Chapter 18: The Westward Movement
Study Guide
Know terms:
Treaty of Fort Laramie
Treaty of New Echota
Reservations
Crazy Horse
Buffalo soldiers
Sitting Bull
Battle of Little Big Horn
Massacre at Wounded Knee
Geronimo
Sara Winnemucca
Chief Joseph
Dawes General Allotment Act
Ghost Dance
Trail of Tears
The Long Walk
Geronimo
What was the importance of buffalo to many of the Plains Indians?
Early treaties
How were southern indigenous tribes viewed by the whites in the early
1800’s
What were some of the Plains Indian tribes?
What were some reasons that the Indians were forced off their lands?
(In other words, why did people move or expand into Indian territories?)
Andrew Jackson – strong proponent of Indian removal
Indian Removal Act of 1830 - authorized the President to remove the
remaining Eastern Indians to lands west of the Mississippi. Between 1938 and
1939, under President Andrew Jackson, 15,000 Cherokee Indians were
forcibly taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts, and made to
march-some in chains-a thousand miles to present-day Oklahoma. Over 4,000
Cherokee died from hunger, disease, and exhaustion on what they called
Nunna daul Tsuny or the Trail of Tears. By the late 1840s almost all Native
Americans had been moved to lands west of the Mississippi.
Right of occupancy v. right of discovery –
Right of occupancy - Indians could occupy land but could not own
it
Right of discovery – refers to the logic of fifteenth-century
Christiandom that endowed European conquerors with self-assumed
divine title over all "discovered" land and peoples
So, this means that only the United States (the discovering
nation) could take possession of the land from the natives by
conquest or purchase. Natives could not sell the land to private
citizens but only to the United States (the discovering
government)
Indian territory – west of Mississippi to Rocky Mountains
Manifest Destiny
Sand Creek Massacre – About 800 Cheyenne lived in the village of Sand
Creek and were assured that they would be safe and undisturbed by the
settlers as promised in an 1851 treaty. On 11/29/1864, they were
surrounded by soldiers led by Colonel John Chivington. He said, “kill and
scalp all, big and little” even though the white flag and the United
States flags were flying. They killed, scalped and mutilated about 200,
98 of which were women and children.
Five Civilized Tribes – Cherokee, Chicotaw, Choctaw, Creek and
Seminoles. considered civilized because they adopted many of the
colonists' customs and had generally good relations with their neighbors.
Colonel Chivington – ….“kill and scalp all, big and little”
Treaty of Medicine Lodge
Bozeman Trail
Andrew Myrick – “let them eat grass or their own dung.”
Dakota War of 1862 and subsequent “trial”
Nez Perce Indians -
Possible short answer or essay questions
Causes and effects of Westward expansion
Events that led to the Battle of Little Big Horn
Relationship between Dakota Indians and the land
Efforts made by the Cherokee people to live peaceably with white man
What were problems faced by Indians on reservations?