Native Americans

America

Info

• not a homogenous group, over 80 different tribes, different lifestyles

• some co-operated with/ gov, some didnt, some fought against one another.

• VERY DIVIDED.

the Mandans

• some were peaceful farmers like the Mandans: lived in a walled community near the Mississippi. They had enough fertile land to grow food, using surplus for trade

• large role on trade

• had a complex society

• large % of population was killed by smallpox epidemic 1837.

5 civilised tribes

• more open to cultural assimilation

• Cherokees, Choctaws, Seminoles, Chickasaws and Creeks.

• Had negotiating power at start of period, retaining land in the south. This did not last

Tecumseh’s confederation

1805-13

Shawnee leader → brought tribes together to defend ancestral land sold in Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809).

William Henry Harrison launched attack when Tecumseh was away. He was defeated, so destroyed prophets town and burnt food.

Tecumseh fled to Canada to fight the 1812 war but was killed when Canadians defeated (battle of Thames).

END OF ATTEMPT TO UNITE NAs AGAINST SETTLERS.

War of 1812

• conflict between BR/US

• Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek tribe in Alabama, forced to cede 2/3 of their land in the Treaty of Fort Jackson (1814). (CREEKS SIDED W/ BR)

• War weakened resistance to gov, BR no longer supported NAs. MANY conceded land (bribes, threats, treaties)

Seminole Wars 1816-58: 1st war

• tribe in FL. fought w/ gov to resist loss of land. 3 wars, most costly to US gov.

• 1st: 1816-19. Following stalemate of 1812 war, Jackson invaded FL. Spanish ceded Florida. Seminoles severely weakened, many moved to reservation in centre of FL.

Seminole wars 1816-58: 2nd war

1835-42: gov ordered Seminole to leave FL under the Treaty of Payne’s Landing (1832).

Osceola (chief) waged guerrilla warfare. US destroyed frame and villages. remaining 3000 seminoles sent to Oklahoma.

Osceola captured in 1837

War cost the US 1500 men and $50 million

Seminole wars 1816-58: 3rd war

1855-58

Leader = Billy Bowlegs

Gov persisted to remove final seminole to Oklahoma. Gov cut off/burnt food supplies. NO large battles just raids and resistance

1858 → starving and weak, a few hundred agreed to move to Oklahoma. very small few remained in the everglades.

Civil war and impact

• treaties reduced hunting land, so more dependent on gov aid, and during the war the Union had other priorities.

• Troops that protects NAs were removed to fight, replaced w/ untrained volunteers → Violence.

• In Minnesota 1862, Sioux were not given supplies, killed 800 Americans, leading to them being pushed west.

• 1862 homestead act cost the Navajo and Apache tribes.

• Some sided with confederacy, and were punished after the war.

INDIAN WARS: Dakota War

‘Little Crow’s War’

• After passing of Indian Appropriation Act 1851

• Failure to supply food and other supplies, led to violence

• Sioux killed 700 settlers, captured and sentenced to death but Lincoln commuted most of these.

• Remaining Sioux moved to reservation at Crow Creek but 400 died in first winter due to harsh conditions.

Cheyenne uprising and the winter war

1863-5

Agreed to move to Sand Creek Reservation, but faced starvation. Started attacking wagons to obtain food.

Led to Sand Creek Massacre → US forces (col. John chivington) killed 230 peaceful Cheyenne and arapaho people.

early 1865, Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho led revenge raids

Harsh winter campaign 1864-5 ‘winter war’

Led to increased US troops in plains and justified harsher reaction in other Indian wars.

INDIAN WARS: Red cloud’s war

• 1866-68

• Discovery of gold in Montana, opening up of new trails that crossed Sioux hunting lands, violating treaty of FL 1851. (Bozeman trail)

• Red cloud broke off peace talks. Besieged fort Kearney and waged a campaign through the winter.

• Gov forced to admit defeat in 1868 and changed its policy. Troops withdrew from forts around Great Sioux Reservation. New treaty of FL 1868

• TEMPORARY WIN FOR SIOUX.

INDIAN WARS: The Great Sioux War

• black hills promised to Sioux in 1868 FL treaty. General Custer sent to prevent railroad breaking FL treaty but discovered gold!

• Gov offered to buy the BHs, but Sioux refused.

• Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse raised 7000 men and the gov launched a campaign against them. Led to Battle of LBH June 1876, Custer and his men killed.

• led to US reinforcing army, new manned forts at the end of 1876. Sitting Bull fled to Canada, most Sioux returned to reservation, forced to sell the BHs to the Powder River Company.

• Reservation split into smaller sections so they would never be able to resist collectively again.

INDIAN WARS: Wounded Knee 1890

the ‘final victory’ of the state. Sioux were rounded up due to growing popularity of the ‘Ghost Dance’, which frightened white settlers and gov (uprising?)

Reservation police shot Sitting Bull believing he was a ringleader. His followers fled to Chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek (South Dakota)

the army surrounded them, and over 200 unarmed men women and children were killed.

