Treaties, Conflict and Reservations: US Policy Towards Indians in the late 1800s

1. Treaties, Conflict and Reservations: US Policy Towards Indians in the late 1800s US History: Spiconardi

2. Government Policy • The government had treated Indians as a foreign nation • By the 1870s, the government began to treat Indians as they did African-Americans & immigrants • Wanted to Americanize and “civilize” through education

3. Government Policy • Reservations • American believed the best way to civilize the Indian was by forcing him on a reservation • Reservation  land set aside by the federal government for Indians to live on • Government promised to protect from white encroachment • Government agreed to provide food, clothing, and other necessities.

6. Conflicts: The Indian Wars • The Sioux Wars

7. Little Bighorn Chief Sitting Bull Gen. George Custer

8. Little Bighorn Video

9. Reforms • The Dawes Act • US reversed reservation policy • Federal government would grant individual Indians 160 acres of land and citizenship (after 25 years), if they abandoned tribal ways • An attempt to further assimilate Indians • In essence: Give up your culture for land • Very few Indians accepted the terms of the Dawes Act

10. Reforms

11. Reforms • Schools were set up to teach Indian children American values • Most children returned to reservations demoralized

12. Impact • Indians who refused to live on reservations were forced to sell their lands • Indian land holdings decreased from • 138 million acres in 1887 to • 52 million acres in 1930 • Indians lost identity • Life on reservations • High unemployment • High rates of alcoholism • High crime and poverty rates