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Great Plains Reservation
The federal government had passed an act that designated the entire Great Plains as one enormous reservation, or land set aside for Native American tribes. -
The changing of the Reservation
The government changed its policy and created treaties that defined specific boundaries for each tribe. Most Native American spurned the government treaties and continued to hunt of their traditional lands, clashing with settlers and miners--with tragic results. -
Massacre at Sand Creek
Most of the Cheyenne, assuming they were under the protection of the U.S. government, had peacefully returned to Colorado's Sand Creek Reserve for the winter. Yet General S. R. Curtis, U.S. Army commander in the west, sent a telegram to militia colonel John Chivington that read, "I want no peace till the Indians suffer more." In response, Chivington and this troops descended on the Cheyenne and Arapaho camped at Sand Creek. The attack at dawn on November 29, 1864 killed over 150 inhabitants. -
Battle of the Hundred Slain
The warrior Crazy Horse ambushed Captain William J. Fetterman and his company at Lodge Trail Ridge. Over 800 soldiers were killed. Native Americans called this fight the Battle of the Hundred Slain. While called it the Fetterman Massacre. -
Treaty of Fort Laramie
A treaty in which the Sioux agreed to live on a reservation along the Missouri River, was forced on the leaders of the Sioux. Sitting Bull, leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux, had never signed it. Although the Oglala and Brule Sioux did sign the treaty, they expected to continue using their traditional hunting grounds. -
Gold Rush
Within four years of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, miners began searching the Black Hills for gold. The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho protested the encroachment on their lands to no avail. When Colonel George A. Custer reported that the Black Hills had gold "from the grass roots down," a gold rush was on. Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, another Sioux chief, vainly appealed again to government officials. -
Red River War
In late, 1868, war broke out yet again as the Kiowa and Comanche engaged in sic years of raiding that finally led to the Red River War. The U.S. Army responded by herding the people of friendly tribes onto reservations while opening fire on all others. General Philip Sheridan, a Union Army veteran, gave orders "to destroy their villages and ponies, to kill and hang all warriors, and to bring back all women and children." With suck tactics, the army crushed resistance on the southern plains. -
Custer's Last Stand
Sitting Bull had a vision of soldiers and some Native Americans falling from their horses. When Colonel Custer and his troops reached the Little Bighorn River, the Native Americans were ready for them. Led by Crazy Horse, Gall, and Sitting Bull, outflanked and crushed Custer's troops. Within an hour, Custer and his cavalry were dead. In late 1876 the Sioux were beaten. Sitting Bull and a few followers took refuge in Canada, where they remained until 1881. -
The Dawes Act
Congress passed the Dawes Act aiming to "Americanize" the Native Americans. The act broke up the reservations and gave some of the reservation land to individual Native Americans-- 160 acres to each head of household and 80 acres to each unmarried adult. The government would sell the remainder of the reservations to settlers, and the resulting income would be used by Native Americans to buy farm implements. -
Wounded Knee
The Seventh Cavalry rounded up about 350 starving and freezing Sioux and took them to a camp at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. The next day, the soldiers demanded that the Native Americans give up all their weapons. A shot was fired; from which side, it was not clear. The soldiers opened fire with the deadly cannon. Within minutes, the Seventh Cavalry slaughtered as many as 300 mostly unarmed Native Americans, including several children. This event brought the Indian wars to a bitter end.
