HIS 317L Bsumek-Final Key Terms

Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1968

United States recognizes The Black Hills as part of the Sioux reservation, closing the land to white immigrants (wag). Soon overrun by gold prospectors starting The Black Hills war.

Red Cloud

Oglala chief and leader of Red Cloud's war, ended with the Treaty of Fort Laramie.

George Armstrong Custer

American officer killed at Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 (aka Custer's last stand).

Black Hills

Sacred land for both the Sioux and Cheyenne. Overrun by gold prospectors in the 1870's leading to the Black Hills war.

Little Bighorn

Sight of the slaughter of General Custer's troops. Most famous Indian victory. Those involved were later tracked down and captured. Congress takes back the BlackHills and relinquishes Lakota rights outside of reservation. Cheyennes were also affected by the outcome of the battle. (1876)

Sioux Wars

Battles leading up to the Sioux uprising; include Wounded Knee. Crows fight alongside Americans to prevent Sioux expansion. Short-term gains made for Crows.

Wovoka

Creator of the Ghost Dance religion which spread on the Plains. A return of old ways that was a response to reservation life. Non-Indians see it as preparation for uprising.

Chief Joseph

Chief of the Nez Perce. Refused to give up homeland in Wallowa valley, where settlers arrived looking for gold. Violence erupted that resulted in Chief Joseph fleeing for political asylum with Sitting Bull in Canada. Nez Perces defeats the US army in a number of battles, but eventually lose at the hands of General Nelson Miles. News spreads across the country of Indian courage.

Detribalization

Used as a means of Americanizing Indians and destroying their cultures. Agents played a key role in monitoring reservations, Richard Pratt introduced euro-education to force assimilation.

Dawes Act (pg. 418, 420)

1887 Used in order to reduce number of reservations. Assessed and reorganized tribal lands into allotments for individual Indians. Meant to assimilate Indians into American society, land ownership was seen as a crucial step.

Oklahoma

Designated 'Indian Territory' following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Allotment produced huge losses of land and the area eventually became the state of Oklahoma in 1907. Some Indians resist this sale leading to violence with whites. Non-Indians marrying Indians to be eligible for allotments.

Boarding Schools

Established by Christian Missionaries to educate Indian youth according to Euro American standards.

Richard Pratt

Army captain in charge of prisoners at Ft. Marion. Forced prisoners to assimilate to white lifestyle. Opened Nation's first off reservation boarding school in Carisle, Pennsylvania. "Kill the Indian, save the man."

Charles Eastman

Educated at boarding school, later went on to be a doctor and champion of Indian rights. Founded native branches of the YMCA and helped found Boy Scouts of America.

Francis La Flesche

Omaha Indian and one of the first Indian anthropologists, worked for the Smithsonian. First professional Native American ethnologist; specialized in his own Omaha culture and worked with Alice Fletcher, administer of the Dawes Act.

Buffalo Bill

Creator of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Hired 'authentic' Indians to reenact battles from the Indian Wars such as the Little Bighorn. Soon grew to enjoy the company of his actors and brought them all over the world treating them kindly. There was an interesting portrayal of Indian identity in his shows: on one hand, during the show the Indians would be shown as violent savages about to go extinct; on the other hand, before/after the show visitors would be able to walk through the Indian encampment and see their domestic life-- a contradiction. Buffalo Bill Shows were largely responsible for capitalizing on/popularizing the image of Natives as savages on the brink of extinction/ a warrior culture (cowboys vs Indians)

Alfred Kroeber

Anthropologist who studied Ishi. Tried to protect Ishi's burial, but was too late and Ishi's brain was taken

Luther Standing Bear

Writer, actor, and critic of government policies who wrote books about boarding school experiences.

John Collier

Appointed by FDR as the commissioner of Indian Affairs. Served from 1933-1945. He attempted to restore an emphasis on community in the government's dealings with Indian peoples. Masterminded the "Indian New Deal" (Indian Reorganization Act) good intentions, but still mandated one policy for all Indians.

Indian Reorganization Act

Allows self governance; opens schools on reservations. Aimed to protect religion and lifestyle of Indians and represented an open admission that the Dawes Act was a mistake. Collier promoted it; first commissioner of Indian Affairs to travel around country and explain legislature to the Indians. (link Mary Crow Dog's roots of activism through Catholic boarding schools)

Code Talkers

The Navajo code talkers contributed to American victory in the Pacific by conveying coded messages in Navajo that the Japanese were never able to crack.

Citizenship

When you are a citizen. 1924 Indian citizenship act conferred US citizenship to all Indians who were not already legally citizens.

Ira Hamilton Hayes

Pima Indian who served in WWII in the US Marines. Famous for helping raise the flag on Iwo Jima. Descended into alcoholism and died in a ditch, forgotten.

Termination

The federal government decided which tribes were deemed "civilized" enough to be terminated as a tribe. After termination, the tribes were denied sovereignty and federal recognition. Attempt to end reservations. Way to fight "communist" ways of res life and repair the mistake of giving Natives more sovereignty.

