CULTURE CLASH
Plains Indians Culture
• Included dozens of nations, inc. Sioux, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, Pawnee, Apache, Comanche
• Advanced economy had trade between tribes 1000s of miles away.
• Two animals shaped their lives–Horses: Brought by Spanish.
Allowed more & faster travel. Made hunting possible
–Buffalo: Wal-Mart on hooves! Got everything they needed from bison
Products made of bison
• Food (meat)
• Shelter (skin)
• Clothes (skin)
• Weapons (bone)
• Religious needs (horns)
Social Life
• Men: Hunters, warriors, dads
• Women: Butchers, made goods
• Kids: Well-schooled in parents’ job
• Community: No one leader! Gov’t was by counsel - not by force
• Land: No private ownership
Battle of the Little Bighorn
• 1876• Col. George Custer leads 7th
Cavalry in attack on Sioux HQ• Charges into low ground• In less than 60 minutes, entire 7th
Cav is killed• Last major Sioux victory
• George Custer
How do you take the Indian out of the Indian?
How do you take the Indian out of the Indian?
• “Destroy the buffalo, and you’ll destroy the Indian” - WT Sherman
• Herd reduced to >1,000
• Dawes Act breaks up reservations & gives “private land” to Indians.
Ghost Dance & Wounded Knee
• 1890: Religious movement (Ghost Dance) tells Sioux it will return the old way of life.
• Some believe a magic shirt will stop US bullets
• US officials alarmed, order Sitting Bull’s arrest
Sitting Bull
• Battle of Wounded Knee (1890, SD)
–Sioux told to drop weapons, but someone fires
–US opens fire; 300 dead in 15 m.
–Sitting Bull assassinated
–Last of the Indian Wars
Development on the Plains
• Once bison cleared, cattle can graze on prairie grass
• New RR networks allow transport of beef to E. Coast
• Trails are blazed to railheads
Vaqueros = Buckaroos
• Cowboy culture pretty much ripped off from Mexicans– Chappereras = chaps– Charqui = jerky– Bronco Caballo = bronco– Mestenos = mustangs– Rancho = ranch
Getting cattle to market
• Chicago cattle dealer Joseph McCoy creates 1st “Cow Town” in Abilene
– Trails meet rails
– Feed lots & stock yards @ Abi.
– Slaughterhouses @ Chi.
End of the Open Range
• ?? How do you make a fence ??
• Invention of barbed wire makes it cheap to claim your “own” land
• Era of “wide open” West ends (except for on Nat. Am. Reservations)
