The American Indian Wars were ongoing from the earliest settlements of the 17th century, all the way through the 1920’s. As American settlers began to move further west, more and more clashes erupted as the clash of two different cultures, and lack of empathy for one another fueled hatred and resentment on both sides.
From the colonial period through the mid 1800’s many Native tribes aligned with European nations that were still fighting for control over the new world. Native Americans were used as insurgent forces to harass settlers, instill fear and undermine the government of the United States.
As conflicts increased in both size and intensity, the U.S. government implemented a strategy to remove Native Americans from their lands and
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The Lakota, part of the Great Souix Nation, had come to control the Powder River basin, formerly controlled by the Crow. The area was a generally used as buffalo hunting grounds for Native tribes, but as the Buffalo population dwindled, those hunting grounds needed to expand to follow the natural migration of the Buffalo. The extension led to conflicts between settlers who were traversing west and used established trails leading to Oregon and the gold deposits in the further west. This intersecting expansion by both cultures resulted in tension and ongoing skirmishes, including raids and attacks on U.S. Army forts for 2 years. The U.S Government established the Indian Peace Commission which led to negotiations to end hostilities between the Lakota and the U.S. Army. Red Cloud’s War was ended in 1868 with the Treaty of Fort …show more content…
After the discovery of gold in the Black Hills and the resulting expansion into Native lands by settlers, tensions boiled over once again. The Great Souix Nation viewed the encroachment as the U.S. Government violating the treaty. The U.S. Government attempted to re-negotiate the Treaty of Fort Laramie, with the ultimate goal of regaining control of the Black Hills. These negotiations failed but miners were still pouring into the Black Hills. To control the Great Souix Nation and force peace between the U.S. Government and the Native Americans, the U.S. Government ordered that all bands of the Great Souix Nation would return to the boundaries of the reservation from the hunting lands. Those bands of the Great Souix Nation that did not comply would then be considered hostile and the U.S. Army would be sent to force compliance. The Black Hills War began in February 8th 1876 when General Crook and General Terry were ordered to commence campaigns against the newly declared hostile Native Americans who had not returned to the Great Souix Nation Reservation boundaries.
Leaders
Major General George Crook was the in charge of the Department of the Platte headquartered in Omaha Nebraska. The Department of the Platte was an administrative district which included the Dakota territory.
Major General Alfred Terry was the commander of the Dakota territory during the Black
Despite that, the United States government told the Indians that they would not invade their lands. They soon heard that the Indians had fertile land and decided to allow settlers to move west. “After hearing tales of fertile land and a great mineral wealth in the West, the government soon broke their promises established in the Treaty of Fort Laramie by allowing thousands of non-Indians to flood into the area.”. (Victoriana) To make more land available to the settlers the government had to make reservations that would separate the Indians from the whites. In exchange for the Indians moving to
Another cause for poor relations between Native Americans and European Settlers was the constant push for acquiring new land by the Colonists. The Native Americans did not just want to give up their land and this resulted in war between the Indians and the Colonists. During this time Native Americans were sold into slavery belittled and removed from their land, due to the fact that the Colonists had more advanced technology and weapons. One of the major wars was the French and Indian War which resulted in the removal of Native Americans from their land and many casualties on both sides. Over time many battles were fought over land, even after America was an established country with presidents, laws, and court systems. Native Americans were continually pushed out of their land for hundreds of years while they were forced to move west. The constant push of Native Americans out of their land would cause an event known as the Trail of Tears where thousands of Indians were removed from their land by the Indian Removal Act. “In 1830 the Congress of the United States passed the "Indian Removal Act." Although many Americans were against the act, most notably Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett, it passed anyway. President Jackson quickly signed the bill into law. The Cherokees attempted to fight removal legally by challenging the removal laws in the Supreme Court and by establishing an
Col. George Armstrong Custer was given a order to explore the Black Hills within reservation boundaries. He was also ordered to map and find a comfortable place with enough resources to plant a future military post. While Lt. Col. Custer was exploring the hills words of found gold were being spread by geologists. This lead to Miners and Entrepreneurs invading the land for profit of gold, which violated the treaty directly. When the US tried giving the Lakota prices to buy Black Hills they rejected it, which led to a deadline in January of 1876. It was said that all Sioux report to the reservation on January 31, but when there was no response in return, the task was handed off to the military. (Little Bighorn Battlefield National
These events in the Powder River region were called “Red Cloud’s War,” that resulted in a high victory for the Lakota. The Lakota had contested the Bozeman Trail to all nonnative travels. Army supply trains had to fight their way through, and soldiers were bottled up in their forts. The Natives saw no necessity to negotiate a new treaty and held in contempt all government proposals to do so. Ultimately in 1868 the U.S soldiers disbanded from their forts along the Bozeman Trail as a gesture to reopen treaty
Everything was going very well for the settlers in the west, except for disputes and battles with the native Indian tribes. The tribes had signed many treaties with the Americans regarding their land and their safety; however, the treaties were loosely followed and ignored for the most part. In 1868, the Lakota were having conflicts with the US Army. The Lakota were angry that the army kept coming into their territory. This led to Red Cloud's War. Congress passed the Fort
The Indians siding with the English during the American Revolutionary war cannot be overlooked. The Indians beard a heavy burden from colonist because they sided with the English. It would not be startling to believe this fueled the initiative to remove Cherokee Nation west of the Mississippi River. In retrospect, the Cherokee wanted to be seen as its own state so they could handle their own affairs and be self-governed while still being under the protection of the United States. In the early 1800’s the Cherokee Nation had an extremely hard time to acculturate with the citizens of the United States. They had agreements and
In 1868 the “Treaty of Fort Laramie” was signed, It was an agreement between many Native American nations and the United States guaranteeing the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills. However it didn’t take long for the treaty to be violated. In 1876 migrant workers seeking gold crossed over the reservation borders which led to the “Black Hills War”.
