Western Expansion and the American Indian Experience

2. Western Expansion and the American Indian Experience

3. Manifest Destiny • What is Destiny? Define it in your own words. • Fate to which a particular person is destined • A predetermined course of events beyond human control • What is Manifest? • Clear or apparent • Obvious • America in the mid 1800?s believed we had a "clear destiny” to expand from sea to shining sea--it was the will of God.

4. “It is our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty." John O’Sullivan, 1845 Painting by John Gast called American Progress (circa 1872)

5. Manifest Destiny • Argument that the United States was destined to expand across North America • Had a divine mission to spread liberty across the continent. • Used to advocate for or justify other territorial acquisitions • A belief in the natural superiority of what was then called the “Anglo-Saxon race.” • Promoted and justified westward expansion

6. The spread of American values to all people and places from coast to coast: 1. Democracy 2. Education 3. Language 4. Capitalism 5. Religion Manifest Destiny

7. Reasons for Westward Expansion • To acquire Wealth a. Cheap Land b. Gold and Silver c. Land Speculation Land Speculators: people who bought up large areas of land in the hope of later selling it for a profit

8. Reasons for Westward Expansion 2. Lack of Foreign Threat a. European nations were gone b. Mexican Wars were over

9. Reasons for Westward Expansion 3. Homestead Act of 1862 • 160 acres of land: • 21 years of age or older • American citizen • Pay $10 fee • Build a home and live in it for 6 months out of every year • Land had to be farmed and improved upon **Once all requirements were met the land was theirs to keep.

10. Daniel Freeman's Homestead Application

11. Daniel Freeman's Proof of Improvements

12. Daniel Freeman's Certificate of Eligibility

13. Homestead Act • By 1900, individual homesteading families had filed 600,000 claims for more than 80 million acres • Problems: • Settlers could not meet all requirements • Some could not survive economically • Most settlers had no farming experience • Fraud was problematic: speculators would establish “fake” homesteads and land office agents rarely visited claims

14. Reasons for Westward Expansion • Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 • Provided support for state colleges • Millions of acres given to state governments who sold it to land speculators at .50/acre. • States used the money to build colleges.

15. Ours for the Taking? For generations, Americans viewed the West as… Wild--an empty expanse Available to ambitious Americans Ignored the presence of Native Americans and their claims to the land

16. What Happened to the Native Americans? • Prior to Columbus (1492), between 1-10 million people lived in present day U.S. • By 1800, the number of natives dropped to about 600,000 • By 1850, the number was on 250,000—the population of most other groups was rising in America.

17. Causes…. • Disease & Starvation: Settlers brought diseases including smallpox, tuberculosis, diphtheria, & mumps. • Natives had no natural defenses/immunity • Many starved because they lost hunting grounds & other food sources—buffalo heard was lost • Warfare: Some contacts with settlers led to violence (settlers had modern weapons) over hunting land, religious practices, etc. • Loss of Lands: Natives lost land to settlers through trades, treaties, & some was taken by force (by settlers & government)

18. American Indian Policy Policy toward NA have shifted and changed over the past 150 years: 1. Assimilation: 1800s & early 1900s 2. Cultural Pluralism: 1930s & 1940s 3. Termination: 1950s – 1970s 4. Self Determination: 1970s - today

19. Contact and Conflict Difference in values • Community means more than the individual. • Wealth is spread equally • Decision making made by tribe not one person.

20. Contact and Conflict Difference in values: • Land values • Sacred vs. Exploitation: • NA = sacred. Land was not meant to be plowed or disturbed. • Sacred land: burial grounds, dance, sacrifice, vision quests, prayer. • Americans = Exploitation. • Farms, roads, trails, grazing herds

21. Indian Relocation • 1830s–1840s: • Land in the West was given to Native Americans in exchange for land in the East. • All tribes East of the Mississippi were relocated to Plains states.

22. Indian Relocation • Bureau of Indian Affairs was created by the Federal Government to handle relations with Native Americans. • 1850s–1890s: gold and silver discoveries created the need to move Indians again.

23. Treaty Process Treaties: Agreements with other nations. • Treaties were used to solve the “Indian problem.” • Early treaties (1860s): • Restricted hunting grounds and promised food rations. • Failed solution: Squatters would settle on Indian land breaking the treaty.

