Impact of settlement on the Plains Indians 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 Plains Indians respond to cattle drives?
Raided them
Why were the Plains Indians 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 Plains Indians?
Strain on resources of grass and water
What diseases did migrants bring to the Plains Indians?
Tuberculosis, diphtheria
What did miners do to get to gold deposits that angered Plains Indians?
Trespassed across Plains Indian lands
What did the US government do to stop miners trespassing on Plains Indian lands?
Nothing
What did miners do to Plains Indian land while tribes were elsewhere?
Divided it up, built on it, and refused to leave
How much did miners pay Plains Indians 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 Plains Indians?
Left them increasingly marginalised and desperate - forced to accept government handouts of rations and to move onto reservations
What three things did the US government agree if the Plains Indians 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 Plains Indian 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
Absolutely not
How did the government believe that the reservations would “benefit” Plains Indians?
They could learn about farming and Christianity, and their children could learn to read and write
Why did the reservations show no understanding of Plains Indian cultural values?
Treaties about reservations were agreed with chiefs, but chiefs often had no authority to make bands or brotherhoods stay on the reservation
Why was the challenge of farming on the Plains worse for Plains Indians 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 Plains Indians were being treated better than they were
