HISTORY 1DD3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 17: Red River War, Dawes Act, Yosemite National Park
22 Jun 2018
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Chp 17 Identifications
Plains Indians
● Background Info: The Natives of the Great Plans inhabited 3 major regions.
● In the northern Plains (Dakota and MT to NE), several large tribes who spoke the
Siouan language dominated other ones. Some were allies, some enemies at war.
● In the central region (OK), the expelled Five Civilized Tribes pursued agriculture.
● To the south were migratory tribes of KS, CO, NM, and TX.
● There was diversity among Natives, with customs varying even within the same
tribe. Some lived semi-sedentary life, while others migrated with herds on
horseback.
● For all Plains natives, life revolved around extended family ties and tribal
cooperation.
● For the various Sioux Indians, religion completely differed from Christian beliefs. To
gain spiritual power, natives sometimes committed self-torture in “sacrifices”.
● Both bison and Natives had to adopt to the semi-arid High Plains, breaking up into
groups and dispersing to river valleys in the winter, and returning to the High Plains
in the summer. Natives also hunted bison for food, clothing, and trade (buffalo
robes).
● As settlers moved in and settled on valley sites, the balance was threatened.
Settlers used up tall grasses upon with the animals depended, while hunters killed
9m buffalo for trade between 1872 and 1875.
● William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, a scout, native fighter, and wild west show
organizer, killed nearly 4,300 bison in 1867-68.
● By 1880, the herds had been reduced to a few thousand animals, and the Native
American way of life was ruined.
Re-examination of Indian policies
● Background Info: As early as the 1850s, with Natives pressured by pioneers lured by
the discovery of gold and silver in the Rocky Mountains, the federal govt. abandoned
their previous position, which treated much of the West as a vast Indian reserve.
● The federal govt. introduced smaller, separate, and bound tribal reservations.
● Natives were expected to exchange nomadic ways for agricultural life, and would use
force if necessary. Some accepted peacefully, while others opposed to no avail.
● By 1860, 8 reservations had been established. The remaining 100 natives fought
against removal for decades. Unfulfilled promises and brutality eroded relationships.
● Some Natives, facing starvation because of unfulfilled treaties that had promised
food, support, and equipment, slipped away from reservation areas to hunt bison
and steal livestock from nearby settlers.
● (continued below)
Sand Creek Massacre (1864)
● In the spring of 1864, local militia troops attacked Cheyenne and Arapaho camps.
● The Natives retaliated with attacks on travelers. The panicked governor, issued an
extraordinary proclamation authorizing whites to seek out and kill all hostile Natives!
● He then activated troops under Colonel John M. Chivington and ordered him to
“remember the murdered women and children”. On Nov 29, Chivington massacred a
peaceful band of Natives camped at Sand Creek, including native women and
children.
● Massacres such as this rekindled debate over Indian policy. In response, Congress in
1867 sent a peace commission and set aside two large districts, hoping natives
would convert to farming and Christianity. Behind the persuasion lay the threat of
force.
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Resistance to reservations
● At first Congress’ plan appeared to work, as representatives of natives signed the
Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 and Fort Laramie Treaty.
● But natives’ dissatisfaction ran deep, and many natives either refused to move to
reservations or once there, moved in and out of them.
● Defiant natives continued resistance in 1868, and in 1869, spurred on by Christian
reformers, Congress established a Board of Indian Commissioners.
● But these inexperienced church-appointed agents quickly encountered obstacles.
Frustrated, the federal govt. began ignoring the church and making their own
appointments for agents in 1880s.
● (continued next 2 sections)
Red River War (1874-1875) and Skeleton Canyon (1866)
● Background Info: Defiant Natives continued resistance in the 1870s.
● On the southern plains, natives’ raids in the TX panhandle set off the so-called Red
River War. In a fierce winter campaign, regular army troops destroyed Natives’
supplies and effectively ended Native American independence in the South.
● In the Southwest, the Apaches fought an intermittent guerrilla war until their leader,
Geronimo, surrendered in 1886 at Skeleton Canyon.
Custer’s Last Stand (1876) and enforcement of Reservation policy
● Background Info: In 1868 the Great Sioux Reserve had been set aside for the
Sioux. In 1873, Sioux in ND, SD, MT, and WY managed concessions of staying on
their lands by playing local officials against the federal govt. The non-treaty Sioux
intimidated whites with raids, and found a powerful leader in Lakota Sioux chief,
Sitting Bull.
● In 1874, Gen. Sherman sent Col. George Custer into the Black Hills of SD. Custer
was young, and since his days as a young Civil War officer, a celebrity.
● Custer was supposedly sent to find a location for a new fort, but his real objective
was to confirm rumors of gold in the Black Hills. By confirming so in a report, a
stampede of pioneers migrated out to find gold.
● The gold stampede gave the army justification for interfering with Natives. Custer
was in fact a part of a deliberate army plan to force concessions from the Sioux.
● In Nov 1875, negotiations broke down because the natives asked too high a price!
