1.2: Vanishing Buffalo – Vanishing Tribes
• Brainstorm Activity• General Information• Buffalo & Railroads• Evolution of Tensions• Sand Creek Massacre• Battle of Little Big Horn• Assimilation• Dawe’s Act• Wovoka
– Ghost Dance
• Battle of Wounded Knee• Reasons Native Americans Lost• Helen Hunt Jackson• Civil Rights for Native Americans
1.2: Brainstorm Activity• Trace the increasing tensions between American settlers & Native Americans
General Information• Many of the Plains tribes were nomadic
– They moved – followed food– Lived in small extended families
• Buffalo was most important animal– Provided clothes, weapons, shelter, toys, etc.
• Land was for tribal use = no land ownership
• Many tribes were relocated to the Great Plains during the 1830s– Moved onto reservations– Land did not support buffalo & soil was poor quality– Those in charge of reservations often took the money
without improving life on the reservations
Railroads & the Buffalo• Railroads expanding
westward
• Killed millions of buffalo to create tracks & for fun
Disappearing Buffalo• 1800: 15,000,000• 1886: < 1,000
• Devastated the Plains Tribes– Their way of life was
disappearing – how will they live?
• Almost all the buffalo were killed, but they are making a slow return.
Mounting TensionsNative Americans
pushed west
Settlers want Native AmericanLand (gold, soil)
Native Americans pushed further
west
Native Americans began attacking
white settlers
US Military getsInvolved!
Fighting btwn. Native Americans& Army escalates
1867: Severaltreaties signed.
Temporary peace
1867 land treatiesviolated
1870s: Miners enter Black Hills
searching for gold
Black Hills landpromised to NativeAmericans in 1867
Sioux Tribeheads west to
Montana searching for new land
Movement scarescrap out of Army
Begins IndianWars
Sand Creek Massacre, 1864• Under command of
Col. Chivington, the US Army attacks Cheyenne & Arapaho living at Sand Creek
• Chivington gave direct orders to kill everyone – no prisoners
• US Army slaughtered hundreds of women, children & elderly
• “The massacre lasted six or eight hours….I tell you Ned it was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized….there was no organization among our troops, they were a perfect mob….You would think it impossible for white men to butcher and mutilate human beings as they did there, but every word I have told you is the truth….It was almost impossible to save any of them. When the women were killed the Bucks did not seem to try and get away, but fought desperately….Charly Autobee saved John Smith….They were going to murder Charlie Bent, but I run him into the Fort….I expect we will have a hell of a time with the Indians this winter.”
– -Captain Silas Soule1st Colorado Cavalry (USV) to Major Edward Wynkoop, former commander, Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory. December 14, 1864
• “I heard Colonel Chivington give no orders in regard to prisoners. I tried to take none myself, but killed all I could…I think and earnestly believe the Indian to be an obstacle to civilization and should be exterminated.”
– -Major Jacob Downing3rd Colorado Cavalry (USV
Battle of Little BighornJune 1867
• United under tribal elders, Crazy Horse & Sitting Bull, Sioux tribe moving west to find new land
• General Custer sent to capture them & bring them back to the reservation
• Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse ambush Custer’s 7th Cavalry & slaughter the military
• “1st” battle of the Indian Wars
• Custer & his men were dead within minutes
– Scalped, etc.
More Resistance
• In 1877, the Nez Perce, under Chief Joseph, fled & fought the US Army to avoid being put onto a reservation– In 75 days, they traveled 1300 miles trying to get to Canada
– Unsuccessful, stopped just short of the Canadian border • Forced onto reservations
• The Apaches under Chief Geronimo were relocated to Florida, then back to Oklahoma
• The Arizona Apache tribe was the last to continue resisting forced resettlement onto reservations
Chief Joseph: I will fight no more, forever.
Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me
before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our
Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool
Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men
who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It
is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are
freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away
to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows
where they are - perhaps freezing to death. I want to have
time to look for my children, and see how many of them I
can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me,
my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where
the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. Chief Joseph - Thunder Traveling to the Loftier Mountain Heights - 1877
• To “Americanize”– Give up beliefs, try to look & act like white
people– Make more like white Americans
• Dawe’s Act 1887: Attempt to assimilate Native Americans– Taught their culture was savage– Reservations were broken up– Forced Native Americans to be farmers
• Bad tools, soil & services• Good land was swindled from Native
Americans in bad land deals– Children forced to attend American schools
• Taught English language, dress, culture, etc.
Assimilation
Wovoka• Piute Chief • Wanted to make things the way
were before white men came• Practiced the Ghost Dance:
Purification dance that would bring back their traditional life– Cleanses the Native American
spirit & prepares him/her for the afterlife
– Cleanses Native Americans of white influences
Battle of Wounded Knee
12/29/1890• Ghost Dance was performed by the Native American to restore buffalo & make whites vanish.
– Alarmed military leaders & settlers: they’d never seen this before
• Sitting Bull was killed & sparked conflict
– A gun suddenly went off…
• 300 unarmed Native Americans were slaughtered
– Mostly women, children & the elderly
• Ended the Indian Wars
Reasons Why Native Americans
Lost the Indian Wars1. Often fought against the US Army as individual
tribes – they did not unite
2. Were no match for Army artillery
Helen Hunt Jackson
• Wrote A Century of Dishonor: about the broken promises to the Native Americans• Land deals, agricultural education, treaties etc.• Brought Native American issue into the homes, just like Uncle Tom’s Cabin brought slavery into the home!
Native American Civil Rights
• 1924: Native Americans declared citizens of the US• 1932: Native Americans can consolidate land• 1964: Finally given the right to vote during the Voting Rights Act