Exploring American History
Unit VI – A Growing America
Chapter 18
Section 2 – War for the West
Wars for the West
The Big Idea
Native Americans and the U.S. government came
into conflict over land in the West.
Main Ideas
• As settlers moved to the Great Plains, they encountered
the Plains Indians.
• The U.S. Army and Native Americans fought in the
northern plains, the Southwest, and the Far West.
• Despite efforts to reform U.S. policy toward Native
Americans, conflict continued.
Main Idea 1:
As settlers moved to the Great Plains, they
encountered the Plains Indians.
• The U.S. government negotiated treaties with Plains Indians in the
mid-1800s to gain more western lands for settlers.
• Plains Indians, including the Sioux, Pawnee, and Cheyenne, lived by
hunting buffalo.
• Buffalo were used for food, shelter, clothing, and utensils.
• Conflict grew with the Plains Indians as miners and settlers increased
in number.
Struggle to Keep Land
The Treaty of Fort Laramie recognized Native American
claims to the Great Plains. It allowed the United States to build
forts and travel across Native American lands.
The U.S. government negotiated new treaties after gold was
discovered in Colorado, sending Native Americans to live on
reservations, areas of federal land set aside for them.
The movement of pioneers and miners across the Great Plains
and through Native American hunting grounds led to conflict
with the Sioux, led by Crazy Horse.
Most southern Plains Indians agreed to go to reservations under
the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge, but the Comanche
continued to fight until 1875.
Main Idea 2:
The U.S. Army and Native Americans fought in
the northern plains, the Southwest,
and the Far West.
• When Native Americans resisted confinement on reservations
U.S. troops forced them to go.
– Included African American cavalry called buffalo soldiers
• Most Native Americans had stopped fighting by the 1880s,
except the Apache, led by Geronimo, who fought until 1886.
Fighting on the Plains
Northern Plains
Southwest
• Battles with the Sioux
throughout the
1800s.
• Navajo refused to
settle on
reservations.
• In 1876 George
Armstrong Custer’s
troops were defeated
by Sioux forces led
by Crazy Horse and
Sitting Bull at the
Battle of Little
Bighorn, the Sioux’s
last major victory.
• U.S. troops raided
Navajo fields,
homes, and
livestock.
• U.S. troops killed
about 150 Sioux in
the Massacre at
Wounded Knee in
1890.
• Out of food and
shelter, the Navajo
surrendered.
• Navajo were forced
on a 300-mile
march, known as
the Long Walk, to
a reservation and
countless died.
Far West
• Initially, the
United States
promised to let the
Nez Percé keep
their Oregon land.
• Later, the
government
demanded land.
• Fighting broke out.
• U.S. troops forced
the Nez Percé to a
reservation in
what is now
Oklahoma where
many died.
Main Idea 3:
Despite efforts to reform U.S. policy toward
Native Americans, conflict continued.
• Ghost Dance movement
– Predicted the arrival of paradise for Native Americans
– Misunderstood by U.S. officials, who feared it would lead to rebellion
– Gradually died out after the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890
• Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute, lectured on problems of the reservation system and
called for reform in the 1870s.
• Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887
– Made land ownership among Native Americans private
– Tried to lessen traditional influences of Native American society so as to encourage
them to adopt the ways of white people
– Ended up taking about two-thirds of Native American land
Before Discovery
- 4 million Natives lived in America
- They lived in tribes or nations
- Primarily they were hunters and gatherers with some farming
- Buffalo was key to survival
- Tribes/Nations varied in their abilities and culture
"The men of every [Indian] nation differ in their dress very little from each other,
except those who trade with the Europeans, these exchange their furs for blankets,
shirts, and other apparel, which they wear as much for ornament as necessity . . . They
paint their faces red and black, which they esteem as greatly ornamental."
Treatment of Native AmericansEarly Conflicts- Disease
•
What gave the Spaniards a decisive advantage this time was
smallpox. The resulting epidemic proceeded to kill nearly half the
Aztecs.
•
Populous Indian societies in the Mississippi Valle, these societies too
would disappear. The conquistadores' germs, spreading in
advance, did everything.
•
Archeologists feel the initial number of Natives at around 20 million
when Columbus came. In the century or two following Columbus's
arrival in the New World, the Indian population is estimated to have
declined by about 95 percent.
•
The main killers were European germs, to which the Indians had
never been exposed and against which they therefore had neither
immunologic nor genetic resistance. Smallpox, measles, influenza,
and typhus competed for top rank among the killers. As if those
were not enough, pertussis, plague, tuberculosis, diphtheria, mumps,
malaria, and yellow fever came close behind.
Explorers landing
-
-
Landed in S. America first - Cortez
The Natives thought the Spanish Explorers were God’s
Northern Indians aided first settlers – The first Thanksgiving was to thank the Natives
for supplying them with food all winter.
French traded fur with Natives (beaver).
Enslaved Natives – Didn’t make good slaves (Primarily in South).
Millions if Natives were killed by disease.
As more immigrants came the Natives were pushed back further and further. A line
was drawn at the Appalachian Mountains until they ran out of room and people began
to move west. This caused problems.
