SOCIAL AND TRIBAL STRUCTURES

Bands

• related

• led by chiefs + advisers

• survival + protection > members

Chiefs

• chosen: wisdom/skills as hunters + warriors

• decided whereabouts of band

• decided consequences for tradition breakers

Tribes

• tribal meetings annually: marriages, trade, issues

Warrior Societies

• best warriors

• supervised hunting

• protected bands

• led short raids

Chiefs + Leadership

• no decision made until whole council agree

• rest of tribe didn’t have to obey

• decisions guided by spirit through visions

Consequence → US gov thought when chief Red Cloud signed 1868 treaty = all tribe follow

Band Roles

• each member: key to survival

• men (braves) fought + hunted

• women (squaws) made clothes, look after fam + tipi

• children taught skills

• elders: respected but left behind if weakness was a threat

Consequences → US gov separated fam, children never learn traditions/skills

SURVIVAL ON PLAINS

Buffalo

• live on plains

• every part used (except from heart) : food, equipment, clothes

• believed buff heart: new life to a herd

• stored as jerky for winter

Horses

• useful: catch buffalo

• introduced by Spanish invaders

• show: wealth + status

• war

• carry belongings

Nomadic Lifestyle

• follow buffalo, never settle

• tipis (summer) :

  • cone shape adapt to extreme weather

  • provide ventilation

  • easy: pack away

• sheltered valleys (winter) :

  • wooden lodges

  • insulated w thick soil

Consequences → difficult settle : used to travel free

BELIEFS

Nature

• spirit: help/harm man

• man work w nature not control

• contact spirit → ritual dances

• tribal society

Land + Property

• sacred areas: origin tribe

• can’t own land

• no farming (animism)

Attitudes to War

• ran if battle not favour

• important minimise warriors injured: essential to each tribe survival

US GOV POLICY AND PLAINS INDIANS

US want: expand West + avoid conflict

Key Events 1830-1851

1830 Indian Removal Act - US forced 46,000 Indians move West Mississippi River

1834 Indian Trade + Intercourse Act - permanent frontier divided Indian + state territory

1848 US victory in Mexican/American war - US gain territory : PI territory in middle

1851 Indian Appropriation Act - payment PI move → reservations

Gov support Western expansion

• US citizens encouraged move new territories West

• people needed cross PI territory

• US army forced Indians move away from trails (in case attacks)

• permanent frontier marked boundary but whites now pass

1851 Indian Appropriation Act

• Americans wanted PI land

• paid PI give land for Americans + move smaller areas

• paid for PI move → reservations + create segregation

• US gov hope Americans help PI = agricultural: control PI

WHY MOVE WEST?

Pull factors

• freedom + independence

• fertile land

• space

• Oregon trail

• gold

Push factors

• collapse wheat prices

• overpopulation

• persecution

• unemployment

Key events moving West

1825 - explorer discover South pass through mountains

1836 - first migrants travel Oregon trail by wagon reach destination

1837 - economic depression: lose savings, unemployment , wheat prices fall: farmers ruined = over crowding in fertile farming region

1841 - gov funded expedition maps Oregon trail, publish guide book

1846 - gov of Illinois tells Mormons leave

1848 - gold discovered in California

1858-59 - gold discovered in mountains

1874 - gold discovered in black hills (Dakota)

Manifest Destiny

• US needed to populate West to defend it from foreign powers

• God’s will: Americans should settle all over America

Stages

1. 1834 PIF

2. 1840-1850 Oregon Trail + Cali Gold Rush

3. 1860 settle plains problems

4. 1870 RR: towns built alongside, gold discovered, new inventions, settlement

5. 1880-90 Land Rush: ‘Frontier’ closed

GOLD RUSH

1849 Gold Rush - discovery of gold led to increase of settlement

Who were migrants?

• 5000 used trail

• thousands by ship

• Chinese famine: 20,000 migrate to Cali in 1852

Prospectors - looked for gold on surface: streams/river bed

Consequences →

• 300,000 in 1855 Cali becomes state

• farming boom in Cali

• problems: lawlessness in mining camps

• racial tension: migration

• gold boosts US economy: help fund railroads

• tension w PI: increase in migration along Oregon trail

• manifest destiny - American dream ‘come true’

• genocide of Cali Indians by migrants

Genocide - mass murder usually because of ethnicity

OREGON TRAIL AND DONNER PARTY

Journey West

• began Missouri

• trail began in April: enough grass for animals

• complete before winter (risk: stuck in mountains)

