United States Indian Policy

1
United States Indian Policy

• 1790-1934

2
1790s

• U.S. government calls for trade and missionary
  activities with American Indians
• Tries to turn American Indians into farmers and
  assimilate them into the white culture
• Both Presidents Washington and Jefferson favor a
  policy of assimilation

3
1820s

• Many Americans believe in extermination
• Henry Clay stated that it was impossible to
  civilize Indians because they were essentially
  inferior to the Anglo-Saxon race
• U.S. government officially adopts an Indian
  removal policy and forcibly moves American
  Indians on to land occupied by other American
  Indian Nations

4
Indian Removal Act of 1830

• U.S. government would negotiate treaties that
  would force the Indians to move across the
  Mississippi River
• President Jackson stated Beyond the river
  Mississippitheir father has provided a country,
  large enough for them allThere, their white
  brethren will not trouble them and they can live
  upon it, they and all their children as long as
  the grass grows or water runs in peace and
  plenty.

5
1850s

• Fort Laramie Treaty- established two great
  reservations
• North- Great Sioux reservation in the Dakota
  Territory
• South- Indian territory in Oklahoma
• 1858- gold discovered in the Colorado Territory
• White miners clashing with the American Indians

6
1860s

• American Indians population about 360,000
• Stood in the way of the advancing tide of white
  settlers
• Clash between two cultures
• 1864- Sand Creek Massacre-450 Cheyenne Indians
  killed by the Colorado militia
• Resulted in four years of fighting
• General William T. Sherman said in 1867 the more
  Indians we can kill this year, the less will have
  to be killed next year
• 1868- most Plains Indians agreed to a reservation
  in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory

7
Reasons for U.S. Victories

• Winchester repeating rifle
• Railroad bringing in more settlers
• Alcohol and disease
• Slaughter of the buffalo
• 1865- 15,000,000
• 1886- 600

8
1870s

• 1874- gold discovered in the Black Hills
• Settlers rushed in and the Indians were ordered
  off their land
• Indians decided to defend their sacred land and
  good hunting ground

9
The Battle of Little Big Horn

• June 25,1876- Lt.-Colonel George Armstrong
  Custer( Democrat with presidential aspirations)
  and the Seventh Cavalry vs. the Cheyenne and the
  Sioux under the direction of Sitting Bull and the
  command of Crazy Horse
• Indians defeated Custers force of 250 men
• Remaining Sioux and Cheyenne hunted down or
  forced to flee to Canada
• After the fact,President Grant acknowledged that
  white miners should not have been allowed to
  enter the Black Hills

10
Crazy Horse

• 1877- surrendered at Fort Robinson, Nebraska
• Crazy Horse said We had buffalo for food, and
  their hides for clothing and for our teepees.We
  preferred hunting to a life of idleness on the
  reservation, where we were driven against our
  willAll we wanted was peace and to be left
  aloneThen Long HairCustercameour first
  impulse was to escape with our squaws and
  papooses, but we were so hemmed in that we had to
  fight.
• Crazy Horse was killed at Fort Robinson in 1877

11
The Dawes Severalty Act

• 1887-U.S. government officially dissolves
  American Indian tribes, distributes 160 acres of
  land to individual American Indian families,
  forcibly places American Indian children into
  government schools, and makes efforts to
  encourage missionaries to assimilate Indians

12
The Ghost Dance

• Last resistance movement of the 19th century and
  an end to the U.S.-Indian wars
• Religious movement practiced by the Indians to
  create a new world of sweet grass, running water
  and trees, great herds of buffalo and wild
  horses where only Indians would live
• 1884- Ghost Dance outlawed
• Plains Indians danced on the reservations
• Reservation agents became concerned and called in
  the Seventh Cavalry

13
The Battle of Wounded Knee

• December 29, 1890- 350 Sioux under Chief Big Foot
  were searched for weapons
• A rifle discharged and the army opened fire
• About 200 Indians killed along with 25 soldiers
  who had killed by their own side
• Known as the Indians Last Stand

14
The Nadir of Indian History

• 1890-1910- Indian population fell to fewer than
  250,000
• 1924- all native-born American Indians were
  granted citizenship
• Ruling was in large part to the large number of
  Indians who fought in WW I

15
1930s

• 1934- Indian Reorganization Act
• Passed because of the deplorable conditions on
  the reservations
• New Deal for Indians
• U.S. government recognizes American Indian
  tribes, reestablished tribal governments with
  certain conditions