Many Americans viewed Natives as savage and untamed “uncivilized”.
-
Some settlers went west to study them.
-
Revolutionary War
- Natives fought on both sides during the war.
- Most choose the British side because the British had tried to
keep land for the Natives.
- Joseph Brandt (Thayendanegea) was a Mohawk Native that
fought for the British
- Following the war the American government established a
policy of pushing or relocating tribes beyond the Mississippi
River.
- 1820-1850 – Let Natives live on “Great American Desert”. One
big reservation. This land was not considered good enough for
White Americans.
Treatment of Native AmericansEarly Policies
Indian Removal Act- 1830
•
On May 26, 1830, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was passed by
the Twenty-First Congress of the United states of America. After
four months of strong debate, Andrew Jackson signed the bill into
law. Land greed was a big reason for the federal government's
position on Indian removal. This desire for Indian lands was also
abetted by the Indian hating mentallity that was peculiar to some
American frontiersman.
•
To ensure peace the government forced these five tribes called the
Five Civilized Tribes to move out of their lands that they had
lived on for generations and to move to land given to them in
parts of Oklahoma. Andrew Jackson was quoted as saying that
this was a way of protecting them and allowing them time to
adjust to the white culture. This land in Oklahoma was thinly
settled and was thought to have little value. Within 10 years of the
Indian Removal Act, more than 70,000 Indians had moved across
the Mississippi. Many Indians died on this journey.
Treatment of Native AmericansEarly Policies
Trail Tears- "Nunna daul Tsuny." That translates into English as "trail
where they cried."
•
The term "Trails of Tears" was given to the period of ten years in which over
70,000 Indians had to give up their homes and move to certain areas assigned to
tribes in Oklahoma. The tribes were given a right to all of Oklahoma except the
Panhandle. The government promised this land to them "as long as grass shall
grow and rivers run." Unfortunately, the land that they were given only lasted till
about 1906 and then they were forced to move to other reservations. Cherokee,
Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole
•
The Trails of Tears were several trails that the Five civilized Tribes traveled on
their way to their new lands. Many Indians died because of famine or disease.
Sometimes a person would die because of the harsh living conditions. The tribes
had to walk all day long and get very little rest. All this was in order to free more
land for white settlers. The period of forcible removal started when Andrew
Jackson became Presidentin 1829. At that time there was reported to be sightings
of gold in the Cherokee territory in Georgia which caused prospectors to rush in,
tearing down fences and destroying crops.
•
All of the treaties signed by the Indians as the agreed to the terms of the removal
contained guarantees that the Indians, territory should be perpetual and that no
government other than their own should be erected over them without their
consent.
Trail of Tears – 2:28
Treatment of Native AmericansEarly Policies
Seminole Wars
•
The Seminole Indians are a tribe the used to reside in Florida in the early 1800's. The
Seminole originally belonged to the Creek tribe. They became known as Seminoles
because the name means runaways.
•
The United acquired Florida in 1819, and began urging them to sell their land to the
government and to move to the Indian Territory along with the other southeasten tribes.
•
In 1832, some of the Seminole leaders signed a treaty and promised to relocate. The
Seminole tribe split at this time and fought to keep their lands. They fled into the Florida
swamps.
•
They started the Second Seminole war (1835). This was fought over the remaining land
that the Seminole had fled to. It lasted for seven years. 1,500 American men died and the
cost to the United States was $20 million. The Seminole were led by Osceola until he was
tricked by General Thomas Jessup. Osceola was seized and imprisoned by Jessup during
peace talks under a flag of truce. Osceola died in 1838 when he still in prison. After the
war, many Seminoles moved west but still a small group stayed hidden in the Florida
swamps.
Treatment of Native Americans1820-1850
Early policy- Treaties were
being made with Indiansjust like dealing with a
foreign nation.
1820-1850 - Push the
Eastern Indians west
across the Mississippi
River. Let Indians live on
the “Great American
Desert”. One Big
Reservation. Land not
good enough for whites
would be left to the
Indian.
Treatment of Native Americans1867-1886
• 1867-1886 - 20 years of war and containment
•
•
•
Indians would be gathered in large reservations that would
belong to them. Peacefully?
Gov’t reservation agents- some good, some inept, some
corrupt.
Government promised to supply nations with food, but
supplies were slow coming and caused starvation and
rebellion.
– Santee went on warpath-1862-no payments or even credit to
buy food.
– 1865-25,000 soldiers armed against Indians.
– 1867-1868 Peace commission - two large meeting +treaties.
100’s of treaties were made and broken by the government.
•
1871- Government stops dealing with the Indians and
Independent nations. No more treaties to be made, Indians
are wards of the state, to be dealt with by acts of Congress.
Gen. Sherman went about the task of either killing Indians
or making them beg for mercy.
Treatment of Native Americans- 1867-1886
• Twenty years of new civil warIndians vs. Whites.
– 1864- Colonel Chivington
slaughters 450 Cheyenne
– Cap. Fetterman and 92
troopers are ambushed and
killed by Crazy Horse and Red
Cloud Sioux.
