Reservations

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Reservations
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Purpose of Reservations

• By the mid-1800s, it became clear that U.S.
  expansion was heading west of the Mississippi
  River
• Americans believed in Manifest Destiny- that it
  was their destiny, ordained by God, to acquire
  all lands to the Pacific Ocean
• Unspecified tracts of land in Indian Territory
  had to be more sharply defined and measured into
  reservations, to make room for white settlement

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Effects of Reservations

• Indian people were infuriated by the policy of
  reservations and resisted giving up their
  homelands
• Leaders and chiefs emerged to resist the
  reservation policy
• A series of wars, the Indian Wars, began which
  lasted during the last half of the 19th century

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The Fort Laramie Treaty

• In 1851, the Treaty of Fort Laramie was signed
  between various tribes of the Great Plains and
  the U.S. government
• The treaty was intended to insure peace on the
  Great Plains, as white settlement increased in
  the region
• Tribes had been attacking whites and warring with
  each other over territory

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Terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty

• Tribes of the Plains received
• Separate tracts of land assigned to each tribe
• Tribes agreed to remain on their own land, to
  cease their attacks on each other and on white
  migrants
• Each tribe will retain possession of its assigned
  lands forever
• Each tribe will be protected by U.S. troops from
  white intruders
• Each tribe will each receive 50,000 in supplies
  and provisions annually for the next fifty years.

• The United States government received
• The right to establish roads and military
  outposts within Indian territories.

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The Failure of the Fort Laramie Treaty

• Unfortunately, the chiefs who signed the Fort
  Laramie Treaty did not have the authority over
  their tribes that the United States negotiators
  assumed

• The U.S. negotiators themselves could not deliver
  the protections and fair treatment they promised.
• The sacred Black Hills of the Lakota were
  violated by the government and white settlers,
  leading to a war over the region

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Boarding Schools
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Purpose of Boarding Schools

• In the late 1800s, the United States supported an
  educational experiment that the government hoped
  would assimilate American Indians to the American
  culture.
• Special boarding schools were created in
  locations all over the United States with the
  purpose of "civilizing" American Indian youth .
• Thousands of Native American children were sent
  far from their homes to live in these schools and
  learn the ways of white culture.

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• Tom Torlino (Navajo) as he appeared upon arrival
  to the Carlisle Indian School, October 21, 1882.

• Tom Torlino (Navajo) three years later

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It's cheaper to educate Indians than to kill
them."--Indian Commissioner Thomas Morgan
speaking at theestablishment of the Phoenix
Indian School in 1891
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Apache children on arrival at the Carlisle Indian
School (Pennsylvania) wearing traditional
clothing.
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Apache children at the Carlisle School four
months later.
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Effects of Boarding Schools

• Many struggled with loneliness and fear away from
  their tribal homes and familiar customs. 
• Some lost their lives to diseases that spread
  quickly through the schools.
• Others thrived despite the hardships, formed
  lifelong friendships, and preserved their Indian
  identities.

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Indian Wars
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Causes of the Indian Wars

• Gold was discovered in the sacred Black Hills of
  the Lakota Sioux
• Prospectors flooded the area, violating terms of
  the Fort Laramie Treaty
• Plains Indians, angered by the invasion the
  reservation policy, retaliated triggering the
  Indian Wars

George Armstrong Custer
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The Indian Wars

• Most of the battles within the Indian War
  resulted in U.S. government victories
• The Battle of Little Bighorn was an Indian
  victory, including the killing of Custer
• The Massacre (Battle) at Wounded Kneed ended the
  Indian Wars

George Armstrong Custer
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Images from Wounded Knee, 1890 Collecting the Dead
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Images from Wounded Knee, 1890 Mass grave
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Images from Wounded Knee, 1890 Chief Bigfoot
frozen in the snow