Native American History

European Treatment

Spanish Policy

-millions of Native Americans died as a result of warfare, enslavement, and diseases

-Spaniards intermarried with natives and Africans

-rigid class system developed and dominated by pure-blooded Spaniards

English Policy-In New England, settlers coexisted and traded with Native

Americans-peaceful relations turned to open warfare as the English

desired more land-Natives were not respected and their culture was viewed as

primitive and “savage”French Policy-Maintained relatively good relations with natives in the Great

Lakes region-Desired to control the fur trade and established trading

partnerships with the natives-French were viewed as less of a threat by the natives because

they had few settlers, farms, and large towns

Iroquois Confederacy-lived in permanent settlements called “longhouses”-alliance of tribes in Northeast to confront colonial

expansion, allies of the British defeated in American Revolution

Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794)-tribes defeated in northwestern Ohio, Treaty of

Greenville (1795) surrendered land and promised to open it up to settlement

Battle of Tippecanoe (1811)-William Henry Harrison defeated tribes of Indiana

territory, Americans blamed the British for instigating the rebellion

-war hawks desired to destroy Native American resistance on the frontier in War of 1812

Migration-tribes were persuaded or driven westward as white settlers

moved into their homeland-forced to move west by treaty or military action-Great Plains tribes who lived a nomadic hunters could

more easily resistIndian Removal Act (1830)-forced the resettlement of tribes west of the Mississippi-“Trail of Tears” (1838) forced Cherokee out of Georgia-more than 4,000 died = 1/4 of the people removedAssimilationists-Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor (1881) =

created sympathy for the struggle-reformers focused on education, Christianity, teaching

white culture, farming, and industrial skills

Reservation Policy-western expansion and growth of the railroad lead to the

establishment of reservations in 1851-the government assigned tribes large tracts of land with

defined boundaries-most tribes continued to follow the migrating buffalo herds -buffalo hunting in the early 1880s greatly impacted the

nomadic life of the tribesRemoval after the Civil War-tribes lost their land and the freedom to live according to

their traditions-conflicts with the U.S. government were the result of white

Americans having little understanding of the Plains people’s loose tribal organization and nomadic lifestyle

Bison skulls collected in order to be ground into fertilizer, late 1800s

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)-designed to break up tribal organizations-tribal land divided into smaller plots depending on family

size-U.S. citizenship granted to those who stayed on the land for

25 years-policy was a failure as the best land was sold to speculators,

white settlers, or Native Americans-disease and poverty continued to plague native communitiesGhost Dance Movement (1890)-religious movement that focused on a peaceful end to white

expansion through cooperation by tribes-Lakota Sioux interpreted the movement to call for a removal

of all whites from their land

Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

-Sioux men, women, and children were gunned down by U.S. army

-tragedy marked a bloody end to the Indian Wars

Indian Reorganization Act (1934)

-New Deal program to promote the reestablishment of tribal organizations and culture

-large tracts of land were returned to various tribes for the next twenty years