2.3 Impacts on the Plains Indians and government policy

Question 1

what increased the pressure on Plains Indian’s traditional way of life?

Answer 1

expansion of the railroad, the growing cattle industry and gold prospecting

the resources they depended on were shrinking as white America expanded

Question 2

What was the impact of the railroads on the Plains Indians?

Answer 2

• railroads disrupted the buffalo migrations through settled areas: the noise of trains and fencing of railroad tracks contributed to the extermination of the buffalo and also blocked buffalo movements and disrupted hunts
• Railroads were funded by land grants that the railroad companies sold to settlers which encouraged settlement of the west. This took away land from tribes and reduced grazing for buffalo
• the government persuaded tribes to give up lands along railroad routes and move to reservations
• as part of the Pacific railroad act, the government began to extinguish any Plains Indian rights to land along the route so Indians were moved off the railroad land to reservations

Question 3

What was the impact of the cattle industry on the plains Indians life?

Answer 3

• cattle and buffalo had the same diet: grass. Consequently, as cattle numbers increased on the plains buffalo numbers decline
• Cattle trails often crossed Indian lands in Indian Territory
  
  • tribes allowed this in return for a fee
  • in the south-west, the Comanche did not allow it and attacked cowboys, leading to tensions and US army retaliation attacks
• As buffalo became hard to find, some plains Indians went to work as cowboys or worked on ranches which was a much more settled way of life and took Plains Indians away from their traditional lifestyles. they worked for money and depended on ranchers for employment

Question 4

What was the impact of gold prospecting for the Plains Indians?

Answer 4

• In California, gold prospectors had murdered American Indians as well as forcibly remove tribes to get them away from possible claims to gold
• the influx of men from all over the world brought new diseases that devastated American Indian populations
• new towns developed, with churches, schools and stores which were all alien to American Indian culture