Song LyricsIndian Reservation

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6RjP7MlXk&feature=player_embedded

Listen to the music clip as it is played for you. Write down 3 lines that you found most

memorable or meaningful.

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Indian Reservation

Artists: Paul Revere and the Raiders (peak Billboard position # 1 in 1971)Words and Music by John D. Loudermilk

They took the whole Cherokee nationPut us on this reservationTook away our ways of lifeThe tomahawk and the bow and knifeTook away our native tongueAnd taught their English to our youngAnd all the beads we made by handAre nowadays made in Japan

Cherokee people, Cherokee tribeSo proud to live, so proud to die

They took the whole Indian nationLocked us on this reservationThough I wear a shirt and tieI'm still part redman deep inside

Cherokee people, Cherokee tribeSo proud to live, so proud to die

But maybe someday when they learnCherokee nation will return, will return, will return, will return, will return

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Section 4: Indian People in Retreat

DESPITE GOVERNMENT PROMISES TO DESPITE GOVERNMENT PROMISES TO PROTECT THEIR LAND, INDIAN’S FOUND PROTECT THEIR LAND, INDIAN’S FOUND

THEIR WAY OF LIFE THREATENED AS THEIR WAY OF LIFE THREATENED AS WHITE’S MOVED ONTO THE PLAINS.WHITE’S MOVED ONTO THE PLAINS.

1840’s – conflict begins when settlers & miners cross into Indian hunting ground and ask the government for protection. Government responds by building forts.

1851- Government officials meet with Indian Nations near Fort Laramie in Wyoming. Government asks Indians to stay to limited are in return for money, animals, tools and other goods. Indians told this land would be theirs FOREVER.

1858 – GOLD DISCOVERED IN AREA PROMISED TO INDIANS. As miners rush to the area, officials force a new treaty on Indians giving up the land around Pikes Peak. Some Native Americans refuse and attack settlers.

4FORT LARMIE TREATY PIKES PEAK

1864 - Settlers strike back –Cheyenne leaders came to Colonel Chivington’s fort asking for protection. Chivington attacked them even though they had a white surrender and an American flag raised. He ordered his men to destroy the village. 200 men, women and children were killed.

Americans were outraged, still across the Plains, Indians and soldiers went to war.

1867 – A Peace Commission was established to the wars on the Plains for the safety of the settlers. Native Americans were urged to live like white farmers and to send their kids to white schools to learn to be American.

1867 – With no other choice the Plains were forced onto Reservations – Indian Territory (Oklahoma & South Dakota) – soil was poor and they were not farmers. A reservation is a limited area set aside for Native Americans.

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End of Buffalo

The Plains Indians suffered from for lost battles and broken treaties. Even worse, the Buffalo were being destroyed.

1. Destruction of the area the buffalo lived in along with disease and drought hurt herd #’s.

2. Hired Hunters killed thousands of buffalo to provide food for the railroad crews laying tracks across the prairie.

3. Buffalo hunting became a fashionable sport and commercial hunters shot Buffalo to make hide blankets.

4. Indians learned to hunt better – killing more.

The War for the West

1874 – Gold found in the Black Hills (Indian Reservation). Thousands of miners rush to the area. Sitting Bull & Crazy

Horse fight back – Sioux War of 1876

Colonel Custer prepares to attack and is warned of 2,000 warriors waiting for him. Custer and all 600 men die in the

Battle of Little Big Horn.

Victory short lived – the army attacks and Congress cuts of food rations

1860-s – gold found on Nez Perce land – government orders them to move to a reservation in Idaho. Chief Joseph and 500 – 800 others

go to Canada followed by army troops.

1,00 tragic miles later Joseph surrenders with less than 450 remaining Nez Peres

1876 – Geronimo leads Apache in resisting loss of land by waging war off and on for 10 years. He surrendered

in 1886 ending formal warfare between Indians and whites.

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The Indian Way of Life Ends

In their sadness for their lost way of life, Plains Indians turned to a religious ceremony called the Ghost Dance. Believed the Great Spirit would make a new world for them, free of whites. Ghost Dancers joined hands and danced, chanted and prayed in a large circle.

Settlers saw the Ghost Dance and thought Indians were preparing for war. They persuaded the government to outlaw the dance. Sitting Bull, a Lakota Chief was going to be arrested for spreading the dance, in the struggle – he was shot and killed by accident.

Upset by Sitting Bull’s death, Indians left the reservation. Army troops followed them to Wounded Knee Creek (South Dakota). As Indians began to surrender and give up their guns – a shot was fired (not sure which side). The Army returned fire and 300 Indians were dead (including women and children).

Many Indians & whites spoke out against the tragedies. Susette La Flesche - the daughter of an Omaha Chief wrote and lectured about the destruction. Helen Hunt Jackson published “A Century of Dishonor” about the broken treaties.

Reservations changed Indian life – took away power of Chiefs!

Ghost dance - utube

In Class Assignment

• As a class generate a list of broken Treaties, people, ceremonies or battles fought.

• ON YOUR OWN – Add one additional 4 line verse to the song from the beginning of class. Your lines must rhyme like the song lyrics and have similar syllable counts so that it flows nicely.

HOMEWORK

• Look at the 3 lines from the song that you picked to be the most memorable or meaningful. Now read pages 557-561, choose 3 EXACT sentences from the book that you can “match up” with those lyrics.