The Great Plains Indians are often considered the "Typical American Indian," but their culture is arguably the least Native due to significant influence from the White Man.
They acquired horses, glass beads, iron pots and pans, and rifles from the White Man.
Impact of the Horse
1540s: Coronado explores the Southwest.
1680: Pueblo Indian revolt (Pope's Revolt).
1780: The horse had spread throughout the Great Plains.
The introduction of the horse led to a tripling of the Indian population.
Role of the Buffalo
The buffalo was central to their religion.
It provided food, clothing, sinew (for bowstrings), dried tongue (for hairbrushes), and buffalo chips (fuel for campfires).
Culture
War was often waged for the glory of war.
They had no sense of land ownership.
Lifestyles varied from permanent settlements (Mandan) to nomadic groups (Sioux).
Demographics
Approximately a quarter of a million Indians lived from the Rockies to Kansas and Nebraska.
Examples of tribes include:
Blackfeet (Southwestern Canada)
Sioux (Minnesota)
Dakotas (Dakotas)
Cheyenne (Colorado and Wyoming)
Comanche (Northern Texas)
Contact with White Man (1820-1830)
Trappers traded freely with the Indians.
Indians rapidly adopted products like cloth, metal tools, weapons, and decorations.
They also succumbed to diseases and whiskey (firewater).
The adoption of weapons led to increased inter-tribal warfare.
Background: 1849 - Gold Rush
The Gold Rush began, causing friction as miners rushed across the Great Plains.
1851 - Thomas Fitzpatrick and the Council at Horse Creek
Thomas Fitzpatrick, an Indian agent, called a great "Council" with about 10,000 Indians gathered at Horse Creek near Fort Laramie in Wyoming.
The government used the "Concentration" method, attempting to persuade each tribe to accept definite limits to their hunting grounds in return for gifts.
This policy was a dismal failure.
The U.S. Government maintained that each tribe was sovereign, employing a classic strategy of divide and conquer.
Indian Wars: Colorado Territory & War Against the Cheyenne
1862: Federal troops were withdrawn from the Colorado territory to fight in the Civil War.
Samuel G. Colley (Indian Agent for the Cheyenne), Gov. John Evans (Territorial governor for the Colorado Territory), and Colonel John M. Chivington (Commander of the Colorado Territorial Militia) conspired to start a war with the Cheyenne to force them to leave the Colorado Territory.
Chief Black Kettle, a major Cheyenne Chief, wanted to maintain peace.
Chivington Massacre/Sand Creek Massacre:
Chivington's Colorado Militia attacked Black Kettle's band of Indians after they had been promised safety at that location by a local military commander.
1864: Col. J.M. Chivington massacred 450 Indians, mostly women and children, and allowed his troops to mutilate them.
The Indians retaliated, wiping out numbers of whites in isolated settlements, leading to a general war that lasted about five years.
One group of Cheyenne fleeing southward was wiped out; another group moved northward and joined the Sioux.
Red Cloud's War
Started when U.S. troops began building forts for the Bozeman Trail through Sioux territory in Southern Montana.
The Sioux, joined by the Cheyenne and Arapaho, ambushed and killed 82 soldiers under Captain W. J. Fetterman (1866), resulting in a new treaty.
The Government implemented the Small Reservation Policy.
A new treaty with the Sioux gave them the Black Hills for a reservation, resulting in a brief peace.
Black Hills Gold Rush and Renewed Conflict
1874: Colonel George A. Custer conducted an expedition into the Black Hills and discovered Gold.
Prospectors flooded into the Black Hills, and war broke out.
Custer's Last Stand (June 26, 1876): forces of 264 vs 3,000
In the aftermath, the Sioux were defeated.
Chief Joseph's War and the Nez Perce (Walowa Valley)
Since 1805, the Nez Perce had been friends of Americans, maintaining 70 years of peace.
They lived on rich farmland in the Washington and Oregon territory and had herds of horses and cattle, leading whites to demand their land.
The Nez Perce were falsely accused of stealing cattle.
The Nez Perces did not brand their cattle, so whites would catch Indian cattle, brand them, and claim that the Indian’s cattle belonged to them.
1877: The U.S. government sent in General Howard to clear out the Indians and take them to a reservation in Idaho.
Chief Joseph initially agreed to leave the Walowa Valley to avoid violence, but after whites stole many of their horses and cattle, he decided to fight.
