"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?" - General Philip Sheridan, United States Army (1878)
The fate of Native Americans as the United States continued to grow across the continent can be seen as one of a "continuous recession" through direct and indirect policies not only of the Federal government but also of white settlers and business interests themselves. In reading over Chapter 26 (especially pp. 594-604, click HERE for the powerpoint), identify the major themes, individuals, and incidents that support the claim that the Native Americans were systematically, whether through actual policies or accidental consequences or both, forced further and further from their traditional ways, thereby experiencing a "continuous recession" of their cultures and their importance relative to the Federal government and the white settlers around them. Begin with a complex-split introductory paragraph, and then provide at least one, well-developed body paragraph in which you identify and discuss the themes, individuals, and incidents that support the claim.
I have provided three additional links to more information to help you broaden your response and your understanding of this issue in American History.
DUE DATE: Monday, January 28, 2013 by midnight
WORD COUNT: 500 words minimum
The Indian War:
http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/spring10/war.cfm
The Thirty Years War:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3499
Reporting the Indian Wars:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2536601590.html
54 comments:
Olivia Brophy
Periods 3 & 4
Pt. 1
The state of Native Americans and their culture in American history after the introduction of white people has almost always been bleak. In the period from 1865 to 1896, however, the situation grew even more strained, specifically due directly and/or indirectly to federal policies. First, the killing of the buffalo, railroading and disease all played enormous roles in limiting both the Native Americans and their culture; Second, individuals, including Colonel George Custer, William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, and the many Christian reformers sent out to attempt to integrate natives into white society, had enormous consequences for Native American culture; Third, the Sand Creek Massacre, the Battle of Little Bighorn and the Nez Percé Indian War are all incidents that provide evidence for the belief that Native Americans were being torn away from their traditions in this era. Thus, the major themes of the time in relation to the West, individuals and their actions, and notorious incidents caused by the clashing of whites and natives, often in tandem with white policies affecting natives, all contributed to the systematic separation of Native Americans from their culture.
The killing of the buffalo, railroading and diseases each played enormous parts in the fate of Native Americans and their ways during this time period. By killing the buffalo that provided not only food, but supplies and a religious purpose, for Native Americans, railroad companies were rid of an obstacle to their expansion. Without having to wait, sometimes for hours, for buffalo herds to cross railroad tracks or the land on which tracks would be laid, railroads, notable the Kansas Pacific, were able to build faster, therefore being able to make a profit much quicker. However, without sufficient numbers of buffalo, the Plains Indians were left without meat for food, fuel for fires, hides for clothing and housing, and a major part of their religion. Without buffalo, the sacred Sun Dance (which was outlawed in 1904) could not be performed, and a major religious pillar for the Plains Indians crumbled. Later, the Ghost Dance emerged as a replacement to the Sun Dance, but it too was crushed by the fist of the federal government. The Dawes Severalty Act, which dissolved “tribal” land claims and redistributed the land to individual members of a tribe, not only destroyed the age old native tradition that no individual could own land (because the Earth did not belong to them), but also provided a benefit for railroads. Section 10 of this federal act allows for Congress to, at any time, take back any allotted land for the purpose of railroads or other public uses. Diseases such as cholera, smallpox and typhoid, unknowingly given by white settlers to natives, helped aide in the destruction of the culture of the Plains Indians by wiping out huge numbers of the population. Although this spreading of disease began in the decades before the war, it is very likely that the Homestead Act of 1862 helped to increase the amount of death by disease, especially when soldiers returned from war to find their old lives in ruins and headed West to try and make a living.
Olivia Brophy
Pt. 2
Individuals played an important part in the reduction of Native American culture from 1865 to 1896. In 1874, Colonel George Custer, acting on the supposed belief of Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano that the sacred Black Hills of the Sioux were rich in profitable goods, set off on an expedition through the native’s territory. If these materials were discovered, then Delano made it clear that the Sioux should be removed from their land for the benefit of white settlers and the white government. Greatly angered, 2,500 warriors were ready to meet and crush Custer, his men and their back-up parties. This clearly shows that members of the government, and most likely members of society, had an unwritten policy of its/their own wealth over the culture of the Native Americans. Another individual who played an important part in the diminishing of Native American culture was William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Under the employment of the Kansas Pacific Railway, “Buffalo Bill” killed over four thousand buffalo in eighteen months. As stated in the previous paragraph, the destruction of the buffalo population in the United States had drastic consequences for the Plains Indians. Along with Colonel Custer and William Cody, the many Christian reformers who took the initiative to “civilize” Native Americans also played an important part in the near destruction of the cultures of the Plains Indians. Some reformers set up schools on reservation sites and would not feed students until they had pledged to give of their native ways in favor of Christian ways. In other extreme cases, such as with the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, Native American children were sent away from their families and tribes in order to learn the ways of the whites. At such schools, children were apt to fall prey to diseases that they had no immunity to, or to becoming overly stressed by their forced separation from their families. Both of these examples clearly demonstrate the severe conditions under which Native Americans suffered at the hands of those who proclaimed to want to help them assimilate into the “American” way of life. However, there was a silver lining to this incredible dark cloud. “Field matrons” were sent by the government to teach Native American women living in reservations skills such as sewing, which, while different from the traditional sewing that the Native American women had used, was useful to know due to the near extinction of the buffalo. Without hides to make clothes, it was much more practical, even if it uprooted a traditional aspect of life, for Native American women to know how to sew in the same way that white women knew, rather than in the ways that their ancestors had.
Olivia Brophy
Pt. 3
Lastly, there were several incidents that support the claim of the Native Americans losing their culture during this era. The 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in Sand Creek , Colorado saw the annihilation of around four hundred Native American men, women and children by a militia led by Colonel J.M. Chivington, just for the purpose of avoiding any trouble the natives might have caused. The militia’s belief that the natives would cause trouble just because they were natives is most likely based on the general policy of white Americans during this time, and essentially since the arrival of whites in the Americas, that the natives aggravated whites without being provoked, which is completely preposterous. The Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, discussed in the previous paragraph, was another major incident that helped to gradually diminish the culture of the Native Americans, specifically, in that case, the Sioux, in favor of white America's economy. The Nez Percé Indian War in 1877 is yet another example of the culture of Native Americans being diminished. When faced with being put into the reservation system, the Nez Percé attempted to fight back. However, the attempt was unsuccessful, and the Nez Percé were forced to migrate to a reservation in Kansas. The opening of Oklahoma additionally provides for the governments general disregard for the Native Americans. Previously set aside solely as Indian land, in 1889 Oklahoma Territory was opened for white settlement, proving that the government could not be counted on to preserve for Native Americans even the land that it had promised to be only theirs (in reality, much like a giant reservation).
Thus, this era of American history can be truthfully characterized as one in which the Native Americans and their culture were exposed to “continuous recession” at the hands of the white man’s government, the white man’s business, the white man’s army, and the white man himself.
During the 1860s the Native Americans thrived on the vast, plentiful expanse that was the American frontier. However, with the Western expansion of the American pioneers, the indians suffered as they were backed into corners and denied the land their ancestors had roamed and hunted on for countless generations. These natives were soon brought into open conflict with the pioneers and the men they hired to guard them, the aggravated tribes raided and killed, and were in turn killed as well; as series of events unfolded, such as political disputes and policies were carried out, they found themselves in a dangerous situation, faced with risk of extinction many Eastern and Western tribes began attempts to conform to the “American” society to survive.
Early signs of a “new world” for the Native Americans resulted from the alarming decrease in the revered buffalo population. Long had the indians migrated in nomadic tribes, following the herds across the wild and green prairies to survive. These tribes relied entirely on the bountiful numbers and the many uses of the beasts. However, come the Eastern folk in their wagons, they soon found that they had nowhere to restock and began hunting the buffalo as well, unfortunately they killed over-zealously to the point where they had shot too many and left the un-harvested remains behind to the horror and grief of the natives. The Indians honored the buffalo in song and legend and believed that they should use every part of it, these “uses” spanned anywhere from tanning their hides for clothes, flasks, tents, or blankets; the meat itself could be cooked and feed numerous families; the bones were fashioned into tools, ceremonial apparel, and weapons for hunting or killing, as they soon discovered would become more necessary.
Despite these sometimes unconscious offenses, as the 1880s dawned the Nation began to turn over to face the delicate matter they had set for snooze and left unresolved. Authors began traveling with the natives, recording what they observed, gathering lore and stories from elders to document and publish for the American public to read and in doing so inform them on as to the reality of the Native American and the despicable conditions they were forced to live under and the injustice that afflicted many. Unfortunately while many humanitarians worked to bring the truth to light, other motions were put into effect to condemn the Indian’s culture and relinquish their rights and land; The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 were re-allocated to land that served as “pre-reservations” with loose promises of fully restored rights under the condition that they “behaved themselves” and acted “properly”.
The nature of the multitude of poverty and recession-inducing actions that occurred during the late 1800s resulted both directly and indirectly, largely due to the western expansion of the pioneering families, most of whom only wished to find a better life in the far West and the coastline, however the trail that they left behind for the Native Americans was coarse and barren. In addition to this, the policies passed during this time regarding the Indians did, in fact, afflict the tribes, moreover pushing them back, in geographical location, and in their unique and waning culture. (A Sentential Adverb)
During the 1800s, the already dim fate of the Native Americans took a turn for the worst. As tensions between the natives and the incoming white settlers intensified, the indigenous nation experienced the gradual degradation of their very lifestyles and values, due to both actual policies and accidental consequences. First, the drastic decrease of available sources needed by the natives for necessary supplies, the huge power imbalance between them and the whites, and the incredibly cruel and unjust bias towards the native people all contributed to the tarnishing of their tribal cultures; second, specific goals and motivations of individuals drove the Native American culture closer towards the edge of dissipation; third, clashes between Native American tribes and newly arrived white settlers were consequences of prior U.S. actions that would then lead to drastic cultural changes for the indigenous nation. Therefore, because of major themes, individuals, and incidents, the Native Americans experienced a “continuous recession” of both their cultures and their overall value to the young U.S. country.
In the 1800s, the growing scarcity of basic necessities was beginning to take its toll on the Native Americans, which can best be exemplified by the sharp decrease of buffalo herds on the Great Plains. The Plains “Indians,” whose lifestyle centered around the survival of that animal species, were hard hit by this drastic change. With uses for practically every part of the buffalo, the Plains Indians struggled over not being able to provision themselves with the basic supplies that they had always gotten from the buffalo. The shrinking of the buffalo population also stimulated tribal warfare amongst the Native Americans, sharply pitching the level of competition as the Plains Indians fought over increasingly rare hunting grounds. Many lifestyles and habits were altered because of the disappearance of the buffalo, one ritual of which was the immensely important Sun Dance, to which the buffalo was a crucial component. With this species rapidly being killed off, both from competing natives and from sporting whites, the Plains Indians were forced to adapt vastly. What also contributed to the distancing of the Native Americans from their tribal traditions was the power disproportion between the whites and the indigenous peoples. More advanced and efficient weapons were developed after the Civil War, rendering the natives’ primitive weapons skills largely ineffective against the westward-bound whites, who could now dominate the territories fairly easily. The daring whites who moved west played a big role in the near extinction of the buffalo (many shot herds for sport) as well as the establishment of the railroads that followed after settling. Superior weapons and animals at the hands of the white “intruders” spelled bigger devastation for the natives and their way of life. Lastly, long-standing racial prejudice against the indigenous civilizations was, in many ways, at the root of sentiments. Regarded as not even human, inferior, and evil savages, many whites used these perspectives as justification to exploit the natives for their own personal gain, and with both the ability and the motive to take advantage, it wasn’t a surprise that federal intermediaries to the native tribes used deception and corruption as a means of maximizing their profits. When the natives gave up their land in return for being supplied by the government, federal agents instead exchanged “defective provisions” to them, which ultimately failed to sustain healthy tribal life.
