Westward Expansion, Sioux Wars, Ghost Dance, and Native American Reformers — Study Notes

Key themes

• Westward expansion and the encroachment on Native American lands, including hunting, fishing, and traditional farming grounds, leading to cycles of conflict and violence.
• Complex wars and conflicts known collectively as the Sioux Wars, driven by settler migration, treaty violations, and competition over resources and territory.
• The role of federal policy and law in dispossession and attempts at assimilation, including broken treaties, reservation systems, and targeted policies.
• The tension between promises of protection and actual enforcement, illustrated by repeated treaty violations and the failure to protect Lakota lands (e.g., the Black Hills) despite agreements.
• The shift from resistance to cycles of coercion and suppression, followed by attempts at reform and accommodation by Native Americans themselves.
• The rise of Native American reformers and civil rights activism in the face of overwhelming pressure to assimilate and lose land, language, and culture.
• The interaction between military actions, economic pressures (gold, railroads, homesteading), and cultural/spiritual responses (e.g., Ghost Dance).
• The human cost of policy and violence: mass killings, forced relocations, land seizures, and the near-extinction of the bison as a strategic factor in subsistence.
• Real-world relevance: understanding how law, policy, and military power shape indigenous sovereignty, land ownership, and cultural survival; ongoing debates about historical memory and reparations.
• Ethical and philosophical dimensions: debates over assimilation versus preservation, paternalism, and the morality of state actions toward indigenous peoples.

Westward expansion and Native American relations

• Post-1848 context: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo $1848$ ends the Mexican-American War and opens new avenues for westward migration following California’s incorporation into the United States.
• California gold rush and western settlement spurred by gold discoveries and opportunities in new territories.
• The Homestead Act of $1862$ promises land to individual families who settle and improve land, intensifying westward settlement and Native displacement.
• Conflicts arise as settlers push onto Native lands, provoking sustained hostilities and cycles of retaliation on both sides.
• Overland trails and later railroads accelerate western expansion, increasing pressure on Native territories.

Sioux Wars: scope, causes, and key dynamics

• The Sioux Wars: a complex series of conflicts in the northern plains with over a hundred battles between U.S. Army forces and Sioux (and allied) groups in the mid- to late- 19th century.
• Core cause: encroachment by white settlers into Lakota territories, violation of existing treaties, and competition for land and resources.
• Preceding treaties and policies:
  • Treaty of Fort Laramie $1851$ established boundaries and a reservation system in the Northern Plains, and attempted to protect Lakota territory from encroachment.
  • An 1853 treaty extended similar policies to the Southern Plains.
  • Fort Laramie was violated repeatedly as settlers moved west and miners entered the Black Hills.
• Key passages of time:
  • The discovery of gold in the Black Hills and public notices of gold findings led to a surge of white miners into Lakota territory, undermining the 1868 treaty.
  • The Bozeman Trail cut through traditional hunting grounds, triggering raids and the Powder River War as settlers and soldiers clashed with tribes.
  • Sand Creek Massacre (during the Civil War) demonstrated the brutal dimension of policy and military action against Native peoples in Colorado.
• Major conflicts and events:
  • The Powder River War (conflicts around the Bozeman Trail) and related warfare involving Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces.
  • The Battle of Little Bighorn (June 25, $1876$): Lakota and allied forces defeated the 7th Cavalry under General Custer, killing Custer and inflicting heavy losses on U.S. troops (e.g., ~$268$ whites killed; ~$31$ Lakota/allied combatants killed at the immediate engagement).
  • Aftermath centered on the collapse of efforts to enforce the Fort Laramie Treaty and broader U.S. attempts to subdue resistance.
• Treaty aftermath and strategic shifts:
  • The Second Treaty of Fort Laramie (signed $1868$) aimed to create a large Lakota reservation (including the Black Hills) and to withdraw forts along the Bozeman Trail, but it was undermined by white mining interests and governmental inability to enforce the treaty.
  • Red Cloud and other Lakota leaders agreed to move to the Great Sioux Reservation, while Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse resisted some elements of relocation.
• Significance: illustrates the recurring pattern of treaty promises, military pressure, resource-driven invasion, and the eventual shift toward forcible dispossession and reservation life.

