Late 19th-Century Native Conflicts: Little Bighorn, Ghost Dance, and Allotment

\textbf{Gold} was found on Native American land, bringing many new settlers and miners.
This caused \textbf{trouble} because the land was promised to Native Americans by treaties.
By $1876$ , the US government pushed tribes to stay on their designated land. If they left, they faced \textbf{starvation} as their food and supplies were threatened.

US soldiers, led by General George Custer, had about $600$ men.
Custer \textbf{divided his soldiers} and attacked, but the Native American forces were ready.
This led to a huge \textbf{defeat} for Custer's army, with around $268$ soldiers killed. It was a big win for Native American forces during the Indian Wars.

After the battle, the US government \textbf{cut off food and supplies} to force tribes back onto reservations. Many people, especially in winter, died of hunger.
Some Native Americans returned, while others, like Sitting Bull, \textbf{fled to Canada}.
The \textbf{Dawes Act} began: common tribal lands were split into private plots for individuals (usually around $40$ acres per person). Any extra land was \textbf{sold to non-Native settlers}, drastically shrinking tribal lands from over $150{,}000{,}000$ acres to less than $40{,}000{,}000$ by the $1930s$ .
The \textbf{Black Hills} were taken from Native Americans. In the $1970s$ , a court said this was illegal and offered over $100{,}000{,}000$ as payment, but the tribe \textbf{refused} it to keep their claim to the land.

\text{Buffalo Bill Cody} helped create a popular, often untrue, image of the Wild West, Custer, and the battle. Sitting Bull later joined his shows.
\text{Geronimo} became famous after his capture.
Stories of soldiers surviving the battle are \textbf{false}. Custer’s Last Stand became a well-known, but often wrong, story.

The \textbf{Ghost Dance} movement (late $1880s$ – $1890s$ ) was a spiritual practice that worried US officials, who thought it would bring back Native American power. It was later banned.
Sitting Bull was killed during unrest in \text{1890}. The \textbf{Wounded Knee Massacre} at the end of $1890$ killed many Native Americans and some US soldiers (between $150$ and $300$ casualties).
This massacre is often seen as the \textbf{end of the Indian Wars} and led to faster efforts to make Native Americans adopt white culture.

The government started \textbf{boarding schools} (like Carlisle) to remove Native American culture. Their goal was to “kill the Indian in him and save the man.”
Children were taken from their homes, and their language, clothes, religion, and traditions were banned. Many children \textbf{died} in these schools, and graves have been found recently.

This act broke up tribal land into individual plots (around $40$ acres). The \textbf{remaining land was sold} to non-Native people.
This caused a huge \textbf{loss of land} and changed how tribes governed themselves. Tribal land fell from $150{,}000{,}000+$ acres to about $40{,}000{,}000$ acres by the $1930s$ .
In \text{Oklahoma}, many tribes ended up with spread-out pieces of land. Today, some tribal lands still exist, often with new businesses like casinos.

Today, Native Americans are still working to \textbf{get their land back}, develop their economies, and fight legal battles over their reservations and independence.
A \text{2020 Supreme Court} decision confirmed that many \text{Oklahoma} reservations still exist, strengthening tribal land rights there.

From the $1870s$ to the $1930s$ , government policies drastically changed Native American land ownership, independence, and way of life.
\textbf{Military defeats}, forced assimilation, and