Particular individuals had a significant impact on the recession of the Native American culture. One such individual, William Cody, helped to drastically reshape the tribal life of the Plains Indians. Nicknamed “Buffalo Bill,” he took part in the killing of thousands of buffalo for the Kansas Pacific railroad company, who desired smoother traveling (that is, more rapid transportation that didn’t involve having to wait hours on end for buffalo herds to cross the tracks). Other individuals who can be seen dramatically affecting Native American culture were the Christian reformers who attempted to integrate the natives into the whites’ society through “educating” institutions and harsh punishments. These “Indian boarding schools” tried to teach natives white culture, but at the same time, were dissolving the cultural traditions of their ancestral Native American tribes.
Certain incidents further advanced the recession of Native American culture. As more and more whites were motivated to expand westward, inevitably deeper into Native American territory, violence ensued between the two sides, eventually forcing the passage of measures intended to control the outbreaks. In 1864, the discovery of gold in Sand Creek, Colorado, brought in a swarm of new white settlers, who, upon running into a group Cheyenne Indians, murdered over one hundred and fifty members of the Native Americans. This reinforces the idea that, to many of the whites, the prospect of gold was of much more value than a tribe’s civilization. Likewise, other massacres followed, such as the event that happened in 1866 in Utah when the Bozeman Trail was being constructed. In an attempt to stop the construction that would gradually allow more white settlers to further expand into native territory, the Teton Sioux attacked an army regiment in the area. These two bloody conflicts spurred the government into action in 1867, when the Peace Commission proposed what later became the reservation system, an arrangement in which the natives were relocated, “Christianized, educated, and taught to farm.” The removal of the Native Americans from their ancestral lands as well as being schooled on a different religion and a different way of life, forced the indigenous nation to abandon their ancestral practices and culture for the whites’ way of life.
Part 1
The Native Americans primarily of the West during the mid to late 1800’s had been numbered approximately 360,000 before the white settlers began to travel into the far reaches of the trans-Missouri West. These Natives were forced into a “continuous recession” mainly through a combination of both direct and indirect policies of the time. There were a variety of instances that instigated this age of domination, allowing for the forced migration of the Indians to consequentially follow. First, the introduction of diseases such as typhoid, small pox, and cholera killing off much of the Native population already; second, numerous Indian Wars in the West were quickly escalated into a fight for survival as whites took away not only the land itself, but also its most valuable resources; and third, President Andrew Jackson(deliberating with the Native Americans of the South over land ownership) made it clear through the initiation of the Indian Removal Act roughly thirty years prior to the beginning of Native conflict what the anticipated outcome would and should be, at least in the eyes of the Federal government. Thus, due to these innumerable incidents, themes, and individuals, the fate of the Native Americans were continuously shoved into remote areas of land, and forced to succumb to the ways of the white aggressors through a combination of inadvertent and premeditated consequences. First, because of the vast spread of disease throughout the western plains, many Native Americans suffered from the huge onslaught of foreign sicknesses. Some of the diseases mentioned as the primary causes of death were smallpox, typhoid, and cholera all derivatives from these extraneous invaders caused the demise of countless Indians usually by means of supplying them with blankets and other resources contaminated with said diseases. Not only that, but while Natives were yielding to these strange new ailments, they were at the same time being cornered into multiple “reserves” in an attempt to segregate their large extension of land. A potentially unintended result of this sectioning was the near extinction of their formerly seemingly infinite wild buffalo (after the intended depletion of other natural resources it is possible that this became a convenient additional supplier for white conquerors). And at this point, (BOLD) boundaries were bound to be broken by actions; actions that may or may not have been wise to take part in (BOLD).
Part 2
Second, a surplus of outrageous wars began to occur and swiftly worsened into a desperate fight just to endure these obscure and harsh new conditions. For instance, the killing of the buffalo had devastating after effects on the Native Americans, undoubtedly the most damaging spiritually due to its religious orientation, among natural stock (such as food and water) diminution as well. Before the arrival of the whites, tens of millions of buffalo roamed freely through all western prairies providing them to a humble extent, food, clothing, and construction materials. However, by the time the Civil War had concluded, there remained only a meager 15 million due chiefly to the formation of railroads and buffalo hunting utilized as a kind of entertaining sport. By 1885 the buffalo were nearly extinct, thus bringing about the end of the “Sun Dance” a ceremony of religious sentiments practiced principally by those of the Plains Nations. (BOLD) The buffalo were gone, their divine connection to them obliterated (BOLD). Also, a historian and sociologist by the name of James Loewen states, “In one sense there was just one Indian war.” And believes that textbooks overlook the true slave like way the Natives were treated. On the other hand, historian Howard Zinn also gets the impression that we are misplacing our area of attention when it comes to Native handling. The indirect causes were displayed by the countless deaths upon removal and unexpected backlashes from the Natives. A few of the wars such as the First, Second, and Third Seminole Wars, the Powhatan Wars, the Black Hawk War, all led to utter ruin for both the Natives and the land itself. And third, President Andrew Jackson made it distinct through the commencement of the Indian Removal Act what the projected effect would and should be, at least in the eyes of the Federal government.
Part 3
About thirty years before the beginning of the entire western undertaking, the early nineteenth century saw United States expanding further South, home to the Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaws, and Seminole nations. From around 1814 to 1824 Jackson had successfully negotiated several treaties in exchange for land. Although unbeknownst to the Natives, who had already made attempts to keep their land but failed, were not bound by a law they were never meant to be a part of, and were forcibly moved under an act referred to as the Indian Removal. Relocation was imminent and the Jackson administration had removed approximately 46,000 from the Mississippi, relocating them in the west. A similar result is shown in the Thirty Years War in which tribes such as the Apaches, Navajos, and Shoshones agreed to move reservations, despite being subject to relentless abuse and were eventually forced to become more civilized, though to a lesser extent. Jackson (including the Southerners and congress) knew what he was setting the stage for, and very well could have chosen not to do so, making this completely intentional. So, due to the incalculable happenings, themes, and persons, the Native Americans were basically obligated to surrender to “continuous recession” as a product of these intended and unintended actions and reactions from the president to the people, allowing our greed to continue today.
Rhetorical Devices Used In Order:
Anadiplosis
Parenthesis also used more than once
Ellipsis
All entries from this point forward are late.
Long before europeans came to the Americas, the continents were populated by a vast number of people. 300 million in both the Americas, and around 30 million in North America. Over the course of a few hundred years, Europeans would wipe out nearly 90% of these Native Americans. This was attributed to not only by disease, but by direct and indirect actions that harmed the Natives Americans. First, the Native American wall designed by the british to stop westward expansion; Second, The betrayal of the white man in breaking their treaties with the Native Americans; Third, the near extinction of the buffalo on account of the railroads.
During the French and Indian war(1754-1763)(Parenthesis), the Natives were a key in balancing the power of the English and the French. The French were closer to the battlefield, as they were occupied in Canada and had a quicker access to troops, while the English were all the way across the Atlantic, so it would take months to get supplies and troops over to America. Thus the English had to rely on the Native Americans to help them repel both the French and the colonies. This wall of Natives was engineered by Britain to prevent the settlers from moving farther west so the British could keep control over the settlers. This resulted in the settlers constantly throwing themselves at the Natives in order to keep them off “their” land. The Natives retaliated by raiding the settlers farthest into the west, but they could not fight effectively with stone, flint, and wood weapons against muskets and large amounts of settlers. While the Native Americans did have muskets, they were far and in between and difficult to use and maintain. The settlers were delayed in their movement west, the Natives only slowed down the settlers in their westward movement. Thus sealing their fate to be used as fodder for most their existence.
All along during the Native Americans and White settlers relationship, the white man often viewed the Native Americans as a beast to exploit. When the Europeans first arrived in America, it was not a “virgin country.” America had already been populated with millions of people for thousands of years. They believed that the people they found were not people, but beasts or demons. This view of the Native Americans was shown in how the white man treated the Natives in every day encounters. The white man portrayed himself as a peace loving man, offering peace treaties to the Natives. However, the white man would say a piece of paper states one thing, when in fact it stated something entirely different. It was commonplace that a white man would offer a treaty to a neighboring indian tribe, promising that there will be no bloodshed. The treaty would actually be a passing of ownership document, tricking the Natives to give up their land to the white man or have the American court of law and militiamen with muskets get involved. To the white man, Native Americans were simply a lesser people and it was okay to kill them, because they were in league with the devil. Like terrified humans and wolves.(simile)(wolves were often misunderstood and called evil, when they are actually a peaceful creature)(parenthesis)
End of Part 1
Farther along in American history, around the 1860s, America was talking about building a transcontinental railroad. Beginning on both the east and west coast, destined to meet somewhere in the middle. However there were some unforeseen consequences that the railroad builders had failed to notice. Out on the great plains in the middle of America, there lived nomadic Native American tribes that followed the roaming buffalo herds. The Natives, lived off of the buffalo, Using every part that they could. The buffalo was also a part of their religion, being incorporated into a ritual called the sundance. This ritual involved mounting a buffalo head on a spike and giving thanks to the Gods and asking for victory in war. This dance was a necessity in the Plains Natives culture, if there was no sundance, then there was no point to life. This eventually became a problem when the Americans came through building the railroad. Thousands of workers would all need supplies and foodstuffs, and there were millions of buffalo all across the plains. Overtime, the railroad bosses would hire hunters to hunt the buffalo to feed the workers. However the bosses were willing to pay so much for buffalo, that the animals were over hunted. With numbers of in the millions, over the course of a handful of years, the numbers of the buffalo dropped to a few thousand. (they are very slow breeders) with buffalo numbers so low, it was hard for the Natives of the plains to survive, not to mention the sundance. Eventually the culture and society of the Natives collapsed and the only way to survive was to be mercenaries and hope the white man did not swindle them.
Through out the course of Native American history, the Native American was constantly trampled beneath the white invaders. The American government often broke its promises to the tribes of Natives, moving them from place to place in order to fulfill their selfish desires. Since the white man landed on American shores, the Native American’s culture and society has been in a constant recession.
End of part 2
Beckett Lee
Periods 3 & 4
The late 19th century was difficult for the Natives of the American continent. The United States had completely absorbed almost all of their former territory and had slowly but surely removed every aspect of native culture and society. The majority of Native Americans had been forcibly incorporated into American society and became citizens of the United States; the remainder had been crushed into small reservations under the direct supervision of the United States. Native American society and culture had been completely disbanded outside of small reservations and was intolerable to any Americans who did not have sympathy for the natives; Native American political and tribal organization was completely eliminated and all traces of tribal unity vanished; Native religion was viewed as sacrilegious or satanic and was extinguished on sight. The United States had successfully conquered the continent and wiped all traces of the former Great Tribes from the face of the Earth. This time was certainly a “continuous recession” of Native Americans, but it would be more accurate to say that it was a “purge” of everything native.
