American West- Wars

Question 1

What policies were developed between the years 1803-1851?

Answer 1

In 1803, the US government purchased Louisiana from the French. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced all Native Americans in the eastern United States (eg Cherokee, Seminole) to go there (the Trail of Tears).

Question 2

What pressures were put on Native Americans between the years 1803- 1851?

Answer 2

First settler trails across Plains to the West - Oregon Trail (1841), Mormon Trail (1846), California Trail (to the goldfields, 1849).

Question 3

What did the policies and pressures present between the 1803-1851 result in?

Answer 3

First skirmishes between Native and white Americans.

Question 4

What policies were introduced between the years 1851-1867?

Answer 4

In the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, the US government agreed that large areas of land should belong to Native American tribes ‘for all time’ (eg the Sioux were given the Black Hills of Dakota).

Question 5

What pressures were put on the Native Americans between the years 1851-1867?

Answer 5

Gold was discovered in Colorado (1859). The first cattle drives were opened up (eg the Goodnight-Loving Trail, 1866). The Pony Express and a regular stagecoach service to California started up.

Question 6

What did the policies are pressures between 1851-1867 result in?

Answer 6

Little Crow’s war (1860-61)
Massacre of Sand Creek by Chivington’s 3rd Colorado Volunteers (1864)
Red Cloud led the Sioux in a successful war against the US (1866-7). During this war the Fetterman massacre (1866) occurred, in which 80 US cavalry troopers died.

Question 7

What policies were introduced between the years 1867-1875?

Answer 7

In the Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867) the southern plains tribes agreed to move to Oklahoma.In the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) Red Cloud realised he could never defeat the US permanently, and the Sioux agreed to move onto a small reservation. The US government promised to supply food and medicine.

Question 8

What pressures were put on the Native Americans between the years 1867-1875?

Answer 8

Railroads. Cow towns and cattle ranching. Gold was discovered in the Black Hills. Many white Americans wanted to exterminate the Native Americans. Slaughter of the buffalo. The US government broke its promises of 1868, and supplies were inadequate.

Question 9

What did the policies are pressures present between 1867-1875 result in?

Answer 9

Custer and his army were wiped out at the battle of Little Bighorn (1876).
Custer’s Avengers swelled the US Army, and superior US numbers, technology and winter campaigns forced the Sioux to surrender.

Question 10

What happened in 1875?

Answer 10

The end of the Indians way of life. The US government made Native American territory available to white settlers (eg the Oklahoma Land Run, 1889). Homesteaders arrived. The Native Americans’ own law courts were abolished. The Native Americans had to seek justice in the white man’s court.

Question 11

How did a clash of cultures lead to conflict on the Plains?

Answer 11

White Americans did not understand the Native Americans’ way of life. Consequently, they distrusted and feared them, and could believe anything (including torture and deceit) of a people they did not understand. Conversely, the Native Americans felt that white Americans were devils who ruined the earth. Differences of culture caused them to hate and despise each other, and led to war.

Question 12

How could the conflict on the Plains be seen as being due to racism?

Answer 12

. The white settlers believed that the Native Americans were inferior. They felt justified in saying that ‘complete extermination is our motto’, and in slaughtering the buffalo to starve the Native Americans to death. In 1864, Colonel Chivington justified the massacre at Sand Creek by saying: “Kill them all, big and little: nits make lice”

Question 13

What else could have led to the conflict on the Plains?

Answer 13

Faced by an attitude of genocide, Native Americans had nothing to lose - as the Sioux Chief Gall said: “You fought me and I had to fight back”. It could be argued that war broke out simply because the white men wanted the Great Plains - firstly to cross, then for gold, then for cattle and then for farming. Many white Americans believed that it was their manifest destiny to take over the Plains. They took the land that Native Americans believed belonged to everyone

Question 14

What did the US government do that frequently led to conflict?

Answer 14

The US government regularly broke its treaty promises - as the Sioux Chief Gall said: “If we make peace, you will not keep it”.

Question 15

What did the Native Americans do that frequently led to conflict?

Answer 15

Meanwhile, some Native Americans wanted war. Early travellers on the Plains were robbed and murdered. And when some Native Americans made peace with the US government, others would stay out on the warpath - white Americans could not understand that the chiefs had no power to make their warriors obey. In 1866, a group of Native Americans wiped out a unit of US cavalry (the Fetterman Massacre), and events like this, and the defeat at Little Bighorn (1876), made the white Americans determined to win the war

Question 16

What were the White Americans attitudes towards the race of the Native Americans?

Answer 16

White Americans regarded Native (and black) Americans as subhuman. Horace Greeley wrote that: “…their wars, treaties, habitations, crafts, comforts, all belong to the very lowest ages of human existence”.

President Jefferson wrote that they were: “…backward in civilisation like beasts”.

Question 17

How were the Indians adapted to the Plains?