• requires sufficient supplies

• take enough food

Donner Party 1846

• unsuccessful

• set off too late

• use Hastings Shortcut - not tested

• ratio of elderly and children = large

• wagons broke + cattle died

• winter trap them → resorted cannibalism

MORMON MIGRATION

Reasons for Mormon persecution

• success

• blasphemy

• desire to be free slaves + friends w PI

• practice of polygamy

• police force ‘Danites’

Joseph Smith - public speaking, taught Mormons to obey him, murdered 1844

Journey to Great Salt Lake

• Brigham Young became leader

• persecution: 1500 Mormons find land

• split into groups w a leader

• assigned roles

• taught skills

• insisted on discipline + regular rest

Donner Party vs Mormon Migration

• Donner group had pamphlet but Young researched route in advance

• Donner ran out of food Young had food for another year

• Donner had many elder and children Young had advance group of 150 with skills

Why were Mormons successful in Utah?

• religious faith: increase work ethic

• Young made good decisions

• Mormon Church owned facilities families needed

• dug irrigation ditches = farm land enough water

• perpetual emigration fund - provide resources help Mormons emigrate → Utah

• young settlers: skills to prosper

PROBLEMS OF FARMING ON PLAINS

• climate - extreme weather

  → crops died, ploughs broke when used on sod, difficult for agriculture, Cali - farmers grow abundant export world wide

• grasshopper - plagues + insect pests

• weather - thunderstorms + violent winds

• lack of water - little surface water + little rain

• prairie fires - dry grass burned easily

• thick sod - soil was tangled mass of grass roots

• lack of trees - little timber for fencing + building

  → lived in caves:

  • thick walls insulation

  • fire proof but impossible to keep clean (infestation of insects)

• homesteading = expensive because pay import timber but barbed wire introduced - cheap alt

FORT LARAMIE TREATY

1851 Fort Laramie Treaty - agreement signed between US gov + tribal chiefs

Consequences→ beginning of reservation system

• increasing numbers of migrants using Oregon Trail, demanded army protection against PI

Reasons for tension between settlers + PI

• pressures on food supply (migrants disrupted buffalo herds)

• increased conflict between tribes

• discovery of gold in Cali 1848

• white fears

• Indians concern about impact on resources

Significance of Fort Laramie Treaty

• territories for PI → reservations

• white settlers allowed into PI territories → white settlement of plains

• RR surveyors + military posts in Indian territories → white settlement of plains

• tribes recieve resources from US gov → loss of PI independence

White settlement of Great Plains

• PI agreed terms of FLT for annuity → lever for US use against Indians encourage dependence: food

• FLT US gov prioritise needs white settlers (increase) no longer frontier = reservations in future

LAWLESSNESS

Lawlessness - law enforcement too thin to make sure laws being obeyed and punishments

• new crimes - claim jumping → took over promising claim made by someone (miners court set up help settle issue)

• isolated community

• racism tensions - migration → Chinese immigrants

• social factors - prostitution, alcohol + gambling → violence

• mass settlement - rapid pop increase

• mining camps - target for criminals → isolated away from law

• not enough law enforcement

San Francisco gangs

• too many gangs police unable to cope

• no effective law (bribery)

• vigilance committees - control gang violence

Vigilance Committee - citizens who punish lawbreakers as legal system is inadequate

SHERIFFS AND MARSHALS

US marshals - appointed by president responsible for state or territory

Deputy Marshals - assigned to towns in federal territories

Town Marshals - appointed by towns people annually to deal w local disputes

Sheriffs - appointed in counties for 2 year period force locals to form posse to chase local law breakers

Federal Control of Law + Order

• 60,000 people = state w legal sys

• federal gov in charge b4 becomes state

• federal gov - decide laws for territory, appointed authority

• 5000 people = elect sheriff

Problems

• huge areas - take long for democratic election results

• law officers poorly paid (take bribes)

• sheriffs appointed because of how well they can mediate fights

• settlers disliked federal gov

THE HOMESTEAD ACT

1862 The Homestead Act - allowed to rent own land + opportunity buy it cheap : appealing (Southern Americans)

• civil war → new settlement West, reconstruction evoked incentives people to take unclaimed land

Aims

• encourage settlement by farmer families

• land available for cheap

• most American citizens could file claims

Consequences

• 6 mill acres homesteaded 1876

• 80 mil acres homesteaded 1930

• promise of free land - pull factor

• mass settlement on plains

• 60% homesteads never proved up - trouble farming

Limitations

• high drop-out of claims because plots too small

• gov gave 300 mil acres to rail road co: sold to settlers (more influential than HSA)