Native Americans had once had complete control of the North American continent and the freedom to have their own cultures and societies. However, European conquest wrested control of the continent from the natives by treaty, by disease, and by force. Years of war and distrust between the natives and the Puritans, the Virginians, the colonists, the British Army, the colonial militia, and finally the United States Army, ruined all attempts at peaceful coexistence. Colonel Custer and William Cody both did their parts to break down the natives and support the American hatred of the natives. It became clear that one culture must go for the other to survive. The Europeans viewed the natives as savage and uncivilized, so their culture could not be allowed to spread to the civilized European lands. Native tribal settlements were uprooted and destroyed to make room for railroads. Lands sacred to the natives were taken to make room for farms. Native traditions were purged wherever they were found and the Native Americans were forced to accept European ways or live out their lives in tiny reservations created to isolate all traces of their lives. The communal ways of the natives were purified and the Native Americans were forced to become true Americans.
The Native Americans had once had sprawling empires and civilizations. These were to be no more. Attempts at Native American unity had never been particularly powerful, but many of these alliances were formed to combat European encroachment. King Phillips’ War was a perfect reason to ensure no future native alliances could form. The Americans could not allow for more internal resistance to oppose their rule. All former Native alliances were disbanded, along with the tribes themselves. The chieftains and priests that had tried to resurrect the Native Americans were subjugated. The Native American councils were subjugated. The native people themselves were subjugated. The Dawes Severalty Act forced the natives to adopt American homestead farming to substitute their former communal societies. Andrew Jackson spent much of his life in a crusade to defeat native resistance and seize native lands. His presidency defined American policies toward the natives for generations to come. The fall from power and grace that began with conflicts between the first Europeans settlers and the Natives became a downward spiral with the establishment of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1836 and, by the late 1800s, had hit rock bottom. All that had once been of Indian politics and tribal communion was gone.
Even Native American religion felt the power of the purge. The Natives had once worshipped everything from the buffalo that roamed the plains to the sun. The Americans took care of the buffalo and the bizarre rituals that they witnessed the Natives performing during their worship had to be eliminated. As for the sun, there could only be one sun in the sky, and the American sun had already risen from the back of George Washington’s chair. The native sun could rise no longer. All native rituals and worship were seen as blasphemous and all Native Americans had to be converted to Christianity or some other civilized religion. Even the famous Native American Sun Dance was illegalized in 1904 by the U.S. government. The age-old conflict between the Native Americans and the Europeans was finally over. The once great native civilizations were completely purged and replaced by the Federal Government of the United States. Thus, the wheels of progress rolled ever onward on the backs of the conquered as they always had, and always will.
Ever since the introduction of the Europeans in the Americas the lives of the native people have rapidly and tragically been altered irreparably. Starting with the deaths of the millions and the histories and traditions that went with them, to the removal of the people from their native lands, the natives went through a terrifying and drastic period in the several hundred years since the discovery of the new world. In the period between 1865 and 1869 the era of the train had sprouted and began to spread across the Americas at a rate that rapidly pushed American settlers to the west, and the natives away. Conflict between the moving Americans and the increasingly devout natives caused the deaths of many desperate native Americans, as well as the destruction of their resources and important traditional facets such as the buffalo; Secondly Influential figures in place of the train companies began to stake out the west as part of their conquest of wealth; Thirdly large scale battles against the natives such as The Battle Of Little Bighorn, and the Sand Creek Massacre show how detrimental these conflicts were to the traditions and lively hoods of the Previous Americans. The machine of the railroad, and the individuals it carried on its back brought conflict and with it the death of thousands of years of early American tradition.
The lifeblood of the plains Indians was the Buffalo, great herds that roamed by the millions, their existence was a facet to every staple of their livelihoods. Buffalo was used to make their homes, their clothing, their tools, weapons, their food source, and the center of their religious practices. When the train companies came into the scene the millions of plain buffalo would soon face near extinction and with it the death of the native cultures and the very lives of the remaining natives. With the buffalo the companies experienced faster building times no longer have to wait long periods of time for the herds to cross. But with American legislation ripping the land out from under the natives to the swarms of Americans following the tracks, the Indians faced an even more unsure future. With their land, their lifeblood, and the lives of many lost, there was still more to lose. The buffalo had such a crucial role in their daily life that it had ascended into godhood by the local people, an instrumental portion of their rituals. But the settlers had even more in store, unbeknownst to their carriers; the native population ran red with epidemics such as cholera, typhoid, and smallpox. With their spirits broken they no longer had a place in their native plains.
(continued)
The rapid influx of cheap and available land promised by the twin pillars of manifest destiny and American Industry brought swarms of the restless citizens to the Great Plains, and among their ilk stood many influential individuals. Colonel George Custer was sponsored by the American government to search the Sioux area for profitable goods to extract from the hills, an excuse that allowed the Colonel to sweep through the native populations under the guise of capitalism. However he failed to stop the local population and was crushed by the might of over two thousand united and distraught local warriors from various tribes. Other such individuals such as buffalo bill Cody were hired out by the big railroad companies and singlehandedly killed several thousand Buffalo, which caused the mass near extinction of their populations. Groups of religious missionaries flocked to the great plains of a holy trip to “save” the natives from their selves, and their vile heathenish ways. The reformed locals lost their traditions and their ways of life, some of which sent hundreds of miles away to schools.
In 1864 the settlers had discovered the existence of the single most sought after good, gold, and as such a great frantic pilgrimage of men flocked to the Sand Creek area. The locals protested and the response turned lethal, as almost two hundred locals were slaughtered offhandedly by the ever increasing scores of new residents to the area. The settlers needed an ever increasing amount of land, and it was no major concern to them if the animals who had lived there wanted it back. Further incidents such as the Utah Bozeman Trail attacks in Utah, but as time progressed into any new area it was not without new problems, and the local population grew ever rallied against the Americans. Battles spurred on in either side of the conflict, but with the ever expanding American population it was only a matter of time for the severely crippled locals.
Beginning from the moment the pilgrims first set foot in the New World, the Native American population experienced a “continual recession” as they were pushed farther out of sight and out of mind of the pioneering white American. Through both the events that transpired and the federal legislation that targeted them, the indigenous population was stripped of both their land and their culture. First, the construction of the transcontinental railroad made white settlement of the west imminent; Second, the accidental and purposeful killing of the bison herds eliminated a significant element of Native American life; and Third, Congressional action echoed the legislation of the Jackson administration, thus permanently sacrificing the indigenous heritage. Through the combined efforts of guns, germs, and Congress, the Native American population of North America was doomed.
No longer stuck in the mire of the Civil War, America’s attention returned to the great. The definitive achievement of this Manifest Destiny was the construction of the transcontinental railroad which physically connected the country. With the railroad came people who quickly established boomtowns in the once empty plains. As part of a pattern dating back to the Jacksonian era, the federal government was perfectly content in allowing the Indian populations to inhabit their ancestral lands, so long as no white American felt compelled to live there themselves. Understandings were reneged upon and the Plains Indians were relocated, either forcibly or voluntarily, according to the whims of the pioneer. This inevitably led to conflict between the white settlers and the Native Americans. A series of Indian Wars broke out in the 1860’s and 1870’s as the native tribes were provoked by white settlers inexplicably shooting peaceful Indians. This vicious cycle of cruelty is typified in the infamous story of Custer’s Last Stand at Little Big Horn.
Perhaps the biggest nail in the coffin of the Native Americans’ was the decimation of the once abundant bison herds that roamed the prairies. These “hunchback cows” were at the center of life for the Plains Indians who used them for food, fuel, clothing, and tools. As the railroads paraded pioneers across the plains, the bison herds began to dwindle due to purposeful hunting, but most often for sport. Railway passengers used to lean out of the car windows and shoot at the lumbering creatures for entertainment. With the center of their world at the point of extinction, the Plains Indians had almost no chance of maintaining their usual way of life.
Though given the guise of good intentions, the laws passed during this time sealed the fate of the Native Americans in favor of settlement of the American frontier. The treaties signed at Fort Laramie in 1851 and Fort Atkinson in 1853 began the tradition of the Indian Reservation program, providing a stop-gap measure to pacify the tribes, yet ensure that the white settler got what he wanted like a belligerent child. The harshest and dooming legislation of all was the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. This act essentially marked the end of traditional life for the American Indian by dissolving the tribes as legal entities to be recognized by the government. As they were no longer recognized, the tribes lost any legal claims to the land and instead individual or family plots were allotted as a half-hearted means of pacification. This held severe ramifications for Native American culture as there existed the common belief that no person could own the land and instead was supposed to live out a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Government run schools were established to indoctrinate Native American children with the ways of “civilized” society, thus completely undercutting their rich and long established culture.
Through the powerful forces of the railroad, the eradication of the bison herds, and ultimate decisions of Congress, the Native American population’s “continual recession” that began with Andrew Jackson became elimination as they were stripped of both their land and culture. In recent history, the American government has tried to make up for the mistakes of the past, but it is obviously too late.
Posts after this point are significantly late.
Amanda Jerd
Periods 3 and 6
In the early 1800’s a band of Plain’s Indians on the Western prairie hunted the buffalo and lived untouched by white settlers, but in the distance a caravan of covered wagons rolled ever nearer until the fateful day of first contact between the red and white skinned men. From that moment on, the days of the Sun Dance and tribes and villages and traditions were numbered, for three main reasons. First, three major themes– greed, pride, and revenge – are prevalent in society, white or not; second, these corrupt foundations of society lead to disrespectful demeanors in individuals; and third, these individuals and the consequences of their actions could only end in an unfair fight of the weak versus the strong.
For centuries before white settlers even landed on the continent of North America, the different tribes and Native American settlements had been in combat with each other. Ironically, just a few continents away, wars between other powers in conflict were being fought also. In general, wars are fought for greed, pride, or revenge. Hardly any federal endangering of human life is for fun. The nomadic life of the Native Americans was a root cause of their violence. Competition for the hunting of the life-giving buffalo demanded a smaller number of Natives in each area. Another cause of Native American wars was revenge. Feuds lasted generations, ending with the death of an offending party. White men’s wars were fueled by revenge also but in a more greedy way. These self seeking manners became a catalyst to the actions later inflicted upon the Indians. One example is the early biological warfare practiced by General Jeffery Amherst who sold blankets infected with small pox to the unsuspecting Natives. Federal Indian agents also sold junk to Indians at contemptible prices. The Natives, in response to the foreign invasion, as well as the dishonesty and cruelty they were forced to contend with, eventually skirmished with the settlers – scalping and murdering to avenge their braves. With the coming of the whites also came the railroad. The railroad was encouragement for whites who wanted to wander West. As towns sprung up, violence became even more commonplace. The iron horse and its riders also preyed upon the buffalo. The population of the herds diminished extensively overnight because of the excessive hunting. For the Native Americans, the buffalo was not just food. Its hide was used to clothe the people, and their religious Sun Dance needed the buffalo to be performed. The near extinction of the once vast herds caused the Natives to relocate themselves with the buffalo, but eventually the Sun Dance could not be performed. It was replaced with the Ghost Dance but in the Battle of Wounded Knee the army brutally crushed the new Dance. They Natives also moved as far away as they could from the unnatural wailings of the train. The Sioux tribe was put on a reservation with the notion that they would be left alone and uninterrupted, however when gold was discovered on Sioux territory, all laws were disregarded. In 1887 the Dawes-Severalty Act removed tribal ownership of land and made it individual to promote farming and settling of Indians. Bloodshed, biological warfare, and the depletion of natural and necessary resources were all disastrous to the lifestyle of the Native Americans and led to the “continuous recession” of Native Americans as well as their culture, lifestyle, and heritage so that now, Native American life continues on reservations but even there, only on special occasions.
