The Untold Story of American

Genocide

The End of Native

American Life in North

America

• Massive reduction in the indigenous population of North America has been a defining factor in American Indian history. Historians estimate that the Indian population stood at 10 million during the 1600s. By 1865, however, just 300,000 remained. Disease and near-constant warfare among Indian tribes and between native peoples and the United States decimated indigenous tribes during this period.

• After the Civil War, the United States relocated most American Indians west of the Mississippi River. In the West, the federal government maintained armed forts and other posts to protect white settlers and travelers. The federal government recalled most of these troops to fight in the Civil War. As a result, there was an increase in Indian attacks against the posts.

So where are we….• We have miners, ranchers, and most of all, farmers

coming into the West in huge numbers• One small problem….• NATIVE AMERICANS ALREADY LIVE THERE• Plains Indians have lived there for thousands of

years living as nomads—people who move from place to place

• Why would they be nomads? What were they following?

• BUFFALO!

So what does the US govt. do?

• The US Army sanctioned and actively endorsed the wholesale slaughter of bison herds.

• The US Federal government promoted bison hunting for various reasons, to allow ranchers to range their cattle without competition from other bovines, and primarily to weaken the North American Indian population by removing their main food source and to pressure them onto the reservations.

General Philip Sheridan• "Let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffalo

is exterminated, as it is the only way to bring lasting peace and allow civilization to advance.“

Market Hunters• Professional marksmen to went West• Buffalo hide could draw $3 in Dodge City (a huge

winter coat could bring $50) at a time when most workers in the East made $1 per day

• Commercial hunting killed between 2,000 and 100,000 buffalo per day

• Used a .50 gun…shot so many times each rifleman would keep two to let one cool down

• Hire men to retrieve the bullets from the buffalo carcasses

Hunting by Rail

1870

Wild West Show, 1890Buffalo Bill Cody

Click me for this like super awesome video about buffalo

thingz

How do the Natives Americans respond?

• Indian leaders would order attacks on wagons, stagecoaches, and farmers.

• The U.S. government eventually had the Indians relocate to reservations.

The Sioux Indians• This group of Native Americans would be the biggest

problem for the U.S.• Three famous chiefs were:

1. Red Cloud2. Crazy Horse3. Sitting Bull

• Many battles occurred between the U.S. Army and the Sioux:

1. Fetterman’s Massacre 80 soldiers dead2. Sand Creek Massacre 14 soldiers died3. Little Big Horn 210 soldiers died4. Wounded Knee 25 soldiers died

Fetterman’s Massacre• 1866• US Army was building forts along a gold trail headed

towards Montana• Crazy Horse – religious leader and war chief

VS• Captain William Fetterman

• "With eighty men, I can ride through the entire Sioux nation" - Captain William Fetterman

• "Support the wood train. Relieve it and report to me. Do not engage or pursue Indians at its expense. Under no circumstances pursue over the ridge, that is, Lodge Trail Ridge" - written orders from Colonel Carrington to Captain Fetterman.

80 US troops

die

Massacre?Really?

Why that word?

Mutilation & Indians – Eyes, Ears, Biceps, & Scalps

All the bodies were mutilated except for that of a bugler. Sioux warriors later explained that the young soldier had carried on fighting using his bugle to beat off the Sioux warriors, while the older men around him gave up and begged for mercy. The Sioux covered the young soldier in a buffalo hide to signify their respect for his bravery.

Sand Creek Massacre• Native Americans had killed up to 200 settlers in

Colorado• Governor told the Indians to come to Fort Lyon and

surrender or they would be killed• Chief Black Kettle brought hundreds of Cheyenne to

the Fort to make a peace treaty• Cheyenne make camp at Sand Creek awaiting word• General John Chivington decides that because they

had been attacking settlers, then they too should be attacked…including women and children

• Between 69-600 Native Americans killed

•Black Kettle•Practicing pacifist•Was out hunting when the raid began•Raised both American and white flagged•Ignored

• John Chivington• Methodist minister

and Civil War hero• Massacred both

women and children of a peacefully camped tribe• Left the army

immediately before charges could be filed

Sand Creek Testimony“I saw the bodies of those lying there cut

all to pieces, worse mutilated than any I ever saw before; the women cut all to pieces ... With knives; scalped; their

brains knocked out; children two or three months old; all ages lying there, from

sucking infants up to warriors ... By whom were they mutilated? By the United

States troops ...”

Sand Creek Testimony “Fingers and ears were cut off the bodies for the jewelry they carried. The body of White Antelope, lying solitarily in the creek bed, was a prime target. Besides scalping him the soldiers cut off his nose,

and ears…”

Sand Creek Testimony “Jis to think of that dog Chivington and his dirty

hounds, up thar at Sand Creek. His men shot down squaws, and blew the brains out of little innocent

children. You call sich soldiers Christians, do ye? And Indians savages? What der yer 'spose our Heavenly

Father, who made both them and us, thinks of these things? I tell you what, I don't like a hostile red skin any more than you do. And when they are hostile, I've fought 'em, hard as any man. But I never yet

drew a bead on a squaw or papoose, and I despise the man who would.”

Last Chance for Peace• 1867 – US Government forms the Indian Peace

Commission – proposed moving all remaining Indians onto two large reservations in the north and south plains

• Doomed for failure? Why?• When Indian leaders signed they couldn’t ensure all

of their people would abide by the rules.• White miners didn’t follow rules either…• Also—reservations systems were full of corruption

by the white guys, and many of the Indians left the reservation because of a lack of basic necessities.

Battle of Little Bighorn• 1876 – Miners begin overrunning the Sioux

reservation in the Black Hill of the Dakota Territory• Americans broke treaty, so many of the Lakota left to

hunt buffalo at Little Bighorn Mountain• On June 25th, 1876 Colonel George Custer attacked a

group of 2,500 Indians.• Custer and his officers shot their horses and laid

behind them for cover.• All 210 of Custer’s men (including himself) were all

killed.• It was very popular for Indians to scalp their victims

after death.

Custer’s Last Stand Re-EnactmentBy Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show

Last Major Conflict• Battle at Wounded Knee – the last major Indian

conflict• The Ghost Dance had been outlawed• Sitting Bull arrested for leading a Ghost Dance• Indians try to stop arrest, gunfight ensues, Sitting

bull killed by police officer (who was a Lakota)• Group of Ghost Dancers fled the reservation• Army attacks at Wounded Knee Creek and 200

Lakota men, women, and children die

Indian Bodies at Wounded Knee

Burial

One Last Video :)

Dawes Act• This was passed by Congress in 1887.• Dawes Act – Indians assimilated into the American

culture.• It allowed each family of Indians to have 160 acres

and another 40 for children.• This plan ultimately failed.• Indians go from nomadic buffalo hunters to farmers.

Congress finally passed the Citizenship Act in 1924 that allowed Indians to be citizens.

• A few states did not grant citizenship until after WWII.• The Indian Reorganization Act reversed the Dawes

Act and restored ancient Indian lands to the tribes.

Major Henry Clay Wood “I recognize the fact that the Indian must yield

to the white man but power is not justice, force is not law.”