1. Westward Expansion & the American Indians
Chapter 6/Section 2

2. Cultures Under Pressure

3. Indian vs. White Views of Nature

4. Government Promotes Assimilation
As buffalo vanished, American policy makes hoped Indians would become farmers & assimilate
Reformers criticized the government for the treatment of Indians
Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor
1887= Congressed passed the Dawes General Allotment Act
Replaced reservation system with allotment system
Each Indian family given 160-acre farmstead

5. Indians Threatened 1850s challenged American policy towards Indians
Due to discovery of gold/silver
Americans wanted a trans-continental railroad
Indians were forced onto reservations
No longer free to roam, faced poverty & suppression
Increased presence of white settlers led to:
Diseases & decimation of buffalo

6. New Settlers & Indians Clash
Began in 1862; group of Sioux Indians attacked Minnesota settlements
Led to full-scale war; Sioux pushed west into Dakotas
Led to series of attacks by other Plains Indians
1864= Colorado militia massacred Cheyenne & Arapaho Indians at Sand Creek
Sand Creek Massacre; Led to more warfare

7. Peace Plans Fail
Plans to build a road through Sioux hunting grounds intensified conflicts
Road was intended to connect gold-mining towns in Montana
1866= Red Cloud & followers massacred US troops
Fort Laramie Treaty (1868)= Road not built; Sioux agreed to move to reservation
Some Indians couldn’t live with in restricted areas
Indian agents of federal Bureau of Indian Affairs stole money/resources from tribe

8. The End of the Indian Wars
The Red River War= Ended the southern Plains Indians (Kiowas/Comanches)
Began with Indian attack on group of Texans in June of 1874
Battle of Little Big Horn
Black Hills Gold Rush of 1875 led settlers onto Sioux hunting grounds in Dakotas & Montana
Sioux led by Crazy Horse & Sitting Bull
June 1876= Colonel George Custer & 250 men massacred by 2,000 Indians; Crazy Horse led the attack at the Little Bighorn River, Montana

9. Battle of the Little Big Horn

10. The End of the Indian WArs
Chief Joseph & the Nez Perces= Idaho, 1877
The Nez Perces, dominantly Christian & successful horse/cattle breeders
Being forced off of their lands; Tried to move 1,300 miles to Canada
Wounded Knee & the Ghost Dance
Attempt to banish white settlers & restore the buffalo; became popular movement
Wounded Knee, South Dakota (1890)= Over 100 Indians massacred