Tristan Mauricio
Periods 1&6
Over the course of American History, the country would grow at an amazing rapid pace but the Native American Indians that had remained within the continent for thousands of years would lose everything especially in the concluding decades of the Nineteenth century. With the ever expanding country of America, settlers, pioneers, and other people who were looking out for opportunity sought out land in the West along the Indian Territory that would decide the fate of the millions of Native American Indians that stood in their way. With the advance of the white settlers came diseases that the Native Americans had no previous experiences to and therefore no chance against; individuals and conflicts carried out actions that would change how both groups perceived each other and ultimately lead to the decline in Native American culture and population; and lastly the rapid industrialization and expansion of America was the underlying theme that would destroy them. Therefore, based on the social, economical and political factors that had transformed Native American life entirely, Indians that had existed peacefully in the North American continent would never go back to normalcy.
If there was one factor that could be responsible for the deaths of those millions, it would be disease and that is exactly what initially killed off many of the Native American tribes. Before the Europeans had set foot on the continent, Native Americans lived a relatively peaceful life; there was still conflict but never on the scale that took place in the multiple wars experienced with the white settlers. It was estimated that there was one-hundred million Indians that existed in the Americans, thirty million of which lived in the North American continent but after Columbus had sailed and found exactly what he searched in vain for, only about one million had survived the encounter. Disease was the deciding factor; just by itself it killed off between ninety to ninety-five percent of the Native American population which played an enormous role in their decline.
Certain events that occurred between the Native American tribes and the Native American tribes would greatly influence what policies and wars that affected the Indians. Once the first contact had been made hundreds of years ago both sides eventually figured out that getting along would not be an easy task and over the course of their existence both would react to protect their interests and ensure the survival of their livelihood. Thanks to the proclamation issued by the British in 1763, American dream of expansion had been increased tenfold along with the hunger of claiming new land, that all ended with the conclusion of the French and Indian War when Colonists were allow to expand. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was the first of many treaties passed to limit what the Native Americans would have and just the predecessor to what would happen over the course of the century. By the Civil War most Americans had believed the Native Americans were savages, heathens that would slit your throat in the not and never to be trusted. Wars would be fought when the two groups would meet and disagreements over territory and property would lead to bloody conflict, sometimes the Indian tribes would win but most of the time the American army would be the victor. Peace would never have existed between us and them and we would not stop until there would be no more and therefore the little “Islands of Territory” that the Native Americans owned.
The recession of the Native American cultures first major appearance started when Columbus arrived in 1492. The disease that Columbus brought from Europe (that the Native Americans had no immunity to) wiped out 90 percent of the native American population. This recession continued with the Spanish enslaving, forcing the Native Americans to adopt Christianity and forcing them to just forget about their own ways of life. With later the colonization of North America and even later the forming of the United States, the Native American cultures continued to go into recession. First, with the combination of greed and ambition by the American people and government for the construction of the transcontinental rail road, it hit the Native American's population and culture hard; second, many important individuals help show how desperate the Native Americans were to keep their culture alive, whether white or Indian; third, many incidents took place that show the Native Americans culture and traditions slowly disappear.
With the construction of the rail road came the punch that would smash the Native American ways of life, traditions, and population further into recession. Because of the greed and ambition to get the rail road completed many actions were taken place so the Native Americans would not interfere with its construction. First all the Native Americans in the path of the rail road would be forced relocate to a different location; or they would just be slaughtered. Because the native Americans were hunter-gatherers, they relied heavily upon the Buffalo for food and because of the ambition for the rail road, the Buffalo population would be almost decimated in order to make the native Americans to leave the area so they could no longer interrupt the construction. This gave way to the extinction of the Sun Dance ritual performed by Native Americans. This ritual requires a Buffalo head, however with the Buffalo population diminished, a chunk of native American culture would be lost. The Homestead Act of 1862 gave freehold title to 160 acres of undeveloped land in the American West. This act was signed by President Abe Lincoln and it gave away Native American land to independent farmers. The federal government would try to pacify the Plains Indians by signing treaties with the Chiefs of various tribes, and this would lead to the reservation system. This system would confine the Indians to territory, however the Native American culture is nomadic, thus this system took its toll on Native American culture. Unfortunately, the government knew what it was doing to the Indians culture and population. It also knew that they were the cause of a lot of the Indian conflict. "Many, if not most of our Indian wars have had their origin in broken promises and acts of injustice on our part." -President Rutherford B. Hayes. This quote makes the previous statement true. Another quote that shows that many knew what they were doing to the Indians is from General Philip Sheridan,“We took away their country and their means of support, and it was this, and against this they made war. Could anyone expect less?” Thus the Native Americans were of no importance to the Federal government and the white settlers around them because they just wanted the Indians out of they way. Even though the Native American culture is still around in the present, it is just a fragment of what it used to be. For many traditions and some of its culture is lost.
Krizelle DeGuzman
Period 1 and 4
During the 1860’s the Native American numbers thrived at approximately 360,000 but began to drop as white pioneers began to go west. The Natives suffered many misfortunes for a vast number of reasons. First, the introduction to foreign diseases struck the natives and the buffalo population began to decrease steadily to the horror of the natives; second, the construction of the transcontinental railroad made it blatant that the white settlers would eventually take over the west; third, when the natives and whites clashed both parties were extremely cruel. Disease, cruelty, and railroad expansion forced the natives to experience a “continuous recession” in their culture as well as in their own value.
During the Civil War, soldiers and settlers inched closer and closer to the plains occupied by the natives. The spread of cholera, typhoid, and smallpox through the native tribes resulted in endangerment of the native populations. Tensions began to rise up once again as Manifest Destiny consumed the minds of many Americans after the Civil War. The next step to proving superiority would be connecting the country physically with railroad tracks. The accumulation of precious metals that had helped finance the Civil War also helped ease the construction of railroads which in turn increased the bitterness between whites and natives. As railroads began to stretch across the country and into the west, many tribes were forced to relocate as they noticed that fighting the railroad workers to stop construction was mission impossible. While already being attacked with diseases the native tribes began to notice dwindling population in their own tribes as well as in the buffalo herds. The increasing scarcity of the buffalo hit the plains “Indians” life hard. Their entire lifestyle was centered on the mighty animal using its meat for food and had practical uses for almost everything else that the buffalo had to offer. While many changes had to be adopted by the natives to survive, the most important change or culture exclusion was the blighted ritual of the Sun Dance which the buffalo was a very crucial part of. The decaying buffalo population initiated the intensified warfare between tribes for survival. Americans began to expand westward and venture ever closer to the tribes of the Plains Indians territory, causing clashes to become more frequent. These conflicts between traveling whites and the natives were savage on both sides. In 1864 the militia under Colonel J.M. Chivington massacred about 400 natives including women and children even though these particular natives had believed that they had been promised immunity and would be safe. A few years later disaster struck yet again in 1866 when a Sioux war party ambushed and annihilated Captain William J. Fetterman’s command of 81 soldiers and mutilated the corpses. During another Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868, the “Great Sioux reservation” was guaranteed to the Sioux…that is until 1874 when it was announced that gold was found in part of the Sioux reservation and were appalled when the Sioux fought back. This supports the idea that Americans saw no value in a tribal civilization when it came up against the value of gold and entitlement to land and its resources.
Beginning as early as the 1800’s, the Native American numbers was descending due to the white settlers migrating west. The Native population went through a “colonial recession” as the pioneers forced them to leave, withdrawing them of their culture and land. First, the transcontinental railroad made for the whites to take over the west; second, the accidental foreign diseases the whites were bringing was a cause of their death along with the decreasing population of the buffalo; and third, both parties were brutal because of the whites and the Indians. The combination of disease, railroad expansion, and cruelty are reasons the Natives suffered and their future was hopeless.
After the Civil War, the achievements of Manifest Destiny gave hope to the Americans. This had provided the construction of the transcontinental railroad which would physically connect the country, giving this country grand opportunity but with a cost. As the railroad expanded into the west, the Plains Indians were relocated by force. This led to a combat between the whites and the Natives in the 1860’s through the 1870’s leaving the Natives with little chance of survival. The Plain Indians were beginning to see the last of their population during the Civil War. The white settlers and soldiers who were coming on their lands brought along with them many diseases that wiped out the natives. Along with having to deal with their decreasing populations due to diseases, the native tribes were also noticing a decline in their buffalo population. These buffalos were the main source for their survival as they used them for food, clothing and tools. The population of the herds diminished because of the excessive and purposeful hunting done by the white settlers for merely their entertainment and as a sport. They had to make many changes in order to survive without their center of life in their culture such as the ritual of the Sun Dance needed by the buffalo to perform. Without the buffalo the Natives don’t stand much of a chance on survival thanks to the whites. The Natives gave up their land to live in peace as far away from the settlers and railroads as they could and were promised they would live in peace. The Treaty of Fort gave Sioux tribe a relief of safety with the notion that they would be left alone, however it wasn’t until 1874 when gold was discovered on their territory and the law was broken causing the Sioux tribe to fight back. Later in 1887, traditional native lives were over because of the Dawes Severalty Act being the end for them to own their tribes. The value of gold and the entitlement of land the whites were craving had ruined the long established culture of the Native Americans.
Therefore, reasons such as the construction of the economically successful railroad, the diseases spread and the buffalo killed that negatively affected the Indians, and cruel decisions made by Congress, caused the Native Americans “continual recession”, along with the loss of their culture.
Ever since white settlers set foot on the "New World" shores, the fate of the Native Americans was doomed as whites pushed them continuously west. Due to the federal government and specific events in the post Civil War decades, Native Americans and their culture were almost completely throttled out of existence. First, the construction of the railroad and the virtual extermination of the buffalo eradicated the Plains Indians nomadic way of life; second, numerous massacres by both whites and Native Americans produced incessant casualties; and third, federal legislation enclosed these nomadic peoples onto harsh reservations. Thus, railroad expansion, wars, and the federal government all played huge parts in the "continuous recession" of the once dominant Native American.
Before the Civil War, the land west of Texas belonged to the Indian and to the buffalo. For uncountable generations past, the buffalo was the pivotal point of the Plains Indians[ALLITERATION]. It was their main source of food and shelter. When the whites advanced into the western frontier through the building of the railroad, the extermination of the buffalo began. Buffalo were slaughtered left and right for food for the railroad workers, for certain parts of their body- mostly their hides and their tongues-,[PARENTHESIS] or just for mere amusement. Compared to the 15 million buffalo before the Civil War, by 1885 there were fewer than one thousand of these great beasts left. Without the buffalo, fierce competition erupted between Native Americans for the best hunting grounds. The sacred Sun Dance,a huge part of Native American culture in which a buffalo was needed in order to perform it, was not able to be completed. Along with the massacre of the buffalo, railroads brought troops, farmers, cowboys, numerous settlers, diseases, and alcohol. Additionally, boom towns blossomed around the railroad, covering the west with people. The railroad furthered both the idea of Manifest Destiny for whites, and the doom of the Indians.