Answer 17

Nomadic
Tipis
Leisure crafts
Acceptance

Question 18

What were the views of the white Americans about how the Indians were adapted to the Plains?

Answer 18

White Americans demanded a settled, farming way of life. They thought that tipis were: ““…too full of smoke … inconceivably filthy””.

Horace Greeley despised the Native Americans for: ““…sitting around the doors of their lodges at the height of the planting season””, and said they were ““…squalid and conceited, proud and worthless, lazy and lousy. These people must die out,… God has given this earth to those who will subdue and cultivate it.””

Question 19

What views did the Native Americans have of the land?

Answer 19

Land cannot be owned or sold

Question 20

What were the views of the white americans over how the native americans treated the land?

Answer 20

White Americans believed that God had given them the right to ““subdue the earth””, and they wanted to make money from it. They thought land ownership, fences and cultivation were natural.

White Americans thought only they could make full use of the land.

They gave the Plains to the Native Americans when they thought they were ““wholly unfit for cultivation””, but when they found this not to be true, they took the land for themselves.

Question 21

What were the native americans method of government and law?

Answer 21

Influence of chief
Community spirit
Horse stealing

Question 22

How did the white americans view the native americans method of government and law?

Answer 22

White Americans could not understand why chiefs could not make their warriors obey them.

Government based on ‘community spirit’ was incomprehensible to white Americans, whose government was based on laws and compulsion.

They particularly hated horse stealing, because ““depriving a man of his horse could mean life itself on the Plains.””

White observers declared that the Native Americans were ‘without government’.

Question 23

What were the religion and morality of the Native Americans?

Answer 23

Animistic (spirits)
    Medicine men
    Young marriage
    Easy divorce
    Polygamy
    Exposure of old people to the elements, to die

Question 24

How did the white Americans view the religion and morality of the Native Americans?

Answer 24

Christian preachers thought ““…the Indians have no religion, only ignorant superstition””.

Native American customs of marriage, divorce and exposure of old people to the elements offended white Americans’ religion and morality.

Question 25

What were the native americans view of war?

Answer 25

Preserve life
Ambush and stealth
Coups
Scalping

Question 26

How did the white americans view the native americans way of war?

Answer 26

White soldiers saw ambush as treachery, scalping as barbarous and retreat as ““a total lack of courage””.

"”The first impulse of the Indian,”” wrote Colonel Dodge, ““…is to scuttle away as fast as his legs will carry him … “”

Question 27

When did the battle of little bighorn happen?

Answer 27

1876

Question 28

What caused the battle of little bighorn?

Answer 28

Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull refused to accept the peace of 1868.
Gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874.
The Sioux refused to sell their land in the Black Hills.
The government ordered the Sioux onto small reservations. When the Sioux refused, they were declared ‘hostile’.

Question 29

What preparations were made for the battle of little bighorn?

Answer 29

General Philip Sheridan was sent to defeat the Sioux.
In June 1876 US armies, led by the generals Alfred Terry and John Gibbon, met at the Yellowstone river.
Gibbon was set to march up the Little Bighorn river, and Lt Colonel George Custer was ordered to march round the Wolf mountains, as part of a two-pronged attack on the Sioux camp.

Question 30

How did the armies get to the battle of little bighorn?

Answer 30

The Sioux had been joined by the Cheyenne and Arapaho, making an army of more than 3,000 warriors, armed with Winchester repeating rifles.
Custer marched his men through (not round) the Wolf mountains, to arrive at the Sioux camp first.
Custer divided his 600 men into three groups.

Question 31

What happened in the battle of little bighorn?

Answer 31

Custer sent Captain Frederick Benteen scouting, and sent Major Marcus Reno to attack the Sioux village from the south.
Custer headed north of the village with 215 men.
The Sioux cut off both Reno and Custer. Benteen rescued Reno, but Custer and all of his troops lost their lives.
The Sioux withdrew when Terry and Gibbon arrived.

Question 32

Why was general Custer defeated?

Answer 32

He acted alone - even though Gibbon’s last words to him were: ““Custer, don’t be greedy. Wait for us. “”
Instead of going round the Wolf mountains, Custer force-marched his men through the mountains. His troops and horses arrived tired after the long march.
He weakened his forces by dividing them into three (although this was classic US Army tactics).
He expected the Sioux warriors to scatter and run. Instead they outmanoeuvred and surrounded him.
He was hugely outnumbered.
He was arrogant and over-confident, and wanted the victory to bolster his political ambitions. He ignored the advice of his Crow scouts to wait for reinforcements.
The Sioux leaders - especially Crazy Horse - were expert and experienced generals.
The Native Americans regarded the war as their last chance - they fought with desperation.
The Sioux were determined: ““The whites want a war and we will give it to them””, said Chief Sitting Bull.
Custer had poor information - he did not know how big the Sioux army was, nor that they were armed with Winchester repeating rifles.

