Booklet 3 Defeat of the Sioux Flashcards
What was the treaty that promised the Sioux their hunting grounds would be protected?
First Fort Laramie Treaty 1851
Name two gold rushes after the 1848 to 49 rush to California.
Colorado 1858, Montana 1862, Black Hills of South Dakota, 1874
What impact did the gold rushes have on the Sioux?
Brought thousands of gold miners across Sioux lands agreed in treaties, disrupted the buffalo herds.
What were the main terms of the Second Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868?
Government would guarantee the area around the sacred Black Hills as the Great Sioux Reservation and no white people would be permitted to settle or travel through these lands without Sioux permission.
How did the Americans cause the Second Fort Laramie Treaty 1868 to fail? 4 reasons.
Settlers (miners, railroad surveyors, homesteaders etc.) broke the treaty by going onto/through Reservations, government did not protect the Sioux, Government refused to negotiate with the Sioux any longer and treated the Plains as part of the USA to be controlled by the government, army had lots of soldiers after the Civil War (1865) to deal with Sioux, army had a network of forts on the Plains, army used TOTAL WAR against the South in the Civil War so used this against the Sioux.
How did the Sioux cause the Second Fort Laramie Treaty 1868 to fail? 2 reasons
Some refused to stay on the Reservation, attacks on settlers (that came onto Reservation lands), attacks on army forts and the railroad.
What was TOTAL WAR and how did the army use this against the Sioux?
Total War was first used by General Sherman and the Northern Army against the South in the Civil War. It includes destroying crops, transportation (e.g. pulling up railroad tracks), killing livestock, burning towns etc. in an effort to weaken the enemy. The army decided to over hunt the buffalo, forcefully move villages and camps back to the Reservations, attack the Sioux in the winter in order to weaken them.
Describe the FOUR stages in the destruction of the southern buffalo herd by 1875.
- Railroad workers hunted for food. 2. Buffalo became a popular leather so prices went up and more people hunted it. 3. The railroad made it easier for lots of hunters to get to the Plains. 4. Sport hunting (sometimes from the tops of train cars) became popular and buffalo were hunted then left to rot.
Why were 7000 Sioux camping, off the Reservation, in the Big Horn Valley in the winter of 1876?
Sitting Bull had moved his tribe there to protest against miners invading the Black Hills after the Gold Rush of 1874. Thousands of other Sioux joined him in anger that the government was not upholding the Second Fort Laramie Treaty.
What were General Sheridan’s orders in February 1876?
Sheridan was told to treat the Sioux as hostile and get all of them back to the reservation.
What was Sheridan’s plan for the Sioux at Little Big Horn?
He planned a three pronged attack with three regiments coming from different forts across the Plains. Terry and Custer came from the East, Crook came from the South and Gibbon came from the West.
What is a Gatling Gun?
This is a rapid fire gun, like an early machine gun, but it fires by winding a lever. It was a large gun on wheels and took a team of men to fire.
Across the three army regiments gong to the Big Horn, there were infantry, cavalry and Gatling Guns. So, what were there weaknesses?
Poor communication, there was thousands of miles between each regiment hoping to meet up at the same time, poor reconnaissance from spies that assumed there would only be 800 warriors in the camp when there were closer to 1500.
What was the name of General Custer’s cavalry?
7th Cavalry
General Custer got there a day earlier than planned? Why? 2 reasons.
- He made his men ride all night. 2. Crook was attacked by Crazy Horse whilst having a coffee break. He lost 91 casualties and a lot of ammunition so retreated.