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Bureau of Indian Affairs - Boarding Schools
Founded on March 11, 1824, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was created to carry out the responsibility to protect and improve the resources of American Indians, Indian tribes and Alaska Natives. The boarding school experience began in 1860 when the Bureau established the first Indian boarding school on the Yakima Indian Reservation. Their goal was to use education as a tool to educate Indian tribes into the mainstream of the American life, to accept white men’s beliefs and value systems. -
Chief Joseph
Chief Joseph, also known as Joseph the Younger, was born on March 3, 1840, and was a leader of the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce Tribe. He is important to this time period because it was he who finally surrendered the decimated band to federal troops near the Canadian border in Montana. His hope was that one day Native Americans would get the same freedom as the United States. Chief Joseph died on September 21, 1904. -
Morrill Land - Grant Act 1862
This provided grants of land to states to finance the establishment of colleges specializing in “agriculture and the mechanic arts.” -
Homestead Act
President Abraham Lincoln signed into the law and encouraged Western migration by providing settlers with 160 acres of public land. In return, homesteaders paid a small fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residency before owning the land. This allowed every man and woman, including free slaves and immigrants, to have a fair chance. -
Pacific Railroad Act of 1862
In 1862 the US Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act giving land grants and government bonds to railroad companies to build a transcontinental railroad. This Act linked the east and the west of the US and the government. It also secured the use of railroads for postal or military services. -
Sand Creek Massacre
Also known as the 'Chivington Massacre', this was a surprise attack ending in a massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people by the U.S. Army in the American Indian Wars at Sand Creek, Colorado. This was a rooted conflict for control of the Great Plains of eastern Colorado. Almost half of the 230 individuals killed were women and children. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 guaranteed ownership of the area north of the Arkansas River to the Nebraska border to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe. -
Fort Laramie Treaty in 1868
In the springtime of 1868, tribal leaders such as Red Cloud and Crazy Horse, signed a treaty with the United States. This treaty was to bring peace between the whites and the Sioux who agreed to settle within the Black Hills reservation in the Dakota Territory. Both Red Cloud and Crazy Horse were apart of the Oglala, one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people. -
Great Sioux War of 1876
Also known as the Black Hills War, this was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred in 1876 and 1877 between the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and the United States. The cause of the war was because of the want of the U.S. government to take ownership of the Black Hills since gold had been discovered there. New settlers began to invade onto Native American lands, and the Sioux and Cheyenne refused to cede ownership to the U.S, therefore resulting in war, ending in a U.S. victory. -
Battle of Little Bighorn
This battle was between the federal troops and Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Main causes leading up to the war were: the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie, possession of the Dakota territory,
white gold miners heading west and settling in the territory, and
U.S. Government forcing local tribes into Reservations. It was the most decisive Native American victory and the worst US Army defeat in the entirety of Plains Indian War. -
Exodusters
This was a name given to African Americans who migrated from states along the Mississippi River to Kansas in the late nineteenth century. This was the first migration of black people following the civil war. The Homestead Act had been passed in 1862 to encourage westward expansion in the United States and the state of Kansas was open for settlement. -
Dawes Severalty Act
Approved on February 8, 1887, the Dawes Severalty Act was designed to break up tribal organizations and prevent Native Americans from becoming 'civilized'. It divided tribal land up into 160 acres or less, as they were told to act like 'good white settlers' in return of full title ownership to their holdings and citizenship after 27 years. 90 million acres of former reservations were sold to white settlers, while 47 million acres were left for Native Americans. -
Massacre at Wounded knee
On December 29, 1890, was a massacre of several hundred of Lakota Indians by the United States Army. The U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers, near Wounded Knee Creek and began to siege the Native Americans weapons. As this was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a gun shot was heard. Approximately 300 men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 were wounded in result. -
Medicine Lodge Treaty 1868 - Chief Satana
The Medicine Lodge Treaty is known as the overall name for three separate treaties near Medicine Lodge, Kansas, between the Federal government of the United States and southern Plains Indian tribes in October 1867. The United States promised the tribes peace and protection from white intruders in return for friendliness and relocation to reservations in western Indian Territory. Chief Satana was one of the best-known Plains Indians and Kiowa war chief who signed.
