1. Looking to the West ( )
The Indian Wars

2. The Life of the Plains Indians
Eastern settlers changed the lives of N. A. on the Great Plains
Indians & French traded buffalo hides for guns, making hunting easier
Horses made N. A. warfare much more intense and violent
Many N. A. became nomads b/c of the horse. Became more mobile to follow food sources
Warrior societies led to much more violence and instability

3. The Plains Indians Approx. 250,000 Indians in Great Plains in 1865
smallpox, tuberculosis & malaria killed many & reduced fertility among survivors
women outnumbered men 2:1 in some tribes
destroyed cultures as well when elders killed before they could pass on oral traditions
2 main groups:
semi-sedentary farmers living in earthen lodges along Missouri R. (Arikaras, Hidatsas, Mandans, Pawnees & Omahas)
horse-mounted, nomadic buffalo hunters on “high plains” (Arapahoes, Blackfeet, Cheyennes, Comanche, Crow, Kiowas & Sioux)

4. Indian Wars and Government Policy
N.A. lived on traditional lands W. of Mississippi
N. A. viewed settlers as invaders, Settlers took land from N. A.
(Settlers vs. N.A. = invaders vs. owners)
Gov’t treaties forced N. A. onto reservations
Settlers ignored treaties
Acts of violence led to cycles of revenge. Both sides guilty.

5. Brutality, Unfulfilled Promises, and Butchery
Treaties:
Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867
Fort Laramie Treaty (1868)
Most Indians angered by the treaties
By 1868, war parties were raiding cities in Kansas and Colorado
In response, army troops killed any Indians who refused to stay on reservations

6. The Indian Wars
Ft. Laramie Treaty (1851) set boundaries for Northern tribes, but soon violated
Cheyenne & Arapaho annihilated at Sand Creek (1864)
Oglala Sioux Chief Red Cloud fought U.S. to stalemate in war & received guaranteed boundaries in 1868 treaty
when George Custer’s expedition verified gold in Black Hills, U.S. tried to back out of treaty, so war broke out with Sitting Bull
Custer’s 7th Cav. wiped out at Little Bighorn in 1876
Sitting Bull

7. Key Events in the Indian Wars, 1861-1890
Native American
Nations/Homelands
Key Players
Description/Outcome
Apache and Navajo Wars ( )
Apache in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado territories; Navajo in New Mexico, Colorado territories
Geronimo
Col. Christopher “Kit” Carson
Carson kills or relocates many Apache to reservations in Clashes drag on until Geronmino’s surrender in Navajo told to surrender in 1863, but before they can, Carson attacks, killing hundreds, destroying homelands. Navajos moved to New Mexico reservation in 1865.
Sand Creek Massacre (1864)
Southern Cheyeene, Arapaho, in central plains
Black Kettle
Col. John Chivington
Cheyenne massacres prompt Chivington to kill up to 500 surrendered Cheyenne and Arapaho led by Black Kettle.
Red River War ( )
Comanche and southern branches of Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho, in southern plains
Comanche war parties
Gen. William T. Sherman
Lt. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan
Southern plains Indians relocated to Oklahoma Indian Territory under 1867 Treaty of Medicin Lodge. After buffalo hunters destroy the Indians food supply, Comanche warriors race to buffalo grazing areas in Texas panhandle to kill hunters. Sherman and Sheridan defeat warriors and open panhandle to cattle ranching.
Wars/Battles

8. Key Events in the Indian Wars, 1861-1890
Wars/Battles
Native American
Nations/Homelands
Key Players
Description/Outcome
Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)
Northern plains Sioux in Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana territorries
Sitting Bull
Crazy Horse
Red Cloud
Lt. Col. George
A. Custer
U.S. tries to buy gold-rich Black Hills from Sioux. Talks fail. Custer’s 7th Cavalry is sent to round up Sioux, but meets huge enemy force. Custer and some 200 men perish in “Custer’s Last Stand.”
Nez Perce War (1877)
Largest branch of Nez Perce, in Wallowa Valley of Idaho and Washington territories and Oregon
Chief Joseph
Gen. Oliver O. Howard
Col. Nelson Miles
Howard orders Nez Perce to Idaho reservation; violence erupts. Joseph leads some 700 men, women, and children on 1,400-mile flight. His 200 warriors hold off Miles’s 2,000 soldiers until halted 40 miles short of Canada. Sent to Indian Territory, many die of disease. In 1885, survivors moved to reservation in Washington Territory.
Battle of Wounded Knee (1890)
Sioux at Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota
U.S. 7th
Cavalry
Ghost Dance raises fears of Sioux uprising; Sitting Bull killed in attempted arrest. His followers surrender and camp at Wounded Knee. Shots are fired; some 200 Sioux die.

