PLAINS INDIAN WARS
TREATY OF FT. LARAMIE
• Signed on September 17, 1851
• United States treaty commissioners and
representatives of the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapaho,
Navajo Crow, Shoshone, Assiniboine, Mandan,
Hidatsa, and Arikara nations.
• Treaty sets forth traditional territorial claims of the
tribes as among themselves
• The Indians guaranteed safe passage for settlers on
the Oregon Trail in return for promises of an annuity
in the amount of fifty thousand dollars for fifty years.
TREATY CONT.
• The Native American nations also allowed roads
and forts to be built in their territories
• The treaty produced a brief period of peace
• Broken by the failure of the United States to prevent
the mass emigration of settlers and miners
SAND CREEK MASSACRE
• November 29, 1864
• Colorado militia led by Colonel John Chivington
• 110 Arapaho and Cheyenne women and children
were killed
• Initially reported as a great victory over a mighty
opponent
• Eventually, an official investigation took place
• No charges were brought against those who
participated
• Ended Chivington’s shot at a political career
Colonel John
Chivington
GEORGE A. CUSTER
• Leader of the 7th Cavalry Division
• Assigned to protect surveyors of the Northern
Pacific Railroad
• Gained the image back East as a famous Indian
fighter
• Generally, his encounters with tribes were
massacres
BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG HORN
• AKA Custer’s Last Stand
• June 25-26, 1876
• Near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana
Territory
• Most famous battle of the Great Sioux War
• Custer and his men were killed
• As years have passed, image of Custer has
changed from hero to villain
Sitting Bull
Chief of the Sioux
Indians
Arranged alliance
with Sioux and
Cheyenne
Crazy Horse
Chief of the
Lakota Indians
Fatally wounded
by a military
guard while
allegedly resisting
imprisonment at
Camp Robinson in
present-day
Nebraska
Geronimo
Apache
Chief
After the surrender
of Geronimo, he is
taken around the
country and
placed on display
CHIEF JOSEPH
• Leader of the Nez Perce
• Attempted to lead his people from being placed
on a reservation by fleeing to Canada
• Leads U.S. troops on 1170 mile chase
• Joseph surrenders on Oct 5, 1877
• “We will fight no more forever”
• His people were placed in Indian Territory (OK)
• 1879, Chief Joseph meets with President Hayes
• 1903, Chief Joseph meets with President T Roosevelt
• Died September 1904
Chief Joseph
DAWES ACT OF 1887
• Authorized the President of the United States to
survey Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments
for individual Indians.
• The objective of the Dawes Act was to stimulate
assimilation of Indians into American society
• Individual ownership of land was seen as an
essential step.
• The act also provided that the government would
purchase Indian land "excess" to that needed for
allotment and open it up for settlement by nonIndians.
GHOST DANCE
• Started by Paiute Indian prophet Wovoka
• Vision that Jesus Christ had returned to earth as a
Native American
• He preached that:
• White man would vanish from native lands
• Buffalo would return in abundance
• Dead ancestors would be returned
• Warriors wore “Ghost Shirts” believed to repel bullets
• Caused alarm with U.S. govt that another uprising
was being planned
Wovoka
DECEMBER 15, 1890
• U.S. troops arrest Sitting Bull for not stopping his
people from practicing the Ghost Dance
• During the arrest Sitting Bull is killed
WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE
• December 29, 1890
• U.S. troops were making camp with captured Sioux
Indians at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota
• Troops were confiscating weapons when shots were
fired
• 150 men, women, and children were killed
• Historically, considered to be the end of conflict
between the U.S. govt and Native Americans
AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT (AIM)
• Founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
• AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and
sovereignty
• Nov 1969-Jun 1971 AIM occupies Alcatraz Island
• 1972, activists marched across country on the "Trail
of Broken Treaties“:
• Took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA),
occupying it for several days
• 1973, activists led a 71-day armed standoff with
federal forces at Wounded Knee
Russell Means
AIM Activist