The Nez Perce drew Howard's troops into a trap on June 17, 1877, killing 1/3rd of Howard's troops and routing the rest.
Joseph had 300 warriors and 450 women and children.
They headed for Canada, entering Yellowstone National Park, where General Sherman was on an inspection tour.
Sherman mobilized troops via telegraph to surround the Nez Perce, who were finally trapped just short of the Canada border.
Sitting Bull and the Ghost Dance
After Custer’s Last Stand, Sitting Bull escaped to Canada and stayed for 4 years, causing bad relations with Canada and Britain.
The U.S. demanded his return, believing he was a symbol of resistance.
Wanting to improve relations with the U.S., the British told the Canadians to stop giving food shipments to Sitting Bull and allowed U.S. negotiators to persuade him to return to the U.S. and live on the Great Sioux Reservation.
July 19, 1881 - Sitting Bull returns.
Great Sioux Reservation
The Great Sioux Reservation consisted of 35,000 sq. miles of Dakota land.
Settlers wanted the land, and government negotiators were sent to persuade the Sioux Chiefs to give up more land.
The government struggled to take the land legally, as the Indians were now "wards of the state" and had to agree to it.
Sitting Bull opposed this and convinced the chiefs to refuse to sign any documents, temporarily stopping the land grab.
Later, the government held another meeting of the chiefs and "forgot" to invite Sitting Bull.
The other chiefs agreed to the break-up of the Great Sioux Reservation, which occurred in 1889.
1884: William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) hires Sitting Bull for his Wild West Show.
1886: Capture of Geronimo.
Ghost Dance
Wovoka (Piute Indian Medicine Man) created a new religion called the Ghost Dance (October 9, 1890).
Kicking Bear, with Sitting Bull’s permission, introduced the Ghost Dance to the Indians at Standing Rock, upsetting the military.
December 15, 1890 - Sitting Bull is killed when Indian police try to arrest him.
Wounded Knee Massacre
Big Foot's band had gone off the reservation to practice the Ghost Dance at the time of Sitting Bull’s death.
The Military ordered the arrest of Big Foot and began searching for his band.
Big Foot was heading back to the Reservation when four troops of the Seventh U.S. Calvary found him.
He had pneumonia, bleeding from his lungs, and appeared to be dying.
December 28, 1890 - Whitside offered to escort them back to the Reservation but stopped at Wounded Knee to rest.
Other elements of the 7th Calvary arrived and surrounded the camp.
The commander ordered a search for weapons, resulting in the Wounded Knee Massacre.
It began when an Indian Brave called (BLACK COYOTE) refused to give up his hunting rifle, and in the resulting struggle, a gun misfired, causing the Soldiers to panic and fire indiscriminately into the surrounded and unarmed Indians.
The military tried to cover up what happened by calling it the BATTLE OF WOUNDED KNEE.
This event marks the end of active Indian resistance.
Between 200-350 Indian men, women, and children are believed to have been killed. (Dec. 30, 1890)
Government Policy After 1849
The Department of Interior was responsible for Indian Affairs and created the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Many agents defrauded and cheated the Indians.
Much of the money appropriated for the Indians never reached them.
The Small Reservation policy might have worked had there been reasonable amounts of land, subsidies, and the Indians allowed to maintain their culture.
1875: General William T. Sherman said the Indian problem could be settled in an hour if it wasn't for the interference of Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Decline of the Buffalo Herds
The buffalo herds had numbered 13 to 15 million.
They were used to feed railroad workers.
They were killed for sport and shot from railroad cars.
1871: They were used for Buffalo Robes; in the next 3 years, 9 million head were slaughtered.
The Great Plains Indian Culture could not exist without the Buffalo.
Dawes Severalty Act (1877)
The idea was to assimilate the Indian into the image of the White Man.
Goals included:
Ending tribal life
Making the Indian into a farmer
Each Indian was to be given 160 acres of land that couldn't be disposed of for 25 years.
Those who succeeded became citizens; the rest of the American Indians were finally made citizens in 1924.
The act was a disaster, and many American Indians were cheated out of their lands.
1934: A government study discovered that of the 138 million acres assigned to the Indians, 86 million acres had passed to white hands.
The government then abandoned the Dawes Severalty Act and turned back to tribal ownership and the Reservation Policy.