Native American Civil Rights 1865-1992

Question 1

4 and a quote

Events and policies that affected Native Americans

Answer 1

• Building of railroads - 30M buffalo in 1800 - but in 1886 - Smithsonian could only find 18 good specimen
• Dawes Act - 86M acres of land lost, no more tribes
• American Indian Boarding Schools - cultural genocide, children indoctrinated
• Irrigation projects in the Great Plains - necessitate large capital investment, farming, fertile

‘Kill the Indian, save the man’

Question 2

3

Westward expansion description

Answer 2

• US gov content to let Indians live freely on land white Americans didn’t want
• Mid 19th century - started a ploy to attract settlers - trails across America to the west coastal plain encouraged wagon trails of settlers to head west to fertile Oregon
• Gold later discovered in California

Question 3

2

Westward expansion impact on Native Americans

Answer 3

• Gradually removed from their traditional lands - a large, forced migration of tribes nature to Mississipi, Virginia, Florida in the Removal Act 1830 - 70k NA gone from the outcome of this
• Displaced many tribes in California and Oregon - lost their right to fish - people perished from not having the skills to hunt for food

Question 4

3

American Civil War description

Answer 4

• 1865- several tribes - notabely Sioux and Cheyenne were hostile t o white encroachment - powerless to US gov - signed federal treaties - units of military stationed in a series of forts along the West to protect wagons
• Gov appointed Indian agents were corrupted and sold the food
• Led to Sand Creek Massacre 1864 - warfare on plains 1862-68, and Homestead Act 1862 - released land in 160 acre plots, 20K homesteaders

Question 5

American Civil War impact on Native Americans

Answer 5

• Restricted freedom to follow herds of buffalo and therefore potentially cut sole food supply
• Essential aid did not reach them - led to hostility
• 1864 - Navago and Apache were moved onto reservation land to fulfill gov’s idea of Indians as farmers and children recieved white man’s education

Question 6

1

Union Pacific Railway description

Answer 6

• Built to develop existing railway network in the east and from coast to coast - part of the policies of firmly establish gov law and order in the new territories of the west but also encourage settlement

Question 7

2

Union Pacific Railway impact on Native Americans

Answer 7

• Railroad companies allocated land by the gov to cover cost of enterprise, unshamedly lure settlers onto the Plains - with ‘Buy now, Pay Later’ schemes
• The train disturbed the buffalo herds and also bought even more land hungry settlers into the Plains

Question 8

3

Comment from General Carleton

Answer 8

• Believed in Manifest Destiny - ‘it was their destiny, too,’ to ‘give way to the insatiable progress of our race’
• Called the Plains ‘princly realm’ and ‘stupendous canyons’ making it magic, mystical thing that should inevitably be given to white americans
• This was from a military report - they took this seriously

Question 9

And example

Manifest Destiny definition

Answer 9

The idea that the United States is destined - by God, to expand its dominion and spread democracy and captialism across the entire North American continent

James K. Polk - 11th US president (1795-1849) - in his tenure, America’s territory grew by more than 1/3 and extended across the continent for the 1st time