Chapter 19

Section 3

Native American Struggles

First People of the Plains

• Miners, ranchers, farmers competed with Natives for land and resources
• Native Americans had lived on plains for centuries
• Some farmed and hunted (Omaha, Osage)
• Some nomadic (Comanche, Sioux, Blackfoot)
• Life was similar
• Government
• Women raised children, cooked, prepared hides
• Men hunted, traded, protected
• All depended on buffalo
• As settlers came, buffalo declined
• American hunters and railroads targeted buffalo

Conflict on the Plains

• 1867 - Federal government sets up Indian Peace Commission
• Develop policy for Indian relations
• Recommended setting up reservations
• Gave army authority to move Indians forcefully

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Life on a Reservation

• Congress create largest reservations on Great Plains
• Oklahoma for Southeastern Indians
• Sioux relocated from Great Lakes region to Dakota Territory
• Bureau of Indian Affairs managed
• Many reservations were unfit for hunting and farming
• Many Natives wanted to leave
• Some refused to relocate
• Stage was set for conflict

Conflict Begins

• Violent clashes broke out between Natives and whites
• Minnesota 1862 - Sioux angry at broken promises killed hundreds, looted homes
• Forced Sioux to Dakota Territory
• Miners in Colorado clashed with Natives
• Cheyenne and Arapaho raided wagon trains
• Colorado governor ordered surrender
• Cheyenne went to negotiate a peace treaty
• Col. John Chivington attacked at Sand Creek
• 14 soldiers and hundreds Cheyenne died
• Widespread retaliation Cheyenne
• Sioux launched series of attacks along Bozeman Trail - Red Cloud
• Fetterman’s massacre - 80 soldiers dead

Red Cloud

Little Bighorn - Montana

• 1868 - Treaty was supposed to bring peace with Sioux
• Sioux promised no settlement in Black Hills
• Rumors of gold brought miners
• Gov. tried to buy land
• Sitting Bull refused
• June 1876 - Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse gathered thousands of warriors
• Lieutenant Colonel George Custer attacked with only 250 soldiers - almost all killed
• U.S. Army soon crushed the uprising
• By 1881, Lakota and Cheyenne agreed to live on reservations

The Long March of the Nez Perce

• Large and powerful group in Pacific Northwest
• Good relations with settlers until gold discovered
• 1877 ordered onto reservation in Idaho
• Chief Joseph decided to retreat to Canada with 200 warriors and 600 women and children
• Travelled over 1,000 miles
• Surrounded only 40 miles from Canada
• “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more, forever.”

Chief Joseph

The Apache Wars

• 1870s - Government forced Apaches in the Southwest onto reservation in Arizona
• Apache Leader Geronimo fled to Mexico
• 1880s - Geronimo led raids in Arizona
• Thousands of U.S. troops pursued
• 1886 - Geronimo gave up
• Last Native American to surrender

Geronimo

A Changing Culture

• Many factors changed Natives’ lives
• Settlers moving onto land
• Killing buffalo
• U.S. Army attacks
• Reservation policy
• Some reformers wanted to assimilate Natives to white culture
• 1887 - Dawes Act
• Break up reservations
• End tribal identification
• Encourage private land ownership
• Some became successful farmers
• Most did not have the farming skills and sold their land

The Tragedy of Wounded Knee - 1890

• The Ghost Dance movement and fear of Native American uprisings led to the massacre.
• Celebrated a hoped-for day when settlers would disappear, buffalo would return, go back to traditional life
• U.S. Government banned the dance, tried to arrest Sitting Bull
• During scuffle, shot and killed
• Lakota Sioux gathered at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota
• U.S. Army sent troops to disarm Sioux - a gun discharged
• US troops killed over 200 Lakota Sioux, including women and children.
• 25 U.S. Soldiers dead
• The massacre marked the end of the Indian Wars and the decline of Native American culture.

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