Native Americans Fight to
Survive
Describe Native American life on the Great
Plains.
• Lived in villages by streams
• Women tended crops men
hunted
• Horses allowed hunters to
follow the buffalo herds
• Used the buffalo for food,
clothing, and shelter
• Horses allowed tribes to be
nomadic
Explain how Plains tribes responded to white
settlers attempts to take away their land.
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They were given the Indian
Territory west of the Mississippi
River -“as long as the grass grows
and the water runs”
Settlers wanted to move onto the
Great Plains to farm so gov’t tried
to buy back land and redraw
boundaries
Many agreed, but Cheyenne and
Sioux didn’t and attacked white
settlers
Soldiers responded with Sand
Creek Massacre
Fetterman Massacre
US gov’t agreed to give Sioux land
in Black Hills of South Dakota
Identify the outcome of Native
American resistance efforts.
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Gold found in Black Hills
Battle of the Little Big Horn 2,500 Sioux and Cheyenne vs. 211
US soldiers - Sitting Bull and
Crazy Horse vs. Col. George A.
Custer
Sitting Bull and his starving
followers eventually had to
surrender
Nez Perce led by Chief Joseph
surrendered after a 4 month chase
towards Canada -“I will fight no
more, forever”
Apaches led by Geronimo were the
last band of resistance fighters
Sitting Bull
• Sioux Chief
George A. Custer
• U. S. Calvary officer
Chief Joseph
• Nez Perce Chief
Geronimo
• Apache Chief
Evaluate the impact of the Dawes Act
on the Plains tribes.
• People want Native
Americans to assimilate
• Wanted them to become
farmers
• The law divided up the
reservation land for
individual families and
sold the rest to settlers
• Those who wanted to farm
lacked the training,
money, and tools to be
successful, so they ended
up selling their land