Chapter Eighteen

Conquest and Survival:

1860–1900

Chapter Focus Questions

1. What was the impact of western expansion on Indian societies?

2. How did new technologies and new industries help the development of the West as an “internal empire”?

3. How were new communities created and old communities displaced?

4. What was the myth and legend of the West?

American Communities:

The Oklahoma Land Rush

1. Thousands gathered for the Oklahoma land rush.

2. Land promised to Indians who had been forcibly relocated in the 1830s was first opened to white settlement in 1889.

3. In a little over two months settlers filed 6,000 homestead claims.

4. The land rush symbolized the movement toward white settlement and the reconstruction of the West.

5. This transformation came at the expense of Indian peoples.

MAP 18.1 Oklahoma Territory Land openings to settlers came at different times, making new land available through various means.

18.1: Indian Peoples under Siege

A. On the Eve of Conquest

1. Indians had occupied the plains for more than 20,000 years, developing diverse ways of adapting themselves to the environment.

2. The Europeans brought disease and the need for Indians to adapt to European ways.

3. Tribes in the West were able to survive due to geographic isolation and adaptability.

a. The Plains Indians learned to ride horses and shoot guns.b. Some tribes learned English and converted to Christianity.

4. Legally, tribes were supposed to be regarded as autonomous nations residing within American boundaries.

a. Treaties were negotiated but force was often used instead.

B. Reservations and the Slaughter of the Buffalo 1. The federal government had pressured Indian tribes to

migrate West into a permanent Indian Territory. - Whites’ desires for western land led the federal government to

pressure western Indians to move to reservations.

2. Farmers found that the reservation lands were inadequate for the subsistence farming.

3. Nomadic tribes found their freedom curtailed and their buffalo destroyed both by the railroad and white hunting.

MAP 18.2 Major Indian Battles and Indian Reservations, 1860–1900 As commercial routes and white populations passed through and occupied Indian lands, warfare inevitably erupted. The displacement of Indians to reservations opened access by farmers, ranchers, and investors to natural resources and to markets.

The Oglala Sioux spiritual leader, Chief Red Cloud in an 1868 photograph. Here, he is seen with (l. tor.) Red Dog, Little Wound, interpreter John Bridgeman (standing), (Red Cloud), American Horse, and Red Shirt. He ventured to Washington with this delegation to discuss with President Ulysses S. Grant the various provisions of the peace treaty, just signed, to end the violent conflict over the Bozeman Trail. SOURCE:National

Anthropological Archives/Smithsonian Institution (3238/E).

C. The Indian Wars 1. A treaty granted the Black Hills to the Sioux.

a. The discovery of gold brought prospectors to the hills.b. The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho formed an alliance to

protect the Black Hills, wiping out Custer’s regiment before being defeated by the army.

2. One of the bloodiest conflicts was the Red River War of 1874–1875.

3. In the Southwest, Apaches under Geronimo waged a 10-year guerilla war.

4. Clashes erupted when whites violated treaties. 5. Even tribes like the Nez Perce, who tried to

cooperate with whites, were betrayed.

Kiowa Preparing for a War Expedition, ca. 1887. This sketch on paper was made by an Indian artist, Silverhorn, who had himself taken part in the final revolt of the Kiowas in 1874. He later became a medicine man, and then served as a private in the U.S. Cavalry at Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory. SOURCE:Silverhorn,Native American,Kiowa Preparing for a War Expedition . From S , 1887. Graphite ink and crayon.Gift of Mrs.Terrell Bartlett.Collection of the McNay Art Museum.