The Fate of the Indians

Textbook 469-474 – 5 December 2008

• Even though treaties and federal laws were created to provision permanent land to the Native
Americans
• Tried to resist to secure their own land from the white people, by attacking
• “the Apache in the Southwest, the Cheyenne and Arapaho in Colorado, and the Sioux in the
Wyoming and Dakota territories.”
I. The Reservation Solution
A. 1867 peace commission for ceasefire, ceding land and reservation relocation
B. The major areas were Oklahoma for southern plains indians, and South Dakota for the
Teton Sioux tribes.
C. Resistance from the Indians
1. Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé led a 1,500 mile march from eastern Oregon
reservation, resisting the Army, but were forced to surrender after 4 months
2. U.S. army was only 27,000 after the Civil War
3. buffalo soldiers were 2,000 black calvarymen of the Ninth and Tenth regiments
4. telegraphs and railroads allowed them to communicate and transport easier, new
weapons allowed for firepower upgrades
5. Tribes had rivalries, so the Army could use that to their advantage, to form alliances
6. Fighting happened in Kansas, Red River Valley of Texas, and with the Apache in the
Southwest (until chief Geronimo captured 1886)
D. Indian Office 1875 ordered Sioux to move back into their reservation from the Powder
River hunting grounds, albeit having a treaty in 1868 that guaranteed it
1. Sitting Bull led the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, on Little Big Horn River
2. the Seventh Cavalry led by George A. Custer attacked, but his plan failed, and his 256
men including himself were caught and killed
E. White land hunger also was a factor
1. Prospectors in mid-1870s dug for gold in the Black Hills
2. Congress allowed this, and in 1877 forced the Sioux to give up part of their
reservation
F. In Oklahoma, 2 million acres were not assigned to any tribe, so people wanted Congress
to open it up for homesteading
1. Congress did so in 1889
II. Undermining Tribal Culture and Assimilation
A. In the 1870s the Office of Indian Affairs educated the Indian children in American ways,
and discouraged tribal traditions. Taught in farm work and English and others, to prepare
them to be citizens, separated from families as early as 5
B. Indian Rights Association was formed by Indian sympathizers, who believed that
“assimilation into white society” and “undermin[ing] tribal authority” would save Indian
rights. also wanted the Indians to have privately owned land

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 C. Dawes Act of 1887 allowed Indian families to have 160 acres of land, held in trust by the
government for 25 years, and Indians became citizens
1. land that was not claimed was sold, profits to an Indian education fund
III. The Last Battle: Wounded Knee
A. The Sioux had many problems plaguing them that were out of their control
1. Dawes Act: land not allotted to Indian families was open for settlement, but land was
never allotted to any families
2. Would only survive as farmers now, which is new to them
3. Summer drought wiped their crops out
4. Cold winter ahead
B. Wovoka preached a new religion that the world would be regenerated
1. Wovoka says he went to heaven and God said the world would be regenerated,
without whites and life would return to how it was before the white settlement
2. A date was set, Spring 1981.
3. A ritual that was to be performed, the Ghost Dance, made resident whites concerned
and they requested that the Army intervene
C. The Minneconjou’s leader, Big Foot, was ill, so they agreed to military control to
Wounded Knee Creek
1. When the Army attempted disarmament, resistance broke out, 25 Army soldiers died,
146 Indians

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