1. What does this map reveal about America in the late 19th century?

2. What story is this map telling?3. What untold story is not being conveyed via this map?

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Essential Questions:

1. What was the Homestead Act?2. What was the Dawes Act and what was its

impact?3. How did the U.S. government treat Native

Americans?4. What was the Battle of Little Bighorn?

Federal law that gave settlers 160 acres of undeveloped land outside of the original 13 colonies

The new law required three steps:

• File an application• Improve the land• File for deed of title

Eventually 1.6 million homesteads were granted

270,000,000 acres were privatized

But whose land was being given away?

Enacted in February 1887

Named after its sponsor, U.S. Senator Henry L. Dawes

Authorized the President to have Native American lands surveyed and divided into plots for Native American families

What did it say?• A Native American family may

receive 160 acres if they farm• 80 acres if they are to raise

cattle• 40 acres for “living purposes”

Remained in effect until 1934

Land granted to most Native Americans was not viable to sustain a living

Eventually the land was sold to non-Native buyers at bargain prices

Native Americans lost about 90 million acres of land

• 90,000 Indians were made landless

Goal of the Dawes Act: • Complete Native American

assimilation• Force the deterioration of the

communal life-style of native societies

• Impose Western-oriented values of strengthening the nuclear family

Under President Jackson, the Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830

• Authorized the President to exchange Native American land east of the Mississippi River for western lands

• About100,000 Native Americans relocated to the West as a result of the policy

Tribes in the West were continually moved to smaller and smaller reservations

• Government and settlers continued to take their land

• Caused tension and hostility to rise

The Indian Wars• Conflicts known as the "Indian Wars"

broke out between U.S. forces and tribes

• The Battle of Little Bighorn

George Armstrong Custer of the 7th U.S. Cavalry discovered gold in the Black Hills in 1874

A ‘gold rush’ followed and thousands of miners went to the Black Hills…territory controlled by the Lakota

Treaty of Fort Laramie• Guaranteed Lakota ownership of

the Black Hills, as well as land and hunting rights in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana

In 1876, the United States took control of the region from the Lakota in violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie

Occurred between June 25-26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in the Montana Territory

An armed engagement between the Lakota and the 7th Cavalry of the Army

The Lakota were led by Sitting Bull• Sitting Bull was inspired by a

vision to fight Custer• He saw U.S. soldiers being killed

as they entered the tribe’s camp

In the end the U.S. 7th Cavalry, including 700 men led by Custer, were defeated

• Custer was killed in the battle

Custer did not realize that more than 3,000 Native Americans had left their reservations to follow Sitting Bull

Outrage at Custer's death and defeat brought thousands more soldiers to the area

Over the next year, the new military forces pursued the Lakota, forcing many to surrender

Sitting Bull refused to surrender• In May 1877 he led his

followers across the border into Canada where he remained in exile