Booklet 2 Conflict with the Sioux 1851-65

Question 1

What did the Indian Removal Act of 1830 set up?

Answer 1

A ‘Permanent Indian Frontier’ in the western part of America (past the Mississippi). Removed Indians from the fertile farming lands of the south-east to the harsh western plains.

Question 2

What was the Bureau of Indian Affairs?

Answer 2

A government department. Indian Agents were government officials sent to the west to monitor and negotiate with the Sioux.

Question 3

What was the name of the Act that intended to protect the Indians from western settlers by setting up the Reservations?

Answer 3

Indian Appropriations Act, 1851

Question 4

When was the first Fort Laramie Treaty passed?

Answer 4

1851

Question 5

Name TWO terms of the first Fort Laramie treaty.

Answer 5

Sioux promised not to attack settlers on the trails to California and allowed the building of roads and forts and the US Government promised to protect Sioux hunting areas and pay the Sioux an annual subsidy (money).

Question 6

There were two arguments regarding how the Sioux should be treated. Who wanted to negotiate?

Answer 6

Indian Agents, government officials and people who lived in the east.

Question 7

Who supported the ‘exterminator’ solution to the Indian problem?

Answer 7

westerners (miners, homesteaders) and the army.

Question 8

Give FOUR reasons why the Sioux went to war in the 1860s.

Answer 8

Government did not pay subsidies, 1858 Gold Rush in Colorado and Kansas brought miners onto Indian lands, farmers moving to the Plains in the late 1850s, surveying and building the railroad

Question 9

How are the Sioux to blame for the failure of the First Fort Laramie Treaty?

Answer 9

Not all Sioux bands agreed and warriors continued to attack settlers.

Question 10

What was the Homestead Act, 1862?

Answer 10

160 acres of free land. If you could farm successfully in 5 years, the land was yours.

Question 11

Name 3 aims of the Homestead Act.

Answer 11

Unite USA east to west, (as it was separated north to south through war), defeat the Sioux and settle the west, solved overcrowding due to immigration in the east.

Question 12

How did the government allocate a lot of the free land?

Answer 12

Land rush or Land race

Question 13

Why did the government want settlement on the Great Plains? (two reasons)

Answer 13

Unify America (especially after the start of the Civil War between the North and South), defeat the Sioux, deal with overcrowding (immigration) and high land prices in the eastern states.

Question 14

Which President launched the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1863?

Answer 14

President Abraham Lincoln

Question 15

Give 2 reasons why the Transcontinental Railroad was built 1863-1869?

Answer 15

Unite USA east to west, support western settlement, encourage trade.

Question 16

Who built the railroad?

Answer 16

The Central Pacific Railroad company started in California and built towards the east. The Union Pacific started in Missouri and built towards the west.

Question 17

How did the government pay the Railroad builders (Union Pacific and Central Pacific)?

Answer 17

Government grants after 40 miles of track built and 12,000 acres of land for every 1 mile of track built. (Companies could then sell land to settlers).

Question 18

How did the Central Pacific company deal with labour shortages?

Answer 18

Chinese immigrants

Question 19

Colonel Dodge had to introduce marshal law (military control) on the Union Pacific line (across the Plains). Why?

Answer 19

Alcohol, gambling, prostitution, violence (shoot outs).

Question 20

Which railroad company had to deal with Sioux attacks?

Answer 20

Union Pacific (from the east to the west across the Plains)

Question 21

Name 3 consequences for the Sioux Indians of the Homestead Act and railroad.

Answer 21

Thousands of more settlers, not just travelling through but actually settling on Sioux hunting lands. The railroad disrupted buffalo herds. The railroad encouraged sport hunting of the buffalo, depleting the numbers for the Sioux.

Question 22

Why did the Sioux attack the railroad?

Answer 22

Cut through buffalo hunting grounds, brought more settlers out west.

Question 23

The first Sioux war is known as the Cheyenne War, 1863-67. What caused it?

Answer 23

Some Cheyenne Sioux refused to live on reservations and attacked railroad, settlers, miners, ranchers etc.

Question 24

Name two events where Indians were attacked for being off of the reservation.

Answer 24

Sand Creek Massacre, 1864 and Battle of Washita, 1867.

Question 25

Why was Sandcreek (1864) a ‘massacre’?

Answer 25

700 soldiers of the Colorado militia attacked mostly women, children and elderly (warriors were hunting) Sioux in camp at Sandcreek. There is evidence that Black Kettle (chief) flew a US flag over the village and that there were attempts by the Sioux to surrender, but the soldiers butchered them anyway. There is evidence that Colonel Chivington ordered the massacre and that Sioux bodies were mutilated by the soldiers afterwards.

Question 26

How is the cause of Red Cloud’s War (1865-68) similar to the Cheyenne War?

Answer 26

Americans left the trails and invaded Indian land (this time for Gold in the Rocky Mountains, 1862). The government did not protect Sioux land, so the Sioux attacked.

Question 27

Can the US government be blamed for Red Cloud’s War? Why or Why not?

Answer 27

Yes! The government did not stop miners trespassing on Sioux land. Whilst negotiating a peace treaty, the American Army was secretly building forts to defeat the Sioux.

Question 28

Briefly what happened at Fetterman’s Fort in 1866? Was it a massacre?

Answer 28

Sioux and Army troops were clashing regularly in the West. Captain Fetterman chased a small group of Sioux warriors who had been attacking loggers nearby. The Sioux lured Fetterman and his men into a trap, ambushed and slaughtered them. Difficult to define as a massacre as the army underestimated the strength of the Sioux and were beaten. They were not innocent as Fetterman’s intent was to kill the Sioux who had been attacking the loggers.

Question 29

What was Red Cloud’s major achievement in the Indian Wars?

Answer 29

Red Cloud was able to keep several different Sioux bands fighting together, even through the winter (when the Sioux didn’t usually fight). He kept the US army on the defensive from 1866-1868.

Question 30

Why did the government have to admit defeat by Red Cloudin 1868?

Answer 30

Red Cloud and the Sioux would not surrender. Another trail, away from Sioux land, was opened to the Gold mines so defeating the Sioux was no longer necessary.

Question 31

What were the terms of the Second Fort Laramie Treaty, 1868? (name 3)

Answer 31

The government withdrew soldiers from the forts (and the Sioux burned them down), the Great Sioux Reservation was created, no non-Indians were allowed to enter this land

Question 32

Was Red Cloud’s victory a success for all Sioux?

Answer 32

No, many Sioux were still unhappy about living on the Reservations. Younger, more radical leaders like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wanted the Americans completey pushed off of the Plains.