The Wars for the West

1. The Wars for the West Section 1 Chapter 18

2. Focus Questions • What animals did the Plains Indians use, and why were they important? • What caused conflicts between American Indians and American settlers in the West, and what were the results of these conflicts? • How did the reservation system and the Dawes Act affect American Indians?

3. The Plains Indians • The Great Plains are home of several Indian groups • The Apache and Comanche lived in what is now Oklahoma • Pawnee lived in Nebraska • The Sioux lived from Minnesota to Montana • The Plains Indians depended on the horse and the buffalo • The buffalo was used for food shelter and clothing

4. The Plains Indians • By 1850, there were 75,000 American Indians living on the Plains • The U.S. government sent agents out to negotiate treaties with the Plains Indians • The first treaty they signed was the Treaty of Fort Laramie– northern Plains nations in Wyoming in 1851 • They also signed a treaty at Fort Atkinson in Nebraska • The U.S. government wanted settlers to be able to cross those land and the government promised to pay for any damages to Indian lands

5. War on the Plains • Gold was discovered in Colorado in 1858 and this lead to new problems with miners and Cheyenne and the Arapaho • In 1861, the U.S. government negotiated a treaty with them that created reservation– areas of former Indian homeland to which the U.S. government restricted the Indians • Staying on the reservation made hunting the buffalo nearly impossible • Many American Indians refused to live on the reservations

6. War on the Plains • In November 1864, the Colorado Militia attacked the Sand Creek Indians in southeastern Colorado • The militia killed 200 men, women, and children

7. War on the Plains • The U.S. Army then built forts from Wyoming to Montana to protect miners as they traveled west • In 1866 Crazy Horse, a Sioux chief, ambushed 81 Calvary troops and killed them all • In 1868 the U.S. Army abandoned all forts along the Bozeman Trail and Sioux moved into the Black Hills Reservation in Dakota Territory

8. War on the Plains • The U.S. government was also asking southern Plans Indians to move off their lands • The Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867 put most of those people on a reservations • Many still did not want to give up their hunting grounds and fighting broke out between the Comanche and the Texans • The U.S. army and the Texas Rangers cut off supplies to the supplies and in 1875 the last of the Comanche war leaders surrendered

9. The U.S. War with the Sioux • In 1874, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s soldiers found gold in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory • The U.S. government demanded that the Sioux sell their land to the government

10. The U.S. War with the Sioux • Sitting Bull, Sioux leader, protested this demand • On June 25, 1876 Custer’s 7th Calvary found a Sioux amp along the Little Bighorn River in Montana • Custer did not wait for back-up and attacked the encampment and he along with all 264 of his soldiers were killed (became known as “Custer’s Last Stand”) • The Battle of Little Bighorn was the worst defeat the U.S. army suffered in the west and it was the last major victory for the Sioux

11. The U.S. War with the Sioux • In late 1877, Crazy Horse was killed in prison after surrendering to the U.S. army • Sitting Bull fled to Canada and after their two strongest leaders were gone the Sioux soon surrendered

12. The U.S. War with the Sioux • Wovoka, a Paiute Indian, began a religious movement known as the Ghost Dance • American Indians who used this dance believed that it would lead to a new life free from suffering (one in which buffalo herds would return) • The U.S. government felt the dance should not be performed

13. The U.S. War with the Sioux • In 1890, reservation police were given orders to arrest Sitting Bull and he accidently shot and killed • In response to this many of the Sioux left the reservation • The U.S. army caught up with many Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota • The U.S. army killed 150 Indians there • The Massacre at Wounded Knee would be the last attack (in 1890) of the Great Plains Wars which lasted for more then 25 years

14. Indians in the Southwest and the Far West • In 1863, the Navajo refused to move to reservations in Arizona and New Mexico • Kit Carson led U.S. troops in raids on the Navajo fields • The Navajo ran out of food and shelter and eventually were moved to reservations in New Mexico and Arizona

15. Indians in the Southwest and the Far West • The U.S. government had promised that the Nez Perce could keep their homelands in northeastern Oregon • The Nez Perce had agreed to move to reservations in Idaho, but before leaving some settlers were killed by a few Nez Perce Indians • Chief Joseph, their leader, feared the U.S. army would take up violence against his people so he and about 700 Indians fled

16. Indians in the Southwest and the Far West • Chief Joseph and his people defeated or avoided the army in many instances and were able to move around for several weeks before being cut off at the Canadian border • On October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph and his people surrendered and they were moved to Oklahoma

17. Indians in the Southwest and the Far West • In the 1880s while many other American Indians had stooped fighting the Apache of the desert southwest continued to fight the U.S. army • When they were put on a reservation in was made for humans to live on • Geronimo an Apache leader lead a small band of raiders left the reservation and avoided capture until 1884

18. Indians in the Southwest and the Far West • Geronimo again left the reservation and was captured two more times but managed to escape each time • Finally in September of 1886, he surrendered after 5,000 troops were sent after him • He was taken to Florida as a prisoner of war

19. Policy and Protest • By the 1870s many American Indian people were living on reservations • Many Indians on these reservations were starving because money and food was lost in the process of getting it to the Indians • Sarah Winnemucca was a Paiute Indian that first called for American Indian reform

20. Policy and Protest • Many reformers believed that American Indians would be better if they adopted the ways of the white people • The Dawes General Allotment Act– made it so that Indian land could be broken up and given to individual Indians (160 acres per family) • The act also promised citizenship to American Indians

21. Policy and Protest • After the land was broken up the sold the remaining land to settlers • About two-thirds of the land that was Indian reservation land was lost • The Dawes Act also did not lead to citizenship for American Indians • The new policy failed to improve Indians’ lives

22. Focus Questions • What animals did the Plains Indians use, and why were they important? • What caused conflicts between American Indians and American settlers in the West, and what were the results of these conflicts? • How did the reservation system and the Dawes Act affect American Indians?