The Dawes Act and its consequences

• Dawes Act (General Allotment Act) enacted in $1887$ named after Senator Henry Dawes, part of a broader policy push toward assimilation and individual land ownership.
• Core provisions:
  • Divided tribal lands into individual allotments of $160$ acres for each family head (husband/father) with the aim of introducing private land ownership and farming practices.
  • Ended or severely curtailed traditional tribal governance and authority, placing Native affairs under white Indian agents and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  • Non-allocated land on reservations could be sold to white settlers and commercial interests; land sales benefited non-Native interests and reduced Native landholdings.
  • Citizenship and voting rights could be granted after a 25-year period, contingent on abandoning traditional religious and cultural practices.
• Social and gender implications:
  • The policy sidelined women in terms of property ownership and decision-making on reservations.
  • The goal was to convert Native peoples into small farmers or individual proprietors rather than maintain communal land use and subsistence.
• Land loss and scale:
  • Native American landholdings declined from about $155,000,000$ acres in 1887 to roughly $77,000,000$ acres by 1900.
• Cultural and religious suppression:
  • Ghost Dance and other spiritual practices were criminalized as part of broader assimilation and control measures.
• Subsistence and ecological context:
  • Bison, the traditional cornerstone of many plains tribes, were nearly extinct by the $1880s$ due to overhunting and federal policy, making farming necessary but often impractical in the selected allotments and locations.
• Overall effect:
  • The Dawes Act accelerated land dispossession, eroded tribal governance, and accelerated assimilation pressures, transforming Native life and landscapes in profound ways.

The Ghost Dance, Sitting Bull, and the Wounded Knee Massacre

• Ghost Dance origin and beliefs:
  • Wavoka, a Paiute prophet, introduced the Ghost Dance in the late 1880s as a ritual anticipated to restore Native lands, bring back departed ancestors, revive the bison herds, and remove white settlers.
  • The movement spread widely among Lakota Sioux on reservations, offering spiritual and social resilience in the face of starvation, broken treaties, and government control.
• Government reaction and crackdown:
  • Indian agents and white press perceived the Ghost Dance as a potential uprising and sought military reinforcements to suppress it.
  • The federal response involved arrests of Lakota leaders and heightened militarization on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
• Key turning points in 1890–1891:
  • December 15, 1890: Sitting Bull was killed during tense events surrounding arrests and military actions against Ghost Dancers.
  • December 29, 1890: The Wounded Knee confrontation at Wounded Knee Creek (on the Pine Ridge Reservation) involved the 7th Cavalry opening fire with heavy artillery (notably Hotchkiss guns; note: the transcript mentions “Hunchkins guns,” historically known as Hotchkiss guns) and resulted in massive casualties.
  • Casualty range: estimates vary, but roughly between $150$ and $300$ Lakota men, women, and children were killed, with many accounts noting disproportionate harm to women and children.
• Aftermath and interpretation:
  • Wounded Knee is often viewed as marking the end of large-scale armed Native American resistance in the Plains, though Native cultures and communities persisted despite vast losses from disease, hunger, and relocation.
  • The massacre underscored broader themes of genocidal attitudes within some segments of the U.S. military and press, and it highlighted the coercive methods used to enforce assimilation policies.
• Broader context:
  • The period also included the dramatic decline in Native populations across the U.S., with California witnessing a roughly $90\%$ population decline from $1848$ to $1900$ due to disease, displacement, and violence.

