1. 1st Block Why were the buffalo important to the Native Americans?
Define these terms
Homestead Act
Buffalo Soldiers
Morrill Land Grant
Transcontinental Railroad
Assimilation

2. 2nd & 4th block
Quick Read
Complete the Homestead Act sheet on your warm up sheet!

3. The West: Days with Native Americans

4. How They Lived
The land promised to them was known as the “Great American Desert”
The most common of Native Americans were the plains Indians
Were nomadic (follow the buffalo)
Land was a resource, unlike Americans who saw the land as profit
Was not a desert at all. The lives of NA varied from region to region
Buffalo used for food, clothes and tools

5. American’s Disruptive Way of Life
The Gold Rush in California brought settlers west
Indian are not immune to diseases such as small pox
Railroads were being built that needed to go through Indian Territory
This need led to the gov. setting up reservation that would put Indian tribes on smaller specific areas. But many were nomadic

6. The Way of the Buffalo White settlers killed off thousands
Hunters invaded, trading fur in the East
Some killed for sport leaving the carcasses to rot
Indians see their way of life rotting
RR companies hired sharpshooters to kill buffalo
seen as obstruction traffic (Buffalo Riders)
Encouraged by US army. Would keep the Indians from being nomadic

7. What made the buffalo important to Native American’s? Americans?

8. Sand Creek: The Massacre
Were under US PROTECTION
Indians had been attacking settlers to keep a hold on their lands..raised the distrust among settlers
Unarmed Cheyenne and Arapaho are attacked by Colorado militia for no reason
Killed men, women & children
Indians tried to signal that they were of no threat.
Created even more Indian resistance and military occupation.

9. CUSTER: The Last Stand
Gold miners encroach on Sioux territory in the Black Hills
Sioux ( Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull) send out their troops & so does the US Army under Colonel Custer
600 plus soldiers vs. 2,000 Indians
Indians charge killing Custer & all his men
One of the very few Indians victories

10. Chief Joseph and Nez Perce
Living on a reservation & doing well but land was needed for white settlers
Leads to the Nez Perce War
Chief Joseph and Nez Perces tried to escape US troops by heading into Canada
Troops caught up with them just short of the border and Chief Joseph surrendered
“I will fight no more forever”
Were sent to unfertile lands in Oklahoma

11. Wounded Knee
With so many threats to their way of life, NA start to practice the Ghost Dance: thought it would
Banish white settlers
Bring back the buffalo
Frightened the gov. they order the arrest of Sitting Bull who was leading the dance ( Dec. 15, 1890) When the troops come to arrest Sitting Bull, they mistook him for a dancer and killed him.
Dec. 29th, 1890, they disarmed Sioux led by Big Foot! Shoots are fired and Troops react by killing over 300 Sioux
Buried in a mass grave.
Disrespectable in any culture not just Indian
18 Congressional Medals of Honor awarded to the troops

12. Giving in…(Assimilation)
Reservation life was not working so gov. suggested assimilation (adopting the culture and civilization of whites)
Helen Hunt Jackson criticized the gov. treatment of Indians in her book A Century of Dishonor
Talked of broken treaties and the plight/poor condition of Indians

13. In America today, where else have you seen assimilation
In America today, where else have you seen assimilation? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

16. Why have Native Americans and Americans have so much conflict?

17. Dawes Act
Replaced the reservation system (placing tribes on land) with an allotment system (placing families on land)
Each Indian family was given 160 acres ( this sounds a lot like what other act?)
Not enough for farming in the west, only in the East
Land could not be sold for 25 years
Attempt to assimilate NA by giving them land but they don’t even know how to farm (why)

18. Current news