• rich landowners found ways to buy up land using HSA

FIRST TRANSCONTINETIAL RAILROAD

1869 First Transcontinental Railroad - help current homesteaders + attracted new: use empty land, new towns built along railway: less isolated + easier access materials needed survive plains

• 1862 Pacific Railroad Act - incentives for private co build TRR

• reduce buffalo numbers

• attacks from Indians to RR workers

• allow American keep in touch (national unity)

• fulfil manifest destiny - easier to emigrate

• let federal law officers reach problematic areas

• promote settlement West

• transport goods in Oregon + Cali

Pacific Railroad Act

• Southern states blocked route of TR because it benefitted North

• PRA passed when Southern states temp left union 1861

• granted huge job of building to ‘union pacific’ + ‘central pacific’

Gov support

• massive federal financial support for first TR

• $61 mil loans

• 45 mil acres free land for RR co to sell to settlers

• gov agreed treaties w PI along route to move them to new reservations

How did railroads promote settlement ?

1880 - RR co settled 200 mil acres West

• RR co sold plots of land along routes

• effective marketing to sell idea

• sent agents to EU persuade immigration

HOMESTEADER SOLUTIONS

problem: lack of timber (not many trees on plains)

exp: nothing to build houses w, nothing to contain cattle, nothing for cooking + heat

solution: sod houses, 1874 barbed wire quick and cheap, dried buffalo dung for fuel

problem: lack of water

exp: low rainfall, few rivers/lakes

solution: drills developed - find underground water + wind pumps to bring to surface

problem: hard, arid land (unfertile for crops)

exp: ploughs broke, low rainfall preventing growth

solutions: stronger machinery help cultivate land easily, new techniques - dry farming

problem: natural disasters

exp: pests destroy seasons coup, fire burned everything

solutions: no, homesteaders bankrupted by disasters

problem: land holdings too small

exp: 160 acres allocated in HSA couldn’t support average fam

solutions:

• 1873 Timber Culture Act - homesteaders granted another 160 acres if they plant tree on ¼

• Consequences→ worked in Minnesota, didn’t always work trees die because lack of water

• 1877 Desert Land Act - settlers buy 640 acres of desert land cheaply

problem: disease + lack of medical care

exp: sod houses no sanitation

solution: women care for sick - home remedies, doctors arrived as com grew

problem: lack of education

exp: homesteads too far from towns w schools

solutions: women taught children, teachers arrived as com grew

problem: isolation

exp: life lonely + tough on plains

solutions: RR improved travel + bought much needed supplies to homesteaders, com work - build schools/churches

MORE PROBLEMS LAW AND ORDER

Impact of Civil War - lawlessness

• defeated men resented victorious US gov + laws

• war after affects traumatising, difficult to fit into society

• war devastated south’s economy

• many have no jobs

Impact of Railroads

• new towns because of RR in West = ‘Hell on Wheels’

• grew quick + no law

• notorious → gambling, heavy drinking, prostitution

• ‘Cow Towns’ - paid cowboys drank, danced and fought

• trains replaced stagecoaches for transporting valuables

Tackling Lawlessness

• RR improved communication between law officers

• Cow Towns ban fire arms

• Gangs + Outlaws too powerful to over throw

CATTLES

Cattle Barons - become rich due to growth: industry

1855 Quarantine - block Texan cattle from Missouri + Kansas

1861-1865 Civil War - Cattle left to reproduce → 5 mil

• drives blocked because of Texas fever in cattle

• cattlemen desperate to make profit

• solution reach Northern market - RR

long drives - dangerous, made cattle lose weight + value

1867 Railroad to Abilene - McCoy sets up first Cow Town (35,000 cows to A)

1870 Beef Investors - investments in growing cattle industry

1867 Abilene

cattle owners now use safe + established trails to transport cows at end: reach place where stored safely + transported using RR, faster + safer way of getting cattle to markets north.

