Chapter
17 Section 2
Objectives
• Describe the importance of the buffalo to the
Native Americans of the Plains.
• Explain how Native Americans and settlers came
into conflict.
• Summarize how Native American groups
struggled to maintain their traditional ways of
life.
• Explain why Congress passed the Dawes Act in
1887.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
Terms and People
• travois – small sled
• tepee – cone-shaped tent made of buffalo skins
• reservation – land set aside for Native
Americans to live on
• Sitting Bull – Sioux leader who fought against
white settlement of the West
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
What were the consequences of the
conflict between Native Americans
and white settlers?
As settlers rushed into the West, they
increasingly came into conflict with the people
already living there—Native Americans.
Native
Americans
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
settlers
Chapter
17 Section 2
By the end of the Civil War, some 360,000
Native Americans lived in the West, many on
the Great Plains.
European explorers and
the flood of settlers
who followed had
changed their lives.
Native Americans now
used horses and guns,
and traveled faster and
farther.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
Many Plains people wandered from place to
place, following buffalo herds.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
Native people had come to depend on the buffalo
for survival.
meat
for
food
hides
for
clothing
buffalo
horns
and bones
for
tools
tendons
for
thread
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
hides
for
tepees
Chapter
17 Section 2
Government treaties promised Native
Americans protection.
Fort Laramie
Treaty, 1851
• native people agreed to
stop wandering and settle
permanently
• the government would
protect their land
However, as miners and settlers scrambled west,
the treaties were routinely broken.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
When new treaties forced Native people from their
lands in Colorado, some Indian warriors resisted,
attacking settlers and their homes.
In response, the army
attacked a band of
peaceful Cheyennes,
killing men, women,
and children.
Sand
Creek
Massacre
The massacre ignited the Indian Wars.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
At the same time, Native Americans faced
another devastating crisis—the buffalo were
dying out.
By the 1870s, the giant herds began to shrink,
slaughtered by railroad crews and hunters.
Traditional native life was changing forever.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
The government urged Native people to
move to reservations, where they could farm
the land.
Native
Americans
Reservation
Native
Americans
But the soil was poor, and hunger and disease
made life on reservations difficult.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
In 1876, Colonel George Armstrong Custer rode
into Montana with orders to force Native
Americans onto a reservation.
Custer and all of his
men were killed in the
battle that followed.
Battle of
Little
Bighorn
Soldiers soon flooded the area, forcing the
Indians from their land.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
In the Northwest, the Nez
Percés also resisted being
moved to a reservation.
Chief Joseph fled toward
Canada with a large band
of Nez Percés.
Chief Joseph surrendered to the army near the
Canadian border.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
In the Southwest, Navajos and Apaches fought a series
of wars to defend their lands.
Despite fierce
resistance from
Geronimo and
others, government
troops eventually
forced both groups
onto reservations.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
In the 1880s, native groups from the Plains began
performing the Ghost Dance, dreaming of
returning to the old ways.
In one Sioux village, police
tried to stop the dance.
Sitting Bull was killed.
Troops killed others trying to
flee.
After the defeat at the Battle of Wounded
Knee, the Indian Wars were over.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
By 1890 Native Americans were forced off their
lands in the west and relocated to reservations.
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
Reformers outraged at the treatment of
Native Americans pushed Congress to act.
Dawes Act, 1887
A law designed to
help native people,
however, failed.
Confined to
reservations, many
Native Americans
fell into poverty.
• Gave each Native
American male 160
acres to farm
• Built schools
• Resisted by native
groups longing for their
traditional way of life
Native Americans Struggle to Survive
Chapter
17 Section 2
Section Review
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Native Americans Struggle to Survive