December 7, 2016 U.S. History Agenda: DO NOW: DBQ NOTES #27: How did the U.S. government affect Native Americans in the West?

How did the U. S. government affect Native Americans in the West How did the U.S. government affect Native Americans in the West? Notes #27

During the mid-1800s, the U.S. government began encouraging Americans to move west.

For example, the Homestead Act of 1862 was passed to encourage settlement of the West by providing free federal land to settlers. Great Plains

As settlers moved west, they came into conflict with Native Americans already living there.

Native Americans resisted settlers moving west, which caused the Indian Wars to occur from 1860 to 1890 between the U.S. and Native Americans. Sitting Bull

Massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota (December 29, 1890); about 200 Native American women and children were killed

After they were defeated, Native Americans were forced to live on reservations by the U.S. government.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School By the late 1800s, the U.S. government’s policy toward Native Americans was to destroy their tribal bonds and weaken their traditional cultural values. Students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, PA

For example, the Dawes Act of 1887 was passed to grant Native Americans farmland if they gave up their cultures, as part of a plan to assimilate them into American culture.   