Joseph McCoy:

• set up Abilene first cow town

• allowed cattle transported easily to East markets

Goodnight-Loving Trail- used to sell cattle directly → population centres in need (forts + reservations)

Significance → recognition of new markets in West, grow Wyoming CI

• Charles Goodnight + Oliver Loving: another market for Texan Cattle

• 800 cattle sold for for $12,000 in deprived areas = pay anything for food

• trail extended to Colorado + Wyoming

• Goodnight’s success → Wyoming cattle ranches grow = cattlemen drive there

John + Plains Ranching

Ranching on plains- using public land nobody owned → feed cattle instead of herding them on long drives → cows lose weight + value

Significance → first to raise cattle on Plains, open range farming

• saw opportunities sell meat - booming mining towns (Colorado)

• difficult get supplies → Colorado because not on RR until 1870

• John raise cattle on Plains near Colorado (26,000 cattle)

• proved you fat cattle on plains + sell beef for profit w/o danger of long drives from Texas

• John - first millionaire selling beef to miners

CHANGING ROLES FOR COWBOYS

Trails:

• round up/branding cattle

• seasonal work

• dangers - stampede, extreme weather, hostile Indians

• slept in open air

• free-time → visit saloons/brothels

Ranches

• full-time work

• rounding/branding cattle/mend fences over small distances

• fewer dangers but hostile Indians + wild animals still

• slept in bunkhouses

• free-time → gambling/guns banned (difficult to adapt)

RANCHERS VS HOMESTEADERS

Rivalry cattle ranchers vs homesteaders both want land

Early conflicts caused: homesteaders in Kansas stop cattle drives (afraid of damage to crops + Texas fever). 1880s sheep = threat to cattle because competing for grazing

• open-range ranching need lots of land = cattle roam

• problems: homesteaders filing claims on public land to turn into homesteads

• ranchers bought RR sections + fenced to block public lands

• took homesteaders to court over rights → HS too poor

Consequence → rivalry led to range wars, both relied on public land for grazing

IMPACTS ON PLAIN INDIANS

expansion of RR, growth of CI, gold prospecting = increase pressures PI life

• resources depleted - America expanding from East, West, South

RR impacts

• disrupt buffalo herds → noise of trains + fencing of tracks

• contribute to extermination of buffalo

• encouraged settlement on plains → gov persuade PI move to reservations + give up land along RR routes

Cattle Industry Impacts

• cattle + buffalo compete for grass

• increase in cattle → buffalo herds pressure

• trails cross PI territory

• some PI worked in CI apply skills from hunting buffalo

Gold Prospecting Impacts

• 1849 Cali Gold Rush

  • white trespass PI land on Oregon Trail

  • 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty

  • 1851 Indian Appropriations

IMPACTS OF GOV POLICY

Why did Indians move to reservations?

• tribe council agree necessary for survival

• American expansion → less land for hunting + fewer animals

• US gov promised protection + food

• sign treaties - starvation

• force by US gov

Impacts of Reservations

• undermined traditional PI lifestyle

• plot of land smaller - no hunting → rely on annuities from US gov

• agents were corrupt cheated tribes out of annuities

1868 Peace Policy - reservations ran by corrupt men led to conflict President Grant appointed fair Quakers to run reservations

Consequence → better, PI forced to stay on reservations

• realised bad reservation management → conflict

• appointed new agents (religious) not corrupt

• made an Indian → authority figure

• $2 mil budget improve conditions on reservations

INDIAN WARS

1862 Little Crow’s War - war between Sioux tribe and US gov

Consequences→ forced to move to smaller reservation

• Little Crow (Sioux Chief)

• 1861 crops failed on reservation

• annuities promised by gov didn’t arrive

• PI faced starvation

• 1862 Little Crow attacked agency in charge of reservation

• stole food + burned agency buildings

• oct - Sioux surrender/captured + moved to smaller reservation

1864 Sand Creek Massacre - US soldiers massacred over 130 PI

Consequence → PI begin mistrust gov

• Cheyenne on Sand Creek - starving (crop fail)

• Black Kettle (Chief) attacked wagon trains + stole food

• after 3 years BK negotiated with gov

• Nov 1864 - Chivington led raid on camp

• 150 PI massacred (held white flags)

