1. U.S. Government and the Indians
The U.S. Government dealt with Native Americans in 4 ways:
Assimilation
Removal
Relocation
Sovereignty

2. Assimilation
The U.S. government would try to force Natives to act and live like white people.
“Kill the Indian, save the man.”
Ways to do this
Indian Farms
Boarding schools for native children
Missionaries to convert them to Christianity

3. Assimilation Dawes Act (1887)
Goal of the Dawes Act: to get Native Americans to live like white Americans
Reservations were broken up into "allotments" that were given out to individual families.
Families were supposed to farm and build homes on their allotment to support themselves
Land that wasn't given to a family was sold by the US government to white farmers
It failed:
Some of the land was unsuitable for farming & ranching
Some refused to adopt a different way of life
Some sold their land to white settlers, but others were upset that their land was given away

4. Assimilation
Throughout the United States Indian Schools were set up to “civilize” the Indians. They would take Indian children away from their families and home and force them to change their religion and culture. In Utah the Mormons were not as harsh as other parts of the U.S.

5. Removal Indian Removal Act Trail of Tears
Primary source readings and questions.

6. Removal
Native Americans were also removed by being pushed from the land
Settlers
Wagon trains
Gold Rush
Railroads
Farming lands

7. Removal in Utah Goshute War – 1860
Goshutes started attacking Stage Coach stations in Utah and Nevada.
Seven stations were destroyed in Utah.
U.S. Army attacked the Goshutes.
At Simpson Springs, the army surrounded and slaughtered an entire Indian camp of men, women and children.
Over 100 Indians were killed. Only 16 whites were killed.

8. Removal in Utah
Bear River Massacre – Many people traveling west past Utah, shot at and frightened friendly Shoshone Indians. Then small groups of Shoshone then started attacking wagon trains. U.S. soldiers, led by Patrick Connor, attacked and massacred about 300 men, women and children.
Mormon settlers who witnessed the battle were sickened by the sight and disappointed in the U.S. Army for what they did.
Watch the Video Clip

9. Relocation (the 2nd phase of removal)
Native American groups were forced to move to Indian Reservations:
1839 – Cherokees and others forced to move to Oklahoma/Kansas Reservation
1861 – President Lincoln creates the Uinta Valley Indian Reservation where the Utes were forced to go.
1884 – Navajo Indian Reservation created.
1891 – Shivwitz Reservation created and Paiutes were forced to move there.

10. Relocation - Before the Pioneers came, the Utes controlled 45% of Utah’s land, after they were put on reservations they only controlled 9% of their former lands. (about 4% of Utah land).
Shoshone
Goshutes
UTES
Paiutes
Navajo

11. Sovereignty
Tribes were given the power to govern themselves on Reservation lands (a nation within a nation).
In 1934, Native
Americans won
the right to have
Tribal councils.

12. Battle of Little Big Horn -1876
Federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer ( ) against a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors
Tensions between the two groups had been rising since the discovery of gold on Native American lands
When a number of tribes missed a federal deadline to move to reservations, the U.S. Army, including Custer and his 7th Calvary, was dispatched to confront them.
Custer was unaware of the number of Indians fighting under the command of Sitting Bull at Little Bighorn, and his forces were outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed in what became known as Custer's Last Stand.

13. Military Conflict Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
Members of the Sioux Tribe felt that their culture had been destroyed
Financially dependent on the US government for their annuities, unable to support themselves by hunting buffalo
Ghost Dance offered hope
Believed that if everyone followed the Ghost Dance rituals that their culture and power would be restored and the white people would leave
US troops felt threatened by large gatherings of Sioux men and their families
US troops fired on a group of Sioux gathered for the Ghost Dance, killing dozens of men, women and children