Indian Wars

American Indians

• 1865– Dozens of different

cultural and tribal groups occupied the west

– Land occupied represented their home and livelihood

– As lands were taken over American Indians lost both their land and freedom to live according to tradition

Sioux Sun Dance

New Mexico and Arizona

• Pueblo Groups– Hopi & Zuni: farmers raising corn and livestock

Southwest

• Navajo & Apache– Both were nomadic

tribes.– Adapted to raising

crops and livestock • Known for arts and

crafts

Apache men in front of home

Pacific Northwest(Washington & Oregon)

• Chinook & Shasta– Complex communities

were created based on abundant fish and game

A group of Chinook Indians using a seine to catch salmon. Picture take by John F. Ford, c.1905

Great Plains Tribes

• Approx. 2/3 of western tribes lived on the Great Plains

• Tribes: Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, Comanche and Pawnee, to name a few

Great Plains Tribes

• Nomadic Tribes– Gave up farming with

introduction of horses• Where did the horses

come from?

– By 1700s they had become skillful horsemen

– Life revolved around hunting buffalo

• 1851 Councils were held assigning tribes to reservations– Large tracts of land

• Most tribes ignored these restrictions

Indian Wars

• Miners, cattlemen and homesteaders began encroaching on tribal territories

• Conflicts began to arise between the two groups

Sand Creek MassacreBackground

• For years, the U. S. had been engaged in conflict with several Indian tribes over territory.

• The Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851 had given the Indians extensive territory, but the Pikes Peak gold rush in 1858 and other factors had persuaded the U.S. to renegotiate the terms of the treaty.

• In 1861, the Treaty of Fort Wise was signed by Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs. The treaty took from the Indians much of the land given to them by the earlier treaty, reducing the size of their reservation land to about 1/13th of the original amount.

Black Kettle

White Antelope

Sand Creek Massacre• In an attempt to maintain peace, two chiefs,

Black Kettle and White Antelope, tried to establish a truce. They were advised to camp near Fort Lyon in Colorado and fly an American flag over their camp to establish themselves as friendly.

• On November 29th, 1864, while the majority of the males were out hunting, Colonel Chivington and his 700 troops attacked the Indian campsite near Fort Lyon.

• More than a hundred Indians were killed, despite the American flag flying overhead and the raising of a white flag after the attack began.

• Most of the Indians killed were women and children, and many of their bodies were mutilated.

• Despite eye witness accounts from survivors and some soldiers, Chivington and his men were not charged for the heinous attack.

Colonel John Chivington

Fetterman MassacreDec. 21, 1866

• Crazy Horse and 10 decoy warriors then rode into view of the fort. When Carrington fired an artillery round at them, the decoys ran away as if frightened. The party of woodcutters made it safely back to the fort, but Colonel Fetterman and his men chased after the fleeing Crazy Horse and his decoys, just as planned. The soldiers rode straight into the ambush and were wiped out in a massive attack during which some 40,000 arrows rained down on the hapless troopers. None of them survived.

• 81 Men were killed• Fetterman Video

Battle of the Little Big Horn“Greasy Grass”

Who

• The battle of Little Bighorn occurred in 1876 and is commonly referred to as “Custer’s Last Stand.” The battle took place between the U.S. 7th Cavalry and northern tribe Indians, including the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho.

Why

• Prior to the battle of Little Bighorn in Montana, the tribal armies, under the direction of Sitting Bull, had decided to wage war against the whites for their refusal to stay off of tribal lands in the Black Hills. In the spring of 1876, Sitting Bull and his tribal army had successfully battled the U.S. Cavalry twice.

Why do you think settlers refused to stay out of the Black Hills which was considered sacred ground to the Sioux?

Little Big Horn LTC George Custer, 7th Cavalry

Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Sioux, Holy Man

Gall, Battle Chief

'After that I killed all my enemies with the hatchet.‘

Result of finding his wife and children killed

Battle

• Indian forces outnumbered Custer’s troops three to one

• While waiting aid from the other Cavalry forces, another group of Indian forces, led by Crazy Horse, effectively trapped Custer and his men. In a desperate attempt to hold off the Indian warriors, Custer ordered his men to shoot their horses and stack their bodies to form a barricade to protect them from the Indians.

Results

• It took less than an hour for the arrows and bullets of the Indians to wipe out General Custer and his men.

• Custer and approximately 276 soldiers died, estimates for Indian death vary, as official records were not kept

• Despite having won this battle, the Indians were not victorious. Outrage over the death of the popular Custer led the U.S. government to redraw the boundaries of the Black Hills so that the land would not be part of reservation property, which left it open for white men to settle.

After the battle, the Indians came through and stripped the bodies and mutilated all the uniformed soldiers, believing that the soul of a mutilated body would be forced to walk the earth for all eternity and could not ascend to heaven.

Last Stand Hill

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)

• Designed to break up tribal organizations• Divided tribal lands into 160 acre plots– Given to families– Citizenship granted to those living on land for 25

years, and adopting a civilized life• Absolute failed policy– By 1900 disease and poverty reduced American

Indian population to 200,000

Ghost Dance

• Wovoka• Went into coma during a

bought of Scarlet Fever• Had a vision calling for a

Religious movement

Ghost Dance

• “God told him of a transformation by the spring of 1891 when the deceased would again be alive, the game would again flourish, and the whites would vanish from the earth.”

• Regional Sioux delegates, including Short Bull and Kicking Bear, returned with the message that wearing a Ghost Dance shirt would make warriors invulnerable to injury. Among those who accepted the assurance was the famous chief, Sitting Bull.

Death of Sitting Bull

• Sitting Bull surrendered in 1883. • Sitting Bull was assigned to the Standing Rock

reservation in present-day South Dakota, where he maintained considerable power

• When the apocalyptic spiritual revival movement known as the Ghost Dance began to grow in popularity among the Sioux in 1890, Indian agents feared it might lead to an Indian uprising.

• Wrongly believing that Sitting Bull was the driving force behind the Ghost Dance, agent James McLaughlin sent Indian police to arrest the chief at his small cabin on the Grand River.

• When the fifty-nine-year-old chief refused to go quietly, a crowd gathered and a few hotheaded young men threatened the Indian police. Someone fired a shot that hit one of the Indian police; they retaliated by shooting Sitting Bull in the chest and head. The great chief was killed instantly. Before the ensuing gunfight ended, twelve other Indians were dead and three were wounded.

Wounded Knee• On the morning of December 29, 1890, the Sioux chief Big

Foot and some 350 of his followers camped on the banks of Wounded Knee creek.

• The army intercepted the band on December 28 and brought them to the edge of the Wounded Knee to camp. The next morning the chief, racked with pneumonia and dying, sat among his warriors and powwowed with the army officers. Suddenly the sound of a shot pierced the early morning gloom. Within seconds the charged atmosphere erupted as Indian braves scurried to retrieve their discarded rifles and troopers fired volley after volley into the Sioux camp. From the heights above, the army's Hotchkiss guns raked the Indian teepees with grapeshot.

End of the Indian Wars

• When the smoke cleared and the shooting stopped, approximately 300 Sioux were dead, Big Foot among them. Twenty-five soldiers lost their lives. As the remaining troopers began the grim task of removing the dead, a blizzard swept in from the North. A few days later they returned to complete the job. Scattered fighting continued, but the massacre at Wounded Knee effectively squelched the Ghost Dance movement and ended the Indian Wars.