Struggle for the Plains Flashcards
What was agreed between the Plains Indians and the US Government in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851?
In the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, the US government agreed that large areas of land should belong to Native American tribes ‘for all time’ (eg the Sioux were given the Black Hills of Dakota).
What was the ‘Policy of Concentration’?
After the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851, there was a period of peace on the Great Plains as both sides knew the areas they were allowed.
Give 3 reasons why the Policy of Concentration started to fail.
In 1858 gold was discovered in the Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Gold Rush began.
From 1854 onwards many settlers began to settle on the plains of Kansas and Nebraska.
Transport links began to develop such as the mail coaches. People began to search for the best routes to build railroads.
Name the 2 possible solutions to the Indian Problem?
Exterminate or Negotiate
What were the key events in the Sand Creek Massacre?
There had been conflict between the Cheyenne and the US forces (the Colorado Volunteers) during the US Civil War.
Chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope negotiated a peace and were told to camp near Fort Lyon, flying a US flag and they would be left in peace.
The Indians did what was asked of them and their warriors went to hunt for buffalo.
Despite doing this, Colonel Chivington and his men (many of them drunk) attacked the camp in Nov 1864, murdering men, women and children, scalping and mutilating their bodies. 2 officers held back their companies and refused to attack the camp.
Why did General Custer lose the Battle of the Little Bighorn?
Custer did not follow orders.
The leadership of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
The lack of communication between Custer and his other generals.
Why did the numbers of buffalo reduce so rapidly between 1840 and 1885?
More settlers moving west, settling on the Plains, destroyed the buffalo’s natural habitat and killed buffalo who competed with their cattle for grazing.
The cattle brought by the settlers spread new diseases to the buffalo.
Buffalo hunters who came in to kill buffalo for meat and use their hide for leather goods.
How did the Reservation system destroy the Indian way of life?
Territory/Land as reservations gradually became smaller.
Children were no longer taught to hunt. They were taught how to live like white Americans.
The Indian religion was banned .
What was the Dawes Allotment Act?
The Dawes General Allotment Act broke up the communal land on the reservations into individual, privately owned land.
What was the Ghost Dance?
An Indian medicine man named Wovoka said he had a vision that told him to get all Indians to do the Ghost Dance. If they did this all the buffalo and dead Indians would return.
What happened at Wounded Knee?
On December 29, 1890, the US 7th Cavalry Regiment surrounded an encampment of Sioux Indians near Wounded Knee Creek.
While attempting to disarm the Sioux, a shot was fired and a scuffle broke out.
The US army soldiers opened fire on the Sioux, massacring hundreds of men, women, and children.
This was the last major conflict in the struggle for the Plains.
What tactics did the US Army use to defeat the Indians on the Great Plains?
Built forts in the West.
Use of ‘Total War’ destruction of food, shelter, clothing, animals etc..
Winter campaigns as Indians didn’t like to fight in winter.
Reservations split up into smaller ones
Weapons and horses removed
