Native American Stations
Station: Major Battles between Native Americans and Whites
Document A: Massacre at Wounded Knee
The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee
Creek (Lakota: Čhaŋkpé Ópi Wakpála) on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S.
state of South Dakota.
The previous day, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major
Samuel M. Whitside intercepted Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa
Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them 5 miles (8.0 km) westward to Wounded Knee
Creek, where they made camp. The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Colonel
James W. Forsyth, arrived and surrounded the encampment. The regiment was supported by a
battery of four Hotchkiss mountain guns.
On the morning of December 29, the troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota.
One version of events claims that during the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman
named Black Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it. A scuffle
over the rifle escalated, and a shot was fired which resulted in the 7th Cavalry opening fire
indiscriminately from all sides, killing men, women, and children, as well as some of their fellow
soldiers. The Lakota warriors who still had weapons began shooting back at the attacking
soldiers, who quickly suppressed the Lakota fire. The surviving Lakota fled, but cavalrymen
pursued and killed many who were unarmed.
By the time it was over, more than 200 men, women, and children of the Lakota had
been killed and 51 were wounded (4 men and 47 women and children, some of whom died
later); some estimates placed the number of dead at 300. Twenty-five soldiers also died, and 39
were wounded (6 of the wounded later died). At least twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal
of Honor. In 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two resolutions
condemning the awards and called on the U.S. government to rescind them. The site of the
battlefield has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
Document B: Sand Creek Massacre
The Sand Creek massacre (also known as the Chivington massacre, the Battle of Sand
Creek or the massacre of Cheyenne Indians) was an atrocity in the American Indian Wars that
occurred on November 29, 1864, when a 700-man force of Colorado Territory militia attacked
and destroyed a peaceful village of Cheyenne and Arapaho in southeastern Colorado Territory,
killing and mutilating an estimated 70–163 Native Americans, about two-thirds of whom were
women and children. The location has been designated the Sand Creek Massacre National
Historic Site and is administered by the National Park Service.
Black Kettle, leading chief of around 800 mostly Southern Cheyenne, had led his band,
joined by some Arapahos under Chief Niwot, to Fort Lyon in compliance with provisions of a
peace parley held in Denver in September 1864.[18] After a while, the Native Americans were
requested to relocate to Big Sandy Creek, less than 40 miles northwest of Fort Lyon, with the
guarantee of "perfect safety" remaining in effect. The Dog Soldiers, who had been responsible
for many of the attacks and raids on whites, were not part of this encampment.
On the 29th of November, assured by promises of protection by the commander of Fort
Lyon, most of the warriors left to hunt buffalo, leaving only about 75 men, plus all the women
and children in the village. The men who remained stayed were mostly too old or too young to
hunt. Black Kettle flew an American flag, with a white flag tied beneath it, over his lodge, as the
Fort Lyon commander had advised him. This was to show he was friendly and forestall any
attack by the Colorado soldiers.
Meanwhile, Chivington and 700 men of the 1st Colorado Cavalry, 3rd Colorado Cavalry,
and a company of the 1st Regiment New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry, rode to Fort Lyon. They
then set out for Black Kettle's encampment. James Beckwourth, noted frontiersman, acted as
guide for Chivington. On the evening of November 28, the soldiers and militia drank whiskey
and celebrated their anticipated easy victory. The following morning, Chivington gave the order
to attack. Two officers, Captain Silas Soule and Lieutenant Joseph Cramer, commanding
Company D and Company K of the First Colorado Cavalry, refused to obey and told their men to
hold fire.
However, the rest of Chivington's men immediately attacked the village. Ignoring the
American flag and a white flag that was run up shortly after the attack began, they murdered as
many of the Indians as they could.
Document C: Primary Accounts of the Sand Creek Massacre
I saw the bodies of those lying there cut all to pieces, worse mutilated than any I ever saw
before; the women cut all to pieces ... With knives; scalped; their brains knocked out; children
two or three months old; all ages lying there, from sucking infants up to warriors ... By whom
were they mutilated? By the United States troops ...
— - John S. Smith, Congressional Testimony of Mr. John S. Smith, 1865
I saw one squaw lying on the bank, whose leg had been broken. A soldier came up to her with a
drawn sabre. She raised her arm to protect herself; he struck, breaking her arm. She rolled over,
and raised her other arm; he struck, breaking that, and then left her without killing her. I saw
one squaw cut open, with an unborn child lying by her side.
— Robert Bent, New York Tribune, 1879
There was one little child, probably three years old, just big enough to walk through the sand.
