Name ______Date ______
Chapter 18 section 3 Native American Struggles page 542
Conflict (page 543)
As long as white people regarded the Plains as the “Great American Desert”they left the Native Americans who lived there more or less alone.
Reservation Policy
In1867the federal government appointed the Indian Peace Commissionto develop a new policy toward Native Americans
The commission recommended moving the Native Americans to largereservations(tracts of land set aside for them). This was a policy already in progress, but wasnow being enforced.
As early as 1830 Native Americans were relocated to reservations.
Little Bighorn
The Lakota tribe (part of the Sioux nation) lived in the Black Hills of the Dakotas. The government had promised “No white person or persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy”or even to“passthrough these hills.”
In 1874 General George Custer was sent out to the Dakotas on an expedition to see if gold really existed in the Black Hills. Custer confirmed that there wasgold from the grass roots down.
Prospectors swarmed into the area. TheSiouxprotested against the trespassers.
The United States government tried to buy the Black Hills from the Sioux
Sitting Bull, an important leader of the Lakota tribe, refused (to sell).
Sitting Bull gatheredSioux and Cheyennewarriors along the Little Bighorn River(in present-day Montana)
The U.S. army was ordered to round up the warriors and move them to reservations.
George Custer decided to attack the Native Americans on June 25, 1876.
Custer underestimated the strength of the native Americanforces (several thousand warriors).
George Custerand hisentire command losttheir lives.
This Native American victory was called the Battle of Little Bighorn or “Custer’s Last Stand”
TheU.S. army soon crushed the uprising and by1881, exhausted and starving, the Lakotaand Cheyenne agreed to live on areservation.
The Apache Wars
Trouble broke out in theSouthwest. TheChirachuaApache had been moved fromtheir homeland to the San Carlos reservation in Arizona in the mid1870s.
The Apache leader,Geronimo, escaped from San Carlos and fled to Mexicowith a small band offollowers.
During the 1880s he led raids against settlers and the armyin Arizona.
In1886Geronimo finally gave up. - thelast Native American to formally surrender to the United States**
Chief Joseph (top of page 546: People in History)
In1877the U.S. government demanded the Nez Percegive up their landsand move to reservationsin Idaho.
Chief Josephwas preparing to move his people when he found out that several young braves had attacked a group of white settlers.
Fearing revenge, Chief Joseph ledhis followers over 1,000 miles acrossOregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
For more than 3months he managed toevade(stay away from/escape) a U.S. army force 10 times larger than his group.
Along the way,he won the admiration of many whites for his humane treatment of prisoners and his concern for women, children,and theelderly.
Just40 miles from theCanadianborder, the Nez Percewere surrounded.
Chief Joseph surrendered (part of surrender quote)
“The littlechildren are freezingto death. My people…. Have no blanketsnofood.....I amtired. My heart is sickandsad.From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”
Achanging Culture (bottom of page 546)
List the things that contributed to changing the traditional way of life of Native American:
- Movement of whites onto their land
- The slaughter of the buffalo
- Army attacks
- Reservation policy
More change came from well-meaning reformerswho wanted toabolish reservations and absorb the Native Americansinto white Americanculture. This is called assimilation.
The Dawes Act (1887) -This law aimed to eliminate what Americans regarded as two weaknesses of Native American life: lack of private propertyand the nomadic tradition(migrating to find food, especially the buffalo).
- The Dawes Act proposed to break up the reservationsand endidentificationwith a tribal group.
- Each Native American would receive aplot of reservationland.
- The goal was to encourage native people to become farmersand eventually, American citizens.
- Native American childrenwould be sent to white-runboarding schools.
Over the next 50 years, the government divided up the reservations. Speculators acquired most of the valuable land.
Native Americans often receiveddry,gravelly plots that were not suited for farming.
Wounded Knee
The Dawes Act changed forever the Native Americanway of life and weakened their cultural traditions.
In 1890, The Sioux turned toWovoka,a prophet.
Wovoka claimed that the Sioux could regain their former greatness if they performed a ritual known as the Ghost Dance.
Believing that Sitting Bullwas the leader of the movement, police went to his camp toarresthim and in a scuffle, killed him.
Several hundred Lakota Sioux fled in fear. They gathered at a creek called Wounded Kneein Southwestern South Dakota.
On December 29, 1890 the army went to collect the Sioux’sweapons.
No one knows how the fighting started, but a pistol rang out and more than 200 Sioux and
25soldiers were killed.
Wounded Kneemarked the end of armed conflict between whitesand Native Americans.
The Native Americans had lost their long struggle.