Native American History European Treatment Spanish Policy -millions of Native Americans died as a result of warfare, enslavement, and diseases -Spaniards intermarried with natives and Africans -rigid class system developed and dominated by pure-blooded Spaniards

English Policy -In New England, settlers coexisted and traded with Native Americans -peaceful relations turned to open warfare as the English desired more land -Natives were not respected and their culture was viewed as primitive and “savage” French Policy -Maintained relatively good relations with natives in the Great Lakes region -Desired to control the fur trade and established trading partnerships with the natives -French were viewed as less of a threat by the natives because they had few settlers, farms, and large towns

Iroquois Confederacy -lived in permanent settlements called “longhouses” -alliance of tribes in Northeast to confront colonial expansion, allies of the British defeated in American Revolution Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) -tribes defeated in northwestern Ohio, Treaty of Greenville (1795) surrendered land and promised to open it up to settlement Battle of Tippecanoe (1811) -William Henry Harrison defeated tribes of Indiana territory, Americans blamed the British for instigating the rebellion -war hawks desired to destroy Native American resistance on the frontier in War of 1812

Migration -tribes were persuaded or driven westward as white settlers moved into their homeland -forced to move west by treaty or military action -Great Plains tribes who lived a nomadic hunters could more easily resist Indian Removal Act (1830) -forced the resettlement of tribes west of the Mississippi -“Trail of Tears” (1838) forced Cherokee out of Georgia -more than 4,000 died = 1/4 of the people removed Assimilationists -Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor (1881) = created sympathy for the struggle -reformers focused on education, Christianity, teaching white culture, farming, and industrial skills

Reservation Policy -western expansion and growth of the railroad lead to the establishment of reservations in the government assigned tribes large tracts of land with defined boundaries -most tribes continued to follow the migrating buffalo herds -buffalo hunting in the early 1880s greatly impacted the nomadic life of the tribes Removal after the Civil War -tribes lost their land and the freedom to live according to their traditions -conflicts with the U.S. government were the result of white Americans having little understanding of the Plains people’s loose tribal organization and nomadic lifestyle

Bison skulls collected in order to be ground into fertilizer, late 1800s

Dawes Severalty Act (1887) -designed to break up tribal organizations -tribal land divided into smaller plots depending on family size -U.S. citizenship granted to those who stayed on the land for 25 years -policy was a failure as the best land was sold to speculators, white settlers, or Native Americans -disease and poverty continued to plague native communities Ghost Dance Movement (1890) -religious movement that focused on a peaceful end to white expansion through cooperation by tribes -Lakota Sioux interpreted the movement to call for a removal of all whites from their land

Wounded Knee Massacre (1890) -Sioux men, women, and children were gunned down by U.S. army -tragedy marked a bloody end to the Indian Wars Indian Reorganization Act (1934) -New Deal program to promote the reestablishment of tribal organizations and culture -large tracts of land were returned to various tribes for the next twenty years