END OF THE PLAINS WARS

INDIAN WARS: nez perce war 1877

• US Army tried to forcibly remove Nez Perce. 750 men women and children retreated to Canada.

• Several battles during the retreat.

• Chief Joseph surrendered 40 miles from border ‘ I will fight no more forever’

• forced to Oklahoma.

Jackson and the Indian removal act

• forced removal of tribes west of the Mississippi. Land to be guaranteed to the tribes ‘forever’. 94 treaties signed

• gov to provide financial aid but west considered inhospitable. by 1835 Jackson announced the policy had been ‘completed’.

• Seriously affected 5 civilised tribes. Cherokees in Georgia had become so assimilated they refused and appealed to the Supreme Court 1831. They won but Jackson didn’t care.

• Cherokee agreed to Treaty of New Echota 1835 and gave up 8 million acres to move to the west. Given $5mill. Only 2000 moved, leaving 15000 in the east.

• In late 1838 the Cherokee were forcibly removed int he ‘Trail of Tears’ 4000 died.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs

• Est, 1824 by John Calhoun to oversee treaty negotiations and manage education/trade with tribes, and any supplies promised.

• 1849 moved from department of war to department of interior to play crucial role in gov. policy

• Aim of Assimilation

FORT LARAMIE 1851

• allowed safe passage for white settlers on Oregon trail, allowing US to build roads/army posts.

• Offered protection for NA, given $50,000 a year as an allowance of 50 years.

• Sioux retained BHs in Dakota.

• NA became dependent on Union for both food and moment. Undermined the permanent indian frontier established by Johnson 1834.

• Led to conflict

• Land guaranteed to Cheyenne and arapaho was not enforced during Colorado gold rush 1859.

FORT WISE 1861

• est. reservation of arapaho and Cheyenne. Union agreed to protect the tribes.

• Union had to provide the tribes with the funds and resources to move.

• Not all NAs moved to the reservation, causing conflict.

• lead to Sand Creek massacre. New reservation has less than 1/13 the size given by fort Laramie.

MEDICINE LODGE 1867

• Ended the Great Plains reservation and moved to the bounded reservation in Oklahoma. Any NA living outside reservation could be removed.

• TP in advancement of transport/communication networks.

• Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Apache and Comanche settled in sacred area but cultures clashed.

• Led to river war 1874

FORT LARAMIE 1868

• recognised BHs were the Sioux’s reservation. Relinquished Bozeman trail for the end of NA raids. Creation of Great Sioux Reservation.

• Treaty had to be signed by 75% of males, sense of justice and democracy.

• Treaty only lasted until gold discovered 1874

• Not all Sioux agreed (sitting bull and crazy horse)

Reservation policy

Started with Indian Appropriations act 1851.

Nomadic tribes could not follow the buffalo so dependent on Union.

Second appropriations act 1871 meant recognition of NAs as independent nations ended. Gov could take land easier.

Aim to civilse tribes

Americanisation

• loss of culture

• Gov banned NA ceremonies and dances

• Education, some reservation schools but most provisions forced children to go to boarding schools → forbidden from speaking native language.

• NA children forced into these schools → eg the Carlisle Indian industrial school founded in 1879

• Dawes act

post civil war

shift to policy of ‘conquest by kindness’ after the 1867 report on the conditions of the Indian tribes.

destroyed social, religious culture.

Humane policy ended in 1871 with second appropriations act.

president grant’s peace policy

1869 → supporting reservation policy and est. new board of Indian Commissioners. (replaced political reformers with church-backed reformers)

BUT NAs did not receive goods they were promised, white settlers were not stopped from encroaching on their lands.

The Dawes Act 1887

• resevrations had failed to destroy tribal life completely

• Divided reservations into small units, families given 160 acres of farmland or 320 grazing land.

• Gave them citizenship after 25 years of being a LO but NOW they had to pay tax!!!!! Many forced to sell it back

• Any lands not assigned to NAs were sold to white settlers.

• Estimates NAs lost 90 million acres of land

The Curtis Act 1898

Dawes act amended by curtis act (included 5 civilised tribes) which abolished the 5 civilised tribes’ communal lands, govs and tribal courts. Key to Oklahoma joining the union as a state 1907.

population stats

around 1 million native Americans at the start of the century, less than 250,000 by the end of the century.

250,000 in plains → 100,000 by 1865

Buffalo

Essential to those on the Great Plains. Part of their daily lives, clothing, houses, hunting, warfare, religion.

One of the most important factors in destroying NA culture.

Buffalo Bill and William Frederick Cody were the most notorious hunters, killing over 4000 buffalo in 17 months. Buffalo was used for leather hinds.

By 1875 the southern herd of the buffalo had been destroyed. Virtually extinct. around 50 billion at beginning of century, fewer than 1000 by 1890.

Native American divisions

Not a homogenous group!!

• many tribes fought each other

• The crow, shoshone and pawnee fought w/ US army against the Sioux.

• Not every NA suffered in the same way. 5 civilised tribes did make recovery. No attempt to destroy NAs in Alaska.