1. US – NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS America’s Shame

2. BROKEN PROMISES 1830’s – Indian Removal Act 1850’s – Gold and Silver
Development of RR
1860’s –
Homestead Act
Slaughter of
Buffalo

3. Native Americans React
Sioux attack on settlements in Minnesota
- defeated and moved to Dakotas
1864 – Sand Creek Massacre
- US troops opened fire on unarmed Cheyenne and Apache Indians
Post Civil War – US troops sent west to subdue natives
- paid by plunder

4. LITTLE BIG HORN
CUSTER V. SITTING BULL

5. Battle of Little Big Horn (Custer’s Last Stand)
June 25 and 26, 1876, two divergent cultures clashed in a life or death struggle.
Four hundred years of struggle between Euro-Americans and Native Americans culminated on this ground.
12 companies of Seventh Cavalry were defeated by Lakota (Sioux), Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors.

6. Memorial
In 1879, the Little Bighorn Battlefield was designated a national cemetery administered by the War Department.
In 1881, a memorial was erected on Last Stand Hill, over the mass grave of the Seventh Cavalry soldiers, U.S. Indian Scouts, and other personnel killed in battle.
Honored only the U.S. Army's soldiers, with headstones marking where each fell.
The fallen Lakota and Cheyenne warriors were removed by their families, and "buried" in the Native American tradition, in teepees or tree-scaffolds nearby in the Little Bighorn Valley.

7. Memorial
In 1991, the U. S. Congress changed the name of the battlefield and ordered the construction of an Indian Memorial. 
"Forty Years ago I fought Custer till all were dead. I was then the enemy of the Whitemen. Now I am the friend and brother, living in peace together under the flag of our country." Two Moons, Northern Cheyenne

8. Indian Memorial, Montana

9. Defeat of Sioux ended wars
WOUNDED KNEE, SD 1890
Ghost Dance ritual of the Sioux, led by Sitting Bull, alarmed military leaders
Sitting Bull killed
Sioux rounded up and brought to a camp at Wounded Knee
Shot fired that began a massacre
unarmed Sioux killed
- many were women and children
- bodies left frozen on ground
Defeat of Sioux ended wars

11. Dawes Act, 1887
Granted citizenship to any Native American willing to leave tribal lands
Also awarded land grants
In return, Native American had to give up their culture and become assimilated with American life

12. RESERVATION LIFE
About 22% of our country’s 5.2 million Native Americans live on tribal lands (2010 U.S. Census).
Living conditions on the reservations have been cited as "comparable to Third World,“
The overall percentage of American Indians living below the federal poverty line is 28.2%
American Indians living below poverty on the reservations is even greater, reaching 38% to 63%  

13. RESERVATION LIFE
Many American Indians are living in substandard housing.
About 40% of on-reservation housing is considered inadequate
It is not uncommon for 3 or more generations to live in a two-bedroom home with inadequate plumbing, kitchen facilities, cooling, and heating. Running water, telephones, and electricity are not available or not affordable.  

14. HEALTH CONCERNS
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for American Indians
36% of Natives with heart disease will die before age 65 compared to 15% of Caucasians
American Indians are 177% more likely to die from diabetes
500% are more likely to die from tuberculosis
82% are more likely to die from suicide
Cancer rates and disparities related to cancer treatment are higher than for other Americans
Infant death rates are 60% higher than for Caucasians