Chapter 26
Indian Massacres and PostReconstruction Movements Out West
Clash of Cultures
American culture:
(1) Stay East
(2) Go West
Relationship between Indians and Federal Government:
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) / Sioux Treaty
- set up the first “reservations” in America to position various Indian
tribes on reserved plots of land
Purpose: Get Indians out of the way of Westward expansion
Indians receive: “Americanization” through education in carpentry,
farming, and engineering
Black Hills War (1876) or The Great Cheyenne War
- gold prospectors (going West) crossed over in reservations and the
Cheyenne tribes attacked them (violation of the treaty of Fort
Laramie)…the U.S army responded and war ensued.
U.S. Army took control of this reservation
Indian Wars / Massacres
Indian Wars / Massacres (1864-1890)
Indian Advantage: arrows were quicker than the white man’s rifle
White Advantage: Invention of the Colt .45 by Samuel Colt (6-shooter) and the
Winchester repeating rifle turned the tide o the white man
Buffalo Soldiers: African American soldiers that were sent by the U.S. Army to “protect” the
white man / railroad constructors against Indian attacks
Sand Creek Massacre
(1864)
Sand Creek Location: Colorado
Just before the Civil War ended in 1865
Col. J.M. Chivington's troops circled then killed 700 Indians who thought they'd been
given immunity.
Cheyenne (and neighboring allied tribes) were attacked by, mostly drunken, U.S> Army
troops
Black Kettle: Cheyenne tribe at Sand Creek raised a white and an American flag from
his tepee to surrender
Cheyenne revenge: Fetterman attack (2 years later)
Purpose: end the construction of the Bozeman Trail (connected Montana to the
Oregon Trail)
Gold on a Federal Reservation
In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota (on the Sioux reservation) when
Col. William Armstrong Custer ( Chief Yellow Hair) led a "geological" expedition into the Black
Hills.
The Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) ("Custer's Last Stand") followed.
Custer's’ problems: Outmatched, outnumbered, and no knowledge of the terrain
*Horse Wall
Main Sioux Leaders:
Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull led thousands of Indians “OFF” of their “GIVEN” reservations
Legacy: INDIAN VICTORY!
(1) This victory only prolonged the inevitable defeat of the Indians
(2) Sparked other tribes to fight off being mandated to go onto federal reservations
Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
Geronimo of the Apache
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Inspired by the events at Little Bighorn…Chief Joseph claimed the federal government could not
tell him where to go.
Solution: Flee to Canada
The U.S. Army caught and defeated the Nez Perce at the Battle of Bear Paw Mountain only 40
miles from the Canadian border.
Finally, giving up, claimed
– “I will fight no more, forever”
Apache (Southwest)
- U.S. Army chased the Apache and Geronimo into Mexico
Mexican soldiers killed Geronimo’s mother, wife and three kids
- Geronimo vowed to fight Mexico and then surrendered to the U.S.
army
- Later did of pneumonia in 1909
5 elements that dissolved the Indian
cultures in the late 1800s
(1) Railroads (Iron fingers of the government)
(2) Diseases
(3) Lack of Buffalo (deliberately killed by the
white man)
(4) War
(5) Loss of their land to white settlement (sense
of imperialism and manifest destiny/ White
man’s medicine)
White settlers kill the Buffalo
American Public reaction
By the 1880's, the people were beginning to recognize the plight of the
American Indian.
A Century of Dishonor
By: Helen Hunt Jackson
- outlined the injustice done to Indians by the U.S. government.
Her novel Ramona had the same effect in fiction form.
GHOST DANCE
Indian religious movement that started in the late 1800s
Point: revitalization of “deceased family members”,
buffalo will return
White settlers will leave them alone….
White reaction: Ghost Dance is outlawed…..
(WOUNDED KNEE)
Wounded Knee (1890)
• Location: South Dakota
• Led by Custer’s Old regiment (7th Calvary)
• Indians were killed for dancing
Legacy: ENDS THE INDIAN WARS / MASSACRES
Dawes Severalty Act (1887)
•
Federal Government’s attempt to erase Indian tribes and “Americanize” them and make them more White
American.
Outcome:
(1) Indians will be an American citizen after 25 years, only if they act like just like whit people
(cultural superiority)
(2) Split up reservations and give them to the “head of the family”(repeal the Treaty of Fort Laramie) and offer
the rest for purchase form the white man.
Remember: European immigrants will get citizenship in 2-3 years
Dawes Act in Action: Carlisle Indian School opened in an attempt to “kill the Indian, save the child!”
1890 = Indians had 50% less land than 1870
Dawes Act (1887) is overturned in 1934
with the Indian Reorganization Act (Indian New Deal) through FDR
Farmer’s Frontier
The Homestead Act (1862)
- offered 160 acres of “free” land.
Purpose: Develop the West! ($1.25 per acre)
Exodusters: African American settlers trying to escape
racial discrimination of the Jim Crow South
and to take advantage of the Homestead Act
Sooners: noting the settlers that went out
West (Oklahoma) “sooner” that they should
have (land was not assigned yet)
The “Fading” Frontier
• 1890 – The federal Census Bureau claimed the “Frontier did not exist”
• American public reaction: Scared the land has been gobbled up
• Federal Reaction: Yellowstone was obtained by the federal government as
the First National Park in 1872. Yosemite and Sequoia parks followed in
1890.
** Frederick Jackson Turner writes the
“Turner Thesis”- claiming the “Western frontier movement” shaped American
culture
- Safety-Valve Theory: anybody can just “up and leave” and start over / go
West! (back to Second Great Awakening)