The Struggles of Native Americans

The Struggles of

Native Americans

Native Americans

U.S. Government

VS

The Battles

• The Battle of Little Bighorn:

Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat General Custer of the U.S. government and his 264 men. June 25-26 1876

• Comache's Surrender:

In 1875 the last of the Comache War leaders surrendered after years of fighting and resisting life on reservations.

• Geronimo's Surrender:

Geronimo and his group of bandits were some of the last Apache fighting for their land, but September 1886 they finally surrendered.

Hunter Gatherer Life

Mining and Farming

Tribes

During the Gold Rush in the West:

• The Plains Indians were known to be hunter gatherers.
• Hunter Gatherers are people who live in one spot, and hunt and gather resources from the surrounding environment for survival.
• The Plains Indians were known to follow buffalo herds year round and gather crops native to the plains.

Land Rights

There were many Plains Indians living in the central U.S. during the late 1800's.

• States like California, Nevada, Utah, and the Dakotas became popular for mining immigrants.
• The increase of immigration scared away buffalo herds and tore up indian farm land.

Land

Immigration

The Government giving out free land in the West caused:

• Apache
• Comanche
• Cheyenne
• Arapano
• Sioux
• Navajo
• Nez Perce
• Paiute

The U.S. government didn't think that the Indians had rights to the plains and created many acts that forced the Indians into reservations.

The Plains Indians relied on the vast

open grounds of the plains for shelter, food, and general happiness.

• Huge masses of immigrants to trample Indian hunting grounds as they traveled deep into the West.

All throughout the 1800's Americans who had settled in the East were drawn West because of:

• Mining in California
• Free land in undeveloped states

WHAT HAPPENED

The government taking land from the Native Americans was very bad. The Native Americans relied on the wide open space of the plains so they could hunt buffalo which was their main source of nutrition and shelter. After the land was taken from the Native Americans the government forced them onto reservations where the land was infertile and they could not farm. These attacks on the Native Americans caused their culture and way of life to diminish.

Dawes General Allotment Act

Treaties Signed in the 1850's

The Dawes General Allotment Act was passed by Congress in 1887. It stated that the president of the United States had to survey the Indian land and divide it into individual parts for the Indians. This act also promised, but failed, to give Native Americans U.S. citizenship.

• Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed in 1851- the Indians allowed safe passage for settlers, if the U.S. government payed them 50,000 dollars for 50 years.
• Treaty of Fort Atkinson, signed in 1853-This allowed the United States to use the land for roads and railways.

Treaties signed in the 1860's

• Treaty of Medicine Lodge, signed in 1867- this was supposed to bring peace to the area by moving the Native Americans onto Indian reservation. But the U.S. government failed to do their part by treating them with honesty.
• The Second Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed in 1868- this guaranteed Lakota to owning the Black hills and other land, as well as hunting grounds in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. It also ended the Red Cloud's war.