The Indians had gone ahead, and this little child was behind, following after them. The little
fellow was perfectly naked, travelling in the sand. I saw one man get off his horse at a distance
of about seventy-five yards and draw up his rifle and fire. He missed the child. Another man
came up and said, 'let me try the son of a b-. I can hit him.' He got down off his horse, kneeled
down, and fired at the little child, but he missed him. A third man came up, and made a similar
remark, and fired, and the little fellow dropped.
— Major Anthony, New York Tribune, 1879
Fingers and ears were cut off the bodies for the jewelry they carried. The body of White
Antelope, lying solitarily in the creek bed, was a prime target. Besides scalping him the soldiers
cut off his nose, ears, and testicles-the last for a tobacco pouch ...
— - Stan Hoig
Jis to think of that dog Chivington and his dirty hounds, up thar at Sand Creek. His men shot
down squaws, and blew the brains out of little innocent children. You call sich soldiers
Christians, do ye? And Indians savages? What der yer 'spose our Heavenly Father, who made
both them and us, thinks of these things? I tell you what, I don't like a hostile red skin any more
than you do. And when they are hostile, I've fought 'em, hard as any man. But I never yet drew a
bead on a squaw or papoose, and I despise the man who would.
— - Kit Carson
Document D: The Great Sioux War of 1876
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles
and negotiations which occurred between 1876 and 1877 involving the Lakota Sioux and
Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of the war was the desire of the U.S.
government to obtain ownership of the Black Hills. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills,
settlers began to encroach onto Native American lands, and the Sioux and Cheyenne refused to
cede ownership to the U.S. Traditionally, the United States military and historians place the
Lakota at the center of the story, especially given their numbers, but some Native Americans
believe the Cheyenne were the primary target of the U.S. campaign and that it should have
been called "The Great Cheyenne War".
Among the many battles and skirmishes of the war was the Battle of the Little Bighorn,
often known as Custer's Last Stand, the most storied of the many encounters between the U.S.
army and mounted Plains Indians. That Indian victory notwithstanding, the U.S. with its
superior resources was soon able to force the Indians to surrender, primarily by attacking and
destroying their encampments and property. The Great Sioux War took place under the
presidencies of Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes. The Agreement of 1877 (19 Stat. 254,
enacted February 28, 1877) officially annexed Sioux land and permanently established Indian
reservations.
Document E: Battle of Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to Lakota as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and
commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined
forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes, against the 7th Cavalry Regiment
of the United States Army. The battle, which occurred June 25–26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn
River in eastern Montana Territory, was the most prominent action of the Great Sioux War of
1876.
The fight was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and
Arapaho, led by several major war leaders, including Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, inspired by the
visions of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake). The U.S. 7th Cavalry, including the Custer Battalion, a
force of 700 men led by George Armstrong Custer, suffered a severe defeat. Five of the 7th
Cavalry's twelve companies were annihilated; Custer was killed, as were two of his brothers, a
nephew, and a brother-in-law. The total U.S. casualty count included 268 dead and 55 severely
wounded (6 died from their injuries later), including 4 Crow Indian scouts and 2 Pawnee Indian
scouts.
Public response to the Great Sioux War varied at the time. The battle, and Custer's
actions in particular, have been studied extensively by historians.
Document F: Texas-Indian Wars
The Texas–Indian wars were a series of 19th-century conflicts between settlers in Texas
and the Southern Plains Indians. These conflicts began when the first wave of EuropeanAmerican settlers moved into Spanish Texas. They continued through Texas's time as part of
Mexico, when more Europeans and Anglo-Americans arrived, to the subsequent declaration of
independence by the Republic of Texas. The conflicts did not end until thirty years after Texas
joined the United States.
Although several Indian tribes occupied territory in the area, the preeminent nation was
the Comanche, known as the "Lords of the Plains." Their territory, the Comancheria, was the
most powerful entity and persistently hostile to the Spanish, the Mexicans, and finally, the
Texans.
The half-century struggle between the Plains tribes and the Texans became particularly
intense after the Spanish, and then Mexicans, left power in Texas. The Republic of Texas, which
had increasing settlement by European Americans, and the United States opposed the tribes.
Their war with the Plains Indians was characterized by deep animosity, slaughter on both sides,
and, in the end, near-total conquest of the Indians.
Although the outcome was lop-sided, the violence of the wars was not. The Comanche
were known as fierce warriors, with a reputation for looting, burning, murdering, and
kidnapping as far south as Mexico City. They killed and captured so many Texans that
Comanche became a by-word for terrorism in this region. When Sul Ross recovered Cynthia
Ann Parker at Pease River, he observed that this event would be felt in every family in Texas, as
everyone had lost someone in the Indian Wars. During the American Civil War, when the US
Army was unavailable to protect the frontier, the Comanche and Kiowa pushed white
settlements back more than 100 miles along the Texas frontier.