• US gov condemned Chivington

• BK escaped

1866-68 Red Cloud’s War - PI win 2nd FLT

Consequence → FLT 2nd 1868

• Bozeman’s trail broke Fort Laramie Treaty

• crossed hunting grounds of Sioux

• Red Cloud (Sioux Chief) led attacks on trail travellers

• US gov tried negotiations

• blocked route + planned traps massacred 80 soldiers

• 2nd Fort Laramie Treated negotiated

1868 Fort Laramie Treaty 2 - protected reservation, only Sioux can use

Consequence → Sioux moved onto great reservation

• US gov agrees abandon three forts + Bozeman trails

• Red Cloud agree move tribe on reservation

• Indians split on separate sides of reservation - difficult work together

Red Cloud - successful joined w other tribes to fight

CHANGES IN FARMING

Dry farming

• conserve water trapped in soil

• best farming method for homesteaders - growing wheat

• main method turning plains → main wheat producing region

Wind Pumps

• started with self regulating windmill 1854

• efficient high steel towers generate power - pump water from underground

• 1880’s powerful windpumps (no constant need to repair) widespread

Barbed Wire

• 1874 solution to no wood for fencing

• first expensive + broke easily/wound cattle

• 1880’s became cheaper + stronger

• CI use: fence off land for cattle

• RR use: fence off tracks

CHANGES IN CATTLE INDUSTRY

• open range replaced by smaller ranches, fenced (barbed wire) concentrated breeding fewer but better animals

• open range become overstocked

Consequences of Overstocking →

• too many cattle

• overgrazing (little grass 1883 drought)

• prices dropped (over supply beef)

• less profit/bankrupt (low price = less profit)

• extreme winter (deep snow 15% cattle died) → bankrupt

1886-7 Great die Up - thousands cattle died icy blizzards 15% herds died

End of Open Range

• after winter → cattle ranchers in business move to small ranches

• smaller herds easy manage

• smaller herds easy guard against cattle rustlers

• ranchers brought high quality breeds = better meat

• smaller number of cattle = raise price for meat

• CI recover

Consequences for Cowboys →

• winter cowboys died trying to find cattle

• less adventurous lives

  • mending barbed fences

  • looking after cattle

  • inspecting grass

• lived in uncomfortable bunkhouses

  • leaking roofs

  • thin walls

• cowboy number dropped = smaller ranches

CONTINUED SETTLEMENT GROWTH

1879 Exoduster Movement

• slavery abolished during Civil War

• black + white meant to be equals

• white prevented:

  • keep former slaves economically dependent

  • threat w violence

• Benjamin Singleton - promoted Kansas, help migrants

• continued oppression

• 1879 rumour ‘gov gave Kansas to ex-slaves’ = trigger movement of 40,000 black

Consequences of Exoduster movement + Kansas →

• problems w farming

  • other settlers taken best land

  • Exodusters no money → farming

  • Exoduster homesteaders hard survive

• responses to Exodusters

  • white oppose migration

  • not helping

  • Kansas governor help: money to get started

• Consequences →

  • 1880 mass migration end: problems

  • 43,000 black settled in Kansas

  • had fewer rights

1893 Oklahoma Land Rush - gov fill plains w American settlers, land blocked - reservations, Dawes Act made available

• PI territory not open to white settlement

• PI territory for different tribes, middle section not allocated

• US gov opened up middle section for settlement

• white settlers land rush to claim 160 acre section

BILLY AND WYATT

• examples of how tensions affected lawlessness

Billy:

• criminal of Wild West

• grew up in a mining camp

• steal horses + cattle

• famous : escaping jail

• involved in several range wars as a hired gun

• fought in the Lincoln County war + was killed

• conflict over resources: involved in war between ranchers

• intimidation + corruption: local law enforcement = weak caught up in range war

• geography: gang could hide in remote places

• poverty: life hard, outlaw → glamorous + exciting

Wyatt:

• appointed as a deputy sheriff 1879

• town was controlled: rich mine owners + businessmen

• hired Wyatt - help deal w ranching fam opposing them

• several conflicts w fam - try take back stolen horses + stop them from rustling cattle

• conflict led to gunfight: where leading members of ranching fam killed

• conflict over resources: involved in war between businessmen + ranchers

• intimidation + corruption: accused of criminal acts + murder (increase lawlessness)

• law + order: gunfights

• unreliable lawmen: Earp arrested 9 times by law officers w criminal pasts

1892 Range War

• Johnson County War

• Wyoming US - dispute between small ranchers + big cattle co

• conflict: tensions land use + control

• violence

• vigilantism resisted in JC

• WSGA gunmen from Texas invaded JC + raised $100,000

• failed invasion - arrested

Consequences →

• loss of life

• highlighted issues of land ownership and control

• lead to reforms in CI

• WSGA used $100,000 hire best lawyers

• invaders set free

Reno gang - robbed train 1866 = $16,000, several times until captured, gave rest up for a reduced sentence, outlaws soldiers in Civil war struggled normal jobs turn to crime

Pinkertons - detective agency worked - capture outlaws + gangs

BUFFALO EXTERMINATION

1883 Extermination Of Buffalo - reservations only option for PI

White Americans: buffalo hunting profitable → leather, clothing

• 13 mil buffalo on plains (1840)

• 200 survived (1885)

• buffalo offered PI necessities for life = destruction → destruction of way of life

How buffalo exterminated?

