Chapter 5

Part 1:

The Native Americans

Government policy and conflict

Government Policy since 1834The Great Plains was considered one large

Indian Reservation

Native Americans were pushed west of the Mississippi since Jefferson’s Presidency

The Trail of Tears During Jackson’s term

20,000 Native Americans from Georgia to

Indian Territory in Oklahoma

The Westward Movement

• Mining was the first economic boom of the West

• Cattle Ranching was the second economic boom

• Farmers

• The Railroad

• Government land policy

• Government Indian policy

The Massacre at Sand Creek

• Aka Chivington Massacre 1864

• Evans, territorial Governor in Colorado, wanted to buy Indian land from the Cheyenne Indians at the Sand Creek Reservation and make it available to white settlers,

• They Cheyenne would not sell

Chivington

• Was sent with troops to remove the Indians

• They attacked the sleeping Cheyenne and Arapaho

• 150 were killed. Most women and children

• Atrocities

New Indian Policy 1851

• Thomas Fitzpatrick, a U.S. Indian Agent, made treaties with a great many tribes who agreed to remain within their own hunting grounds.

The Fetterman Massacre

• The Bozeman Trail ran through the hunting grounds of the Sioux Tribe

• White settlers continued to use the Bozeman Trail

• Red Cloud protested to the American government but there was no reesponse

In 1866

• Crazy Horse ambushed 80 soldiers led by Captain Fetterman.

• Was called the Fetterman Massacre

The Treaty of Fort Laramie

• After several more skirmishes the government agreed to close the Bozeman trail to homesteaders

• Many (but not all) of the Sioux agreed to live on reservations but believed that they could still enjoy their traditional hunting Grounds

Continued Indian raids

• And continuing gold rushes bringing more to the West

• The U.S. Government made war on all Natives not on reservations

Gold was found in the Black Hills

• Reservation Indians protested at the arrival of the miners

• Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho were there led by Sittling Bull, Crazy Horse and others

• The U.S. tried and failed to keep settlers off of the reservation

Custer’s Last Stand

• Aka The Battle of Little Bighorn

• 1876 in South Dakota

• Custer with 264 soldiers attacked but as many as 7,000 warriars were ready

• Within an hour all but one of Custer’s men were killed

• A scout was allowed to escape so he could tell the world what happened

The New Policy: Assimilation

• The Dawes Act: 1887

• The U.S. government would no longer deal with tribes

• Heads of households were given 160 acres of land

• Single adults were given 80 acres

The Dawes Act

• Natives were expected to live in family groups and farm the land like homesteaders

• They would get the deed to the land after 25 years (to prevent homesteaders from cheating the natives out of the land)

• A big failure. The natives just wandered away

The government believed

• That 25 years was too long for the Natives to wait so…

• In 1906 the Burke Act was passed

• This gave the deed to the land sooner if Natives seemed to be trying to assimilate

• Didn’t work

The Buffalo

• In the meantine the buffalo was nearing extinction

• Buffalo were used to feed Chinese railroad workers

• Then buffalo hunting and rugs were an eastern craze

• Natives used all parts of buffalo…no waste

The Buffalo

• In 1800…65 million buffalo on the Plains

• By 1865…1000 left

• By 1900 one herd left at Yellowstone

More Conflict

• The Sioux were poverty-striken and desperate

• Were convinced by a Paiute Prophet that if they followed a certain ritual called Ghost Dance that all of their lands would be restored to them

• Word spread quickly

The Ghost Dance

• 25,000 Sioux on the Dakota Reservation practiced the ritual

• The U.S. Army was frightened and acted

• In 1890 40 Native American police were sent to arrest Sittling Bull

• Violence broke out and Sitting Bull was killed

The rest of the Sioux

• Were led away by Big Foot

• The Sioux froze and starved

• 350 Souix were rounded up by a part of Custer’s old regiment and marched to a camp at Wounded Knee, South Dakota

They were made to surrender their weapons

• One weapon accidently discharged and the soldiers fired into the crowd

• They used a cannon!

• 300+ unarmed natives were killed including many women and children

It was called

• The Battle of Wounded Knee 1890

Terms for Chaoter 5 Part 1

• Great Plains

• Treaty of Fort Laramie

• Sitting Bull

• George Custer

• Assimilation

• Dawes Act

• Wounded Knee