Native Americans Fight to Survive
What did the United States government do to the American Indian?
Why has this terrible time in United States History been neglected?
Throughout American history, especially in popular media and
culture, Indians have been seen as “savages” and the bad guys.
In countless Cowboy western movies, Indians have been seen
brutally murdering and butchering people when the US Cavalry or
fearless cowboys gallop in and save the day.
Why is this and is this a true depiction of Native Americans and
Native American culture?
Why or why not?
What thoughts came into your mind when you watched that segment?
If you could ask a question to an individual on the video, what would it
be?
Do you have anything in common with any of the people shown?
Native American Life on the Plains
• For generations, the Native Americans of North America had lived
on their ancestral hunting grounds, living a life of freedom that
revolved ultimately around the Earth and nature.
• By the mid 1860’s, many of the Indian Tribes east of the Mississippi
River were gone forever, having been decimated by disease and
war or by assimilating into white culture.
• Those tribes west of the Mississippi River were in danger of
suffering the same fate as their eastern brethren.
• The tribes of the Great Plains fought a losing battle to save not only
their lands, but their way of life.
• Several tribes had already been forced to live on reservations, or
lands set aside by the United States government for certain Native
American tribes.
Sioux reservation in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
“Sometimes at evening, I sit, looking out on the river…In the shadows I
seem…to see our Indian village, with smoke curling upward from the earth
lodges; and in the river’s roar, I hear the yells of the warriors, the laughter of
the children as of old. It is but an old dream…Our Indian way of life, I know,
is gone forever.”
Life of the Plains Indian
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Before the arrival of Europeans
in the 1500’s, most Plains tribes
lived in small villages along
rivers, streams, or other bodies
of water.
In the mid-1500’s, the arrival of
the Horse, brought into the
continent by the Spanish
completely revolutionized their
way of life. The Plains Indian
quickly became an expert
horseman.
Their main source of food
became the buffalo.
The Plains Indians
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The buffalo was central to the
life of Plains tribes.
Meat became the primary food,
while its skins served as
shelter, clothing, shoes, and
blankets.
Bones and horns were used as
tools and weapons.
Because the buffalo herds
roamed the western plains,
many of the western tribes
became nomads.
After the War Between the States, white settlers by the thousands came
pouring into Indian lands. The promises and treaties that had been in years
past were quickly forgotten and broken.
Selected views of the Plains Indian
A Clash of Cultures
Rather than submit to the restriction of the Reservations or let the white
settlers encroach further on their lands, many of the Plains tribes preferred
conflicts with the settlers and the United States military. The warfare was
vicious and unforgiving and the Indians reacted by raiding white
settlements and forts.
•For a brief time in the late 1860’s
and early 1870’s, a tense peace
settled over the region as a treaty
between the Sioux, Cheyenne and
Arapaho was signed with the
United States government at Ft.
Laramie.
•In 1874, gold was discovered in
the Black Hills of South Dakota.
•Paying no attention to the Ft.
Laramie treaty, gold prospectors
by the thousands rushed into
Sioux land, thus sparking more
armed conflict between the
Indians and whites.
•Hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne
warriors fled the reservation and joined
two Sioux chiefs, Sitting Bull and Crazy
Horse, in an effort to push out the
invaders.
The Battle of Little Bighorn,
June 25th 1876
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Colonel George A. Custer,
commander of the U.S. Army’s
famed, 7th Cavalry Regiment,
was tasked with riding into the
Indian lands and rounding up
all of the warriors that had fled
from the reservation with Sitting
Bull and Crazy Horse.
On June 25th, 1876, Custer and
his entire command of 211 men
were wiped out in less than two
hours of fighting.
News of Custer’s defeat literally
shocked the nation.
In the end, however, the Indian
victory here had negative longterm effects as the United
States military stepped up
military operations against the
Indians.
“Suddenly, we heard the far-off sound of the bugle and underneath
the cloud of dust, there was steel flashing in the sun and a long thin
line of blue separated from the haze.”
“The soldier’s are running. There was a line of soldiers galloping out of
the trees farther up, running back to where they had come.”
I joined the warriors crowding there on the banks, shooting down at them
all mixed up with their horses. It was terrible. Many died there that day.”
“When I reached that place, the fighting was almost over. My
memory now is clouded with the dust and noise and the smell
of the fighting. It was like a bad dream with horses and men
all mixed up in fear and hate and I do not know what I saw then
and what I saw in dreams later.”
Resistance in the Northwest and Southwest
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The plains tribes were not the
only ones to resist the United
States government.
The Nez Perce, Navajos and
Apaches did so as well, which
also resulted in the loss of more
Indian lives and land.
As the 1800’s progressed, the
Native Americans slowly lost
their way of culture, identity and
lands.
As the buffalo herds dwindled,
so did the American Indian.
By the 1890’s most Indians
were living on filthy government
reservations.
Massacre at Wounded Knee
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On December 28th, 1890, several
Sioux tribes on the Pine Ridge
reservation in South Dakota
hosted what was called a,
“Ghost Dance.”
It was hope by the Indians that
this dance would take them
back to the time of their lives
before the white men came.
Instead of a peaceful gathering,
the US military saw this
function as a hostile war dance
and moved in to prevent any
hostilities.
Someone fired a shot and the
soldiers fired into the Indians,
killing over 300 men, women,
and children.
The Wounded Knee massacre
forever ended Indian resistance.
The Dawes Act
Passed in 1887, the Dawes Act was intended to encourage Indians to give up their
traditional ways of life and become farmers. Many Indian children were taken
from their homes and sent to schools in the east to learn the white man’s ways.
The Dawes Act did little to help any Native American tribes.
By the year 1900, their land and way of life gone, traditional Native
American ways were mostly non-existent. For well into the 20th Century,
Native American reservations were neglected and the majority of Indians
held in contempt.
1.
2.
In 3-5 well-written sentences, explain how the people of the plains
had lived and survived for generations.
For most of the Indians in the region, their entire life cycle revolved
around what?
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
_______________ were lands set aside by the United States
government for Native Americans.
_________________ and ___________________ were two Native
Americans mentioned in this lesson.
The ___________ of the _____________ ___________ is the place
where General Custer and the 7th Cavalry were wiped out in 1876.
This location is where further resistance for Native Americans in the
west came to a terrible end _______________________.
The ________________________ encouraged Native Americans to
completely forget their traditional ways and lifestyle.
Bibliography
• www.wikipedia.com
• http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?curt:18:./temp/~ammemvpxs::
• www.cr.nps.gov/seac/ancientmuses/CD/04-pate/
• www.unitedstreaming.com