1. 13.1 Native American Cultures in Crisis
Objectives:
1. Describe the culture of Native Americans living on the Great Plains
2. Contrast the cultures of white settlers and Natives and explain why the white settlers moved West.
3. Summarize the continuing conflict of white settlers moving West.
4. Identify the government’s policy on assimilation.

2. The Plains Indians Hunter/warrior societies form w/ horse and gun
Buffalo central to life
Independent, highly organized societies

3. ENVIRONMENTAL DECLINE  END OF AMERICAN INDIAN WAY OF LIFE
15 million buffalo reduced to 1,000 by 1885 Less Buffalo  Less food for American Indians Scarcity  Conflict among tribes and with Settlers Conflict Am. Indians put on Reservations

5. The Eventual Push The land ownership debate
White=legal claims/Indian=open for all to use
Legal system manipulated to give whites reason to move west to “unclaimed” land
Natives did not “improve” the land
Gold rush led to mass migration/towns forming. (1849 on)

7. START:
Miners,
Settlers,
Ranchers
Barb-wire and Fences
Buffalo
lose habitat
Over-hunted
Indians lose Buffalo
Indians weakened
Conflict with Whites #1
Railroad

8. Map: Transcontinental Railroads and Federal Land Grants, 1850-1900
Despite the laissez-faire ideology that argued against government interference in business, Congress heavily subsidized American railroads and gave them millions of acres of land. As illustrated in the box, belts of land were reserved on either side of a railroad's right of way. Until the railroad claimed the exact one-mile-square sections it chose to possess, all such sections within the belt remained closed to settlement.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

10. Homestead Act of 1862 160 acres for free IF
1. improve the land
2. pay $30
3. live there for 5 years OR
1. live there for 6 months
2. pay $1.25 an acre
500,000 families attempt homesteading, 2 out of 3 failed.
Corrupt corporations made biggest use of act for land-grabs.
Exodusters – Af. Americans leave south & settle in Kansas
SIGNIFICANCE: Encouraged rapid migration and made land and farms possible for many Americans without wealth.

11. Map: Settlement of the Trans-Mississippi West, 1860-1890
The West was not settled by a movement of peoples gradually creeping westward from the East. Rather, settlers first occupied California and the Midwest and then filled up the nation's vast interior.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

12. Dawes Act 1887 Assimilation
Breakup of reservations to agriculture/take best land for whites
Schools (“kill the Indian, save the man”)
Buffalo wiped out on purpose 
Battle of Wounded Knee after Sitting Bull’s death stems from Ghost Dance hysteria.
“Buffalo Bill” Cody

13. Indian School

14. Indian “Pacification”
US Govt. signs treaties with Native Americans  Led to Reservation System (= Boundaries)
PROBLEM: Ignored reality of migration of tribes, buffalo and especially settlers
BROKEN PROMISES: US did not respect terms of treaties, violated its own “boundaries” and failed to provide security and food to tribes.

15. Fighting in the Plains 1866: 81 soldiers & settlers killed Bozeman, MT
1868: Fort Laramie Treaty, govt. abandon’s Bozeman Trail
1874: Col. Custer creates gold rush to Black Hills, SD, sacred to Sioux. Sitting Bull destroys Custer’s command at Little Big Horn
1877: Nez Perce lands appropriated for gold. Nez Perce flee on 1700 mile trek to Canada. Stopped and sent to Kansas, where 40% died of disease.
Geronimo leads resistance of Apache in South West.
NOTE: 20% of US troops were Buffalo Soldiers

16. Sand Creek Massacre November, 1864:
Cheyenne are forced to a barren area of Colorado
Begin to raid local trails for food and supplies
Col. Chivington’s militia massacre 400+ women and children at Sand Creek, CO
"I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians.“ – Col. Chivington

17. 1890: Battle of Wounded Knee
Sioux believed in the Ghost Dance
Wovoka promised a Sioux revival if they performed this dance
Soldiers arrested about 350 starving and freezing Sioux and took them to Wounded Knee Creek in S.D.
MASSACRE: Federal Cavalry kills over 300

20. Wounded Knee Sitting Bull’s death stems from Ghost Dance hysteria.
Systematic wiping out pretty much complete by end of 19th century.

22. ANALYSIS: IMPACT OF SETTLEMENT ON NATIVE AMERICANS
FACTORS/ EVENTS
Examples
US Govt. and Settlers
Native Americans
OUTCOME
Westward Push/
Resistance
Assimilation
Ghost Dance

23. TERMS Great Plains Homestead Act Exoduster Sand Creek Massacre
Sitting Bull
George A. Custer
Assimilation
Dawes Act
Ghost Dance
Battle of Wounded Knee
Objectives:
1. Describe the culture of Native Americans living on the Great Plains
2. Contrast the cultures of white settlers and Natives and explain why the white settlers moved West.
3. Summarize the continuing conflict of white settlers moving West.
4. Identify the government’s policy on assimilation.