● President Grant and his generals decided to hunt down and take by force all natives
not inside reservations after Jan 31, 1876.
● On June 25, underestimating the Natives’ resistance, Custer, with 209 men,
recklessly advanced along the Little Bighorn. Custer’s men were wiped out. On
June 27, cavalry attacks came upon the same fate, and all of Custer’s men lay dead.
● Some Americans criticized Custer’s leadership or the federal policy, but most
supported the govt. even more. Determined, the troops harassed supplies for 5
years, leading to Sitting Bull’s surrender in 1881. Similar measures were used
against Chief Joseph (Nez Perces Indians) and against Cheyennes.
● In 1878, Chief Dull Knife led his survivors north in an attempt to join the Sioux, but
was intercepted and imprisoned in Fort Robinson. After the army denied their
request to stay near traditional lands, Dull Knife led a suicidal escape, shooting
guards and breaking to freedom. Dull Knife and half of his people were gunned
down.
● Sporadic resistance continued, but these brutal tactics sapped Natives’ will to resist.
● On the other hand, some whites raised an eyebrow and the federal govt.’s
oppression.
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“Saving” Natives and the Dawes Severalty Act (1887)
● Background Info: A growing number of Americans were outraged by massacres and
flagrant violations of Indian treaties.
● The Women’s National Indian Rights Association, founded in 1883, and other
groups took up the cause. Helen Hunt Jackson published her A Century of
Dishonor (1881) to rally public opinion against the govt.’s broken treaties.
● Well-intentioned humanitarians concluded that the Natives would be best served if
reservations were broken up and individuals were acknowledged.
● Inspired by this vision of assimilating Natives, humanitarians threw their support
behind the Dawes Severalty Act.
● Passed in 1887, the act tried to reform Natives into landowners and farmers by
distributing 160 acres of reservation land for farming, or 320 acres for grazing.
● The remaining (usually the best) land were sold to speculators and settlers. To
prevent greedy spectators from gaining control, the govt. would hold a Native’s
property for 25 years. Natives who accepted allotments would become citizens.
● The Act didn’t specify a time, and few allotments were made before the 1890s.
● The act eventually proved a boon to speculators. Some Natives prospered, but
countless others struggled just to survive, leading to more resistance. Many Natives’
problems were made worse by the ever-presence of whiskey as a trade item.
Wovoka and the Ghost Dance
● Background Info: As federal govt. reduced meat rations and imposed more
restrictions, living conditions for the Sioux worsened in the late 1880s. Then, as
disease killed a third of their cattle, they became desperate.
● The Sioux turned to Wovoka, a new prophet popular among Great Basin Indians in
NV. Wovoka promised to restore the Sioux’s dominance on the Plains if they
performed the Ghost Dance.
● The Sioux wore sacred Ghost Shirts and moved in a circle, accelerating until they
reached a trance-like state and experienced visions of the future.
● In 1890, Major McLaughlin grew alarmed at the spreading Ghost Dance movement,
and decided to arrest Sitting Bull, whose cabin had become a rallying point.
● When 42 policemen were dispatched Sitting Bull’s bodyguard shot one of them. The
policemen shot Sitting Bull as he fell, and bloody fighting immediately broke out.
Sitting Bull’s horse began to perform tricks from its days in the Wild West show.
Some were terrified and convinced that the spirit of the chief had entered the horse.
Wounded Knee (1890) and the end of Indian Resistance on the Great Plains
● Two weeks after the death of Sitting Bull, the Seventh Cavalry rounded up 340
starving and freezing Sioux at Wounded Knee. When a native fired a gun, the
soldiers, within minutes, retaliated by killing 300 natives.
● As corpses were thrown into mass graves, a generation of Indian resistance ended.
● Driven onto reservations, the Plains Indians had been reduced to almost complete
dependency, and its population shrunk from 250k to 100k.
● Many whites felt nothing but hatred towards natives. Some were involved in sincere
benevolence. Yet both were blind to the value of Native American life and traditions,
and shattered a proud people and an ancient culture.
First Transcontinental Railroad
● Background Info: The Pacific Railroad Act authorized the construction of a
transcontinental railroad and provided grants and subsidies to railroads, making
them the largest landholders of the West.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Background info: the natives of the great plans inhabited 3 major regions. In the northern plains (dakota and mt to ne), several large tribes who spoke the. In the central region (ok), the expelled five civilized tribes pursued agriculture. To the south were migratory tribes of ks, co, nm, and tx. There was diversity among natives, with customs varying even within the same tribe. Some lived semi-sedentary life, while others migrated with herds on horseback. For all plains natives, life revolved around extended family ties and tribal cooperation. For the various sioux indians, religion completely differed from christian beliefs. To gain spiritual power, natives sometimes committed self-torture in sacrifices . Both bison and natives had to adopt to the semi-arid high plains, breaking up into groups and dispersing to river valleys in the winter, and returning to the high plains in the summer. Natives also hunted bison for food, clothing, and trade (buffalo robes).
