Native Americans and Closing the Frontier

Chapter 16, p. 487-489; 498-504 What role did the railroad play in the “closing” of the West?How did relationships with natives change between 1870-1890?What were significant battles in the “Indian Wars”?What were results of movement West?

The Mexican-American WarEvery solution to the problem of slavery created controversy in the new

territories: • David Wilmot (Democrat) introduced an amendment to an appropriations

bill regarding the West known as the Wilmot Proviso, which said slavery should be outlawed in all territory other than Texas ceded to the US by Mexico. – Supported by Northern Dems, rejected by the South

• Zachary Taylor’s presidential (Whig) victory in 1848 had no clear agenda on slavery – Westward expansion took place at at such a rapid pace that politicians

could no longer afford not to come up with a distinct decision regarding slavery

• In January 1848, gold was discovered in Sutter’s Mill, a tiny mountain town in California, creating the so-called “gold rush”– Almost 50,000 people moved west in 1850 alone– The increasing expansion into the territories of the West, largely due to

the gold rush, made the search for compromise all the more frantic.

Political aftermath in the WestThe issue of slavery in these expanding territories raised questions of

constitutionality:

• John C. Calhoun and his followers said that since slaves were property, they should be protected in all areas by the Constitution– Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and slaveholders

could take their slaves anywhere they wished.

• Northerners believed that federal regulation of slavery meant that there should not be any slavery in new territories. – Constitution gave Congress the power to "make all needful rules

and regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United States."

• Politicians searched for a middle ground but were stuck in a political deadlock.

The “Reservations”• Andrew Jackson’s reservation policies,

beginning with the Indian Removal Act (1830), were based on the belief that land west of the Mississippi would remain Native territories (“Trans-Mississippi west”)

• However, with the Oregon Trail and subsequent land acquisitions, American settlement in the far west was inevitable

• In 1848-1851, U.S. gov’t negotiated treaties with natives at Fort Laramie and Fort Atkinson, setting aside large tracts of land (reservations) with boundaries to remain untouched by white settlers

• But as early as 1860, the US abandoned its policy of treating much of the West as a large Indian reserve, and introduced a system of small, separate tribal reservations, where the Indians were to be concentrated.

• Some tribes peacefully accepted their fate, but other tribes, with a total population of over 100,000, resisted.

Destruction of the Plains Buffalo• As Western Expansion grew, it became

clear that the goals of American expansionists conflicted with the needs of the Indians in the area of expansion.

• About two-thirds of western tribes lived on the Great Plains

• In the 1700s, agriculture was largely traded for hunting of buffalo and skilled horsemanship

• Little understanding of the Plains’ peoples lives in loose tribal organizations and nomadic lifestyles led to certain destruction by whites moving west

• Many of the Plains tribes depended on the buffalo for survival. Several tribes followed the buffalo migration, harvesting only what was needed for survival.

– Every part of the buffalo was used in respect to the animal. Meat, hide for clothing and shelter, sinews for bowstrings and bones for tools and weapons.

• By the 1870s, however, the buffalo population was on the decline.

• Non-Indians killed the buffalo for their pelts, to feed railroad construction crews, or even just for the pure sport of it.

• Army commanders who operated in the West often attempted to drive the Indians off of desired lands by killing the buffalo as a way to deprive the Indians of supplies.

• Between 1872 and 1875, only three years, hunters killed 9 million buffalo, most often taking the skin and leaving the carcass to rot in waste.

• By the 1880s the Indian way of life was ruined and the way was cleared for American settlement of the Plains

“Indian Wars”• Early skirmishes and violent

massacres prompted the US government to set aside two large areas in 1867, one North of Nebraska, and one south of Kansas, in which they hoped the nomadic tribes would finally settle.

• The government used the threat of force to convince the tribes to comply, and at first, many did, signing treaties them relocated them to these tracts.