Question 33

What does the source that shows the traditional view about the heroism of Custer and his men at the Battle of the Little Bighorn - Custer can be seen brandishing two guns, fighting until the very end reveal?

Answer 33

this painting illustrates the problem of reliability of sources. This depiction is almost certainly wrong. An archaeological survey in 1983 found that Custer’s men fell in a running battle, perhaps as they scattered and fled down the hillside towards the river. It also found that Custer was not scalped, which suggests that he shot himself, because the Sioux did not scalp a suicide.

Question 34

What happened in November 1876 which led to the destruction of the Indian’s way of life?

Answer 34

The US Army began winter campaigns against the Sioux, starving them into surrender. Colonel Mackenzie destroyed Dull Knife’s Cheyenne camp - driving the Cheyenne into the hills to survive the winter without any food.

Question 35

What happened in January 1877 which led to the destruction of the Indian’s way of life?

Answer 35

Chief Sitting Bull fled to Canada. He joined a Wild West show, but eventually returned to join the reservation.

Question 36

What happened in October 1877 which led to the destruction of the Indian’s way of life?

Answer 36

Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé tribe tried to flee to Canada, but was intercepted. ““I will fight no more forever””. he vowed.

Question 37

What happened in 1879 which led to the destruction of the Indian’s way of life?

Answer 37

Richard Pratt opened the first boarding school for Native American children. The Sioux were given cattle and forced to become cattle-herders.

Question 38

What happened in 1881 (- 1817)which led to the destruction of the Indian’s way of life?

Answer 38

Geronimo led a series of rebellions by the Apache warriors, but eventually had to surrender and become a vegetable farmer.

Question 39

What happened in 1883 which led to the destruction of the Indian’s way of life?

Answer 39

The Bureau of Indian Affairs issued the Code of Religious Offences, banning Native American religious customs such as the Sun Dance.

Question 40

What happened in 1887 which led to the destruction of the Indian’s way of life?

Answer 40

The Dawes Act divided the Native American reservations between the different families.

Question 41

What happened in 1889 which led to the destruction of the Indian’s way of life?

Answer 41

The Oklahoma Land Run. The government split 2 million acres of former ‘Indian territory’ into 160 acre plots, and people had to race to claim a plot. The race began at noon on 22 April 1889 and by next day all the land was claimed.

Question 42

What happened in 1890 which led to the destruction of the Indian’s way of life?

Answer 42

A medicine man called Wovoka started a Ghost Dance - although it was peaceful, the Army, fearing a rebellion, tried to arrest Sitting Bull, who was taking part (he was killed during the attempt). Then when Sioux Chief Big Foot, trying to avoid the trouble, led his people to Wounded Knee Creek, they were massacred by the US Army.

Question 43

Why did the white Americans win the Plains?

Answer 43

The battle of little bighorn
Lies
Economy
Technology
railroads
Slaughter of the buffalo
The US army
Reservations
Education

Question 44

How did the battle of little bighorn help the White Americans to win the Plains?

Answer 44

the massacre of Custer’s regiment caused thousands of ‘Custer’s Avengers’ to join up, and it made the US Army determined to hunt down and destroy the Native American warriors.

Question 45

How did lies help the White Americans to win the Plains?

Answer 45

the US government made promises which it later broke.

Question 46

How did the economy help the White Americans to win the Plains?

Answer 46

the US government had unlimited men and money. After the Little Bighorn, the Sioux had to disband their army because the land could not support so large a group for long.

Question 47

How did technology help the White Americans to win the Plains?

Answer 47

the US Army had access to repeating rifles, machine guns, cannons and the telegraph. The Native Americans had to buy rifles, and used smoke signals to communicate.

Question 48

How did the railroads help the White Americans to win the Plains?

Answer 48

thousands of white Americans and US soldiers could travel to the West in hours by railroad.

Question 49

How did the slaughter of the buffalo help the White Americans to win the Plains?

Answer 49

after the 1870s, white hunters destroyed the buffalo, not only for their hides, but partly to destroy the Native Americans, whose way of life depended on these animals. By 1895, less than a thousand buffalo remained on the Great Plains.

Question 50

How did the US army help the White Americans to win the Plains?

Answer 50

The US Army was too big and strong for the Native American warriors. It controlled the Plains from a system of forts.

Question 51

How did reservations help the White Americans to win the Plains?

Answer 51

destroyed the Indian way of life, because people on them were forced to become farmers. Many warriors became alcoholics. The influence of the chiefs declined, because the reservations were run by agents. The Code of Religious Offences destroyed the Native American religion, and the Dawes Act ended community ownership.

Question 52

How did education help the White Americans to win the Plains?

Answer 52

the Indian boarding schools (which the children were made to attend) forced Native American children to become ‘white’. They were beaten if they even whispered in their own language - the motto of one school was ““kill the Indian to save the man””.