1.1 Part One Cultures Clash on the Prairie Essential Questions: Identify three differences between the culture of the Native Americans and the culture.

1.1 Part OneCultures Clash on the Prairie

Essential Questions:Identify three differences between the

culture of the Native Americans and the culture of the white settlers on the

Great Plains.How effective was the Dawes Act in promoting the assimilation of Native

Americans into white culture?

The Culture of the Plains Indians

• Most easterners in the early years of the US picture the land west of the Mississippi a vast desert occupied by savage tribes – But they were wrong on both accounts

• The land west of the Mississippi actually was made of large grasslands extending through the west-central portion of the US called the Great Plains

• In fact though, the native tribes of the Great Plains region had highly developed societies

Tribes

• To the east, near the lower Missouri River, tribes such as the Osage and Iowa had, for more than a century, hunted and planted crops and settled in small villages

• Farther west, nomadic tribes such as the Sioux and Cheyenne gathered wild foods and hunted buffalo

• People of the Plains traded and produced beautifully crafted tools and clothing

Range of the Plains tribes before European invasion

The Horse and the Buffalo

• After the Spanish brought horses to New Mexico in 1598, the Native American way of life began to change– They were able to travel further – After gaining guns, they were able to hunt more

efficiently– By the mid 1700s, almost al the tribes on the

Great Plains had left their home to roam the plains and hunt buffalo

Horses’ Effect on Tribes• Their increased mobility often led to war when

hunters in one tribe trespassed on other tribes’ hunting grounds

• War parties and raids– A way for young men to gain prestige– Gained honor for slaying enemies– “counting coup” – touching an enemy with a coup

stick and running away unharmed

• Tribes at a truce would trade and share in the harvest

The feather on the coup displayed the number of touches a warrior had

Buffalo Effect on Tribe• Tepees were made from buffalo hide• Skin was used to make clothing, shoes, and

blankets• The meat was dried into jerky or mixed with

berries and fat to make a staple food called pemmican

Nothing Goes to Waste

Family Life• Native Americans in the Plains usually lived in small

extended family groups with ties to other bands that spoke the same language

• Men trained to be warriors, while women helped butcher the game and prepare the hides

• They believed spirits controlled the natural world– For those who showed a sensitivity to the spirits, they would be

made a medicine man/woman

• Behavior was developed through story telling, games, myths, and example

• Leaders of tribes ruled by counsel, not force and land was held in common for the use of the whole tribe

Stump Horn and his family (Cheyenne) with a horse and travois, or a frame structure that was used by Plains Indians of North America, to drag loads over land, ca. 1871–1907

Settlers Push Westward

• Differences between Plains Indians and settlers:– Indians – land cannot be owned– Settlers – thought Indians forfeited the land since

they never settled it

• Thus, this land was viewed as “unsettled”• Settlers began moving westward to stake a

claim in land

Manifest Destiny

• Based on this image, how would you define manifest destiny?

The Lure of Silver and Gold• The prospect of “striking it rich” was a powerful

attraction to the west• In 1858, gold was discovered in Colorado drawing

in tens of thousands of minors• Most mining camps were filthy with rows of tents

on dirt “streets” with wooden sidewalks – the first destruction of this beautiful land

• Irish, German, polish, Chinese, and African-American men (some women) crowded the camps

The Government Restricts Native American Land

• In 1834, the federal government passed an act that designated the entire Great Plains as one enormous reservation for tribal groups

• In the 1850s, however, the government changed its policy and created treaties that defined specific boundaries for each tribe

• But . . . Most tribes ignored the restrictions and hunted on their original land clashing with the miners and settlers – sometime tragically

Massacre at Sand Creek 1864• In the winter of 1864, the Cheyenne had

peacefully settled in the Colorado Sand Creek Reserve – “under protection of the government”

• US Army General Curtis sent a telegram to colonel Chivington exclaiming “I want no peace till the Indians suffer more”

• At dawn on November 29, Chivington and his troops descended on the group of 200 warriors and 500 women and children killing over 150 (mostly women and children)

