Cultures Clash on the Prairie

Western business boomed out west while the culture of the Plains natives

declined.

An Influence for Adolf Hitler?• Hitler's concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of

genocide owed much, so he claimed, to his studies of English and United States history. He often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination—by starvation and uneven combat—of the red savages who could not be tamed by captivity.

• He was very interested in the way the Indian population had rapidly declined due to epidemics and starvation when the United States government forced them to live on the reservations. He thought the American government's forced migrations of the Indians over great distances to barren reservation land was a deliberate policy of extermination. Just how much Hitler took from the American example of the destruction of the Indian nations is hard to say; however, frightening parallels can be drawn

The West/Plains

• Diverse groups of native tribes• Mix of nomadic/stationary tribes• Native Groups– Cheyenne – Sioux– Nez Perce– Comanche– Apache– Navajo– Shoshone

The Horse and the Buffalo

• Horses introduced by the Spanish

• Plains natives became mostly nomadic hunters

• Buffalo provided– Food– Clothing– Shelter– tools

Native vs. Settler Views Toward Land

Native• Land was not owned by

members of tribe• Held in communal use for

the greater good

Settler• Individual ownership of land

encouraged• Ownership of land provided

great opportunities for individuals– Businesses– Farming

Settlers vs. Natives

Why go West?

• Lure of silver and gold• Availability of cheap

land• Business opportunities

in the mining industry• Expansion of the

Railroads

Clash With Natives

• U.S. government systematically confines native tribes to reservations

• Natives continued to use traditional hunting grounds

• Clash was inevitable

Massacres/Skirmishes

• Sand Creek (1864): 150 Cheyenne women and children killed by U.S. troops

• Bozeman Trail: frequent skirmishes between Sioux and white settlers

• Treaty of Laramie (1868)– Attempted to end disputes – Map on next slide

War!

• George Custer and about 250 federal troops killed at Battle of Little Bighorn

• Defeated by a combination of Sioux and Cheyenne

• Eventually native resistance surrendered

Assimilation

• Dawes Act of 1887• Reservations divided

into individual plots of land

• Natives also encouraged to give up their culture

• Assimilate into American culture

The “Battle” of Wounded Knee (1890)

• The Ghost Dance Movement• 350 Sioux rounded up at Wounded Knee Creek• About 300 unarmed Sioux were killed• Marked the end of the wars on the Plains