Native American reformers and activists

• Susan LaFlesche Picotte (1889 MD):
  • Background: mixed Ponca-Omaha-Iowa-French ancestry; from the Omaha Reservation area north of Omaha, Nebraska.
  • Education: studied at the Elizabeth Institute (New Jersey) and the Hampton Institute (West Virginia), attended the Women’s College of Pennsylvania, and graduated in $1889$ as the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree.
  • Medical career: practiced on the Omaha Reservation (at the Omaha Agency Indian School) and cared for about $1{,}200$ people; advocated preventive medicine and hospital infrastructure.
  • Native health advocacy: wrote letters highlighting public health issues on the Omaha Reservation and lobbied for funding to fight tuberculosis, which was a major killer of Native Americans in the region.
  • Legacy: hospital built on the Omaha Reservation in 1913 named in her honor; founding member of the Thurston County Medical Society.
• Carlos Montezuma (Wasaja):
  • Early life: born in Fort Peaks (Arizona Territory) in $1866$; Yavapai-Apache heritage; captured by slave raiders and sold into slavery to a Pima family; adopted by Italian photographer Carlo Gentile and renamed Carlos Montezuma.
  • Education and career: displayed exceptional ability (graduated high school in 1879 at age ~13; entered University of Illinois at age 14; earned a degree in mathematics, physics, geology, zoology, and related fields; graduated in 1884) and earned a medical degree from Chicago Medical College in $1889$.
  • Work and advocacy: served as a physician with the Bureau of Indian Affairs across multiple reservations; worked at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School with Richard Henry Pratt; later returned to Arizona to help secure a reservation for the Yavapai-Ale Apache in 1903.
  • Civil rights and reform: prominent critic of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; helped found the Society of American Indians (SAI) in $1911$, the first Native American civil rights organization in the United States; founded a magazine, Wassaja, to publish Native American writings.
  • Legacy and death: died of tuberculosis in $1922$; Montezuma’s work and the SAI contributed to ongoing advocacy for Native American rights and representation.
• Significance of reformers:
  • These figures illustrate resilience and agency, showing that even after military defeat and land dispossession, Native Americans pursued health, education, civil rights, and political representation.
  • Their efforts helped lay groundwork for later movements that sought to redefine Native sovereignty and cultural survival within the United States.

Notable figures, events, and places

• Red Cloud: Lakota leader who played a central role in resisting encroachment, especially during Red Cloud’s War and the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty period.
• Sitting Bull: Lakota leader who resisted relocation; later killed on December 15, 1890, amid Ghost Dance-era tensions.
• Crazy Horse: Lakota leader who resisted U.S. military incursions and played a prominent role in resistance efforts alongside Sitting Bull.
• George A. Custer (Lieutenant Colonel): U.S. Army commander who led the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn; killed in 1876; historically reviled by some Native leaders for prior violence in conflicts like the 1868 mass killings.
• Ulysses S. Grant: U.S. President during the late 1860s and 1870s; policy decisions and enforcement related to the Fort Laramie treaties and the suppression of Native resistance.
• The Black Hills and the Great Sioux Reservation: central sites of conflict after the 1868 treaty; the promise to protect the Black Hills was violated by the influx of miners after rumors of gold.
• The Sand Creek Massacre (Colorado, during the Civil War): a stark example of the brutality against Native communities and its lasting impact on later resistance.
• The Bozeman Trail: route used by settlers to access goldfields in Montana; its intrusion into Lakota territory sparked raids and the Powder River War.
• The Ghost Dance on the Pine Ridge Reservation: a spiritual movement that intensified federal response and violence in 1890–1891.

Chronological snapshot (major dates to anchor study)

• $1848$: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; California and parts of the Southwest annexed by the United States; impetus for westward migration.
• $1851$: Treaty of Fort Laramie; establishment of Lakota territories and reservations in the Northern Plains.
• $1853$: Treaty extending reservation policies to Southern Plains tribes (contextual basis for later conflicts).
• $1854$: Early conflict in Nebraska/Wyoming following encroachment on Lakota territory; sparked cycles of retaliation.
• $1862$: Homestead Act encourages western settlement, intensifying land pressures on Native lands.
• $1864$: Sand Creek Massacre; violence against Native communities deepens mistrust and resistance.
• $1868$: Second Treaty of Fort Laramie; establishes the Great Sioux Reservation including the Black Hills; aims to withdraw forts along the Bozeman Trail and protect Lakota lands.
• $1874$: Custer leads expedition to the Black Hills to prospect for gold, signaling violation of the 1868 treaty.
• $1875–1876$: U.S. government escalates efforts to force Lakota and allied groups off their lands; Battle of the Little Bighorn occurs on $1876$-06-25, with Custer killed and a large loss for U.S. forces.
• $1876$: Aftermath of Little Bighorn as the U.S. intensifies efforts to subdue resistance and enforce policy changes in the West.
• $1887$: Dawes Act passed; federal policy shifts toward allotment, privatization of tribal lands, and assimilation.
• $1889–1890s$: Growth of Native American reform movements; notable figures achieve medical degrees and publish advocacy work.
• $1888–1890$: Ghost Dance movement spreads; crackdown leads to violent confrontation culminating in the Wounded Knee Massacre.
• $1890$: Sitting Bull killed (12/15/1890); Wounded Knee Massacre (12/29/1890) marks a symbolic end to armed Native resistance on the Plains.
• $1900$: Native landholdings reduced to around $77,000,000$ acres; Native populations and cultural practices under severe pressure, though resilience remains.
• $1911–1913$: Native American reformers help establish organizations and hospitals; ongoing advocacy for rights and health.

