U.S. Government and the Indians

U.S. Government and the Indians

• The U.S. Government dealt with Native Americans in 4 ways:– Assimilation– Removal– Relocation– Sovereignty

Assimilation

• The U.S. government would try to force Natives to act and live like white people.

• “Kill the Indian, save the man.”• Ways to do this

– Indian Farms– Boarding schools for native children– Missionaries to convert them to Christianity

Assimilation

Dawes Act (1887)• Goal of the Dawes Act: to get Native Americans to live like white

Americans– Reservations were broken up into "allotments" that were given out to individual families.– Families were supposed to farm and build homes on their allotment to support

themselves– Land that wasn't given to a family was sold by the US government to white farmers

• It failed:– Some of the land was unsuitable for farming & ranching– Some refused to adopt a different way of life– Some sold their land to white settlers, but others were upset that their land was given

away

Assimilation

• Throughout the United States Indian Schools were set up to “civilize” the Indians. They would take Indian children away from their families and home and force them to change their religion and culture. In Utah the Mormons were not as harsh as other parts of the U.S.

Removal

• Indian Removal Act• Trail of Tears• Primary source readings and questions.

Removal

• Native Americans were also removed by being pushed from the land– Settlers– Wagon trains– Gold Rush– Railroads– Farming lands

Removal in Utah

• Goshute War – 1860– Goshutes started attacking Stage Coach stations in Utah and

Nevada.– Seven stations were destroyed in Utah.– U.S. Army attacked the Goshutes.

• At Simpson Springs, the army surrounded and slaughtered an entire Indian camp of men, women and children.

– Over 100 Indians were killed. Only 16 whites were killed.

Removal in Utah– Bear River Massacre – Many people traveling west past

Utah, shot at and frightened friendly Shoshone Indians. Then small groups of Shoshone then started attacking wagon trains. U.S. soldiers, led by Patrick Connor, attacked and massacred about 300 men, women and children.

– Mormon settlers who witnessed the battle were sickened by the sight and disappointed in the U.S. Army for what they did.

Watch the Video Clip

Relocation (the 2nd phase of removal)

• Native American groups were forced to move to Indian Reservations:– 1839 – Cherokees and others forced to move to

Oklahoma/Kansas Reservation– 1861 – President Lincoln creates the Uinta Valley Indian

Reservation where the Utes were forced to go.– 1884 – Navajo Indian Reservation created.– 1891 – Shivwitz Reservation created and Paiutes were forced

to move there.

Relocation- Before the Pioneers came, the Utes controlled 45% of Utah’s land, after they were put on

reservations they only controlled 9% of their former lands. (about 4% of Utah land).

Shoshone

UTESGoshutes

Paiutes

Navajo

Sovereignty

• Tribes were given the power to govern themselves on Reservation lands (a nation within a nation).

• In 1934, NativeAmericans won the right to haveTribal councils.

Battle of Little Big Horn -1876• Federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (1839-

76) against a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors• Tensions between the two groups had been rising since the discovery of gold

on Native American lands• When a number of tribes missed a federal deadline to move to reservations,

the U.S. Army, including Custer and his 7th Calvary, was dispatched to confront them.

• Custer was unaware of the number of Indians fighting under the command of Sitting Bull at Little Bighorn, and his forces were outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed in what became known as Custer's Last Stand.

Military Conflict

Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)• Members of the Sioux Tribe felt that their culture had been destroyed

– Financially dependent on the US government for their annuities, unable to support themselves by hunting buffalo

• Ghost Dance offered hope– Believed that if everyone followed the Ghost Dance rituals that their culture and power would be

restored and the white people would leave • US troops felt threatened by large gatherings of Sioux men and their families• US troops fired on a group of Sioux gathered for the Ghost Dance, killing

dozens of men, women and children