Chapter 15: The Old West andNative American Resettlement

2 Perspectives of how we got theFrontier

1. Manifest Destiny: It was our God-given right and Duty to expand the the West.

2. We savagely took all ofAmerica, especially the West,From the Indians.

Which is true???

By 1850:

340,000 Native Americans lived West of the Mississippi River, most in present-day Oklahoma.

* Kiowa, Comanche in the Southern Plains* Sioux, Pawnee, Lakota, Blackfeet in the Northern Plains* Apache—NM, AZ, and Mexico* Navajo and Hopi—South West

In 1868 we signed the Treaty of Ft. Laramie which stated that most of the plains were for the NA’s. The American government will renege on this deal WHY????

Why could whites push the NA’sAround so easily?

1. Economies based on farming,Hunting, fishing, gathering,etc

B/c of this competition b/tTribes tribal wars break out.

NO UNITY

2. Plains Indians relied on buffalo and we just

killed them off.

In 1820 there were about 25 million buffalo, by the 1880s there were only a couple hundred left.

General Indian Policy

• By the mid 1800s whites outnumbered NA’s in the West

• Killing of NA’s was justified by the belief that they were primitive, lazy, weak, savage and cruel (who’s savage and cruel in this instance?)

• “Kill the Indian but Save the Man”• “A Good Indian is a Dead Indian”

What to do with this problem:

Relocation seems to be the answer: Reservations where NA’s can be “civilized”

Here’s the Deal:

• Plain and simple: We now want the land we had previously given to the Indians for WHAT?

• NA’s had no say over their own affairs• 1884 &1886 SC rules that NA’s are wards and do

not have citizenship• NA culture and history is stomped out and ignored

which weakens their culture and unity.• WILL INDIANS GO WILLINGLY AND

EASILY?

NATIVE AMERICAN

RESISTANCE

1. Sand Creek Massacre 1864

1864: the Cheyenne at this Reservation began to raid nearby white settlements for food. Co.John Chivington was commanded to settle what was going on. OnNov. 29 Chivington attacked and killed about 200 WOMEN ANDCHILDREN!

2. Battle of Little Big Horn, 1876

We wanted the NA’s out of the Black Hills and theSioux will battle the American Army by the Little Big Horn River in S.Dakota.

Crazy Horse: Sioux Leader united 2-3000 menCuster: American Leader had only 200 men

Within 20 minutes Custer and ALL of his men were dead.

Sitting Bull

• A Sioux leader who breaks the tribe down to scatter

• By 1876 most Sioux were on Reservations

• 1881 Sitting Bull surrenders: “I will fight no more forever.”

The Ghost Dance

• Created by Piute Indian Wovoka

• He had a vision that their land was restored, buffalo came back, and whites disappeared.

• Could be obtained by doing the Ghost Dance

The Sioux

• The Ghost Dance spread among the Sioux on the Dakota Reservations.

• They refuse to stop performing it.

• Sitting Bull will be arrested and killed…

The Battle of Wounded KneeDecember 29, 1890

• The 7th Cavalry rounded up 350 starving and freezing Sioux and led them to Wounded Knee Creek.

• Army demands that they give up their weapons, they refuse, a shot goes off…all of the Indians are killed.

• ****This ends the Indian Wars****14

I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream...The nation’s hope is broken and scattered. Black Elk 

New Indian Policy

• They should be “civilized” through private land ownership, Christianization, and ed.

• ASSIMILATION: make them adopt white American culture.

• 1887 Dawes Severalty Act: is a reversal of reservation policy: no community-owned land; gave lots to families that they could not sell & were given citizenship in return. **Less native control over land