Connections to earlier lectures and broader context

• Continuity with post-Civil War themes: the earlier lectures focused on the Reconstruction era and the New South (1877–1900), including Jim Crow and southern political transformations. This lecture shifts attention to the West to examine how expansion, policy, and violence shaped Native nations alongside these national shifts.
• The West as a stage for the enforcement of national growth and assimilation policies: the same federal authority that reorganized the South also pursued policies in the West to convert Indigenous lands and peoples into a landscape of private property and settler sovereignty.
• Intersections of violence, law, and reform: across the Reconstruction era and Westward expansion, the pattern of treaty promises, military action, land dispossession, and later reform movements recurs in multiple regional contexts, revealing a national project of expansion that often came at a tremendous human cost to Native peoples.

Quick glossary of key terms (definitions in brief)

• Sioux Wars: umbrella term for a series of conflicts between the U.S. Army and Sioux and allied tribes in the Great Plains during the mid-to-late 19th century.
• Battle of the Little Bighorn: major clash on $1876$-06-25 in which Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces defeated Custer’s command; symbolically significant for its impact on U.S. policy and popular memory.
• Dawes Act (1887): federal statute that parceled tribal land into individual allotments, ending communal landholding and undermining tribal governance, with non-allocated land sold to whites; eventual citizenship after 25 years plus religious and cultural restrictions.
• Great Sioux Reservation: federally designated large reservation including the Black Hills after the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.
• Ghost Dance: spiritual movement initiated by Wavoka that promised the return of the old ways and the departure of whites; its suppression led to the Wounded Knee aftermath.
• Sand Creek Massacre: brutal attack on a Native encampment in Colorado during the Civil War period, illustrating the extreme violence used against Native peoples.
• Red Cloud: Lakota leader who played a central role in resisting U.S. encroachment during Red Cloud’s War and the subsequent treaty era.
• Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse: prominent Lakota leaders who resisted relocation and U.S. military pressure during the late 19th century.
• Susan LaFlesche Picotte: first Native American woman to earn a medical degree; major advocate for public health on the Omaha Reservation.
• Carlos Montezuma (Wasaja): Yavapai-Apache physician, founder of the Society of American Indians, and advocate for Native rights and representation; editor of Wassaja.

Exam-style questions to prompt review (optional)

• Explain how the Dawes Act of $1887$ facilitated Native land loss and assimilation, and quantify the change in Native landholdings from before to after the Act.
• Discuss the role of the Fort Laramie Treaties ($1851$ and $1868$) in shaping Lakota lands and how subsequent actions violated these agreements.
• Compare and contrast the motivations and outcomes of the Battle of the Little Bighorn ($1876$) with the Wounded Knee Massacre ( $1890$).
• Analyze the Ghost Dance movement: what it represented to Native communities, how federal agents and mainstream press framed it, and its ultimate impact on Lakota communities.
• Assess the contributions of Susan LaFlesche Picotte and Carlos Montezuma to Native American health, civil rights, and education; how did their work illustrate early Native reform movements?
• Reflect on how this West-focused lecture connects with the earlier Reconstruction and New South themes in terms of government policy, coercive power, and Indigenous sovereignty.