Native American Conflicts and Policies
American Indian Conflict and United
States Indian Policy
INDIAN REMOVAL ACT - 1830
• Congress, with President Andrew Jackson’s support, passed the
Indian Removal Act in 1830
• Under this law, the federal government funded treaties that
forced tribes west
• The Cherokee Tribe in Georgia refused and were supported by the
Supreme Court.
• Jackson refused to abide by the Court decision.
• Jackson said, “John Marshall (Supreme Court Chief Justice) has
made his decision, now let him enforce it.”
• Trail of Tears followed the Court ruling as U.S. troops rounded up
the Cherokee and drove them west, mostly on foot. . .thousands
died.
INDIAN REMOVAL - 1830
Plains Way of Life
• American Indians of the Great Plains followed
a way of life centered on the horse and
buffalo. Buffalo provided food, clothing,
shelter, and other essentials.
• These American Indians lived in family groups
or large clans. The leaders of a tribe ruled by
counsel rather than force.
From Peace to Conflict
• In 1834, the federal government had passed and act
that set aside the entire Great Plains as one enormous
reservation for the Plains Indians.
• The time between then and the Civil War was relatively
peaceful for the Plains American Indians.
• After the Civil War, the Plains attracted tens of
thousands of white settlers who wanted to own land.
• Many went to Colorado to mine gold.
• The Homestead Act offered cheap land to farmers,
attracting more than 400,000 from 1862 to 1900.
• As more white settlers wished to move there, the
government made new treaties restricting the
land that American Indians could use.
• Conflict erupted. In 1864, a militia attacked a
camp of Cheyenne, killing 200, mostly women
and children. This event is known as the Sand
Creek Massacre.
• Meanwhile the Sioux chief Red Cloud protested
white settlers moving to the Black Hills, an area
sacred to his people.
• Some Sioux signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie in
1868, but others refused. This treaty created a
reservation along the Missouri River.
The Black Hills &
The Battle of Little Bighorn
• In 1874, Colonel George Armstrong Custer
reported that the Black Hills held gold.
• A new gold rush began, and the government
offered to buy the land. The Sioux refused,
and the army moved in.
• Custer and his soldiers were all killed in the
Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Within
months, though, the army defeated the Sioux.
The Dawes General Allotment Act
Assimilation is the process by which individuals from
one cultural group merge, or "blend," into a second
group.
• The Dawes Act of 1887 tried to force the
assimilation of American Indians into white culture.
• Reservations were broken up and some of the land
was given to each adult family head for farming.
• The policy failed because the American Indians were
cheated of the best land.
• However, possibly more devastating to the Plains
tribes was the killing of millions of buffalo on which
they had depended.
The End
• In the 1880s, many Sioux turned to a ritual
called the Ghost Dance, which promised to
bring the buffalo back and restore Sioux lands.
• In 1890, a nervous army killed about 300
unarmed Sioux in the Battle of Wounded Knee
or Wounded Knee Massacre bringing the Indian
Wars to an end.