• 1874- Black Hills, gold fever.
• 1876- Sioux, Crazy horse, Sitting
Bull- “Custer’s Last Stand”.
• Chief Joseph tries to flee to
Canada.
• Buffalo soldiers (blacks) were
used on the plains against the
Indians.
Chief Joseph and Nez Pierce – 4:33
Buffalo- Indians v. White man
•
•
•
1 Indian Village hunt-deaths of
dozens or hundreds of animals
(30, 60, 100, and even 600, 800,
and 1000 were reported killed)
produced fantastic quantities of
meat
24 to 28 Plains tribes had figured
out how to use the buffalo in 52
different ways for food, supplies,
war and hunting implements,
things like that.
•
•
•
Trappers and traders, people who made their
living selling meat and hides. By the 1870s,
they were shipping hundreds of thousands of
buffalo hides eastward each year: more than
1.5 million were packed aboard trains and
wagons in the winter of 1872-73 alone.
Train companies offered tourists the chance to
shoot buffalo from the windows of their
coaches, pausing only when they ran out of
ammunition or the gun's barrel became too hot.
There were even buffalo killing contests. In
one, a Kansan set a record by killing 120 bison
in just 40 minutes. "Buffalo" Bill Cody, hired
to slaughter the animals, killed more than 4,000
buffalo in just two years
military commanders were ordering their
troops to kill buffalo -- not for food, but to
deny Native Americans their source of food
Slaughter of the Buffalo and the End of the Indian
• Male Buffalo- 700-800
pounds and yielded 225400 pounds of meat
• Estimates once between
30 to 75 million buffalo in
North America, but the
great herds were reduced
to less than 300 buffalo by
1900
• By 1880, the slaughter
was almost over.
• In 1800, the best estimates
show between 30 million
and 40 million bison in the
Great Plains. By 1902,
there were approximately
750 in the entire U.S.
Buffalo
The Ghost Dance- Hope to the
People
•
The prophet who began the movement of the Ghost Dance was Wovoka, a
member of the Paiute Tribe. He was descended of a family of prophets and
Shamans. Known as a medicine man, it was said that during an eclipse of
the sun and while suffering from a high fever, he had a vision which
inspired the development of the movement known as the Ghost Dance. The
vision embodied the beliefs that inspired the followers of the movement
including that the white man would disappear from the Earth after a
natural catastrophe and that the Indian dead would return bringing with
them the old way of life that would then last forever.
•
To bring these and the other beliefs into effect, the Indians had to practice
the customs of the Ghost Dance movement and to renounce alcohol and
farming and end mourning, since the resurrection would be coming soon.
The most important practice to ensure the effectiveness of the movement
was the dance itself.
•
The dance was unlike other Indian dances with fast steps and loud
drumming. The Ghost Dance consisted of slow shuffling movements
following the course of the sun. It would be performed for four or five days
and was accompanied by singing and chanting, but no drumming or other
musical instruments. In addition, both men and women participated in the
dance, unlike others in which men were the main dancers, singers and
musicians.
Treatment of Native Americans1887-1934
1889- 1,000 out of the millions of Buffalo were left.
With food, clothing, fuel, and shelter gone the Indians
gave up.
Ghost Dance created to give the people hope.
Wounded Knee, South Dakota- Dec. 29, 1890 (200
Indian dead).
Helen Hunt Jackson’s books awakened the
whites to the plight of the Indian.
Dawes Act 1887-“Americanize” the Indian. Divide
up reservation land into 160 acre farms. 25 years later
Indians get title. Break up the tribes, destroy Indian
culture. 1887-1934 Indians lost 1/2 of their lands.
Indian Citizenship Act June 2, 1924 granted
citizenship to all Native Americans born in the
United States.
1934- Indian New Deal- rebuild tribes and culture
and population grew.
Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee
• Chief Big Foot and the Minniconjou Sioux
• The Hotchkiss gun usually refers to the 1.65 inch light mountain
gun; there was also a 3-inch Hotchkiss gun. They were intended to
be mounted on a light carriage or packed on mules to accompany a
troop of cavalry or an army traveling in rough country. Breech
loading and handled by two men.
• Hotchkiss was employed against the Nez Percés in 1877. Over the
next twenty years the U.S would purchase fifty more. They were
used in Cuba for the attack on San Juan Hill and in the PhilippineAmerican War. It was also used at the Wounded Knee Massacre.
• It fired two types of shells- one would explode on impact and send
out shrapnel. The other was a canister which would rip open at the
muzzle spraying the enemy with a fan shaped pattern of hardened
lead ½ inch balls. This projectile was used at close range.
Black Elk- on Wounded Knee
• “I do not know then how much was ended. When I look
back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see
the butchered women and children lying heaped and
scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I
saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that
something else died there in the bloody mud, and was
buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there. It
was a beautiful dream… the nation’s hoop is broken and
scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred
tree is dead.”
• Read a section of the book- “Bury My Heart at
Wounded Knee”
Code
Talkers