The Destruction of the Plains Indians

Myths and realities about Native Americans All Native Americans are being compensated via casino revenues Realities 300 casinos generate $27.9 billion per year (2012). The casinos are not actually owned by Indians themselves. Most Native Americans receive no benefit from the revenue.

Stark Realities Average reservation unemployment rate is 30% (as of June 2006 US as a whole is 4.6% - Department of Labor report). The high school drop-out rate is 40%. 1/3 of families live in poverty (earn less than $10,000/year). 1999 – President Bill Clinton visited Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota – only the second time a sitting president had actually been to a reservation

Pine Ridge in comparison 2004 - Census bureau, Department of Justice, Department of Labor. Unemployment was 73% 63% live below the poverty line ($19,350 for a family of four) Population over 25,000 – no banks 62 miles of paved road (Pine Ridge is 4,353 square miles) Most homes have no telephone service. Life expectancy 57 years (US as a whole approximately 74).

Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Lived in Washington and Oregon Ordered moved, threatened with destruction for refusal. US army sent to destroy them and Nez Perce fled.

Pursued by four separate armies. Won every battle but one against the US. US Army discovered it was chasing a mere 200 people. They surrendered 40 miles from the Canadian border.

“Tell General Howard I know his heart “Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are all dead…It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food, no one knows where they are – perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me my chiefs. I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.” Chief Joseph – October 5, 1877

Concentration Policy 1877 US embarks on reservation system. ALL Indians were to be confined to small arid reservations. Initially called “concentration policy” and the reservations “concentration camps” but designated reservations by the 1890s.

The Reservation and Indian numbers decrease 1830s – President Andrew Jackson declares the area west of the Mississippi to be Indian territory “forever.” 1849 California has 100,000 Indians 1859 California has less than 20,000 Mineral discoveries. Desire for farm land US assigned Indians to specific geographic locations “for the Indians’ protection.”

1864 – Sand Creek Massacre Cheyenne and Arapaho in Colorado asked US government for peace and “protected land” in the form of a reservation. US told all to report to Sand Creek, CO. 1,000 went, assuming they were under protection of US government

Colonel John Chivington – CO Militia led the soldiers. “Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! I have come to kill Indians and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God’s heaven to kill Indians.” 11-26-1864 to officers protesting plans to attack the Sand Creek Indians. “Kill them all, big and small. Nits make lice.” From a speech made in Denver, CO 10-1864

Aftermath of Sand Creek Cheyenne and Arapaho ordered “out” of Colorado. Kiowa forced to leave Colorado. Congress set up 2 reservations. All “northern” Indians were to report to South Dakota. All “southern” Indians to Oklahoma. War broke out, lasting from 1868 to 1877.

Four Developments that Changed the Indian Wars Repeating Rifles. Winter Campaigning. Elimination of the Buffalo. Railroads.

1874 Kiowa and Comanche expelled from Texas. Prospectors find gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota. US sends the 7th Cavalry – not to evict miners, but to protect them from Indians.

Custer’s Last Stand? Well-established that large numbers of Indians had gathered. Custer forged ahead, dividing his regiment of cavalry, sending some to attack the villages themselves, while keeping just over 200 to “trap” between 3,000 and 5,000 Indians. Literally within minutes it was over.

Aftermath News reached the east around July 4, 1876. Removed all white restraint. By the end of 1877 virtually all Indian resistance had ended.

Ghost Dance By 1880s Indians are completely dependent on government rations. Livestock was dying due to disease. Indians were literally starving to death on their reservations. Turned to religion.

Wovoka Ghost Dance shirt Ghost Dancers Visions of a new world without whites, where relatives rose from the dead and the buffalo returned.

Sitting Bull’s role After Little Big Horn fled to Canada, returned in 1880s. 1890 reservation authorities were convinced Sitting Bull was an instigator. Sent a friend, Little Big Man, to arrest him. Sitting Bull killed in the process. Lakota fled the reservation.

Wounded Knee 7th Cavalry caught up with them. Surrounded and searched. A shot fired after instigation by a medicine man named Yellow Bird. Indians: 300+ dead.

Ethnocide The stripping of cultural identity. Actually began prior to Wounded Knee. Boarding schools set up to transition Indians to “whiteness” by teaching menial/manual labor

Carlisle School Motto was “Kill the Indian, Save the man.” Students not allowed to congregate by tribe. Native languages banned. Traditional clothing banned.

Dawes Act of 1887 Each Indian head of household given 160 acres, drawn from the reservation. Held in trust for 25 years Citizenship for those who accept land title and remain separated from reservation land. Prior to Dawes Act, Indians controlled 150 million acres; after, controlled 48 million acres. The remaining 102 million acres sold off and proceeds were used to pay for the schools.