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