The Native Americans were not content to simply sit back and stare as whites swiftly snatched their precious lands[ALLITERATION]. For generations they had been pushed farther and farther west, and many were now taking a stand, with huge massacres on either side. The Native Americans were protecting what they thought to be rightfully theirs and whites were reaping what they thought to be rightfully theirs[PARALLEL STRUCTURE]. In 1864, in Sand creek, Colorado, approximately 400 Native Americans-mostly women, children, and the elderly- who thought they were under the protection of the government, were slaughtered by Colorado troops led by Colonel Chivington. Retaliation was not far behind. In 1866, a group of Sioux warriors decimated a command of 81 civilians and soldiers in Wyoming. Similarly, Colonel George Custer and his cavalry set out to conquer, but were wiped out by a greater force of Indian warriors at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The Native Americans were from the beginning perceived as obstacles to the white westward stampede and men like Chivington and Custer added fuel to the fire through their relentless hunting and hatred of Indians.
Starting in the 1850s, the federal government tried to tame the Plains Indians. In 1851, at Fort Laramie and in 1853 at Fort Atkinson, treaties were signed with chiefs of various tribes to establish boundaries for tribal territory. However, what whites did not understand was that Native Americans did not believe in ownership of land and did not live their life in one area, but rather followed the tracks of the buffalo. Also, many Native Americans did not recognize any official authority outside of their immediate family, so the reservation system was set up for failure. In the 1860s, the government tried again to shepard the Native Americans onto reservations, like the Great Sioux reservation. The Indians on these reservation systems has been promised to be provided with essentials like food and clothing, however the provisions were often defective, such as spoiled meat or moth eaten blankets. In 1887, the passing of the Dawes Severalty Act came as another blow to the Native Americans. This act dissolved tribes as legal entities, eliminated tribal ownership of land, and established individual family homesteads of 160 acres. If the Indians behaved themselves, they would be able to get full title to their land as well as citizenship in 25 years. On reservations, traditional ways of life of the Native Americans disappeared and many struggled just to survive famine and disease. Instead of helping or protecting the Indians as was the original plan in Andrew Jackson's Indian removal Act of 1830, America had single handedly destroyed everything that once belonged to them. The federal government tried to set up schools for Indian children so they could be taught about white society, but these schools cared little for traditional Native American culture.
Through the railroad, massacres and the federal government,the Native American's culture was effectively wiped out and their numbers significantly reduced.
Any entry after this point IS EXTREMELY VERY VERY VERY VERY LATE!
Annika Newman
Periods 1 & 4
Treatment of the Native Americans after the conclusion of the Civil War proved to be quite cruel amongst American citizens. This time period was an extremely defining moment for the country, as the consequences of inequality and wasteful greed were shown through the unthoughtful, inconsiderate, and racist management of the Native Americans. First, the near extinction of wild bison due to the whites’ recreational indulgence and transportation needs, as well as the introduction of various deadly diseases, destroyed entire populations of Native American tribes; second, the Indian Wars were unnecessarily violent, as whites killed many innocent natives with no justifying reason; and thirdly, legislation was passed in the late 1880s that disabled the tribal system of the Indians and allowed for possible citizenship only if unreasonable requirements were met. Therefore, through wasteful greed, excessive violence, and biased political action, a “continuous recession” of the native cultures and importance in post-Civil War America took place for decades to come.
In the antebellum period, there were approximately 360,000 natives living in America in tribes, living off of nature and the prominent bison population. However, thousands of these Native Americans were terminated as whites expanded west after the Civil War. As technology advanced and the United States became more industrial, railroads were increasingly built among thousands of miles of territory previously occupied by the natives, causing entire populations of bison to dissolve. Bison played a large role in the Native American’s everyday life, providing them with clothes and food and necessities. Whites, however, would often kill bison for recreational desires, such as hunting, and it didn’t take long for bison to become nearly extinct. Without essential food and necessities from the bison, thousands of natives starved and perished. In addition, the natives suffered from several diseases (such as smallpox and cholera) [PARENTHESIS] that were introduced by the white settlers, wiping out entire tribes in the United States.
Due to these inconveniences, tensions between the Native Americans and whites elevated, intensifying warfare as the Native Americans fought tirelessly for hunting grounds and meat. A series of Indian Wars took place, with both sides guilty of cruelty, but mostly on the white settlers. For example, whites would often massacre Indian villages by shooting at innocent, peaceful natives, and murder praying women. The spirit of the Native Americans did not linger for much longer, as the whites utilized their superior warfare tactics and technology, proving to be too much for the natives.
Twenty-two years after the conclusion of the Civil War, an act of legislation was passed, finally bringing some change to the constant fighting between the Native Americans and white settlers. Under the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, the tribal system that has previously existed in Indian culture was dissolved, ownership of the land was eliminated, and families were instead given 160 acres of free land. Additionally, natives were promised citizenship if they lived up to the standards of acting like “good white settlers” for 25 years. Despite the fact that the natives were given a second chance, they were completely stripped of their culture and importance to the Federal Government.
The Gilded Age in American history is marked as an era of prosperity and decadence catalyzed by the opening up of the west. The west did provide a substantial amount of wealth to the nation but it came at the price of the Native American’s sovereignty. The completion of the Union-Pacific Railroad marked the beginnings of a cultural recession for the plains Indians and the inevitable decline of the Native Americans was caused by the white man’s insatiable desire for buffalo which will cause the species the go near extinct; the diseases white settlers brought with them; and the passage of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887.(parallel structure) These factors contributed to the cultural recession of the Native Americans. The Native Americans in west were nomadic and they relied on the buffalo to sustain their lifestyle. The near extinction of the Buffalo can attributed the reckless hunting of it by the railroad companies looking for cheap food for their employees. The Buffalo was sacred to the Native Americans since it provided so much sustenance for them. The Buffalo was the focal point the Plains Indians culture because it was not only a food staple but it also had sentimental value for the Indians because it was central to Sun Dance. When white settlers came to the west they saw the value of the Buffalo as a food item but disregarded the fact that other cultures spirituality depended on this coveted animal. This insensitivity towards other cultures contributed to the spiritual recession of the Plains Indians and the White settler’s insatiable desire to save money led to demise of the Buffalo, which ultimately contributed to the demise of the Plains Indians. After the Civil War an influx of white settlers filled the west and this had unfortunate consequences for the Native Americans. The White settlers brought with Typhoid, Cholera, and Smallpox which terrorized the Native American populations which had not developed a resistance to these illnesses. These diseases decimated the populations of the Native Americans and with substantially smaller numbers the Plains Indians were unable to support and defend themselves from white settlers. When the populations of the tribes drastically shrunk and intertribal warfare increased because the tribes were desperate and were willing to pillage other for survival. This loss of cohesion further shrunk their numbers and left the natives weakened against the encroaching white settlers. The introduction of foreign diseases catalyzed a cultural recession in the Plains Indians because their population rapidly shrinking and the intertribal warfare caused by the introduction of foreign diseases weakened the Indians ability to defend themselves against the white settlers. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 was the by America to ensure the demise of the Native Americans. The goal of this legislation was to break up the Native American social unit and to open up the rest of the west to industry. This bill destroys the sovereignty of the Indians by forcing them on to reservations and by breaking their social unit which has been established for thousands of years. The act gave each Indian a parcel of land instead of delegating an entire parcel of land for the tribe. This stipulation was put in place to ensure that the Indians would adopt farming and become more civilized and forget their old ways. Another goal of the act was to increase the efficiency of administering the Indians which entails that the sovereignty natives have been handed over to U.S. This loss of complete sovereignty is the epitome the cultural recession experienced during this era in history. The actions of the U.S government led to decimation on an entire race and cultural at the expense of western expansions and this shows that a nation’s desires can eclipse human decency.
OMG, how can you have taken so long to do this blog entry? Are you going to at least submit it now?
With the first encounter between Europeans and the Native American tribes of the East coast during the seventeenth century, the diminishment of Indian lands and freedoms was foreshadowed as irreversible. As the United States formed in the mid – eighteenth century, their superiority slowly moved survivors or assimilated them into white culture. Specific elements behind the wars reduction of the Plains Indian culture up to the 1890s were behind three key reasons: first, expansion of American industry into the west; second, encouraged hunting of the wild bison, their cultural foundation and way of life; and third, the lack of recognition of the native tribes as separate nations by the United States government. No matter what course of action was taken by the independent natives, “true American” national power determined the result.
As U.S. culture reached a new peak with the Industrial Revolution in, the United States became supported by arising big businesses thanks to inventions like the telegraph and railroad train. Expansionist passion still deep within its people, American companies expanded at the discovery of more resources to new trade routes through railroad construction that cut deep through native’s lands without any real permission, especially during gold rushes like Pike’s Peak gold rush. This, therefore, provoked many tribes into war or retreat, ultimately without choice as no land was out of American jurisdiction north of Mexico or South of Canada. Industrial expansion, as a result, ruined the lifestyle and survival of many tribes as they were either exterminated in their attempts to suppress the expansion, or forcefully moved into reservations with little assistance in adapting to the often more harsh environment.
Carrying American goods forward, the railroad system connected major cities and created small towns across North America, further into Indian Territory. Most indigenous peoples did not welcome the new arrivals, but those who did traded small goods, and buffalo. Being the backbone of the Great Plains Indian’s culture and survival, the plains buffalo was traded between people, and encouraged more hunting of the wild bison almost unto extinction. This therefore destroyed the Plains Indians’ culture and survival, along with their religious practice of the Sun Dance, which required bison. The aggressive nature of Americans, with their strong military led by those including General Phillip Sheridan, greatly reduced the Indian’s way of life, as did the tribes themselves by choosing to endanger the bison population for the sake of trade.
An important factor that arguably could have kept the expanding United States from entering the territories of the Indian tribes was recognition of each tribe as a separate nation, respecting their lands and rights, though it was almost impossible with so many separate allegiances of each people. Preferring to drive them out instead, the US government began many wars with the tribes as a result, often resulting in annihilation their opponents, but sometimes with a massacre to American armies and civilians, including General George Armstrong Custer and his 264 men who were completely wiped out by Sioux warriors. This created hatred towards the tribes as Americans failed to see their own treachery, and continued war until the remaining tribes surrendered years later.
As American expansion met nomadic tradition, American superiority ultimately pushed through, as the remnants of the Plains Indian Wars were removed from their homeland. Therefore, because no political recognition was achieved amidst the expansion of American people and industry, the numerous Native American tribes were helpless to withstand the storm of expansion and national power.
Since the point of history when the Pilgrims crossed the Pacific ocean, the Natives of the American land never again had it good. The Native American were pushed further and further away from their traditional customs and values. The culture and significance of the Native Americans seemed to become completely insignificant to the White Americans who robbed them of their existence. First, when the Americans killed the Buffalo herds it took much of the lifestyle of the Native Americans; second, many conflicts such as the Battle of little Bighorn and the Nez Perce Indian War proved to be completely abysmal to the Native American population; third, the construction of the Trans Continental Railroad made a need for a huge congregation of settlers to the west. Thus, America seized the opportunity of creating a Railroad and conquering the West, but the effects of these actions proved to be thoroughly horrendous on the population of Native Americans.
