Native Americans and Westward Movement

How might Native American values and

lifestyle conflict with white settlers? • Native universe controlled by spirits- Animism

• No concept of land ownership

• Disease: No immunity

How did Native Americans deal with the coming settlers?

• 1st- Peacefully• 2nd- Hostility- small

victories followed by major defeats

• 3rd- Voluntary Removal- tension among tribes, temporary solution

• 4th- Accommodation- adapt to the white man’s ways

THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT WAS PASSED MAY 1830 AFTER HEATED AND BITTER ARGUMENTS IN CONGRESS. THIS LAW MOVED MOST OF THE TRIBES IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES INTO “INDIAN COUNTRY”, (TODAY IT’S OKLAHOMA.) THE MOST TRAGIC REMOVAL INVOLVED THE CHEROKEE WHO TRIED TO FIGHT IT IN COURT.

NATIVE AMERICAN REMOVAL, 1830s

Cherokee Indians• Most assimilated tribe in Southeast U.S. (they fit in)

• SequoyahSequoyah creates an alphabet and literacy follows

• Tribe ran newspapers, mills, schools, farms, and owned slaves

• U.S. Army moves them to Oklahoma on the “Trail of Tears”

• THOUSANDS DIED ON THE LONG JOURNEY FROM WEATHER, STARVATION, AND ILLNESS.

What impact did white settlers have on the Great

Plains?• Railroads are laid throughout their land

• Buffalo killed in huge numbers

• “Every dead buffalo, means ten starving redskins…”

Reservation System • Native Americans removed to Reservations• Poor land, often with enemy tribes• Government “helped” with food and tools• Forced Indians to be dependent on U.S. government

• Indians effectively gone by 1895

The Battle of Little Bighorn• Sioux and Cheyenne fight back against removal

• George Armstrong Custer sent to crush the rebellion

• Custer wants fame and attacks before reinforcements come

• All 225 men are killed

The Battle of Little Bighorn

•U.S. Army floods the region with troops•Sioux/ Cheyenne are removed to reservations