Wednesday Red Earth
Nothing happened after that
We just livedTwo
Leggings
Following Pequot war 1636-7Native population into first “Indian Reservations”Known as “Praying Towns”First in Nantick 1651
Eventually 14 in total
1851, Indian Appropriations Act authorized the creation of Indian reservations in modern day Oklahoma.
Fully developed reservation system emerged in 1867-1887
System have been described as
“the purgatorial mechanisms by which whites could begin to assimilate Indians”
Many Native Americans forced onto reservations
For some there was a desperate logic
Reservation boundaries secured at least a part of traditional lands
For white population an area where
They could be cared for and civilized
The reservation system part of a process of assimilation
Attempt by US Government and other concerned citizens to turn Native Americans in “Americans”
DetribalizationPractice ChristianitySedentary lives Fixed plots of landSingle size fits all
Fort Marion Prison, Florida Captain Richard Henry Pratt
72 “ringleaders” from southern plainsCivilization by immersion
Took off shacklesCut hair and handed out army uniformsRapid and complete assimilation?
Reservations areas were detribalization to begin
long-term policy was to remove the need for Reservations
Stage on the road to total assimilation
Effectiveness of action depended on Agent
Often not a friend to the Indian but simply a political appointee
Supporting the agentWere a cast of helpers
ClerksDoctorsField matronsFarmersTeachersBlacksmiths
All usually whiteCourts of Indian offensesReservation Police
Staffed by Native Americans
Ration Day, Pine Ridge, 1891
Big Aspect
of
Assimilation
Both on and
off the
reservations
Education
Education
for
Extinction
Paiute1860 reservation in Nevada1879 relocated to OregonSarah WinnemuccaGave over 400 public
speechesIndians will “never be
civilized if you keep sendign us such agents as have been sent to us year after year, who do nothing but fill their pockets, and the pockets of their wives and sisters, who are always put in as teachers, . . .and yet they do not teach”
Reservation life did not mean the end of resistance
Wooden Leg, Northern CheyenneFought at Little Big Horn
Later served as tribal judge on reservation
Government banned PolygnyHe sent away one of his wivesWhen others ignored law“Just listened and did nothing”
Crow Judges evolved into “government sanctioned elders who worked to reconcile their oaths of office with individual behavior and the standards of their community”
Fred Hoxie
1869 Wodziwob, Paiute holy man Nevada- California border
Began preaching that world would soon end and whites would be removed form Native America
Assisted by Tavivo began to pray and sing to bring on the apocalypse
End did not come and ghost dance ended in the region
Ghost Dance
Tavivo’s sonWovokoWould once again
popularize the ceremony
Travelled throughout the west
January 1 1889Seriously illAn eclipse of the sun
marked Wovoka’s death
Travelled to heavenMet the creatorLater told anthropologist James
Mooney“he saw God, with all the people who
had died long ago engaged in their old-time sports and occupations, all happy and forever young”
“must go back to his people and they must be good and love one another, have no quarrelling, and live in peace with the whites; they must work, and not lie or steal; that they must put away all the old practices that savored war”
To Native Americans living impoverished lives on reservations the idea was appealing
Delegations travelled to meet Wovoka from many regions
He urged people to dance every six weeksKnown as ghost dance by whites as
participants appeared ghost like singing and dancing until exhausted
1889 Lakota delegation led by Kicking bear visited Wovoko
Summer 1890 Lakota began to learn dance
Many whites feared that the Ghost Dance was first step in renewed war by the Lakota
Many Lakota wore “Ghost dance shirts”
Said to be impervious to bulletsIndian Agents banned Ghost Dance
in November 1890Ordered the arrest of several
leaders on reservationsIncluding Sitting BullDecember 12 1890, 2 Indian
policemen moved to arrest sitting bull
In confusion of arrest Sitting Bull shot and Killed
Shock and anger spread quickly
Rumors began Army planned to round
up all Ghost Dancers or possibly kill them
Several hundred dancers under the leadership of Big Foot a Miniconjou Soiux fled into the bad lands
Eventually they began to move towards Pine Ridge Reservation to surrender but were intercepted by 7th cavalry
Soldiers moved people to Wounded Knee creeknext day all men ordered out as soldiers began to search fo concealled weapons
Wounded Knee Massacre