Impact of settlement on the Indigenous peoples up to 1876 Flashcards
What did the Pawnee, Omaha and Winnebago peoples decide to do when the Northern Pacific Railroad cut across their lands?
Moved to reservations in Nebraska
What impact did barbed wire fences have on the buffalo?
Disrupted their migration patterns
Who did the railroad companies see the buffalo as an ideal food source for?
The thousands of railroad workers
How many buffalo were killed each year as a result of the railroads?
Around 200,000
Which states had zero cattle in 1860 but hundreds of thousands in 1880?
Colorado, Montana, Wyoming
How many cattle were in Kansas in:
1860
1880
1860: 93,000
1880: 1.5 million
What did cattle and buffalo have to compete for?
Grass and water
What did the cattle bring with them that affected the buffalo?
Diseases
How did the Indigenous peoples respond to cattle drives?
Raided them
Why were the Indigenous peoples wiped out in California?
They were replaced by gold miners
Where was gold discovered in 1858?
Colorado
Where was gold discovered in 1862?
Montana
What impact did large numbers of wagons, horses and people migrating west have on the Indigenous peoples?
Strain on resources of grass and water
What diseases did migrants spread to the Indigenous peoples?
Tuberculosis, diphtheria
What did miners do to get to gold deposits that angered Indigenous peoples?
Trespassed across Indigenous peoples’ lands
What did the US government do to stop miners trespassing on Indigenous peoples’ lands?
Nothing
What did miners do to Indigenous peoples’ land while tribes were elsewhere?
Divided it up, built on it, and refused to leave
How much did miners pay Indigenous peoples to build on their land?
Nothing
How were the railroads and gold mining linked?
The railroads made it easier to move people and goods to and from the mining settlements
How were the railroads and cattle industry linked?
Railroads were used to transport cattle
How were gold mining and the cattle industry linked?
The mining towns were an important market for beef
What impact did the railroads, mining towns and cattle industry have on the Indigenous peoples?
Forced to move onto reservations and accept government handouts of rations
What three things did the US government promise if the Indigenous peoples moved onto a reservation?
1) They would not lose any more land
2) They would be protected from attack by whites
3) They would be given an annuity
Why did Indigenous tribes agree to move onto reservations despite serious doubts?
They felt there was no other way for the tribe to survive
What did the US government promise chiefs about the care of tribes on the reservations? Did they stick to these promises?
They would be given regular supplies of food and the opportunity to use their hunting grounds
No
How did the government believe that the reservations would “benefit” Indigenous peoples?
They could learn about farming and Christianity, and their children could learn to read and write
Why did the reservations show no understanding of Indigenous peoples’ cultural values?
Treaties about reservations were agreed with chiefs, but chiefs had no authority to make bands or brotherhoods stay on the reservation
Why was the challenge of farming on the Plains worse for Indigenous peoples than white settlers?
Reservations often had very poor farming land and some tribes had no traditions of farming at all
Whose job was it to run the reservations?
The Bureau of Indian Affairs
What sort of men did the Bureau of Indian Affairs appoint to run the reservations?
Corrupt men who cheated the tribes to make themselves wealthy
Why did white settlers complain about the reservations?
They said they were too big and the Indigenous peoples were being treated better than they were