In Montana the Native American tribes are a crucial part of our history. Like all other independent nations, the Native American tribes of Montana each have their own unique customs, cultures and languages. Often times differences between tribes lead to conflict. But once europeans came to Montana the inter-tribal relationships were changed forever. One of the most influential and important wars of the nineteenth century was The Great Sioux War of 1876-1877.
Just like this century actually runs longer thematically than just 1800 to 1900, the story of the Indians extends backward before the first shots of the Civil War were fired and stretches forward past Reconstruction. Throughout this elongated era, different tribes had different experiences. Some, like the nations of the Iroquois, started their travails with warfare of white Americans as far back as choosing between the French and British during the French and Indian War. Others, like the Seminole, had fought many independent wars against America (or Spain or Britain) in their homelands long before they faced the Civil War. Still others, like the Cherokee, had attempted to assimilate into white culture, were forced off their lands, thought they were “safe” on guaranteed reservation lands, and then were forced again to participate when the Civil War bled westward into Indian Territory. The concepts of racism and “whiteness” that flowed like a river through themes of religion, progress, immigration, territory, slavery, and Reconstruction during the “long nineteenth century” also affected Native Americans; the “war of a thousand deserts” fought by the native tribes of the Southwest was both a unique experience and a shared experience as almost every tribe fought their own wars against whites and sometimes against other tribes
On May 28, 1830 Andrew Jackson, the president at the time, signed the Indian Removal Act making it a law. The law gave the U.S. government the right to exchange land west of the Mississippi for Indian Territory in the state borders. Some tribes relocated peacefully, but most resisted the relocation. The United States government forced Cherokee Indians to move and 4,000 of them died being relocated giving the forced movement the name “Trail of Tears.”
history, cause by the excruciating relocation of the Indians. This is also considered as the beginning of the Indian extermination by the U.S. government even though they had lived in the country several generations before the white settlers set their foot in America. Altough after the American Revolution and the establishment of the United State, the Indians were consider as a discrete nation. Enclosed by a monarch country even so, the Indians were completey perpetrate to a tranquil coexistence, together with the White settlers.
At the start of the Revolution in 1776 many of the patriots view towards the Indians was that of Thomas Jefferson’s, the paternalistic view. That the Indians were “noble savages, “uncivilized in their present state but if they would adapt to ways of the white society they could be redeemed. While others felt that they should be treated as conquered people because some of the tribes helped the British in the War, one of which was the Mohawks. That was one the main reason why most of the tribes choose to stay out of the war. At this point in time the patriots felt that they were merely trying to provide for their families and start a new life in the new world. But to the Indians they felt that the patriots were trying to push them off their lands, threatening their families and their way of life. And over time these views towards each other change with each push westward on the part of the patriots and each conflict of resistance on the part of the Indians. As the new nation grew the need for more land became evident, as a way of trying to bring resolve the government signed treaties with the tribes. The treaties promised them protection of the lands they had held if they ceded certain lands. But when it came right down to it treaty after treaty was broken, which lead to more and more distrust by the Indians. As time passed the views of Indians changed, in the early 1800’s whites viewed Indians as “savages” that should be removed from the valuable land that the
After the Civil War, thousands of Americans poured into the Great Plains on a collision course with western Indian tribes. Homesteaders, ranchers, and miners encroached on Indian lands and threatened native game and ways of life. They called on the U.S. Army to crush Indian resistance and confine tribes to government controlled reservations.
Native Americans have felt distress from societal and governmental interactions for hundreds of years. American Indian protests against these pressures date back to the colonial period. Broken treaties, removal policies, acculturation, and assimilation have scarred the indigenous societies of the United States. These policies and the continued oppression of the native communities produced an atmosphere of heightened tension. Governmental pressure for assimilation and their apparent aim to destroy cultures, communities, and identities through policies gave the native people a reason to fight. The unanticipated consequence was the subsequent creation of a pan-American Indian identity
With different cultures and beliefs, it is very hard for groups of people to avoid conflict with one another. One of the biggest factors of the clash between Native Americans and Europeans is that they are coming from completely different lifestyles. Europeans had very poor diet, which consisted of mostly bread and soup. Those who did not starve were malnourished. Europe was filled with many diseases that killed much of Europe’s population. Native American survival was based on hunting and gathering. If they killed an animal they ate, if they failed to do so they went hungry. Native Americans lived under a democratic system and were separated into tribes and lived in tents. There was no such thing as rich or poor between tribes, which eliminated competition to move up the social ladder. Some tribes were very small, and to avoid being outrun by larger tribes, the