• habitat crossed by RR

• hunters used buffalo - feed construction workers

• hide - high quality profitable goods

• grassland used to feed buffalo - destroyed by civilisations building

• caught diseases

• killed by tourists: special excursion trains hunt buffalo live

Who was responsible?

• gov destructed buffalo to control PI

• PI allowed to leave reservations to hunt - banned → diffuse into American society

• destroy buffalo - PI less likely protest about loss of nomadic lifestyle

• no preservation of buffalo by gov

• white enjoyed benefits buffalo hunting offered

BATTLE LITTLE BIGHORN

1876 Battle of Little Bighorn - caused by white trying buy + use sacred lands Black Hills: mine gold, battle between US army led by Custer vs Cheyenne + Sioux (won) turning point - Americans fear Indian spark resentment wanted PI to behave like them

Consequences→Sioux defeated by US army + gov forced: give up horses + weapons, lost independence + move to a smaller reservation: left Northern buffalo herd unprotected

Key Events

• 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Sioux given large reservation (Black Hills) - roam free, whites not allowed settle/prospect for gold

• Northern Pacific RR closer to Sioux land - General Crook looked for gold found it!!!

• US gov offered $6 mil for Black Hills/ $400,000 annually for mineral rights - refused offers

• bands left Sioux reservation, given 60 days to return back to civilisation or be attacked, deep snow impossible to travel

• 7000 PI war ready

• Sioux tribes defeated GC at Rosebud river, travelled to Little Big Horn River

• Custer attacked Indian camp at Little Bighorn → Custer defeated, disfigured

Custers Role

• outnumbered

• should’ve waited for backup

Consequences →

• massacre of Custer + men appalled white Americans

• whites wanted revenge + destroy way of life

Success or Failure ?

• short term failure for US

• historians argue led to long term success

  • 2 forts built, 2500 army reinforcements sent West

  • Sioux leaders eventually surrender

  • Sioux give up weapons

  • Leaders get captured

• Indians defeated

1887 Dawes Act - Homestead Act for Indians

Consequences→ lost more land to whites, sold land because couldn’t farm on infertile soil

WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE

1890 The Wounded Knee Massacre - massacre of ghost dance people

Consequence → last conflict

• snow + pneumonia slow BF band down

• army caught them - taken to Wounded Knee Creek

• army disarmed them

• Indians started dancing + got shot

• all died, end of Indian resistance

Impacts

• symbol of oppression in later fight: Indian civil rights

• end of Indian frontier: only US owned all land

• end of ghost dance

• white thought massacre justified

• last clash between Sioux + US army

Ghost dance

• Sioux rations - cut + crops fail (drought)

• spiritual vision - keep dancing ‘great spirit bring back dead + great flood carry whites away’

• attitude worried agents + whites (rebellion)

• Sitting Bull killed in case of rebellion

• followers joined Big Foot band

Factors ending Plains Indians way of Life

• RR in west

• extermination of buffalo

• discovery of gold in West

• reservation gov policy

• homesteads on the plains

LIFE ON RESERVATIONS

1871 Indian Appropriations Act - law to pass 1851 Americans no longer make treaties w Indians

Consequence → Indian no longer recognised independent power

1885 Life On Reservations - broke power of Chief had to live by US gov rules

minimise Indian territory → destroy Indian identity to force integration into American society

• reservation land - unwanted American land, not fertile

• Indian agents - appointed however annuities disappeared

• Indian Agency Police - PI joined force = control reservations (better food/clothing than rest)

• living conditions - rations poor + crops failed

• diseases common → death

Tribal Chiefs lost power

• gov slowly removed chiefs influence of guidance

• don’t sign treaties

• councils look after reservations

• punished by US federal courts

Indian children taught American values

• punish using language at school

• weren’t accepted by whites

• no longer fit in with families

Indian beliefs banned

• no more

  • feasts

  • dances

  • reduced power of medicine men (important in lifestyle)

• Christian missionaries sent to ‘civilise’ Indians

Not allowed to hunt

• removed male roles

• affected clothing/lifestyle

Indians de-skilled

• warriors/horsemen/hunters no horses on reservations

• refused to learn white skills

  • agriculture

  • ploughing

  • sowing

  • reaping