End Of The Plains Indians

Question 1

By when were the northern and southern buffalo herds destroyed?

Answer 1

1875- southern

1883 - northern

Question 2

What were the conditions in reservations?

Answer 2

By 1870s Indians were virtually prisoners 
On poor farm land 
Dependant on the government 
No medical care 
Indians treated badly 
Food rations were inadequate

Question 3

When did the reservations system start?

Answer 3

1825

Question 4

What were reservations intended to do?

Answer 4

Keep Indians away from homesteaders

Expect them to be farmers

Question 5

What was government policy in the reservations?

Answer 5

Supervised by the government Indian agents

At first allowed to leave to hunt but not after the conflicts

Question 6

How was the Indian culture destroyed territorially and politically?

Answer 6

Territorial - reduce size of reservations and split Indians into smaller groups
Political - 1885 Indians lost all power, communal reservations were broken by the 1887 Dawes general allotment act, they no longer needed a chief

Question 7

How did the reservations destroy the Indian religion and economy?

Answer 7

Religion- Dances were banned, medicine man was undermined, no need to seek visions for war
Economy - not able to hunt

Question 8

What happened to the Indian children in reservations?

Answer 8

Taken to boarding schools where they were kept under military conditions
Taught to have no respect for the Indian way of life

Question 9

Explain the destruction of the buffalo

Answer 9

1840-85- buffalo from 13 million to 200
Hunting for sport - increased with railroad
Hunting for hides- easily transported, 1871 discovery of high quality leather from buffalo hides
Hunting for bones- homesteaders and professional pickers, taken to the east to be used for fertilisers, buttons and combs