The Sand Creek Massacre

Death on the Bozeman Trail• The Bozeman Trail ran directly through Sioux

hunting grounds• Chief Red Cloud tried to appeal to the gov’t to

end the white settlement on the trail• In Dec. 1866, the warrior Crazy Horse

ambushed Captain William J. Fetterman and his men at Lodge Trail Ridge killing over 80 men

• Whites called this the Fetterman Massacre, while the Native Americans called it the Battle of the Hundred Slain

The Treaty of Fort Laramie• Skirmished continued over the Bozeman Trail• But in 1868, the government forced the Sioux

to live on a reservation along the Missouri river

• They agreed and this was called the Treaty of Fort Laramie

• Sitting Bull, leader of one of the Sioux tribes, never signed it – In addition, two other Sioux groups, who had signed, expected to keep using their traditional hunting grounds

The Red River War• For six years the Kiowa and Comanche engaged

in raiding sprees and battles that led to the Red River War of 1874-1875

• The US responded by herding the people of friendly tribes onto reservations while opening fire on all others

• Destroy their villages and ponies, kill and hang all warriors, and bring back all women and children – General Phillip Sheridan, Union Army veteran

Gold Rush• In 1874, Colonel George A. Custer reported

that gold was in the Black Hills “from the grass roots down”– Miners began searching the Black Hills for gold

• The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho protested to no avail

• Red Cloud and Spotted Tail appealed again to government officials in Washington as a gold rush threatened the natives again in the region

Custer’s Last Standaka The Battle of Little Big Horn

• In June 1876 Custer and his troops reached the Little Big Horn River – Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull and their warriors were ready

and waiting due to a prophecy seen by Sitting Bull of the approaching army

• Within an hours, Custer and all of his men were dead• By late 1876, however, the Sioux were beaten• Sitting Bull fled to Canada, but was forced back to

prevent his people’s starving by surrendering– He was killed in 1890 by Police

Fallout from Battle at Little Big Horn• Two weeks later, the US government declared that,

“due to the Indians' warlike behavior”, the Fort Laramie Treaty was invalid and the Sioux were expected to relinquish all claim to the Black Hills

• They were then rounded up and confined to army forts where their ponies and rifles were confiscated

• In September, the Sioux were presented with a document giving the US all of the Black Hills and 22.8 million acres of surrounding territory, granting rights-of-way across what was left of the Great Sioux Reservation, and ending all hunting rights outside the reservation

The Government Supports Assimilation

• While some people supported the Native Americans and wanted to see them remain on their home lands, many feared that the only way for them to survive was if they assimilated – A plan under which Native Americans would give

up their beliefs and way of life and become part of the white culture

The Dawes Act• 1887 – Congress passes the Dawes Act which aimed

to “Americanize” the Native Americans– It also broke up their land and gave ownership to

individual Native Americans• 160 acres to each head of the household• 80 acres to every unmarried adult

– The rest of the land would be sold to settlers• The money made from farming on this land would be given to

the Native Americans

• But . . . By 1932, whites had taken about 2/3rds of the land set aside for Native Americans, and none of the money was given to them

The Destruction of the Buffalo• It can be argued that the most significant blow to

the tribal way of life was the destruction of the buffalo

• Tourists and fur traders killed them for sport while the Natives used every part for many aspects of their daily life and routine

• In 1800, approximately 65 million buffalo roamed the plains – By 1890, fewer than 1000 remained – And in 1900 a single herd left was sheltered in Yellowstone National Park

Making a Small Rebound• Today there are close to 200,000 living buffalo in the wild due to

gov’t protection programs

Wounded Knee• December 28, 1890

– 7th Cavalry (Custers old group) rounds up 350 starving and freezing Sioux and take them to a camp at Wounded Knee Creek in SD

• December 29– Soldiers demand they all give up their weapons– A shot is fired (not known which side)– Soldiers open fire on a now weaponless groups– Within minutes more than 300 unarmed Native

Americans are killed– The corpses are left to freeze on the ground

• What do you notice in this photo taken after the massacre?

Wounded Knee Massacre

Answer each question on your own paper under where you wrote the

question earlierEssential Questions:• Identify three differences between the culture

of the Native Americans and the culture of the white settlers on the Great Plains.

• How effective was the Dawes Act in promoting the assimilation of Native Americans into white culture?