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Map: Indian Wars,

10. Warring Sioux
Several Sioux tribes fought to stay on their land and protect their hunting grounds
Raided settlements and harassed miners
Sitting Bull
Leader of non-treaty Sioux
Strong fighting expertise
Non-treaty: had not signed any treaty with the u.s. gov to stay on reservations

11. Rising Tensions in the West

12. William Tecumseh Sherman
“War is hell…”
March through Georgia in Civil War
Commanding General of U.S. Army after 1869
Colonel who sent Custer on his expedition into the Black Hills

13. Sand Creek Massacre

14. Sand Creek (1864) •US army massacred Cheyenne, Arapahoe
Older men, women,
And children.
•Eastern Colorado

15. The Southern Plains Indians
Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867) set boundaries for southern plains tribes, but gov’t failed to supply them as promised, so Indians resumed hunting & war broke out
Sheridan & Custer destroyed villages & pony herds
Resistance broken by 1875
72 leaders imprisoned in Florida & subject to experimental “civilization by immersion” program run by Capt. Richard Pratt
Wovoka’s Ghost Dance movement crushed by massacre of 200+ Sioux at Wounded Knee in Dec. 1890
Gen. Phil Sheridan

16. General George Armstrong Custer
General in the Civil War
Infamous Indian fighter during the Sioux Wars
Wanted to find gold in Black Hills
Defeated in the Battle at Little Bighorn (1876)
Black Hills expedition: pushed by the Northern Pacific Railroad

17. Sitting Bull

18. Little Bighorn Army moved to assault roaming Sioux in 1876
600 troops marched on Little Bighorn River
Custer separated his men and sent half of his forces straight into battle
This group and the rest were wiped out by Cheyenne and Sioux
Defeat angered the army who became even more ruthless
Army moved to assault roaming Sioux: after negotiations to buy the Black Hills broke down

19. Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand)

20. The Little Bighorn today

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Scene of Custer's last stand

22. Wovoka & the Ghost Dance

23. Wounded Knee Creek The Ghost Dance December 29, 1890
In honor of Wovoka
December 29, 1890
Seventh cavalry was sent to round up a group of Indians at Wounded Knee when an ‘excited’ Indian fired a shot
The soldiers then open fired
More than 300 Indians killed in minutes
Show movie clip

24. Wounded Knee, SD (1890)

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Return from Wounded Knee

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Issue Day: Native Americans Waiting for Government Supplies

27. Big Foot Killed at Wounded Knee

28. The Reservations
Reservations seen as temporary - designed to civilize & Christianize Indians
Run by Bureau of Indian Affairs (est. 1824)
controls schools & legal system, grants recognition
agents white, but lesser officials Indian, which deflected hostility onto traitors
Traditional practices & communal work replaced by individualism, because whites believed indiv. land ownership was bedrock of democracy
Children often sent to boarding schools & punished for speaking native tongue

29. Dawes Act Indian Homestead Act - 1887
Another attempt to assimilate Indians

30. General Allotment
Dawes Severalty Act (1887) broke up reservations to encourage individualism
each head of household given 160 acres (320 if suitable only for grazing)
could pick own land, but held in trust by gov’t for 25 years
would become citizens after 25 years if gave up tribal ways
reduced Indian-owned acreage from 138 to 48 million - rest opened up to white settlement
Curtis Act (1898) terminated tribal gov’ts that rejected allotment

31. Shrinking Reservations

32. “Saving” the Indians
More and more Americans disagreed with Government Indian policies
The Women’s National Indian Rights Association
Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson
They thought breaking up the reservations and assimilating the Indians into society was the best thing
Dawes Severalty Act
Gave individuals acreages
of land and made them
citizens of the U.S.
Assimilating: they wanted to get rid of Indian culture to get rid of the “Indian Problem”
Picture: the phoenix indian school

33. Denying Tribal Sovereignty
Legal status as nations with treaty rights stripped by Congress, with Supreme Court’s approval
1871: Congress declared tribes no longer sovereign nations, but wards of gov’t
Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903): Court ruled Congress had plenary power over tribes - could act unilaterally to violate treaties & dispose of Indian lands as it saw fit
Indian Citizenship Act (1924) granted citizenship to all Native Americans

34. Assimilation and the Indian Schools
Carlisle, PA, other sites around the U.S.
Genoa, Nebraska
Attempted to ‘save the Indian’ by making them assimilate into American culture, manners and customs
Formed by people who empathized with the plight of the Indians and wanted a “humanitarian” solution

35. Genoa, NE Indian School

36. Before and After

37. The Opening of Indian Territory
Fifty five Indian nations were forced into Indian Territory, the largest unsettled farmland in the United States.
During the 1880s, squatters overran the land, and Congress agreed to buy out the Indian claims to the region.
On April 22, 1889, tens of thousands of homesteaders lined up at the territory’s borders to stake claims on the land.
By sundown, settlers called boomers had staked claims on almost 2 million acres.
Many boomers discovered that some of the best lands had been grabbed by sooners, people who had sneaked past the government officials earlier to mark their claims.
Under continued pressure from settlers, Congress created Oklahoma Territory in In the following years, the remainder of Indian Territory was open to settlement.

38. Oklahoma Land Rush (1889)
Oklahoma was “Indian Territory” given to the five civilized tribes
They sided with the Confederacy, the government took land as punishment
2 million acres free for settlement
Free land was considered instant prosperity, but droughts would make many farms fail

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Oklahoma City, 1889

40. By 1900 Most Indians had been driven onto reservations
Reduced from 1/4 million to 1 hundred thousand
The culture still survives