Warm-Up Questions
1.) Where did the Central and Union Pacific Railroad meet?
a.) Las Vegas
b.) Promontory Point, Utah
c.) Austin ,Texas
d.) Oklahoma City
2.) What was the name of Frederick Jackson Turner’s essay on the disappearance of the open frontier?
a.) The Frontier Thesis
b.) The Frontier is Gone
c.) The Frontier is Here to Stay
d.) Gone with the Frontier
3.) Which of the following was a hardship faced by settlers on the Great Plains?
a.) prairie fires
b.) flooding
c.) too many trees
4.) What was the Comstock Lode?
a.) Rich deposit of gold
c.) Rich deposit of copper
d.) loose soil
b.) Rich deposit of silver
d.) Rich deposit of diamonds
5.) How did homesteaders gain title to land under the Homestead act?
a.) Fencing it within 5 years
b.) Planting it within 5 years
c.) Living there for 5 years
d.) By building a house on it
6.) Why did ranchers see barbed wire as a threat at first?
a.) It harmed their cattle
b.) It kept their cattle from roaming freely
c.) It required much effort to maintain
d.) It kept their heads away from food
7.) What was the basis of the ideas for the stories in “dime novels”?
a.) Cowboys exaggerated tales of daring
b.) Miners’ exaggerated tales of striking it rich
c.) Immigrants tales of battles with Indians
d.) Explorers exaggerated tales of adventure
Native Americans and the West
4.2: Evaluate the impact that settlement in the West had upon different
groups of people and the environment
Plains Native Americans
• Great Plains/Great American Desert - grassland extending through the
western portion of the United States
• Nomadic lifestyle
• Depended on Buffalo – Used all parts for basic needs (52 different uses)
– Tepees, clothing, shoes, blankets, food, etc.
• Horses - travel further, hunt more efficiently
• Communal living
• Major Native American groups:
– Sioux, Lakota, Cheyenne, Apache, Nez Pierce, Blackfeet
American Interests
• Lands given by treaty to Native American groups
• California Gold Rush, 1848-1849
• Homestead Act, 1862
• Transcontinental railroad building
– Massacre of the buffalo herds
• U.S. Army encouraged white hunters to kill buffalo to deplete
Native American resources and force Native Americans on to
reservations
• Central and Union Pacific Railroads
– Irish and Chinese Immigrants
– Promontory Point, Utah, 1869
Indian Reservations
• From 1860 to 1890, most Native Americans living in
western states were forced to live on reservations.
• Beginning in the 1830’s, the United States fought a series
of Indian Wars designed to aid the United States’ concept
of Manifest Destiny. Many native peoples, realizing their
inability to fight the advancing American armies, signed
treaties that allowed the sovereignty (self-rule) on parcels
of land (reservations)
Native American Restrictions
• Treaties were broken
– 1834 - Designated the Great Plains as one enormous reservation
– 1850 - Changed and gave tribes defined boundaries
– Allotments - Government payment and supplies not delivered
• Uprisings
– Dakota Uprising, 1862 - Surprise attack because of unkempt government
promises, 307 sentenced, 38 killed, Abraham Lincoln spares others
• Massacre at Sand Creek, 1864
– The Cheyenne come to Camp Lyon to negotiate
– John Chivington leads Army unit in massacre of Cheyenne, revenge for death of
200 settlers (200 warriors, 500 women and children died)
• Fetterman’s Massacre
– 81 men under Captain William J. Fetterman’s small army band crushed by
Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Red Cloud’s warriors
• Treaty of Fort Laramie – Forced Sioux to live east of Missouri River, temporarily stopped
fighting , unsigned by Sitting Bull (leader of Hunkpapa Sioux)
Native American Wars: Custer’s Last Stand
• Gold found in the Black Hills of the Dakota
– Sioux tried to defend area promised to them
– Army sends George Armstrong Custer
• Little Bighorn, 1876
– Sitting Bulls’ vision - Sitting Bull had a vision that they would defeat the soldiers
– Prepared for battle – Defeated General Custer and the 7th U.S. Cavalry
• Nez Perce Native Americans, 1877
– Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull lead warriors as Custer and all his men
were killed
– Chased by the Army for over 1000 miles (Canada) until captured
– “I will fight no more forever”- Chief Joseph surrenders (famous words)
– Appears in William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show
Assimilation
• Native American supporters
– “Century of Dishonor” - book by Helen Hunt Jackson told of the long
record of broken treaties and injustices against Native Americans
– Some people supported assimilation of Indians
• Goal of assimilation of Native Americans was to absorb them into traditional
American life
• Plan was for Native Americans to give up their way of life and become part of
white culture
• Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 – Americanize Native Americans
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Broke up reservations, weakened Native American Tribes
Allotted land to individual Indians
Attempted to help them by selling land to build a trust of money for them
160 acres to each family/ 80 acres to individuals
Promoted assimilation
2/3 of land was eventually taken, promised money not received
End of the Native American Lifestyle
• Assimilation
• Destruction of the buffalo
– Soldiers told to shoot buffalo to force Native Americans on reservations
– Shot for sport and to feed railroad workers
• Ghost Dance Movement
– Prophet told Sioux to perform a ritual that would restore their way of
life
– Spread quickly , military leaders alarmed
– Dance was a form of protest by the Native Americans
– Sitting Bull was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock
Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him at a time when
authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement
Battle of Wounded Knee
• Wounded Knee, 1890
– The chiefs’ followers continued to perform the Ghost Dance ritual
– 7th Calvary rounded up 350 Sioux who were starving and took them
to Wounded Knee Creek
– Demanded weapons
– Shot was fired (Which side shot first is unknown)
– 7th Calvary responded with cannons and killed 300 unarmed Native
Americans (including children)
– Left corpses on the ground to freeze
• Native American era comes to an end
Assignment
• “Native Americans in the West” Worksheet
• Vocabulary Words
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Dawes Act
Sand Creek Massacre
Battle of Wounded Knee
Helen H. Jackson
Battle of Little Bighorn
Ghost Dance Ritual