American West Information slides What impact did the arrival of Europeans have? Check your answers from last week 1. What was the main role of the chief? To keep the tribe well fed and safe. 2. Why would a chief need great wealth? They were expected to show generosity and couldn’t without it. 3. What were the main reasons for war? Capture better campsites and hunting grounds, capture horses or show the bravery of the warriors. 4. Why were scalp raids carried out? To get revenge on an enemy. 5. How many buffalo hides were needed to make a Tepee? 18-20 6. What did the Sioux tribe call the great spirit? Wakan Tanka 7. What was the main talent of a medicine man? They were good at dealing with the spirits. 8. What did a medicine man use to treat sick people? Herbs and plants 9. Why was the sun dance performed? To make sure the power of the sun came back each day. 10. Why was a boy sent to find their spirit animal? It was part of becoming a man. They believed the animal would protect them throughout their lives. As the white man’s trails crossed important native hunting grounds, they began to threaten the lives of the plains tribes. The whites wanted the land for farming, mining and the growing towns. Many conflicts grew out of fear and misunderstandings on both sides. The Natives were not going to win this battle. With the loss of hunting grounds, disease and fighting with the Europeans the Indians were losing territory and growing weak. In 1848, gold was discovered on the plains. This brought in a new influx of people believing they were going to get rich quick by finding gold in the rivers or mines. This created more conflict between as the Native Americans did not understand why gold was worth anything. Many battles took place particularly as gold was found in the Black Hills, a place sacred to the Sioux. Source A Source B Trail of Tears • In 1838 Cherokee people were forcibly moved from their homeland and relocated to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. They resisted their Removal by creating their own newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix, as a platform for their views. They sent their educated young men on speaking tours throughout the United States. They lobbied Congress, and created a petition with more than 15,000 Cherokee signatures against Removal. They took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that they were a sovereign nation n Worcester vs. Georgia (1832). President Andrew Jackson ignored the Supreme Court decision, enforced his Indian Removal Act of 1830. As a result in 1838 Cherokee people were forcibly taken from their homes, incarcerated in stockades, forced to walk more than a thousand miles at gunpoint, enduring one of the harshest winters recorded and removed to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. More than 4,000 died and many are buried in unmarked graves along “The Trail Where They Cried.” Source A: A white journalist gives his strong opinion of Indian land: ‘As I passed over the very best cornland on earth and saw their owners sitting around the doors of their lodges at the height of the planting season, I could not help saying, ‘these people must die out. God has given this earth to those who will tame and cultivate it’. Horace Greeley, An Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco, 1859 Source B: Between 1492 and 1900 the Native American population fell by about 95%. See Right. Source C: One Sioux chief said this about the white people: ‘Hear me, people. We have now to deal with another race. Strangely enough they have a mind to plough the soil and the love of ownership is a disease with them. They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own; they deface her with their buildings and their refuse.’ Sitting Bull, 1877 Source E: As they lie on their hard mats, the pox [is] breaking and their skin [is] sticking to the mats. And when they turn a whole side will peel off at once and they will be all of a gore of blood, most fearful to behold. And then, being very sore they die like rotten sheep William Bradford, 17th century British settler leader, describing how diseases killed Native Americans Source G: In sweeping away great multitude of the natives God has cleared our title (right to own) to this place. Source H: John Winthrop, 17th Century settler leader The woods are almost cleared of these pernicious creatures, to make room for a better growth. A 17th Century Puritan writer. War with Europeans: What happened at the battle of little Bighorn? Source Investigation: What happened at the Battle of the Little Bighorn? On Sunday, 25 June, 1876 the Lakota Sioux tribe and their Cheyenne allies killed Lieutenant Colonel Custer and his entire command of 260 men of the 7th Cavalry. The Black Hills of Dakota were sacred to the Lakota and the US had promised them to the Sioux tribes. However, gold had been discovered there in 1874 and miners poured in. The US government sent in soldiers to protect the miners from the attacks of the angry Lakota. It was decided that any Native American who refused to move to a reservation would be treated as a ‘hostile’ at war with the USA. Three Army’s moved against the Lakota and their allies. On 17 June, one group, led by General Crook, were defeated at the Battle of the Rosebud river. Another group (the 7th Cavalry under Custer) was ordered to ride ahead and find ‘hostiles’ but not to attack. Custer ignored his orders. When he reached a huge ‘hostile’ village he divided his soldiers. Expecting 800 Natives he actually encountered double with famous leaders such as Crazy Horse involved. He sent 115 troopers to search for more ‘hostiles.’ Another 140, were ordered to attack the eastern end of the village. They were soon beaten back. Custer, with the rest, rode round the village intending to attack from its other end. He never made it. Within one hour Custer and all his men were dead. The only survivor was a horse named Comanche. The Battle of the Little Bighorn meant nothing. Within a year the Lakota were defeated. The result was that the Native Americans now had to live on reservations, areas of land ‘reserved’ for them by the US government. The whites in America wanted the natives to look and act like them. 1) Boarding house 2) council rooms and doctors office 3) storehouse 4) police quarters 5) employees quarters 6) agents quarters 7) interpreters quarters 8) stable and ration issue centre 9) ice and meat house 10) water works 11) oil house 12) chief Red Cloud’s house The reservations took away Native American culture. The glory that the men had gained through hunting and fighting was gone and farming was a poor replacement. They had no wish to become farmers and felt great despair at their loss. The Native Americans tried one last attempt to gain their freedom. They performed ‘ghost dances’ in the hope that the ghosts of their ancestors would appear and help drive the white man out. The whites even outlawed this and at Wounded Knee Creek the US army opened fire on those who tried to do the dance. Chief Big Foot lies dying in the snow after the US Cavalry massacred over 300 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee. In many reservations, the soil was poor and many Native Americans were put off farming by early crop failures. They saw these failures as a sign from nature or the Great Spirit that they were not meant to farm. Ploughing up the land in this way went against their beliefs in the sacredness of mother earth. Poor soils and a lack of farming knowledge meant very few could provide enough for food for their families. Without the buffalo they were unable to make their own clothes and tools. For all these things they depended on rations from the government. The tribes could no longer look after themselves, but depended on gifts from their former enemies. Gap Fill Summary Answers 1) Copy and complete the following: The Battle of the Little Bighorn had meant Nothing. After the Whites final victory they forced all Native Americans to live on reservations. Living in these conditions meant the men lost their glory that they had received through hunting and fighting. Native Americans now had to work as farmers but where put off by early crop failures. They could not provide enough food for their families. Without the buffalo they could no longer make clothes and tools. The tribes were humiliated and forced to live on rations given to them by their former enemies. Plain Wars 1850-1890 – Brought about due to the creation of Reservations, and several new policies by US Army officials who ‘shot Indians on sight’. The Dakota War More commonly called the Sioux Uprising of 1862, it was the first major armed engagement between the U.S. and the Sioux (Dakota). After six weeks of fighting in Minnesota, led mostly by Chief Little Crow, records conclusively show that more than 500 U.S. soldiers and settlers died in the conflict, though many more may have died in small raids or after being captured. The number of Sioux dead in the uprising is unknown. After the war, 303 Sioux warriors were convicted of murder by U.S. military tribunals and sentenced to death. Most of the death sentences were altered by President Lincoln, but on December 26, 1862, in Minnesota, 38 Dakota Sioux men were hanged in what is still today the largest mass execution in U.S.