01:512:205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Great Sioux Reservation, Bozeman Trail, Helen Hunt Jackson
18 May 2018
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Chapter 26: The Great West and the Agricultural
Revolution, 1865-1896
1. The Clash of Cultures on the Plains
1. Native Americans numbered about 360,000 in 1860 scattered throughout
trans-Missouri West
1. The Indians stood in the path of the advancing white pioneers
(threatened bison population)
2. The Cheyenne and Sioux on horses transformed themselves into
nomadic traders and hunters
3. White intruders spread cholera, typhoid, and smallpox among the
native peoples of the plains
2. The federal government tried to pacify the Plains Indians (competition for
hunting grounds)
3. Treaties signed at Fort Laramie and Fort Atkinson marked the reservation
system in the West
1. They established boundaries for the territory for each of the tribes
(colonies of the north)
2. Native Americans actually lived in scattered bands recognizing no
authority outside
3. The federal government intensified this policy and herded the Indians
into still smaller confines
4. Indians surrendered their land only when they received promises that
they would be left alone
4. In the 1860s fierce warfare between the Indians and U.S. Army raged in
the West
5.
2. Receding Native Population
1. The Indian wars in the West were often savage clashes (cruelty begot
cruelty)
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1. Colonel Chivington’s militia massacred Indians at Sand Creek,
Colorado in 1864
2. In 1866 a Sioux war party attempted to block construction of the
Bozeman Trail
3. They ambushed Fetterman’s command and the Indians left not a
single survivor
2. In the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) the government abandoned the
Bozeman Trail and the Great Sioux reservation was guaranteed to the
Sioux tribes
3. Custer found gold in South Dakota but the Plains Indians massacred his
militia
4. Chief Joseph finally surrendered after leading his band of Nez Perce
Indians for 1,700 miles
5. Fierce Apache tribes of AZ and NM were the most difficult to subdue
1. Led by Geronimo, they were pursued into Mexico by federal troops
(finally captured)
6. The relentless fire-and-sword policy of the whites shattered the spirit of
the Indians
7. The Native Americans were ghettoized on reservations—they were then
largely ignored
8. The taming of the Indians was by the railroad, white people’s diseases,
and no more buffalo
3. Bellowing Herds of Bison
1. The buffalo were the staff of life for Native Americans—for food, tools,
clothing, etc
2. With the building of the railroad, the massacre of the herds began in
deadly earnest
3. Creatures were slain for hides, choice cuts, or even for sheer amusement
4. By 1885, only about a thousand buffalo were alive in the West
4. The End of the Trail
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1. By the 1880s the national conscience began to stir uneasily over the plight
of the Indians
1. MA writer Helen Hunt Jackson inspired sympathy for Indians (A
Century of Dishonor, Ramona)
2. Humanitarians wanted to treat the Indians kindly and persuade them
to take up white man’s life
2. Hard-liners insisted on the current policy of forced containment and brutal
punishment
3. Neither side showed much respect for the Native American culture (Sun
dance, Ghost Dance)
4. The movement to reform Indian policy was the Dawes Severalty Act of
1887
1. The act dissolved many tribes as legal entities, wiped out tribal
ownership of land and set up individual Indian family heads—full
citizenship was granted to all Indians in 1924
2. In the 1890s the government expanded its network of Indian boarding
schools and sent field matrons to the reservations to teach Native
American women sewing and virtues
3. The Dawes Act struck directly at tribal organization; was the
cornerstone of Indian policy
4. Under these federal policies, the Indian population started to mount
slowly
5. Mining: From Dishpan to Ore Breaker
1. Conquest of the Indians and coming of the railroad were god-sends for the
mining frontier
1. The golden gravel of California continued to yield pay dirt and
Colorado had its discovery
2. People poured into Nevada in 1859 after Comstock Lode had been
uncovered—gold and silver
2. Boomtowns sprouted form the desert sands like magic and disappeared
quickly
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Document Summary
Chapter 26: the great west and the agricultural. Colorado in 1864: in 1866 a sioux war party attempted to block construction of the. Bozeman trail: they ambushed fetterman"s command and the indians left not a single survivor, in the treaty of fort laramie (1868) the government abandoned the. Bozeman trail and the (cid:1688)great sioux reservation(cid:1689) was guaranteed to the. Sioux tribes: custer found gold in south dakota but the plains indians massacred his militia, chief joseph finally surrendered after leading his band of nez perce. 1870s to the 1890s: new western states joined the union; co, nd, sd, mt, wa, id, wy, ut (republican votes, the federal government made available the fertile plains of oklahoma. Territory: oklahoma boasted 60,000 inhabitants in one year and became the. Sooner state in 1907: the fading frontier, in 1890, the census announced that a frontier line was no longer discernible in america, jackson turner"s the significance of the frontier in american.