Relocation

Government sponsored move to cities for assimilation and jobs. Indians were given money for a bus ticket and for the first few months but then the government wouldn't check up on them after that. Many returned to reservations.

National Congress of American Indians

Founded in 1944 to protect Indian rights, led fight under chairman Joseph Garry. Formed to fight against termination. (pg. 498)

National Indian Youth Council

1960; Demanded Native American participation in determining the policy that effected NA lives; Speaking for the new generation

American Indian Movement

AIM, Founded in Minnesota in 1968. Indian activists that promoted Native civil rights and addressed issues such as poverty and treaty issues.

Trail of Broken Treaties

1972; Indians from around the country go to DC to protest policy and BIA. Culminated in seizure of the BIA building by AIM

Alcatraz

1968 occupation of disused government land at Alcatraz Island. Wording based on treaty of Ft. Laramie promising disused government land to Indians.

20 points

20 point list of demands and complaints with the US government, released during the occupation of the BIA building.

Fish-Ins

Pacific NW tribes enforcing their right to fish there. Form of a sit-in as a form of protest.

Dr. Connie Pinkerton-Uri

Did a study on the forced sterilization of Indian women. He found that 1 in 4 women were sterilized against their will.

Dine College

First college founded on the reservation in 1968. Gave Indian students the option of higher education on reservation instead of travelling to an alien environment.

American Indian Religious Freedom Act

1978; Protected access to sacred religious sites and materials such as eagle feathers (a protected species) and peyoted. "Lacked legal teeth" so intrusion continued.

Leonard Crow Dog

Lakota medicine man who promoted traditional Indian cultural practices. Was a leader in AIM and imprisoned following the Wounded Knee Incident.

Mary Crow Dog

Half Sioux woman, grew up on Rosebud reservation, joined the AIM movement, married Leonard Crow Dog. A badass.

Raymond Yellow Thunder

Drunk who was beaten, stripped, and forced to dance in an army banquet hall, then left to die in the cold in a reservation border town. No justice or repercussion for whites responsible.

Richard Oakes

Mohawk American Indian activist who traveled across the US and ended up in the Bay Area. He was a sober Indian and encouraged Indians to get an education. Headed the takeover and Alcatraz.

California v Cabazon

Court case from California (where gambling is outlawed), the Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that despite the public law, the state that permitted any form of gambling could not prohibit Indians from operating gambling facilities. This opened up gambling for many other Indians.

Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

A tribe that wants to operate Class III or "casino type" gambling must request that the state in which its lands are located enter into negotiations for a "comact" in which the tribe and state work out issues of jurisdiction, revenue sharing and other questions relating directly to the operating of casinos. If a state fails to negotiate "in good faith" the tribe may sue in federal court.

Pan-Indianism

A philosophy and movement promoting unity among different American Indian groups regardless of tribal or local affiliations. Part of the philosophy behind AIM.

Ishi

Wahi Indian emerged in 1911, "last wild Indian" confirms the idea of vanishing Indian, studied by anthropologists in the era that viewed NA as subhuman and savage by nature. Autopsy and brain removed against wishes.

Grattan's Attack

In 1854, a young army officer overreacted when a Brule Sioux Indian killed an immigrant's cow. Lieutenant John Grattan led his command to the Indian village, demanded the killer be delivered up, and opened fire: when the smoke cleared, Grattan and his men lay dead. General William Harney retaliated by destroying an Indian village at Ash Hollow the following year.

Manifest Destiny

Americans proclaim they have God given right to occupy all land west to the pacific and a duty to extend the blessings of American democracy to the people directly living there.

Sand Creek

Army massacre of peaceful Cheyenne, supposedly because of their connections with the Sioux who were fighting with the army.

Chief Illiniwek

Mascot used by the U of Illinois that was found offensive for its ethnic stereotype and thus removed in 2007. NCAA steps in and places ban on schools with hostile Indian nicknames.

Pequot

Indian tribe that was decimated during the Pequot War, leaving very few members left. Mashantucket Pequot Nation rises to power with the repurchase of land in the 1980's and builds and enterprise: Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Hard Rock Cafe

Seminole Tribe's casino chain.

Tribal Nations Embassy

Embassy that involves nation-to-nation interaction/diplomacy between tribal nations and nations abroad. Located in DC.

NAGPRA

(Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act): Federal law that requires remains of Indians to be returned to their descendants. Most notably: Kennewick Man and Ishi's Brain.

Grandfather Peyote

Myth that explains the origins of psychoactive peyote and its use as medicine by the Sioux.

Wounded Knee

1973: Occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pin Ridge reservation by Oglala Lakota. Standoff with FBI/ US Marshals lasting 71 days. Named in remembrance of the original Wounded Knee Massacre.

Proclamation to the Great White Father, 1969

Proclamation made by Indians occupying Alcatraz Island claiming it as their own. Offered $24 in crafts as "payment" for the island.