Native Americans in the West

Native Americans in the West “Kill the Indian and save the man.” ~Richard Pratt of the Carlisle School

1.Plains Indians • -Great Plainsor Great American Desert • Grasslands in West/Central U.S. • -Nomadiclifestyle • Searching for buffalo • -importance of the horse and buffalo • Increased mobility, provided food • Increased warfare As the native peoples acquired horses—and then guns—they were able to travel farther and hunt more efficiently. By the mid-1700s, almost all of the tribes on the Great Plains had left their farms to roam the plains and hunt buffalo.

The buffalo provided the Plains Indians with more than just a high-protein food source: • The skull of the buffalo was considered sacred and was used in many Native American rituals. • The horns were carved into bowls and spoons. • The bones of the buffalo were made into hide scrappers, tool handles, sled runners, and hoe blades. The hoofs were ground up and used as glue. • The hide was by far the most precious part of the buffalo. Native American clothing, tepees, and even arrow shields were made from buffalo hide.

1.Plains Indians • -Communal living • Lived in small groups where everyone had a role • -common use of the tribe’s land • No private land ownership • -Sioux, Lakota, Cheyenne, Apache, Nez Perce, Blackfeet

2.American Interests • -Lands given by treaty to Indian groups • Indian Removal, Laramie Treaty • -California Gold Rush, 1848 • Brought more white settlers • -Homestead Act, 1862 • Government giving away large plots of land in West Events such as the California Gold Rush and the Homestead Act brought many white settlers onto the lands in the Great Plains. As these white settlers spread out looking for economic opportunity, they pushed Native Americans off of their land.

Posters such as these would promote free or reasonably cheap land in the West, attracting more and more white settlers.

2.American Interests • -Transcontinental Railroad • Massacre of the buffalo herds • Tried to link East and West Coast through railroads • -Central and Union Pacific Railroads (1850-1871) • Race to see who could build more railroads • Irish and Chinese immigrants • -Promontory Point, Utah, 1869 • First finish of railroad • Stake of gold • Travel time across U.S. drastically reduced In their race to build railroads, the Central and Union Pacific Railroad Companies would recruit immigrants, most notably the Chinese, to work on the rails.

The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad by the Union and Pacific Railroad companies marked a major accomplishment in U.S. transportation. For the first time in American history, East and West coasts were linked by the railroad, making transportation of people and goods from East to West much easier and faster.

Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah, in 1869

3.Indian Restrictions • -Treaties were broken • Government going against word • -Indians forced onto reservations • Separate plots of land given to Natives by government • -gov’t payment and supplies were not delivered as promised • -Indian Uprisings • -Dakota Uprising, 1862 • Dakota Sioux lead uprising because the government did not pay them In 1834, the federal government passed an act that designated the entire Great Plains as one enormous reservation, or land set aside for Native American tribes. In the 1850s, however, the government changed its policy and created treaties that defined specific boundaries for each tribe. Most Native Americans spurned the government treaties and continued to hunt on their traditional lands, clashing with settlers and miners—with tragic results.

3.Indian Restrictions • -Massacre at Sand Creek, 1864 • John Chivington leads Army unit in massacre of Cheyenne • Surprise attack at dawn kills over 150 natives, mostly women and children • -Fetterman’s Massacre, 1866 • 80 soldiers killed • -Fetterman’s small army band crushed by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Red Cloud’s warriors One of the most tragic events occurred in 1864. Most of the Cheyenne, assuming they were under the protection of the U.S. government, had peacefully returned to Colorado’s Sand Creek Reserve for the winter. Yet General S.R. Curtis, U.S. Army commander in the west, sent a telegram to militia colonel John Chivington that read, “I want no peace till the Indians suffer more.” In response, Chivington and his troops descended on the Cheyenne camped at Sand Creek. The attack at dawn on November 28, 1864, killed over 150 habitants, mostly women and children.

