 1880s, squatters overran the
land, and Congress agreed to buy out the
Indian claims to the region.
• On April 22, 1889, tens of thousands of
homesteaders lined up at the territory’s
borders to stake claims on the land.
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The Opening of Indian Territory
By sundown, settlers called boomers had staked
claims on almost 2 million acres.
Many boomers discovered that some of the best
lands had been grabbed by sooners, people who
had sneaked past the government officials earlier to
mark their claims.
Under continued pressure from settlers, Congress
created Oklahoma Territory in 1890. In the
following years, the remainder of Indian Territory
was open to settlement.
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Oklahoma Land Rush (1889)
Oklahoma was “Indian Territory” given to the
five civilized tribes.
They sided with the Confederacy, the
government took land as punishment
2 million acres free for settlement
Free land was considered instant prosperity, but
droughts would make many farms fail
By 1900
• Most Indians had been driven onto
reservations
• Reduced from 1/4 million to 1 hundred
thousand
• The culture still survives
QUESTIONS?