Chapter 18 Section 3

 Starting in the mid-1850’s, miners, railroads, cattle drives, and farmers came to the Plains.  As each new group arrived, the Native Americans were dealt another blow  Most of the Plains Indians (Sioux, Comanche, Blackfeet) lived a nomadic life following herds of buffalo.  Plains Indian people who numbered the thousands, were divided into bands consisting of up to 500 people.  A governing council headed each band.

 Women reared the children, cooked, and prepared hides.  Men hunted, traded, and supervised the military life of the band.  Most Plains Indians practiced a religion based on the belief of the spiritual power of the natural world.

 The Plains Indians had millions of buffalo to supply their need.  After the Civil War, American hunters hired by the railroads began slaughtering the animals to feed the crews building the railroads.  The railroad companies also wanted to prevent herds from blocking the trains.  William Cody, hired by Kansas Pacific Railroad, once claimed that he had killed more than 4,000 buffalo in less than 18 months. He became known as Buffalo Bill.  Beginning in 1872, hunters targeted buffalo to sell hides to the East.

 Reservation Policy  In 1867, the federal government appointed the Indian Peace Commission to develop policy toward Native Americans.  The recommendation was to move Native Americans to a few large reservations – tracts of land set aside specifically for them.  One large reservation was in Oklahoma and another in the Dakota Territory. Managing the reservations was the job of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.  Some moved to reservations and other refused. The land that was set aside for reservations was often of poor quality. Some tried the reservation life and abandoned it.

 Conflict on the Plains  During the 1860’s many armed conflicts between Native Americans and whites took place.  Minnesota was the site of one especially bloody confrontation.  Sioux warriors, led by Little Crow, burned and looted white settlers’ homes in the summer of  Hundreds died before troops arrived and put down the uprising. The army continued to send patrols far out to the Northern Plains.  A branch of the Sioux, the nomadic Lakota, fought troops hard to keep their hunting grounds.

 In November 1864, Chief Black Kettle, brought several hundred Cheyenne to negotiate a peace deal. Colonel John Chivington led an attack on the unsuspecting Cheyenne. Hundreds of Cheyenne died.  Chief Black Kettle was enraged and provoked widespread uprisings.  The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors, staged a series of attacks from 1865 to  The bloodiest incident occurred on December 21, A Sioux leader, Crazy Horse, acted as a decoy and lured troops into a deadly trap. Crazy Horse acted as a decoy and an detachment of about 80 men followed him into an ambush.  The entire detachment was wiped out. This incident was known as Fetterman Massacre.

 Little Bighorn  The government promised that “No white person or persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy” or even “to pass through” the Black Hills of the Dakotas; however, the hills were rumored to contain gold.  In 1874, Custer led an army expedition to check on the rumors and confirmed there was gold. Prospectors swarmed the area.  The government then tried to buy the hills.  Sitting Bull, an important leader of the Lakota Sioux refused.  Sitting Bull gathered Sioux and Cheyenne warriors along the Little Bighorn River (present day Montana). They were joined by Crazy Horse, another Sioux chief, and his warriors.

 The army was ordered to round up the warriors and move them to reservations.  On June 25, 1876, Colonel George Custer, divided his regiment and attacked the Native Americans.  Custer, with about 250 soldiers, faced forces of thousands of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Custer and his entire command lost their lives.  The triumph at Little Bighorn did not last long.  The army soon defeated the uprising.  By 1881, exhausted and starving, the Lakota and Cheyenne agreed to live on a reservation.

 The Apache Wars  Most of the Apache had been moved to the San Carlos reservation in Arizona.  The Apache leader, Geronimo, escaped and fled to Mexico. He later, in the 1880’s, led raids against settlers and the army in Arizona.  In 1886, Geronimo was the last Native American to formally surrender to the United States.

 A Changing Culture  Many things contributed to changing the traditional way of life of the Native Americans: movement of whites to their land, the slaughter of the buffalo, the US army attacks, and the reservation policy  Other changes occurred when some reformers tried to abolish reservations and absorb Native Americans into white American culture.  The Dawes Act in1887 proposed to break up the reservations and to end identification with a tribal group. The goal was to encourage native peoples to become farmers and eventually, American citizens.

 Wounded Knee  In 1890, the Sioux, distraught as their way of life was being robbed from them, looked to a prophet, Wovoka, for advice.  Wovoka claimed that the Sioux could regain their former greatness if they performed a ritual known as the Ghost Dance.  Eventually, as the ritual spread, the reservation officials decided to ban the dance.  Believing that Sitting Bull was the leader of the movement, police went to arrest him. During a scuffle Sitting Bull was shot.  Several hundred Lakota Sioux fled and gathered at a creek called Wounded Knee. On December 29, 1890, the army went to collect the Sioux’s weapons. Fighting started and more than 300 Sioux and 25 soldiers were killed.