One of the main things that devastated the Native Americans was the killing of the beautiful, magnificent Buffalo. The life of the Native Americans almost completely relied on the Buffalo as they used them for limitless things such as food, clothes, tools and for the use of teepee construction. Ever since the Trans Continental Railroad came into existence, the herds of Buffalo began to dwindle due to the many Americans that were hunting them simply for their pleasure. The buffalo didn’t only provide supplies for the Natives, but they also provided huge religious significance because tribes such as the Mandan used the skull as a religious altar. After the annihilation of mass amounts of buffalo, the Railroads would then be made much quicker because the workers now wouldn’t have to wait for the herds of Bison to move away from the path of the Railroad.
The many battles and massacres played a huge role in the “continuous recession’ of the Native American tribes, specifically the Battle of Little Big Horn and the Nez Perce Indian War. The Battle Of Little Big Horn included the belligerents of the United States Army vs the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes. This battle was one of the most prominent actions of the Great Sioux War of 1876 for, in the end, the three tribes came out with a victory. The Leaders of the Battle, Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, were made famous by this battle. The ratio of Native Americans to United States soldiers were roughly 3 to 1, which was a large reason that 268 United states soldiers were killed, but the outcome of the native American Deaths were more tragic because of the very minimal amount of deaths that they could afford. The Nez Perce Indian War in 1877 also resulted in too many deaths for the Native Americans, around 150 were killed. One of the Famous Chiefs of this battle was Looking Glass, who provided for much of the military strategy of the war.
The creation of a Trans Continental Railroad would connect the western half to the eastern half of America. This Manifest Destiny seemed to be absolutely pertinent for the American future of the time, and a couple of wimpy Native American Tribes was not going to get in the way. People began to establish towns in the middle of the Native American land and Railroad tracks would slice through what once was thre Native American Homeland. The Natives were almost completely forced out of their culture and lifestyle. The Railroad was more than likely the main cause of the dismissal of the Native American Population.
Cammie Gelbuda
Period 1 & 4
Mr. Korling’s
In 1860, Native Americans numbered about 360,000 and were located from the trans Missouri line to the West. Over the next 25 years the way the Native Americans lived, what they ate, the way they hunted and how they dressed along with almost every aspect of their culture was obliterated. Before the white soldiers and settlers moved on to the plains, the Native Americans enjoyed freedom to move about the huge expanse of the great West. They hunted buffalo for food, road wild horses, built houses and clothes from buffalo skins. They used buffalo bones for tools, weapons and the dung for firewood. At one time there was as many as 30 different tribes. Each tribe spoke a different language, practiced its own religion and had it own type of government. After the settlers and soldiers arrived there was a “continuous recession” of Native Americans ways. By this I mean that within twenty-five years of the white mans arrival the Native Americans surrendered their land, the buffalo were nearly extinct, and their political and tribal organizations were gone. All Native American religion was wiped out. During this time it was clear that only one culture would be allowed to live among the Great Plains, and it was not going to be the Native Americans. The Native Americans were forced to accept the “white mans ways” and were forced to live on very small reservations.
For hundreds of years before the white settlers and soldiers showed up in North America the different tribes of Native Americans had been fighting with each other. Native tribes were in war with each other over the hunting of the buffalo. Arguments between different tribes lasted for generations. Once the settlers showed up they began to take control of the Great Plains from horseback, railroad and decimated the buffalo herds. The white man brought diseases that sickened and killed thousands of Native Americans. The “taming” of the Indians also was brought about by the railroad. The locomotives could bring an unlimited number of troops, farmers, cattlemen, sheepherders and settlers. They also brought firewater (alcohol) to which the Native Americans showed almost no resistance.
By the late 19th century the United States government had forced the majority of Native Americans to surrender to their way of life. The remainder of the Native Americans were pushed into small reservations. In the 1860s the federal government herded the Indians into two small reservations, principally the “Great Sioux reservation” in the Dakota Territory, and Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma. They were to be left alone, and provided with food, clothing and other supplies. Later on gold was discovered on the Sioux Territory and the Native Americans were once again disturbed and all the laws that were put into place for the reservations were disregarded.
The white man was responsible for the “continuous recession” of Native Americans by killing them, starving them and killing their main source of food. They stole their culture, religion and way of life.
Since the time of Columbus the Native Americans have been deprived of their land and ultimately their very own lives. They have been unceasingly pushed further and further away from their freedom that they once controlled. The Natives were flabbergasted with the quickly expanding threat of their livelihood and what may become of them because of the white settlers forcing themselves into the land. Why and how does this happen? This happens because of many reasons that can be labeled as a “continuous recession” can be put into three important causes. First, in the years between 1865-1869, the railroad system made a huge impact on the Native Americans; Two, the Native American’s sacred buffalo being pushed almost to the brink of extinction was critical; And third, the vast and cheap land available to the white settlers caused the Native Americans to once again, move further away from their home.
During the construction of the railroads, Native Americans and railroad workers would often attack each other and kill many people on both sides. With new technology being created to make railroad building easier, the lives of Native Americans was even more dangerous to be close to the railroads. By the failure to halt the railroad construction, the Native Americans were forced to move away, due to the rapid transportation of more and more Americans out West, desperate to have peace and no affiliations with Americans.
The buffalo, which once roamed by the thousands and millions, had been reduced to a rare species on the brink of extinction. This greatly affected the Native Americans way of life, as they saw the buffalo to be sacred and the basic need for life. The buffalo had everything for the Native Americans. The meat for food, the hide for clothing, beds, shelter, the bones for tools, bows, and even the brain was used for the tanning process for the hide. Nothing was put to waste when it came to the buffalo. When the buffalo was nearly extinct, the Native Americans had only the white Americans to blame and were figuratively choked from their basic needs for life and as a consequence, had to fall further away from the settlers to land where more resources were readily available.
The railroad system not only brought about the quick transportation of resources to far away places, but it brought more and more settlers out West. This massive importation of new self-reliant Americans proposed yet another problem to the Native Americans. As the infection of new Western settlers expanded exponentially , the disease that they brought with them grew even more aggressive. The diseases ran rampant through the lives of Native Americans and brought only more grief to those who were forcibly moved away. With all the white settlers taking the cheap and ready land in the West, the Natives were forced to move again because they would have to find new land that was not controlled by the people who claim that it is their divine nature to have taken from them.
Unspeakably late by this point.
Steven Fraser
period 6
Ever since white settlers set foot on the "New World" shores, the fate of the Native Americans was doomed as whites pushed them continuously west. Due to the federal government and specific events in the post Civil War decades, Native Americans and their culture were almost completely throttled out of existence. First, the construction of the railroad and the virtual extermination of the buffalo eradicated the Plains Indians nomadic way of life; second, numerous massacres by both whites and Native Americans produced incessant casualties; and third, federal legislation enclosed these nomadic peoples onto harsh reservations. Thus, railroad expansion, wars, and the federal government all played huge parts in the "continuous recession" of the once dominant Native American.
Before the Civil War, the land west of Texas belonged to the Indian and to the buffalo. For uncountable generations past, the buffalo was the pivotal point of the Plains Indians[ALLITERATION]. It was their main source of food and shelter. When the whites advanced into the western frontier through the building of the railroad, the extermination of the buffalo began. Buffalo were slaughtered left and right for food for the railroad workers, for certain parts of their body- mostly their hides and their tongues-,[PARENTHESIS] or just for mere amusement. Compared to the 15 million buffalo before the Civil War, by 1885 there were fewer than one thousand of these great beasts left. Without the buffalo, fierce competition erupted between Native Americans for the best hunting grounds. The sacred Sun Dance,a huge part of Native American culture in which a buffalo was needed in order to perform it, was not able to be completed. Along with the massacre of the buffalo, railroads brought troops, farmers, cowboys, numerous settlers, diseases, and alcohol. Additionally, boom towns blossomed around the railroad, covering the west with people. The railroad furthered both the idea of Manifest Destiny for whites, and the doom of the Indians.
The Native Americans were not content to simply sit back and stare as whites swiftly snatched their precious lands[ALLITERATION]. For generations they had been pushed farther and farther west, and many were now taking a stand, with huge massacres on either side. The Native Americans were protecting what they thought to be rightfully theirs and whites were reaping what they thought to be rightfully theirs[PARALLEL STRUCTURE]. In 1864, in Sand creek, Colorado, approximately 400 Native Americans-mostly women, children, and the elderly- who thought they were under the protection of the government, were slaughtered by Colorado troops led by Colonel Chivington. Retaliation was not far behind. In 1866, a group of Sioux warriors decimated a command of 81 civilians and soldiers in Wyoming. Similarly, Colonel George Custer and his cavalry set out to conquer, but were wiped out by a greater force of Indian warriors at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The Native Americans were from the beginning perceived as obstacles to the white westward stampede and men like Chivington and Custer added fuel to the fire through their relentless hunting and hatred of Indians.
Starting in the 1850s, the federal government tried to tame the Plains Indians. In 1851, at Fort Laramie and in 1853 at Fort Atkinson, treaties were signed with chiefs of various tribes to establish boundaries for tribal territory. However, what whites did not understand was that Native Americans did not believe in ownership of land and did not live their life in one area, but rather followed the tracks of the buffalo. Also, many Native Americans did not recognize any official authority outside of their immediate family, so the reservation system was set up for failure. In the 1860s, the government tried again to shepard the Native Americans onto reservations, like the Great Sioux reservation. The Indians on these reservation systems has been promised to be provided with essentials like food and clothing, however the provisions were often defective, such as spoiled meat or moth eaten blankets. In 1887, the passing of the Dawes Severalty Act came as another blow to the Native Americans. This act dissolved tribes as legal entities, eliminated tribal ownership of land, and established individual family homesteads of 160 acres. If the Indians behaved themselves, they would be able to get full title to their land as well as citizenship in 25 years. On reservations, traditional ways of life of the Native Americans disappeared and many struggled just to survive famine and disease. Instead of helping or protecting the Indians as was the original plan in Andrew Jackson's Indian removal Act of 1830, America had single handedly destroyed everything that once belonged to them. The federal government tried to set up schools for Indian children so they could be taught about white society, but these schools cared little for traditional Native American culture.
Through the railroad, massacres and the federal government,the Native American's culture was effectively wiped out and their numbers significantly reduced.
Anthony Luna
Period 3 & 4
REVISED VERSION
The recession of the Native American cultures first major appearance started when Columbus arrived in 1492. Diseases like small pox and influenza that Columbus brought from Europe (that the Native Americans had no immunity to) wiped out 90 percent of Americas native population. This recession continued with the Spanish enslaving the native Americans. They would force the Native Americans to adopt Christianity and force them to just forget about their own ways of life. With later the colonization of North America and even later the forming of the United States, the Native American cultures continued to go into this spiralling recession. First, with the combination of, greed and ambition by the American people, and the government for the construction of the transcontinental rail road, it hit the Native American's population and culture hard; second, many important individuals help show how desperate the Native Americans were to keep their culture alive, whether white or Indian; third, many incidents took place that show the Native Americans culture and traditions slowly disappear.