• However, many Indians refused to be confined to reservations:

– raiding settlements – Raiding of railroads and wagoners– attacking troops

•

As thousands of Americans headed west as miners, cattlemen, and homesteaders, clashes with natives were inevitable

•1864: Colorado militia massacre Cheyenne encampment•1867: Sand Creek Massacre•Sioux War 1865-1867: Sioux warriors defeat a large army, leading to more treaties/protection of native land•White settlers and gold miners refuse to stay off reservations where gold was found, leading to new incitement of violence

1870s: final Indian Wars

• Red River War against Comanche (1864); hundreds of natives killed

• Second Sioux War, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse

• Geronimo’s guerilla warfare in the American southwest

• Chief Joseph’s defeat of General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn, 1876

“Buffalo soldiers” in the West• In the frontier West, about 20% of the U.S.

Cavalry troops were black. These black soldiers were given the name “Buffalo Soldiers” by the Plains Indians

• It is said Indians gave them this name due to their curly, dark hair, which resembled the fur of a buffalo.

• Another theory claims that Buffalo Soldiers fought like fierce, enraged buffalo. Either way, Buffalo Soldiers took the name with pride.

Black soldiers served throughout the West. Their job was to keep order among cowboys, homesteaders, townspeople, buffalo hunters, horse thieves, and highly mobile bands of Desert and Plains Indians – whose raids grew more daring and desperate as their primary food source, buffalo, was hunted to near extinction.

Battle of Little Bighorn(Custer's Last Stand or the Battle of the Greasy Grass)

• No instance of Indian resistance engendered more passion than the conflict between the Sioux and the US Army in the northern Plains.

• Indian agents (U.S. military units) in the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana tried to control the Sioux, many of who entered and left the reservations at will.

• The US Army responded in 1874 by sending a force under Colonel George Armstrong Custer into the hills of South Dakota (Black Hills).

• When gold was discovered in the region, the federal government announced that Custer's forces would hunt down all Sioux not in reservations after January 31, 1876.

• Many Sioux refused to comply, and Custer began to mobilize his troops.

• At the battle of Little Bighorn, in June 1876, Custer unwisely divided his troops, and a numerically superior force of Indians wiped out him and all of his men.

• After this crushing defeat, the army took a different tack, harassing Sioux bands in a war of attrition. These tactics were generally successful against the Sioux and throughout the West, and the Indians gradually lost the will to resist.

Famous Faces

Sitting Bull (Sioux/Lakota)• Born in what is now South Dakota, the son of a

warrior; most of his life was shaped by the struggles against an expanding American nation.

• In 1865, he led an attack on the newly built Fort Rice and became chief of the Lakota nation in 1868.

• After gold was discovered in the Black Hills, a sacred land, the U.S. took back their promises to protect it.

– White prospectors rushed into the Sioux lands and the U.S. declared war on any native tribes that prevented it from taking over the land. Sitting Bull refused to abide by these rules.

• In June 1876, he led successful battles against American forces, including the now famous Battle at Little Bighorn. The Army doubled its efforts to take control of the territory.

– To escape violence, Sitting Bull led his people into Canada, where they remained for four years.

• In 1881 Sitting Bull returned to the Dakota Territory, where he was held prisoner until 1883. In 1885, after befriending Annie Oakley, he joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show.

"[I] would rather die an Indian than live a white man.”

Famous Faces

Chief Joseph (Nez Perce)

• Born in Oregon Territory, his father the tribal chief who had positive relations with whites (even converted to Christianity).

• In 1855, his father forged a new treaty that created a new reservation for the Nez Percé.

– After gold was discovered on the reservation, white prospectors began to stream onto their lands; U.S. government took back most of the land and offered resettlement plan.

• Before the move, some of the Nez Perce killed white settlers. Chief Joseph understood there would be brutal repercussions;

• Over four months, Joseph and his 700 followers went on a 1,400-mile march toward Canada. The journey included several impressive victories against a U.S. force that numbered more than 2,000 soldiers.

• Within 40 miles of the Canadian border, the group was too beaten and starving to continue to fight. Chief Joseph surrendered to his enemy, delivering one of the great speeches in American history—“I Will Fight No More Forever.”

