Native Americans in the West A Brief Review

Indian Territory The Indian Country was set up as an unincorporated territory by the Indian Intercourse Act of 1824. It included the remainder of the Missouri Territory after Missouri gained statehood in the Missouri Compromise.

Indian Territory This is the land “west of the Mississippi” that the Indian Removal Act provided for the exiled Cherokee and other tribes. As many as 100,000 were relocated to this land.

Indian Territory Gradually, the Indian Country was reduced in size as the federal government created new incorporated federal territories. By the time of the Civil War, the actual “Indian Territory” was the size of today’s state of Oklahoma.

The Civil War Native Americans served in both the Union and Confederate armies. As usual, they risked their homes, independence, and way of life if they chose the wrong side in an American conflict. A minority group of Cherokee fought with the South, while the majority party sided with the Union. Several tribes, like the Creek and Choctaw, were slaveholders, and found common cause with the Confederacy.

Indian appropriations Acts 1851 Act - Allocated funds to move western tribes onto reservations. Tribes are recognized as independent nations and moved to secure reservations to protect them from encroaching white settlement. 1871 Act – Tribes are no longer nations independent of the federal government. All Indians would be treated as individuals and designated “wards” of the federal government. This made it more difficult to enforce treaties signed by the government with tribes. 1885 Act – Allowed Indians and tribes to sell unoccupied land they believed to be their own to white settlers. 1889 Act – Opened unsettled lands in the Indian territory to white settlers under the tenets of the Homestead Act.

Indian Wars - Texas Spanish settlers to Texas fought with the Apache and Comanche, among other tribes. Once Anglo settlers became he norm, they mostly fought against the Comanche. Most notable is the Fort Parker Massacre, where a raiding party made up of several tribes attacked Fort Parker and kidnapped several small children. Once Texas joined the union, the federal government took up its struggle against the natives, and a bloody struggle ensued along the Texas frontier.

Indian Wars – South West The federal government pursued several engagements against Native Americans in the southwest. Many of these conflicts revolved around the Gold Rush and acquisition of land by prospectors. Other conflicts were continuations of those began by Spanish authorities, including the Navajo Wars and Apache Wars. Chiricahua Apache chief Geronimo surrendered in 1886 in the last of these conflicts.

Indian Wars – Great Plains Sand Creek Massacre - Early 1860’s Colorado settlers attacked peaceful Cheyenne village, killing women and children. Citizens of Colorado and Kansas increasingly desired Indian removal after living peacefully for decades. The Dakota War / Sioux Uprising of 1862. The Army had been withdrawn for service in the Civil War. Replaced with Colorado Volunteers, who favored extermination.

Sioux Wars