4.Indian Wars • -Gold found in the Black Hills of the Dakotas • -Sioux try to defend area promised to them • In Laramie Treaty, ask federal government to protect land • -Army sends George Armstrong Custer to move Sioux off the land • -Little Bighorn, 1876 • Crazy Horse and Sitting Bulllead warriors as Custer and all his men were killed • “Custer’s Last Stand” In early June 1876, the Sioux and Cheyenne held a sun dance, during which Sitting Bull had a vision of soldiers and some Native Americans falling from their horses. When Colonel Custer and his troops reached the Little Bighorn River, the Natives were ready for them. Led by Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Gall, the warriors outflanked and crushed Custer’s troops. Within an hour, Custer and all of the men of the Seventh Cavalry were dead. Sitting Bull and a few others took refuge in Canada, where they remained until 1881.

4.Indian Wars • -Nez Perce Indians, 1877 • -Led by Chief Joseph, they refused to go to reservation • Fled into Canada with the Army chasing them down • -chased by the Army for over 1000 miles until captured • -”I will fight no more forever” “Hear me, my chiefs, my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more against the white man.” ~Chief Joseph

5.Assimilation • -”Century of Dishonor” by Helen Hunt Jackson • Book about how government broke promises to Natives • -some people supported assimilationof Indians • Natives give up beliefs and way of life for white culture • -Dawes Actpassed, 1887 • Attempt to assimilate natives • Broke reservations into parts • 160 acres to each family • Forced land ownership • most of land was eventually taken by whites Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor served to expose the inequities committed against the Natives. Her book led Congress to do an inquisition, which led to the Dawes Act.

6.End of the Indian Lifestyle • -Assimilation • education of Indians to be more like whites • -Destruction of the buffalo • Shot for sport, railroads • Ended Native way of life “The history of the Government connections with the Indians is a shameful record of broken treaties and unfulfilled promises.” “There is not among these three hundred bands of Indians one which has not suffered cruelly at the hands either of the Government or of white settlers.” “It makes little difference…where one opens the record of the history of the Indians; every page and every year has its dark stains.” ~Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor

“We have been taught to hunt and live on the game. You tell us that we must learn to farm, live in one house, and take on your ways. Suppose the people living beyond the great sea should come and tell you that you must stop farming, and kill your cattle, and take your houses and land, what would you do? Would you not fight them?” ~Sioux warrior Gall “Wherever the whites are established, the buffalo is gone, and the red hunter must die of hunger.” ~Sioux Chief

The Sioux continued to suffer poverty and disease. In desperation, they turned to a Paiute prophet who promised that if the Sioux performed a ritual called the Ghost Dance, Native American lands and way of life would be restored. The Ghost Dance movement spread rapidly among the 25,000 Sioux on the Dakota reservation. Alarmed military leaders ordered the arrest of Sitting Bull. In December 1890, about 40 Native American police were sent to arrest him. Sitting Bull’s friend and bodyguard, Catch-the-Bear, shot one of them. The police then killed Sitting Bull. In the aftermath, Chief Big Foot led the fearful Sioux away.

6.End of the Indian Lifestyle • -Ghost Dance Movement • Dance to renew and save Native way of life from destruction • Sioux spiritual dance • Dance was outlawed • Scared white people • Sitting Bull performs dance, is arrested, and eventually shot • -Wounded Knee, 1890 • massacre of several hundred Sioux (300) • U.S. troops round up and unarm Sioux group • Massacre entire group • -Indian era comes to an end On December 28, 1890, the Seventh Cavalry, Custer’s old regiment, rounded up about 350 starving and freezing Sioux and took them to a camp at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. The next day, the soldiers demanded that the natives give up all their weapons. A shot was fired, and the soldiers opened fire with a deadly cannon. Within minutes, the entire group was massacred. The Battle at Wounded Knee put an end to the Indian wars.

“I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all 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.” ~Black Elk

Native Americans in the West