The Indian Problem

Introduction The advance of the mining frontier alarmed the Indians of the plains and mountains, who felt that they must fight to retain their hunting grounds. The result was a series of wars that ended only with the Indians herded onto a number of small reservations. Between 1865 and 1898, the Regular Army fought 943 actions in 12 separate campaigns.

The Early Wars, Two wars followed the Colorado Gold Rush – Cheyenne-Arapaho War – Sioux War,

Cheyenne-Arapaho War Began in 1861 when the tribes’ Colorado lands were overrun by miners. For the next three years the Indians raided stagecoaches, mining camps, and immigrant parties. The climax came in 1864 when the Indians, having sued for peace, returned to their camp on Sand Creek in eastern Colorado. They were overrun and almost 500 were killed.

Sand Creek Massacre, 1864 “The Cheyenne and Arapaho people continue to this day to view this as the greatest violent injustice ever committed against them.”

Sioux War, Began in 1865 as miners used the Indians’ favorite hunting grounds, a route designed to link Montana with the east. Between 1865 and 1867 war raged along the whole western plains area.

Fetterman Massacre As more and more wagon trains crossed the Great Plains and miners moved into present-day Colorado and Montana, the Oglala or Dakota Sioux Indians became increasingly belligerent toward trespassers on their hunting grounds. Harassed US Army units sent to build forts to protect Bozeman Trail, a shortcut from Fort Laramie in Wyoming to the gold mines in Montana. In 1866, the Sioux ambushed and slaughtered 83 soldiers ordered to rescue a besieged working party (Fetterman Massacre).

“Eyes torn out and laid on the rocks; teeth chopped out; joints of fingers cut off; brains taken out and placed on rocks, with members of the body; entrails taken out and exposed; hands and feet cut of; arms taken out from sockets; eyes, ears, mouth, and arms penetrated with spearheads, sticks, and arrows; punctures upon every sensitive part of the body, even to the soles of the feet and the palms of the hand.” From Col. Henry B. Carrington’s official report

Indian Peace Commission, 1867 Chief Red Cloud agreed to a peace treaty, the terms of which stipulated that the US Army abandon the forts on the Bozeman Trail and the trail itself. In turn, the Sioux would relinquish some of their territory and more to a reservation by All this was done, and the Sioux were relatively peaceful for several years

Two Reservations Set Up Oklahoma Reservation was set aside for the southern plains tribes as well as for the Five Civilized Tribes who had been moved to the area from the Southeast before the Civil War. Eventually 75,000 Indians from twenty- one tribes were settled there. Black Hills Reservation, in western Dakota, was assigned to the Sioux. Smaller ones were created in Colorado, Utah, Montana, and elsewhere. Several wars were fought between 1868 and 1874 before the Indians could be herded onto the reservations

Later Wars, Indian resentment at reservation life was responsible for a series of wars fought between 1875 and These forced another shift in Indian policy. – Sioux Wars, – Nez Perce, 1877 – Apache Wars,

Sioux Wars, Touched off by Black Hills gold rush into the Sioux reservation. A number of the Indians under Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were finally surrounded by federal troops on the Little Big Horn River in southeastern Montana. Were eventually defeated only after destroying a small detachment of soldiers under Colonel George A. Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Nez Perce War (1877) Fought in the Pacific Northwest by the Nez Perce tribe under Chief Joseph (Rolling- Thunder-Over-The-Mountains). After heroic resistance the Indians were finally defeated and assigned a reservation in Oklahoma

Apache War ( ) Fought against the Apache Indians of New Mexico and Arizona under their great chief Geronimo. Eventually the shattered remnants of the tribe were assigned small reservations in the Southwest

Sioux Wars in South Dakota, 1890 – 1891 December 15, Sitting Bull again stirred up unrest among his people against the white man. Trying to escape capture he was killed in a skirmish on the Grand River.

Wounded Knee, December 1890 On the Pine Ridge Sioux reservation in South Dakota, an American 7 th Cavalry force of 500, with cannons, massacred a captive Sioux band of 350, consisting of 230 women and children and 120 men, many of the men noncombatants, after a single shot had been fired. Sioux casualties included 150 to 200 dead and 50 to 100 injured; American casualties of 73 included an undetermined number of those killed and wounded by “friendly fire,” as the cavalry attacked while soldiers surrounded the camp were still firing on it.

The massacre occurred during the “Ghost Dance Wars.” While Sioux who had left their reservations were being forcibly returned to them. Those massacred at Wounded Knee were the main casualties of the “wars”.

Second Battle of Wounded Knee