Native American and the struggle for survival

Crazy Horse

Sioux chief at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Sitting Bull

Sioux chief who led the attack on Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Red Cloud

Sioux Chief who negotiated with the government

Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce

"It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and the broken promises. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. It does not require many words to speak the truth."

Sioux Indian

"Tell your people that since the Great Father (President) promised that we should never be removed we have been moved five times.... I think you had better put the Indians on wheels and you can run them about wherever you wish"

General Philip Sheridan reflection on the wars against the Plains Indians

"We took away their country and their means of support, broke up their mode of living, their habits of life, introduced disease and decay among them, and it was for this and against this they made war. Could anyone expect less?

Westward Expansion

A movement westward for jobs, land, hope, the gold rush, adventure, a new beginning and the transcontinental railroad. It lasted from 1850-1890

Quanah Parker

Comanche leader who worked to settle disputes between Native Americans and the US Government

Reservation System

Lands reserved for Indians and never protected because whites kept coming west. Land set aside for Native American tribes by the government.

Sioux Nation

Most powerful coalition in the Great Plains tribes; subsisted largely through hunting buffalo; followed the herds of buffalo to hunt them; focused on religious and harvest celebrations; was complex because life was a series of circles

Dawes Severalty Act "kill the Indian but save the man"

Native American children were sent to "Christian Boarding schools where they were to be forcefully assimilated into the accepted "American Culture" Bill that promised Indians tracts of land to farm in order to assimilate them into white culture. An act that broke up Indian reservations and distributed land to individual households

Plains Indians

Posed a serious threat to western settlers because, unlike the Eastern Indians from early colonial days, the Plains Indians possessed rifles and horses.

Viewpoints of Native Americans

Savages, Uneducated, Heathens.

Chief Seattle

THE GREAT CHIEF in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. The Great Chief also sends us words of friendship and good will. This is kind of him, since we know he has little need of our friendship in return. But we will consider your offer, for we know if we do not so the white man may come with guns and take our land. What Chief Seattle says you can count on as truly as our white brothers can count on the return of the seasons. My words are like the stars - they do not set. How can you buy or sell the sky - the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? We will decide in our time. Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing, and every humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father's graves and his children's birthright is forgotten. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the redman. But perhaps it is because the redman is a savage and does not understand. There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to listen to the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand - the clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind itself cleansed by a mid-day rain, or scented by a pinõn pine: The air is precious to the redman. For all things share the same breath - the beasts, the trees, and the man. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench. If I decide to accept, I will make one condition. The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. I am a savage and I do not understand any other way. I have seen thousands of rotting buffaloes on the prairie left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive. What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Our children have seen their fathers humbled in defeat. Our warriors have felt shame. And after defeat they turn their days in idleness and contaminate their bodies with sweet food and strong drink. It matters little where we pass the rest of our days - they are not many. A few more hours, a few more winters, and none of the children of the great tribes that once lived on this earth, or that roamed in small bands in the woods will remain to mourn the graves of the people once as powerful and hopeful as yours. One thing we know that the white man may one day discover. Our God is the same God. You may think that you own him as you wish to own our land, but you cannot. He is the Body of man, and his compassion is equal for the redman and the white. This earth is precious to him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. The whites, too, shall pass - perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses all tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by the talking wires, where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.

Trail of Tears (1838-1839)

The forced removal of about 15,000 Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole Indians west; a quarter of them died along the way. they did not have time to prepare for the journey.

Indian Wars

These wars lasted 30 years and had to do with the West trying to expand into Native Territory. Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee, Sand Creek Massacre 1850 to 1890; series of conflicts between the US Army/settlers and different Native American tribes

Battle of Wounded Knee

US soldiers massacred 300 unarmed Native American in 1890. This ended the Indian Wars.

Battle of Little Big Horn

battle in which the Sioux, led by Sitting Bull, defeated the U.S. Army led by General Custer 1876 battle in which the Sioux defeated U.S. Army troops

Indian Removal Act 1830

removed Native Americans from southern states and put them on reservations in the Midwest law passed in 1830 that forced many Native American nations to move west of the Mississippi River Andrew Jackson supported this

Gold Rush of 1849

thousands of people go to California to find gold; 49ers