How The West Was Lost

Plains Indians

How did Railroads help to speed western expansion?

Brought in settlers

Transport soldiers

Improved communication

Made large commercial farms possible

What were the Plains Indians like?

Most were nomadic people

Roamed the plains following herds of buffalo

Sioux, Comanche, Blackfoot

What role did railroads play in exterminating the buffalo?

Railroads cut the buffalos migratory paths in half

Buffalo served as food for rail workers

Hunting for hides

Why was this a problem for the Plains Indians?

Buffalo served as their chief resource

How did US policy towards Native Americans change when settlers started moving into the Great Plains?

Called for Indians to be moved to reservations

Why were the Plains Indians incompatible with reservation life?

Reservations were sharply defined lands set aside by the government

To small for nomadic hunters

What did the Dawes Act do?

Broke up and separated Indian Nations

Gave each family 160 acres to farm

Why didnt the Dawes Act work?

Plains Indians had been Hunters. They werent used to farming

Plains people had been nomads. They did not always understand land ownership

Speculators cheated Indians out of 86 million of the 138 million acres set aside for them