Chapter 7The Indian Wars

Indian Conflicts

• Between 1782-1890, known as the Indian Wars Period

• Geronimo, 1858, led a band of warriors on raids against the Mexicans

On the Plains

• Sioux Indians, led by Sitting Bull, given reservation till the end of time in southwest South Dakota and recognized land near Black Hills as sacred hunting grounds

• Gold found in Black Hills, brought settlers

• June 17, 1876, Sioux warriors surprised military and defeated them – Battle of the Rosebud

Little Bighorn

• Aka Custer’s Last Stand

• June 25, 1876, Colonel George Custer fought a group of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, none of Custer’s 200 men survived

Nez Perce War

• Nez Perce warriors, led by Chief Joseph attacked and killed white ranchers

• September 30, 1877, Chief Joseph surrendered and he and his people were sent to Fort Leavenworth and not allowed to go back to their land

• “I will fight no more forever.”

Chapter 8A Last Stand

A New Hope?

• Indians lost homelands their families had lived on and where they were buried

• Reservations were barren and inhospitable

• Treaties promised subsistence rations, but Indians were faced with famine and death

• Paiute leader in Great Basin, Wovoka, claimed to have vision of a dance that would bring Indians together – Ghost Dance

• Must live quietly and honestly without violence, and the Indians would be able to return to old ways

New Religion

• Military was nervous about the new Ghost Dance religion

• November 1890, the Ghost Dance was banned in Dakota territory

• Sitting Bull wrongly accused of being the leader of this “rebellion” and was accidentally killed while being arrested

Wounded Knee

• Chief Big Foot was told to lead his people to Wounded Knee Creek where his people would be disarmed and taken to a reservation

• December 29, 1890, Big Foot and his people were attacked and killed by military

• The Battle of Wounded Knee stopped the Ghost Dance religion and, for the most part, ended the Indian Wars