With the construction of the rail road came the punch that would smash the Native American ways of life, traditions, and population further into recession. Because of the greed and ambition to get the rail road to take up as much space as possible many actions were taken place so the Native Americans would not interfere with its construction. First all the Native Americans in the path of the rail road would be forced relocate to a different location; or they would just be slaughtered. Because the native Americans were hunter-gatherers and they relied heavily upon the Buffalo. The Indians ate the buffalo meat, used its hide for clothing and shelter. Ligaments were used as bowstrings and bones were used as tools and weapons. Buffalo fat was used as grease, hoofs used to make glue, and even buffalo dung was used for fuel. Because of the ambition for the rail road, the Buffalo population would be almost decimated in order to make the native Americans to leave the area so they could no longer interrupt the construction. Many Non-Indian groups killed the buffalo for their pelts, to feed railroad construction crews, or even just for the pure sport of it. Army commanders who operated in the West drove the Indians off of desired lands by killing the buffalo as a way to deprive the Indians of food and shelter. Between 1872 and 1875 hunters killed 9 million buffalo, most often only taking the skin and leaving the carcass to rot. By the 1880s the Indian way of life was ruined and the way was cleared for American settlement of the Plains. This gave way to the extinction of the Sun Dance ritual performed by Native Americans. This ritual requires a Buffalo head, however with the Buffalo population diminished, a chunk of native American culture would be lost. However, many Native groups would turn to the Ghost dance. the Ghost dance would unify the some of the native groups. The Homestead Act of 1862 gave freehold title to 160 acres of undeveloped land in the American West. This act was signed by President Abe Lincoln and it gave away Native American land to independent farmers. The federal government would try to pacify the Plains Indians by signing treaties with the Chiefs of various tribes, and this would lead to the reservation system.
REVISED VERSION [CONTINUED]
Under this reservation system, the Native American's lives were harder than it they had ever been. The reservations were devised to encourage the Indians to live within clearly defined zones, and the U.S. promised to provide food, goods and money and to protect them from other tribes and white settlers. This system also reflected the views of some of the missionaries that forcing the Native Americans to live in a certain space with little opportunity for nomadic hunting would make it easier to civilize them. They space for the Indians to live would dwindle in size.
The reservation system was a disaster for the Indians as the government failed to keep its promises. The nomadic tribes were unable to follow the buffalo.Also, conflict among the tribes increased, rather than decreased, as the tribes competed with each other for dwindling resources. This system took its toll on Native American culture.
Unfortunately, the government knew what it was doing to the Indians culture and population. It also knew that they were the cause of a lot of the Indian conflict. "Many, if not most of our Indian wars have had their origin in broken promises and acts of injustice on our part." -President Rutherford B. Hayes. Another quote that shows that many knew what they were doing to the Indians is from General Philip Sheridan,“We took away their country and their means of support, and it was this, and against this they made war. Could anyone expect less?” Thus the Native Americans were of no importance to the Federal government and the white settlers around them because they just wanted the Indians out of they way. Even though the Native American culture is still around in the present, it is just a fragment of what it used to be. For many traditions and some of its culture is lost. So what was more important manifest destiny or the well being of the Native Americans? Obviously, manifest destiny.
Bella Crosson
Period 1 & 4
After the end of the Civil War, the treatment of the Native Americans was proven to have been quite cruel amongst the American white population. This specific time period was a crucial defining moment in American history, for the consequences of greed, inequality were shown through the racist, inhumane, and brutal treatments toward the Native Americans. First, the Indian wars were pointless and unnecessarily violent (with white killing the Native Americans for no apparent or just reason) PARENTHESIS; second, the near extinction of the wild bison in the area, as well as the introduction of new diseases and poisons, killed off entire Native American tribes; third, the legislation in the late 1880s was passed disabling the whole tribal system and allowed for the Native Americans to have the possibility for citizenship. Thus, for unnecessary, cruel, and prejudiced political act, the continuity of Native American oppression and the importance of the time period after the Civil War continued for many years.
In this so called antebellum period, most of the American natives (approximately 360,000) were living off of the nature and, most importantly, the wild bison living in the area. Unfortunately, thousands of the natives were terminated thanks to the many whites traveling out west after the Civil War. With the advancement of technology and the introduction of a more industrial economy in the United States, railroads were being built across thousands of miles of Indian territory, causing many bison populations to die off. These bison played a huge role in the lives of the natives, for they provided them with not only food but also clothes and other necessities. The whites would kill off these bison for sport, and it was not long before the bison were nearly extinct. Without their vital contribution in the Native American society, many natives starved to death. Also, many of these natives greatly suffered from the insertion of new diseases brought in by the white settlers.
Tensions between the white population and the Native American tribes continued to intensify, especially with the series of Indian Wars. With both sides guilty of cruelty, the severe brutality occurred at the hand of the white settlers. They would often massacre entire villages by shooting at the innocent and peaceful natives. These men even would kill praying women and children. This crushed the Native American’s spirit, for it did not linger much longer. The whites were then able to employ their superior technology and war tactics against the “savages”, proving too much for their native ways.
After the end of the Civil War (about 20 years after) PARENTHESIS, a legislation act was passed that finally brought some change to the constant fighting between the white settlers and the Native Americans. Under the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, the previous tribal system in Indian culture was disbanded, the new ownership of land was revoked, and the Indian families were given 160 acres of land. They were also promised United States citizenship if and only if they lived up to “American standards of living like good white settlers do.” However, despite all this, the natives were still stripped of the individual cultures and their importance to the Federal Government was still less than equal.
In the early 1800’s a group of Plain’s Indians on the Western prairie sought after the buffalo and lived unscathed by white settlers, but in the settlers heading west initiated first contact between the “savage” and the white skinned men. From then on, the days of the tribes, villages, and traditions were numbered. For three main reasons: first, three major themes, conceit, insatiability, and retribution, which are common in any civilization, white or not; second, these corrupt fundamentals of society lead to insolent demeanors in individuals; and third, these individuals and the penalty of their actions could only end in an inequitable fight of the frail versus the sturdy.
For centuries before white settlers even landed on the shore of North America, the different tribes and Native American settlements had been in combat with each other. Paradoxically, just a few continents away, wars between other powers in conflict were being fought also. In most cases, wars are fought for greed, pride, or revenge. Hardly any type of endangerment of human life is for fun. The wandering life of the Native Americans was a core cause of their brutality. Competition for the hunting of the life-giving buffalo demanded a smaller number of Natives in each area. Another cause of Native American wars was revenge. Feuds lasted generations, ending with the death of an offending party. White men’s wars were fueled by revenge also but in a more greedy way. These self seeking manners became a catalyst to the actions later inflicted upon the Indians. With the whites approaching, the railroad followed. The railroad was support for whites who wanted to drift west. As towns sprung up, aggression became an everyday occurrence. The population of the herds diminished expansively overnight because of the disproportionate hunting. For the Native Americans, the buffalo was not just a meal. Its hide was used to provide clothes for the people, and their religious Sun Dance needed the buffalo to be performed. The near extermination of the once vast herds caused the Natives to reposition themselves with the buffalo, but in due course the Sun Dance could not be performed. It was replaced with the Ghost Dance but in the Battle of Wounded Knee the army brutally trampled upon the new Dance. They Natives also moved as far away as they could from the abnormal screams of the train as far away from them as possible. The Sioux tribe was put on a reservation with the concept that they would be left alone and uninterrupted, however when gold was revealed on Sioux territory, all laws were overlooked for an open harvest of the gold. In 1887 the Dawes-Severalty Act detached the tribal ownership of land and made it individual to promote farming and settling of Indians. Slaughter, biological conflict, and the reduction of natural and required resources were all catastrophic to the lifestyle of the Native Americans and led to the “continuous recession” of Native Americans as well as their traditions, way of life, and legacy so that now, Native American life continues on reservations but even there, only on out of the ordinary occasions.
Throughout their years of coexistence with the citizens of the United States, the Native American population underwent process after process that continuously cut them off from their own culture. This was especially prominent within the later half of the 19th century, due both directly and indirectly to federal policies enacted by the white settlers. First, the spread of disease, killing of the buffalo, and railroading all held largely significant responsibilities for limiting the Native American people, as well as their culture; second, certain individuals and the multitude of Christian reformers aiming to assimilate the natives into white society had no interest in preserving the Native American culture, to say the least; and third, events such as the Battle of Little Bighorn, the Nez Perce Indian War, and the Sand Creek Massacre provide enough evidence for this era’s separation of the Native Americans from their traditional culture by merely existing. Therefore, the major events and movements unfolding within the West, the undertakings of several individuals, and multiple conflicts of clashing hostilities between the white and native races, usually over a policy enacted by the whites that affected the natives, all played their own highly significant roles of severing the ties between the Native Americans and their culture.
The spread of disease, killing of the buffalo, and railroading all held largely significant responsibilities for limiting the Native American people, as well as their culture, during this time period. While these are three separate means of doing so, they are still related to each other through the movement of westward expansion. In order for the railroad companies to continue their construction and profit making at a faster rate, something had to be done about the herds of buffalo that got in the way for what could be hours on end. So, a massive killing spree of buffalo ensued that limited not only the Native Americans’ food supplies but their ability to follow religious practices and beliefs. They were left without meat for food, fuel for fires, hides for clothing and housing, and a major part of their religion. If the severe lack of buffalo injured the Plains Indians’ ability to perform the sacred Sun Dance, then its outlaw in 1904 certainly crippled it. And despite the Ghost Dance serving as a replacement, this significant constituent of their religious life was only oppressed even further by the federal government. But the railroad tycoons were not done reaping whatever benefit they could. In 1887, the Dawes Severalty Act was passed and all “tribal” land claims were dismissed, allowing for the redistribution amongst individual members of a tribe. Not only did this violate one of the oldest native traditions where no individual could own land – since the Earth did not belong to them – but it allowed Congress to repossess any of this allotted land for the purpose of railroads or other public uses. The widespread diseases that wiped out numerous amounts of the native population were not as intentional as the buffalo killing or railroads. The germs for these illnesses (typhoid, cholera, and smallpox) entered the western region on the backs of white settlers. And with such a decrease of population came a decrease in the number of people to continue on an already struggling culture. While this was not the first occurrence of settlers spreading their diseases to native populations, it is most likely that the Homestead Act of 1862 provoked the increase of westward migration.
One of the more specific individuals with the blood of thousands of buffalo on his hands was William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. In 1867 the Kansas Pacific Railroad company hired him to dispose of the herds of buffalo that interfered with the company’s production rates. And, by 1868, Buffalo Bill had managed to kill over four thousand buffalo within 18 months. The next step taken by the White Settlers would be the countless Christian reformers and their initiative of “civilizing” Native Americans to their standards. Some reformers established schools on reservations sites and refused any food or water to their students until they had pledged to replace their native ways with Christian ways. Some of the more extreme examples show how the children of tribes were sent away from their families and homes in order to help enforce these ways. The previously discussed diseases came into play once more as these detached native children fell prey to them with ease. These individuals serve as only a few of the many examples of the Native American suffering both physically and culturally at the hand of those with the gilded label of “saviors”.
