The Struggle of the Plains Indians
• 1860 – 360,00 Native Americans in the US
• Most scattered about the vast grasslands
standing in the path of the advancing white
pioneers
The Struggle of the Plains Indians
• Conflict with settlers in the East before the
Civil War resulted I the removal policy
which placed Indians in the transMississippi west, most in Oklahoma
territory
The Struggle of the Plains Indians
• Before whites began to arrive, Comanche
had driven the Apaches off the central
plains into the Rio Grande valley (18th
Century)
• Cheyenne had abandoned their villages
along the upper reaches of the Mississippi
and Missouri River before the Civil War
• Sioux emerged on the plains attacking the
Crows, Kiowas, and Pawnees.
The Struggle of the Plains Indians
• Peace Commissions (army and Indian
agents) sent to meet with Plains Indians in
1867 and 1868 and promised aid noninterference
• Promised food, clothing, and supplies in
exchange for ancestral lands
• Received from federal Indian agents motheaten blankets, spoiled beef, and other
defective provisions
The Struggle of the Plains Indians
• Conflicts between Indians and U.S. Army
– Sand Creek Massacre – 1864. 450 Arapaho
and Cheyenne men, women, and children
killed in Colorado Territory by Col.
Chivington’s volunteer forces
– Little Big Horn – 1876. Gen. Custer and 264
troops killed by Sioux Indians in Montana
Territory.
The Struggle of the Plains Indians
• Conflicts between Indians and U.S. Army
– Chief Joseph and Nez Perce captured by
army after 1300 mile chase
– Wounded Knee – 1890. 200 unarmed Sioux
killed after Sitting Bull was killed.
The Struggle of the Plains Indians
• E. Dawes Act (1887) or Dawes Severalty
Act – sought to Americanize Indians
– Reservations divided among families in 160
acre segments
• Wiped out tribal ownership of land
– Tribal loyalties had to be renounced to gain
American citizenship
• Dissolved many tribes as legal entities
The Struggle of the Plains Indians
• E. Dawes Act (1887) or Dawes Severalty
Act – sought to Americanize Indians
– Between 1887 and 1934, Indians lost over
half of their reservation lands to whites
• Native children were sent to boarding school and
matrons sent to reservations