p. 4 Indian Policy

8/4/2019 p. 4 Indian Policy

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American Indian Conflict and

United States Indian Policy


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INDIAN REMOVAL ACT - 1830

Congress, with President Andrew Jacksons support, passed theIndian Removal Act in 1830

Under this law, the federal government funded treaties thatforced tribes west

The Cherokee Tribe in Georgia refused and were supported by theSupreme Court.

Jackson refused to abide by the Court decision.

Jackson said, John Marshall (Supreme Court Chief Justice) hasmade his decision, now let him enforce it.

Trail of Tears followed the Court ruling as U.S. troops rounded up

the Cherokee and drove them west, mostly on foot. . .thousandsdied.


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INDIAN REMOVAL - 1830


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Plains Way of Life

American Indians of the Great Plains followed

a way of life centered on the horse and

buffalo. Buffalo provided food, clothing,

shelter, and other essentials.

These American Indians lived in family groups

or large clans. The leaders of a tribe ruled by

counsel rather than force.


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From Peace to Conflict In 1834, the federal government had passed and act

that set aside the entire Great Plains as one enormousreservation for the Plains Indians.

The time between then and the Civil War was relativelypeaceful for the Plains American Indians.

After the Civil War, the Plains attracted tens ofthousands of white settlers who wanted to own land.

Many went to Colorado to mine gold.

The Homestead Act offered cheap land to farmers,

attracting more than 400,000 from 1862 to 1900.


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As more white settlers wished to move there, thegovernment made new treaties restricting the

land that American Indians could use. Conflict erupted. In 1864, a militia attacked a

camp of Cheyenne, killing 200, mostly womenand children. This event is known as the Sand

Creek Massacre. Meanwhile the Sioux chief Red Cloud protested

white settlers moving to the Black Hills, an areasacred to his people.

Some Sioux signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie in1868, but others refused. This treaty created areservation along the Missouri River.


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The Black Hills (He Sapa) &

The Battle of Little Bighorn

In 1874, Colonel George Armstrong Custer

reported that the Black Hills held gold.

A new gold rush began, and the government

offered to buy the land. The Sioux refused,

and the army moved in.

Custer and his soldiers were all killed in the

Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Within

months, though, the army defeated the Sioux.


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The Dawes General Allotment Act

The Dawes Act of 1887 tried to force theassimilation of American Indians into white culture.

What is assimilation?

Reservations were broken up and some of the land

was given to each adult family head for farming. The policy failed because the American Indians were

cheated of the best land.

However, possibly more devastating to the Plainstribes was the killing of millions of buffalo on whichthey had depended.

Assimilation is the process by which

individuals from one cultural group merge,

or "blend," into a second group.


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The End

In the 1880s, many Sioux turned to a ritual

called the Ghost Dance, which promised to

bring the buffalo back and restore Sioux lands.

In 1890, a nervous army killed about 300

unarmed Sioux in the Battle of Wounded Knee

or Wounded Knee Massacre bringing the Indian

Wars to an end.


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I did not know then how much was

ended. When I look back now from

this high hill of my old age, I can

still see the butchered women and

children lying heaped and scattered

along the crooked gulch as plain as

when I saw them with eyes stillyoung. And I can see that

something else died there in the

bloody mud, and was buried in the

blizzard. A peoples dream died

there. It was a beautiful dream...The nations hoop is broken and

scattered. There is no center any

longer, and the sacred tree is dead.

BLACK ELK SPEAKING ABOUT WOUNDED KNEE

BLACK ELK

h k llb l b k


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Geography Skillbuilder Textbook p. 205

1. Location Which battles took place on American Indian land?

2. Movement About what percentage of American Indian lands had

the government taken over by 1894?

p. 4 Indian Policy

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