Native Americans:Cultures and Conflicts

Native Americans:Cultures and Conflicts

Study Guide

Even before the Europeans arrived in what we now call the United States, there were people living here. These were the Native American peoples, or Indians. There were many different groups of Indians. Some organized themselves as large nations, others as smaller tribes, and some remained bands. Hoewever, each had a distinct way of life.

During the 1800s Native Americans living on the lands west of the Mississippi River faced dramatic changes. Their cultures were disrupted and sometimes even destroyed by white Americans who relentlessly pushed westward.

Define "culture." (page322) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________the attitudes, customs, and beliefs of a group of people

Indians of the Great Basin

The Great Basin is like a big bowl that encompasses what is now Nevada and parts of California, Idaho, Oregon, and Utah. The "sides" of the bowl are ranges of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The Great Basin has never been an easy place to live, yet various Indian tribes who live there, such as the Paiutes, created cultures that have endured for thousands of years.

The Paiutes had no agriculture. How did they survive?

Hunting and gathering were vital parts of Pauite life. Although they had to cover a huge amount of territory in their never-ending quest for food, Great Basin peoples never wandered aimlessly. They knew that there were certain places where food was likely to be found at different seasons, and they returned to these places year after year.

In the fall, large numbers of small bands came together. They shared stories about the past year. They danced and played. They even looked for spouses. But what was the main purpose of their gathering?

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to harvest pine nuts, which was their staple food

Indians of the Plateau

Just a few hundred miles north of where the Paiutes roam, we find the Plateau region. The weather on the plateau is similar to that in the Great Basin—hot summers and cold winters—but there is a lot more water and more abundant plants and animals.

In the spring, the Nez Perces got together to hunt for food, their winter store now depleted. What did they hunt for? _____________ salmon

The Indians of the plateau know that their lives depend on the salmon. They eat it fresh, and they dry large amounts of it for trading and for eating during the coming months when they leave the rivers and head for the mountains.

Like all children, Plateau children enjoyed stories, especially during the long winter months. One such story was a tale about a trickster coyote who tricked another coyote. What was the moral of the story?

(page 327)

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That just goes to show that we shouldn't let others tell us who we are.

Indians of the Plains

Unlike the Indians of the Great Basin and Plateau regions, many of the Native Americans living in the Plains region were not hunter-gatherers, at least not at first. The Plains are grasslands extending from central Canada south to Mexico and from midwestern United States westward to the Rockies. The Indians who lived on these plains were farmers for centuries.

If salmon was king to the Plateau Indians, what was king to the Plains Indians? ______________. bison

The Plains Indians once hunted bison the way Paiutes hunted rabbits—by building corrals and herding a few animals into them. On foot it was tiring and very hard work. But when horses arrived, everything changed. With the horse, the bison hunters could supply hundreds of people with all they needed.

What did they use bison for?

- hides for clothes and shoes

- bones for knives and shovels

- hair for pillows and rope

Indians of the Pacific Northwest

The Indians of the moist, lush, and relatively densely populated Pacific Northwest got so much food from their environment that they never had to develop agriculture.

The society and value systems of these peoples, who were the most status-conscious of all Native Americans, revolved around acquiring and displaying property—and giving it away! And the best way to acquire power through giving things away was to hold _________________and erect _____________________. potlatches and totem poles

Potlatches were great cermonies that lasted days, even weeks. There were dances, stories, games, singing, gift-giving—and food galore! The purpose was not just to have fun, but to strengthen the bonds that held Northwest Coast Indian society together.

Look at the picture on page 334. A totem stands in front of each house in this Northwest Coast village. Each totem pole tells the story of the family who lives there.

Broken Promises

Uneasy relations between Americans and Indians can be traced all the way back to the days when the first European settlers arrived. Already in those early days, there were successes and failures.

Why did treaties so often fail? (page 336) One reason was that Americans didn't understand the Indian way of life. They didn't understand tribal leadership. Indian groups did not belong to one central govenrnment. They could not be treated like independent nations such as England or France. As a result, an agreement made with one group of Sioux had no meaning to other Sioux and certainly had no meaning to Cheyennes.

Remember the Louisiana Purchase? This was the land that President Jefferson purchased from Napoleon after the Revolutionary War. When Lewis and Clark were sent to explore the huge region, Lewis spoke to the Osage Indians, expressing the hope for peaceful cooperation. But the brotherhood and unity that Lewis wished for proved difficult to realize.

The general feeling at the time was that Indians would eventually live the same way as white people. All white people had to do, they thought, was teach them how to farm, ranch, or work in cities. Just teach them to read, write, and speak English. Teach them to believe in Christianity. Once Indians became like the whites—once Indians became assimilated—Americans were convinced they could all live together.

Define "assimilate" (page 337)

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to become like the people of a nation in customs, viewpoint, values, and so on

Americans believed that the best way to do this was to encourage Indians to move away from their traditional lifestyle and settle down on particular peices of land. What were these pieces of land called? _______________________ reservations

The forced removal of Cherokees from their homelands during the Trail of Tears was a dark time in American history.

Tensions Mount

Up until the 1500s, Indians lived their entire lives without ever seeing a white person. Indians had lived completely isolated from the rest of the world. They had never been exposed to diseases like measles, smallpox, influenza, pneumonia, and dysentery, so they had no resistance to them. The winter of 1839-1840 was especially devastating. It became known as the ___________________. "smallpox winter" Estimates say that 8,000 Blackfoot Indians, 2,000 Pawnees, and 1,000 Crows died from small pox that winter.

During battles between Indians and whites, Indians did terrible things to white settlers and to soldiers. But some of the darkest, saddest, and most tragic atrocities in United States history were committed by whites on Native Americans.

Look at the picture on page 343. The picture shows an artist's version of the Sand Creek Massacre, an event that shocked the nation. Colonel Chivington ordered the brutal killing of all the Indians. Even babies were killed.

The Indian Wars

After the massacre at Sand Creek, violence became a way of life as settlers continued to move across the new frontier and into Indian territory. This bloody period of conflict has become known as the Indian Wars Period. One of the most famous battles was the Battle of Little Bighorn. Chief Sitting Bull was at the Battle of the Little Bighorn when the Sioux defeated the cavalry led by Lt. Col. George Custer. The Batle of the Little Bighorn has become known as __________________________. Custer's Last Stand

Chief Joseph, a member of the Nez Perce tribe, gave the following famous statement after his surrender:

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“ I will fight no more forever." Joseph himself had lost his daughter, a brother, and many relatives

in the Nez Perce War.

A Last Stand

At the Massacre of Wounded Knee, Chief Big Foot and hundreds of men, women, and children were left dying in the snow. For the Plains Indians, their old way of life would never be the same. Scattered fighting between United States forces and the Indians continued. But the Battle of Wounded Knee stopped the Ghost Dance religion and, for the most part, ended the Indian Wars.

Define "subsistence."

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the barest means of food, clothing, and shelter needed to live

Important Note

Although there will be no short reponse questions on this exam, students will be required to write a sentence that clearly expresses the meaning of the following terms: culture, assimilate, and subsistence.