Transcript The Last Native American Wars

The Last Native
American Wars
Chapter 11 Section 3
The Last Native American
Wars
 1870s—Many Native Americans left reservations in
disgust
 Preferred hunting buffalo on open plains
 Buffalo rapidly disappearing
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Settlers killed off
Professional buffalo hunters
Hunters for sport (leaving carcasses to rot)
Railroad companies hired sharpshooters
Army encouraged buffalo hunting
Battle of Little Bighorn
 1876—prospectors overran Lakota Sioux reservation to
mine gold in Black Hills
 Lakota saw no reason to abide by a treaty that the
settlers were violating
 Government sent Lieutenant Colonel George A.
Custer and the 17th Cavalry
 Custer underestimated the fighting capabilities of
Lakota and Cheyenne
Battle of Little Bighorn
 June 25, 1876—ignoring orders, and acting on his own,
Custer launched 3-pronged attack in broad daylight on
one of the largest groups of Native American warriors
ever assembled on the Great Plains
 Indians killed all but one of the 210 soldiers
 “The soldiers were piled one on top of another, dead,
with here and there, an Indian among the soldiers.
Horses lay on top of men, and men on top of horses,”
recalled a Lakota warrior
Battle of Little Bighorn
 Newspapers portrayed Custer as a victim of a
massacre and produced a public outcry in the East.
 Army stepped up its campaign against Native
Americans on the Plains
 Sitting Bull fled with his followers to Canada
 Other Lakotas forced to return to reservation
Flight of Nez Perce
 Nez Perce led by Chief Joseph refused to be moved to
a smaller reservation in Idaho in 1877
 Army came to relocate, and the Indians fled their
homes, embarking on a journey of more than 1,300
miles
 1877—Joseph surrendered and he and followers exiled
to Oklahoma
Tragedy at Wounded Knee
 1890—end of Native American resistance
 Lakota continued to perform their Ghost Dance
 Celebrated a hoped-for day of reckoning when settlers
would disappear, the buffalo would return, and Native
Americans reunite with their dead ancestors
 Banned by government, which feared it would lead to
violence
Tragedy at Wounded Knee
 Authorities tried to arrest Sitting Bull
 Sitting Bull supporters tried to stop arrest
 Gunfire
 Sitting Bull Killed
 Ghost Dancers fled reservation
 Army chased after
 Dec 29, 1890—troops tried to disarm them at Wounded
Knee Creek
 Gunfire broke out
 25 soldiers killed
 200 Lakota men, women, and children killed
The Dawes Act
 Some Americans opposed the treatment of Indians
 Some thought Native Americans should assimilate
 1887 Dawes Act—allotted each head of household
160 acres of reservation land for farming, single adults
80 acres, 40 for children, and extra land sold to settlers
The Dawes Act
 The plan failed
 Some Indians succeeded as farmers or ranchers, but
many had little training or enthusiasm for either
 Allotments too small to be profitable
 Granted citizenship for Indians who stayed on their
allotments for 25 years. Few qualified
Discrimination continues
 It wasn’t until 1924 when Native Americans were
granted citizenship
 Some states didn’t allow them to vote until after WWII
 Assimilation policies didn’t end until 1934