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The Government Restricts Native Americans
The federal government had passed an act that designated the entire Great Plain as one enormous reservation, or land set aside for Native Americans tribes. -
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1850's changes policy
The government changed its policy and created treaties that defined specific boundaries for each tribe. Most of he Native Americans spurned the government and their treaties and continued to hunt on their traditional lands, clashing with settlers and minners with tragic results. -
Massacure at Sand Creek
The Cheyenne were assuming they ere under the protection of he US Government, had peacefully returned to Colorado's Sand Creek Reserve for the winter. General S R Curtis, a US army commander in the west, sent a telegram to militia colonel John Chivington that said I want no peace till Indians suffer more. Chaivington and his troops descended on the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The battle killed over 150 inhabitants mostly women and children. -
Death on the Bozeman Trail
The Bozeman trail ran through Sioux hunting grounds in the Bighorn Mountains. The Sioux chief, Red Cloud had unsuccessfully appealed to the govenmant to end white settlement on the trail. The warrior Crazy Horse ambushed Captain William J Fetterman and his company at Lodge Trail Ridge. Over 80 soldier were killed. Native American called this battle Hundred Slain. Whites called it the Fetterman Massacre. -
Treaty of Fort Laramie
Shirmishes continued until the government agreed to close the Bozeman Trail. The treaty of Fort Laramie, in which the Sioux agreed to live on a reservation along the Missouri River, was forced on the leaders of he Sioux in 1886. -
Gold Rush
Colonel George A. Custer reported that the Black hill had gold from the grass roots down, a gold rush was on. Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, another Sioux chief, vainly appealed again to government officials in Washington. -
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Red River War
The US Army responded by herding the people of friendly tribes onto reservations while opening fire on all the others. General Philip Sheridan, a Union Army veteran, gave orders to destroy their villages and ponies, to kill and hang all warriors, and bring back all of the women and children. with such tactics, the army crushed residence on the southern plains. -
Custers Last Stand
The Sioux and Cheyenne held a sun dance, during which Sitting Bull had a vision of soldiers and some Native Americans falling from their horses. When Colonel Custer and his troops reached the Little Big Horn River, the Native Americans were ready for them. Led by Crazy Horse, Gall, and sitting Bull, the warriors, with raised spears and rifles, outflanked and crushed Custer's troops. Within an hour, Custer and all of his men of the Seventh Calvary were dead. -
The Dawes Act
Congress passed the Dawes Act aiming to Americanize the Native Americans. The act broke up the reservations and gave some of the reservation land to individual native Americans, 160 acres to each head of the household and 80 acres to each in married adult. The government would sell the remainder of the reservations to settlers, and the resulting income would be used by Native Americans to buy farm implements. -
Wounded Knee
The Seventh Cavalry, Custer's old regiment, rounded up about 350 starving and freezing Sioux and took them to a camp at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. The next day, the soldiers demanded that the Native Americans give up all their weapons. A shot was fired, not sure from which side. The soldiers opened fire with deadly cannon. Within minutes, the Seventh Cavalry slaughtered as many as 300 unarmed Native Americans, including children. The bodies were left on the battle field to freeze.
