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Great Plains Reservation
In 1834, the federal government had passed an act that designate the entire Great Plains as one enormous reservation, or land set aside for Native American tribes. -
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Government changed its policy and created treaties 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
Most of the Cheyenne, assuming they were protected by the US government, had peacefully returned to Colorado's Sand Creek Reserve for the winter. General S. R. Curtis and his troops descended onto the Cheyenne and Arapaho camped at Sand Creek. About 150 Native Americans were killed, mostly women and children. -
Fetterman Massacre
The Sioux Chief, Red Cloud, had unsuccessfully appealed to the government to end white settlement on the Bozeman Trail. In December 1866, the warrior Crazy Horse ambushed Captain 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
Skirmishes continued until the government agreed to close the Bozeman Trail. In return, 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 the Sioux in 1868. Sitting Bull, leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux, never signed it. -
Black Hills Gold Rush
Within four years of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, miners began searching the Black Hills for gold. The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho protested the encroachment on their lands to no avail. In 1874, when Colonel George A. Custer reported that the Black Hills had gold "from the grass roots down," a gold rush was on. -
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Red River Wars
The US Army responded by herding the people of friendly tribes onto reservations while opening fire to all others. General Philip Sheridan gave orders "to destroy their village and ponies, to kill and hang all warriors, and to bring back all women and children. -
Custer's 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 Siting Bull, Gall and Crazy Horse, the warriors- with raised spears and rifles- outflanked and crushed Custer's troops. Within an hour, Custer and all his troops were dead. -
Dawes Act
Congress passed the Dawes Act aiming to "Americanize" The Native Americans. The act broke up 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 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; from which side it was not clear. The soldiers opened fire with deadly cannon. Within minutes the Seventh Calvary had slaughtered as many as 300 unarmed Native Americans, including several children.