“From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

Famous Faces

Geronimo (Apache)• Born in Mexico, Geronimo and the Apaches

faced the Mexican government’s bounty on Apache scalps, offering as much as $25 for a child's scalp.

– Geronimo became a warrior leader, working with a force to hunt down the Mexican soldiers who killed his family and people

• By the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the U.S. took over large tracts of territory from Mexico, including areas belonging to the Apache.

• Spurred by the discovery of gold in the Southwest, settlers and miners streamed in Apache lands. Apaches attacked with brutal ambushes on stagecoaches and wagon trains.

– After ten years, Apache chief Cochise, agreed to the establishment of a reservation for his people on a prized piece of Apache property.

• After his death, US ended the agreement, starting another round of attacks by Geronimo. He was caught in 1877, but escaped 1881.

1881-1886 last of the Indian wars against the U.S.; at one point nearly a quarter of the Army's forces were trying to hunt him down. In summer 1886, he and his followers were captured and spent 27 years as prisoners of war.

"I should never have surrendered...I should have fought until I was the last man alive."

Ghost Dance Movementand Wounded Knee

• In 1889 Native Americans began to take up the Ghost Dance, a new religious movement incorporated into many natives’ belief systems; the basis for the Ghost Dance is the circle dance, is a traditional ritual.

• The movement began with the Sioux prophet Wovoka in 1880; he believed proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with the spirits of the dead and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to native peoples throughout the region.

• As the Ghost Dance swept the Plains, Sioux Indians gathered in bands wearing Ghost Shirts and performing the ritual, reaffirming their own culture.

• Indian officials and military authorities were suspicious of the movement and attempted to arrest chief Sitting Bull, a Sioux war hero whose cabin had become the center of the movement.

– In a skirmish outside the cabin, Sitting Bull was accidentally shot.

• Practice of the Ghost Dance movement was believed to have contributed to Lakota Indians’ famous resistance:

• December 29, 1890, 300 Indians were slaughtered by American troops at Wounded Knee.

• This massacre was the symbolic end to Indian resistance; the Plains Indians were essentially conquered and moved into reservations throughout the next decade.

Assimilationist Policy(“Kill the Indian, Save the Man”)

• Many took a more beneficent view of the Plains Indians, seeing it as their duty to Christianize and modernize the "savages" on the reservations.

• Board of Indian Commissioners gave the task of reform to Protestant leaders. Though cloaked in goodwill, the purpose was to break the nomadic tradition of the Indians and make “permanent and productive members of the reservations”

• Other attempts were made throughout the late 1800s to "save" the Indians. Richard H. Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania to equip Indians with the skills and culture necessary for integration into white society.

• However, the school uprooted Indians from their homes and refused to respect various Indian cultures in “cultural reeducation”

• The movement to “civilize” the Indians was infused with a sense of cultural superiority. Pratt explained that that goal of the Carlisle School was to “kill the Indian and save the man”

• After Indian resistance died out, many did try to adapt to non-Indian ways. Few succeeded completely, and many were emotionally devastated at being forced to abandoned age-old traditions.

• On reservations, Indian traditions, social organization, and modes of survival were broken down.

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)• Others suggested that the best thing

for natives was to integrate them into white society, instituting concepts like private property and making the Indians less culturally distinct.

• These concerns were expressed in the 1887 Dawes Severalty Act, which called for the breakup of the reservations and the treatment of Indians as individuals rather than tribes.

– Severalty: division of land into private property

• The Severalty Act was supposed to “stimulate assimilation of Indians into mainstream American society. Individual ownership of land was seen as an essential step”

– Land not given to natives was sold off to white prospectors and speculators by the U.S. Government

• It provided for the distribution of 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land to any Indian who accepted the act's terms, who would then become US citizens in 25 years.

• While some Indians benefited from the Dawes Act, still others became dependent upon federal aid. Disease and poverty led to the decimation of native populations to just under 200,000 by 1900.