And when there were more than one or two individuals participating in the torment of the native culture, it became an event involving a severe amount of bloodshed. Such as the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in Sand Creek, Colorado. This event saw the decimation of around four hundred Native American men, women and children thanks to Colonel J.M. Chivington and his militia. The purpose of such a killing was simply to avoid any possible trouble that the natives might have caused. This belief that the natives would be troublesome just because they were natives exemplifies the general white superiority complex of that day and age. In 1876, there was the Battle of Little Bighorn. This event was a result of Colonel George Custer acting on the belief of Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano’s belief that the sacred Black Hills of the Sioux possess a large amount of profitable goods. The Secretary ordered the Colonel to dispose of the native people in the way, through simply moving them or killing them, should any riches be discovered on that land. Thus, showing the priority of the white man’s economy over the sacred culture of the native people. Only a year later, in 1877, did the Nez Perce Indian War occur. This war was a result of the Nez Perce Indians attempting to resist being put into a reservation system. However, their efforts proved to be unsuccessful and were eventually forced to migrate to a reservation in Kansas. The opening of Oklahoma additionally provides for the governments general disregard for the Native Americans. Previously set aside solely as Indian land, in 1889 Oklahoma Territory was opened for white settlement, proving that the federal government could not be trusted with the task of preserving Native American land, let alone their culture.
Edith Chavez
Period 1&6
The Gilded Age was tough time for the majority of people in the United States but this was especially true for the Native Americans, though for them the terrible age started in the 1860s (or seen as starting when Columbus arrived). The had been continuously been pushed further and further west since Columbus step foot in the New World and more specifically in North America beginning in the early 1600s. Now this pattern was continuing through the invading railroad; white Christians wanting “assimilate” the Natives; and, of course, massacres. [SENTENTIAL ADVERB] In these ways, the country systematically aided the “continuous recession” of the Native Americans.
The Native Americans had been pushed off into the west of the country and were originally promised land there and not be disturbed although, like usual, the US went broke its promise to the Native. This time it wasn’t some act passed by Andrew Jackson but instead a metal arrow slicing through to the heart of the west, the transcontinental railroad. [METAPHOR] [DISTINCTIO] The railroad being built from Omaha to Sacramento started from both ends and was built to meet somewhere east of California though in the end both ends met further east than anticipated. The railroad was granted huge amounts of land to the north and south of the tracks laid down- land originally for the Native Americas. [PARENTHESIS] This was allowed by the Dawes Severalty Act which split the land among individual Native Americans that had no concept of “owning” land and allowed for the United States to take it back for public use aka the railroad. This land was then used to start up railroad towns with people in need of food and as a result they turned to farming, cattle ranching, and hunting. The Native Americans here survived because of the buffalo, the giant animals provided food, shelter, clothing, materials for tools etc. The new settlers also saw them as a great resource and quickly start killing them in large number. The buffalo were also killed as their large numbers sometimes kept trains from moving for hours as was the case with the Kansas Pacific which hired Buffalo Bill to kill the pests. Without the plentiful buffalo, the Natives soon saw their numbers dwindle down further, but the US didn’t stop there.
Some white Christians decided they wanted to assimilate the Native Americans, and what better way to do this than by destroying their entire culture? [RHETORICAL QUESTION] Several of the Christians decided to go about assimilating them by setting up school on their reservations and then keep children from any food or water until swearing that they would give up their culture and take on white culture. Other times, children would simply be forced from their homes and sent to school away from their families and culture. The government helped these missionaries by providing them with funds for their schools. These schools were harsh as Native American languages were banned, the children had their names replaced, and several would be abused in a variety of ways. It was also harsh for them because of disease and their young immune systems failed to keep them healthy. But many felt that the “only good Indian was a dead one” in the sense that they had to give up their whole culture to be “saved.” Many of the assimilation attempts results in violence however.
The efforts to destroy the Native American and the Buffalo were met with little resistance though this not to say there wasn’t any. The buffalo were part of Native religion and were a huge part of the Sun Dance, one of the key parts of Native American culture. With the reduced numbers of buffalo the dance ceased to be possible and was replaced by the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance managed to unite some of the tribes and keep their culture alive for little longer. The United States didn’t like it though. The Battle of Wounded Knee occurred because of the US Army fearing it would lead to greater violence and decided to crush the Dance resulting in more of a massacre rather than a battle. A gold discovery in 1864 brought more death for the Native American as it meant more whites in the area of the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Natives signed a treaty leave the land for a new one (way smaller in size of course) but many decided they weren’t moving and the Army took it as an offence and attacked. Not always were the white the first to attack, though always being the ones to provoke the initial conflict, as the Bozeman Trial allowed for a flood of whites to invade Native American territory which resulted in attacks from the Native Americans to prevent the further migration. But the whites with superior technology being backed by the government crushed them here as well.
In all cases the United States government backed those who pushed the Native American away, but this time there was no more land to push them to and instead their lands dwindled in size as their population dwindled in numbers, the government in this time period encouraging and aiding the decreases.
All graded up to this point.
Some may say that when the Pilgrims first set foot on the new world the Native Americans experience a “continuous recession.” This is true but in fact the recession started way before that when the first European had contact with the first Native American. From that moment on not only in the United States region but in all of the Americas the Natives experienced a not just a continuous recession but a serious drop in all culture and population. There are many reasons for this decline but there are three main reasons. First, the completion of the transcontinental railroad secured the prospect of white settlement in the west; Second, the decrease in buffalo population caused Native American’s way of life to wither; and third, Congress was dead set on the legislation of the Jackson administration, which saved the Natives by killing them. Thus through the steel of the train, the death of the bison, and the continuation of one type of legislation the Native American population of America had little chance of any survival.
With the focus shifting from the Civil War, America’s ability to unite the country was growing every day, especially with the production of the transcontinental railroad. As a result of this new railroad boomtowns began to sprout up across the Midwest on the plains. Many of these places where the towns sprouted up were occupied by the Native Americans. Because they could not live together the natives were brutally kicked out. They were relocated if they were lucky but most of the time they were left to fend for themselves. These small actions made the mass movement easier because everyone was used to it, but it didn’t make them right.
One of the resources that the Natives depended on was the bison. So when Europeans had a sporting heyday and massacred the bison for the meat and for sport the Natives way of life fell apart. The animal that they relied on for food, shelter, water transportation, and religious rituals was dying out. The Plains Indians had no hope.
Many of the Laws that were passed during this time, despite their good intentions did little to help the Native Americans and ultimately sealed their demise. Many of the treaties that were signed at some of the forts in the Midwest merely pacified the Native American Tribes while encouraging white settlements in the west shrinking the tribe’s lands by crazy amounts. Sometimes settlements would try and assimilate the natives into their communities but because of the belligerent racism of the time and some serious conflicts, this was not very common.
Therefore the continual recession of a culture and nation that was in this land long before us was due to the biggest feat in railroad history, the endangerment of a species and the corruptness of a government. And so now the government has realized the errors of its ways and they are trying to make up for their mistakes but as you can see they are too late.
Grading complete up to this point.
In the USA, Native Americans were continuously resisting the "intruders" that were taking over he entire country, east and now west. White men wanted wealth and gold and land, and some were even murdering Natives to get it. Some of the reasons for the decline of the Native Americans and their loss of their ancestral lands was due to, firstly, western expansion with transcontinental railroads; Secondly, continues battles between Natives and the whites resulted more slaughters on the Native side (but there were some for the white americans). These continuous interruptions and problems for the natives are what forced them to either assimilate, somehow stay isolated and try to preserve their ways, or die. Too bad isolation didn't work out too well.
People from the USA were pushing farther and farther west ever since it became its own country. After the civil war, to make it easier to get across the country, the Transcontinental railroad was created to get supplies and people farther westward in an expedient manner. This brought many problems for the native Americans, since Americans were now taking more and more land for themselves, especially in some plains areas, since the railroad allowed people to live in places that no one could live in before. Land was being used for grassing of cows, not buffalo, which was the original inhabitant in the plains. Buffalo was also important to many plains indians, but the populations of the wild buffalo (which was originally about 18 million), became nearly extinct due to the excessive hunting of buffalo by by the plains incoming frontiersmen, which killed of the plains Indian's main source of food for themselves. The ghost dance for Natives began to appear during this time, since their religion was based around the buffalo that once lived in the plains. (BTW, Mr. Korling said the American Buffalo was extinct, it is NOT, a few managed to suirvive in Yellowstone, and now they are being brought back in present day) The near extinction of buffalo and the taking of their lands were big reasons why Native Americans were in a decline, especially since many were starving due to the slow disappearance of the buffalo.
The plains indians and others in the coastal areas were not to happy about being pushed out of their homelands, and having their favorite source of food, the buffalo, nearly killed off. Some tribes and even some small groups and individuals went and attacked American settlements, sometimes massacring entire groups and camps in surprise attacks. Americans sought retribution (and who wouldn't?) and did the same to Native Americans. Many attacks were brutal, sometimes mostly killing only women and children, and were complete blood baths due to superior firepower (guns, railroads for easy movement). Not all attacks on the Native Americans were successes, like General Custer's absolute failure when seeking to take down the sioux tribes in Dakota for glory and minerals. Custer didn't expect smart warriors, or for the camps to be so large. Eventually others came and took those camps down, but their leader, known as Sitting Bull, managed to escape to cause even more trouble for frontiersmen until he surrendered since his family and his tribe were starving in Canada (Indians took refuge their too, not just Black people in the Antebellum period) since the buffalo herds there were too small to sustain them properly. In America, Native Americans were systematically killed off just because the Natives were just trying to keep the lands they had lived on for centuries.
Grading Complete up to this point.
Nick Palmares
Per. 4
In the 1860’s the Native American began to drop as white pioneers began to go west. The Natives suffered many misfortunes for a vast number of reasons. First, the introduction to foreign diseases struck the natives and the buffalo population began to decrease steadily to the horror of the natives; second, the construction of the transcontinental railroad made it blatant that the white settlers would eventually take over the west; third, when the natives and whites clashed both parties were extremely cruel. Disease, cruelty, and railroad expansion forced the natives to experience a “continuous recession” in their culture as well as in their own value.
The spread of cholera, typhoid, and smallpox through the native tribes resulted in endangerment of the native populations. Tensions began to rise up once again as Manifest Destiny consumed the minds of many Americans after the Civil War. The next step to proving superiority would be connecting the country physically with railroad tracks. The accumulation of precious metals that had helped finance the Civil War also helped ease the construction of railroads which in turn increased the bitterness between whites and natives. As railroads began to stretch across the country and into the west, many tribes were forced to relocate as they noticed that fighting the railroad workers to stop construction was mission impossible. While already being attacked with diseases the native tribes began to notice dwindling population in their own tribes as well as in the buffalo herds. The increasing scarcity of the buffalo hit the plains “Indians” life hard. Their entire lifestyle was centered on the mighty animal using its meat for food and had practical uses for almost everything else that the buffalo had to offer. While many changes had to be adopted by the natives to survive, the most important change or culture exclusion was the blighted ritual of the Sun Dance which the buffalo was a very crucial part of. The decaying buffalo population initiated the intensified warfare between tribes for survival. Americans began to expand westward and venture ever closer to the tribes of the Plains Indians territory, causing clashes to become more frequent. These conflicts between traveling whites and the natives were savage on both sides. In 1864 the militia under Colonel J.M. Chivington massacred about 400 natives including women and children even though these particular natives had believed that they had been promised immunity and would be safe. A few years later disaster struck yet again in 1866 when a Sioux war party ambushed and annihilated Captain William J. Fetterman’s command of 81 soldiers and mutilated the corpses. During another Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868, the “Great Sioux reservation” was guaranteed to the Sioux…that is until 1874 when it was announced that gold was found in part of the Sioux reservation and were appalled when the Sioux fought back.
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