Quiz

• What is capitalism?• What is a “free market”• Why is the “free market” a myth in the United

States?• What is limited liabilty?

Native Americans and the West

White Justifications for U. S. Expansion

• Manifest Destiny• Civilization vs. Savagery• Rugged Individualism

Manifest Destiny

• The belief that it was the nation’s God-given right to expand according to its needs

Two Interrelated Themes of U.S. Expansion:

1. Government facilitated westward expansion

2. The History of the West = a history of colonization

• “Colonization”:– The process through which one group takes

charge of land originally occupied by another group and uses force or threat of force to exert power and control over the inhabitants

How the Government Made the West:

• Homestead Act, 1862:• Subsidizing RR construction• Through policies toward non-whites:– U.S. government viewed Indians as a threat to

white settlement of the West– Their solution was the creation of Indian

Reservations

Problem: Native Americans did not want to live on Indian Reservations

• Contained formerly nomadic peoples to one area

• Took away their land• land on Indian Reservations was often terrible

and difficult to cultivate

Indian Resistance: Indian Wars, 1860s-1880s

• The U.S. Army tried to protect the migration of whites to the West & Indians resisted

• Examples: There was a diversity of resistant responses by Native Americans– U.S. Army vs. the Lakota Sioux

Lakota Sioux

Lakota Sioux

• Nomadic peoples

• Lived on High Plains

• Herded and followed Bison for food and trade items

• Livelihoods undermined by white migrants who over-killed the Bison (Buffalo) to make room for commercial livestock

Red Cloud

• B. 1822

• 1866 led successful assaults against US Military

• Negotiated Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868

• Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868– Gave Sioux the western half of North Dakota and

the Black Hills

– Government agreed to provide clothes and supplies for 30 years

– U.S. retained right to construct roads and RR’s through the reservation

Sitting Bull

• B. 1839• Refused to negotiate

treaties with the government

• Battle of Killdeer Mountain, 1864– Army attacked his camp

with cannons– 200+ Sioux killed– 2 U.S. Soldiers killed– Army confiscated all

supplies

• 1870s: a small amount of gold found in the Black Hills– President Grant made an offer, but the Sioux

(influenced by Sitting Bull) refused– Army attacked in effort to get rid of Sitting Bull• Battle of Little Big Horn, 1876

Battle of Little Big Horn, 1876

• A resounding defeat of U.S. troops led by 7th Calvary led by General Custer– Lost 263 men– The loss shocked most Americans

• Defeat created a backlash against the Sioux and Sitting Bull in 1877– Sioux forced from their homes– U. S. took the Black Hills, breaking Treaty of Ft.

Laramie– Sitting Bull fled to Canada

The Reservation System

• Created to teach Indians Capitalism and Land Ownership

• Dawes Severalty Act, 1887– Each family had to own its own plot of land on the

reservation– Boarding schools created to assimilate Native

American children and to exterminate their traditional culture

Resistance to Reservation System

• Ghost Dance, 1890s– Attempt to revive traditional beliefs and practices

after a long cultural depression– 400-1000 participants– Appeared aggressive to U.S. authorities– Sitting Bull murdered by police

Battle of Wounded Knee

• Late 1890s: 7th US Calvary sent after the Sioux as they peacefully migrated to Pine Ridge– The army knew that the Sioux were unarmed and

migrating across the Reservation– Army opened fire and the majority of the Sioux were

killed within 10 minutes• 270-300 out of 400 killed—while trying to flee

• Battle is very significant to Native American memory, marked the end of the Indian Wars

• The West was finally open for white migration and settlement