Station: American Perspective
Document A:
“If you strike off into the broad, free West, and make yourself a farm from Uncle Sam’s generous
domain, you will crowd nobody, starve nobody, and neither you nor your children need
evermore beg…”
-New York Tribune, February 5, 1867
Document B:
“Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers; but what do they more than our
ancestors did or than our children are now doing?....
Can it be cruel in this Government when, by events which it cannot control, the Indian is made
discontented in his ancient home to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive
territory, to pay the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his new abode? How
many thousands of our own people would gladly embrace the opportunity of removing to the
West on such conditions! If the offers made to the Indians were extended to them, they would
be hailed with gratitude and joy….
Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government toward the red man is not only liberal,
but generous. He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their
population. To save him from this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the General
Government kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the whole expense of his
removal and settlement.”
-Andrew Jackson, State of the Union speech. December 30, 1830.
Document C:
“This is our country, not the Apaches’. American blood and treasure secured it form
Mexico…The American people cannot now do otherwise than help us to fight the great battle of
civilization; to overthrow the barbarians and teach them that white supremacy, even in Arizona,
is decreed of God.”
-Editorial in the Weekly Arizona Miner, July 1871
“So long as an Indian has life and power he is dangerous, and this is particularly true of
the fiendish Apache. There can be no hope of peace or prosperity in Arizona until he is
exterminated or forced to accept a reservation.”
-Editorial in the Weekly Arizona Miner, 1864
“The mistaken philathropists of the East have not the most remote conception of the
Apache character… The effect of their policy is terrible on this far West border; and these men
who are pleading for soft measures with the Apaches are guilty of the blood of the murdered
pioneers of Arizona and New Mexico.”
-Editorial in the Weekly Arizonian, 1870
Document D:
Helen Hunt Jackson grew up in Massachusetts. In the late 1870s, she heard some Native
Americans speak about their people’s plight. Deeply moved, she was determined to publicize
their cause. In a Century of Dishonor, she sharply criticized the U.S. government’s history of
shattered treaties. She elaborated on the situation in a report on Indian policy written for the
government and in the highly popular novel Ramona. Jackson’s work helped build sympathy for
the plight of Native Americans.
“There is not among these three hundred bands of Indians one which has not suffered
cruelly at the hands either of the Government or of white settlers. The poorer, the more
insignificant, the more helpless the band, the more certain the cruelty and outrage to which
they have been subjected… It makes little difference where one opens the record of the history
of the Indians; every page and every year has its dark stain.”
-Helen Hunt Jackson, 1881
Document E:
“It would be foolish to expect that the wild Indians will become industrious and frugal
except through a severe course of industrial instruction and exercise under restraint. The
reservation system affords the place for the stealing with tribes and bands, it is essential that
the right of the government to keep Indians upon the reservations assigned to them and to rest
and return them whenever they wonder should be placed beyond dispute. Without this
whenever these people become restive under compulsion to labor they will break away in their
old rubbing spirit and stay off in small bands to neighboring communities upon which they will
pray in a petty fashion by begging and stealing.”
-Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1872
Document F:
“It has become a matter of serious import whether the treaty system and use ought
longer to be continued. In my judgment it should not. A treaty involves the idea of a compact
between two or more sovereign powers, each possessing sufficient authority and forced to
compel a compliance with the obligations incurred. The Indian tribes of the United States are
not sovereign nations, capable of making treaties, as none of them have an organized
government of such inherent strength as would secure a faithful obedience of its people in the
observance of compacts of this character. They are held to be the wards of the government but,
because treaties have been made with them, they have become falsely impressed with the
notion of national independence… Great injury has been done by the government in deluding
this people into the belief of their being independent sovereignties, while they were at the same
time recognized only as its dependents and wards.”
-Commissioner of India Affairs Ely S. Parker, December 23, 1869.
Station: Native American Perspective
Document A:
“All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is
the mother of all people and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well
expect all rivers to run back where does that any man who was born a free man should be
contented penned up and did not liberty to go where he pleases. If you tie a horse to a stake, do
you expect he will grow fat? If you pin and Indian up on a small spot of Earth and compel him to
stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the
great white Chiefs where they get their authority to say to be Indian that he shall stay in one
place, while he sees Whiteman going where they please. They cannot tell me.”
-Chief Joseph, Nez Perce
Document B:
“In order to become sole masters of our land they relegated us to small reservations as
big as my hand and make us long promises, as long as my arm; but the next year the promises
were shorter and got shorter every year until now they are the length of my finger, and they
keep only half of that.”
-Chief Piapot, 1895
Native American
Perspectives
American Settlers
and Government
Perspective
Major Conflicts
Between Native
Americans and the
United States