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Act on the Great Plains
The federal government had passed an act that designated the entire Great Plains as one enormous reservation. -
Government Changes Act
The government changed its policy and created traties that defined specific boundaries for each tribe. Most Native Americans spurned the government treaties and continued to hunt on their traditional lands, clashing with settlers and miners--with tragic results. -
Massacre at Sand Creek
The Massacre at Sand Creek was know as one of the most tragic events that occured in 1864. Most of the Cheyenne assumed they were under the protection of the U.S government. U.S Army commander sent a telegram saying, "I want no peace till the Indians suffer more." The attack at dawn killed over 150 inhabitants, mostly women and children. -
Crazy Horse ambushes Captain William J. Fetterman
Crazy Horse ambushed Captain William J. Fetterman and his company at Lodge Trail Ridge. Over 80 soldiers were killed. Native Americans called this fight the Battle of the Hundred Slain. Whites called it the Fetterman Massacre. -
Treaty of Fort Laramie
The Sioux agreed to live on a reservation along the Missouri River, was forced on the leaders of the Sioux in 1868. It provided only a temporary halt to warfare. -
Red River War
In late 1868, war broke out as the Kiowa and Comanche engaged in six years of raiding that finally led to the Red River War of 1874-1875. -
The Sioux War
Sitting Bull and a few followers took refuge in Canada, where they remained until 1881. Eventually, to prevent his people's starvation, Sitting Bull was forced to surrender. -
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 household and 80 acres to each unmarried adult. -
Wounded Knee
The Seventh Calvary--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.