24. Treaty of Medicine Lodge 1867. • Treaty of Medicine Lodge 1867: • Federal government promised to protect Native Americans from loss of hunting grounds, provide Indians with food rations, and protection from white lawlessness. • Led to Red River War: • The failure of the government to uphold its promises led to war between Kiowas, Comanches and settlers and buffalo hunters. Due to the lack of advanced weaponry many Native Americans were killed. This was the last act of Indian resistance in the Southern Plains.

25. Treaty Process • Second treaties are known as the “reservation treaties” • Restricted Indian land to reservations with promises of the following: 1. Food rations 2. Traditional hunting allowed 3. Education 4. Health Care 5. Housing 6. Rights to energy sources

26. Treaty Process • Reservations: small areas of land within a group’s territory, land was reserved exclusively for their use • Natives were encouraged to farm & have livestock—be more “civilized” & adopt Christianity • The Federal Government never intended reservations to last forever. • The goal was to assimilation Native Americans into model American citizens.

27. Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868 • Restricted the Federal Government from taking more land from the Northern Plains Indians for railroads and settlers in exchange for Indian agreement to leave the Plains and settle on the reservation.

28. Tribal Acceptance of Reservations • Buffalo was almost gone. • Offered some protection of tribal lands • Were not told the long term goal of reservations was to completely assimilate them into American society.

29. Indian Resistance • Hundreds of battles, wars, and massacres took place on the Plains between 1865-1890 in an effort to resist reservations and preserve the Indian way of life: 1. Sand Creek Massacre 2. Red River Wars 3. Battle of Little Big Horn 4. Massacre of Wound Knee

30. The Indian Wars • Sand Creek Massacre (1864) • Around 450 Cheyenne men, women, & children killed in village • One year later: Cheyenne surrender all claims & agree to move onto reservations—turning point in resistance

31. 1876, in present-day Montana Between Sioux (put up greatest resistance) led by Chief Sitting Bull and U.S. cavalry led by Lieutenant Colonel George ArmstrongCuster Battle of Little Bighorn

32. Battle of Little Bighorn • Custer & more than 200 soldiers killed • Marked the Indian’s final victory • Sioux returned to reservations

33. Battle of Little Bighorn also known as “Custer’s Last Stand”

34. Treaties and Reservations Failed • Created a system of Indian dependence on the Federal Government • Americans continued to violate treaty terms with no punishment. • March 3, 1871 Federal Government ended all treaty making policies. • Ended tribal sovereignty • Removed all political power from tribes and forced them to remain on reservations.

36. Allotment Period In 1871 U.S. Government states Native American tribal groups are no longer independent nations

37. Passed in 1887 Gave natives land to “civilize” them as farmers & ranchers Divided reservations & reduced amount of land controlled by natives General Allotment Act (Dawes Act) Senator Henry Dawes

38. Dawes Act

39. Dawes General Allotment Act • Dawes Act: Aimed to end the reservation system by implementing an allotment system. • Divided reservations into 160 acre homesteads for farming. • Federal government held the land in trust for 25 years. • Native Americans would gain American citizenship for giving up tribal status.

40. Allotment Period • Worked to assimilate natives into American society: • Practice of traditional spiritual ceremonies forbidden • Children sent to day & boarding schools

41. React to these two pictures: Are they the same person? Is one more acceptable, why? How would you feel if you were asked to change who you are?

42. In the White Man’s Image Group of Omaha boys in cadet uniforms, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880.

43. In 1875, Captain Richard Pratt escorted 72 Indian warriors suspected of murdering white settlers to Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. Once there, Pratt began an ambitious experiment which involved teaching the Indians to read and write English, putting them in uniforms, and drilling them like soldiers. "Kill the Indian and save the man," was Pratt's motto.

44. Carlisle School

45. News of Pratt's experiment spread. With the blessing of Congress, Pratt expanded his program by establishing the Carlisle School for Indian Students to continue his "civilizing" mission. A Cultural Experiment

46. Apache children on arrival at the Carlisle Indian School (Pennsylvania) wearing traditional clothing.

47. Apache children at the Carlisle School four months later.

48. Cheyenne woman named Woxie Haury in ceremonial dress, and, in wedding portrait with husband. Two studio portraits; on left she poses with her hair down, in a beaded & fringed dress, necklace, and beaded moccasins. On right she wears a western-style wedding dress

49. Before and After

50. Learning finger songs at Carlisle Indian School, ca. 1900.Frances Benjamin Johnston photo