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In 1834, the federal government passed an act that designated the entire Great Plains as one enormous reservation, or land set aside for Native American tribes.
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The governemnt changed its policy and created treaties that defined specific boundaries for each tribe.
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The Cheyenne, roughly 200 warriors and 500 women and children, were massacred at Sand Creek by General S.R. Curtis when they thought they were under the protection of the U.S. Government.
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Crazy Horse ambushed Captain William J. Fetterman and his company at Lodge Trail Ridge. Over 80 soldiers were killed.
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Sioux agreed to live on a reservation along the Missouri River. Sitting Bull, leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux, never signed this treaty.
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George A. Custer reports that the Black Hills has "gold from the grass roots down", and the gold rush was on.
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U.S. responded to this by herding the poeple of the friendly tribes onto reservations while opening fire on all others. With these tactics, all resistance was crushed
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A native American force led by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Gall crushed Custer's troops. Witihin an hour, Custer and all of the men of the 7th Cavalry were dead.
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This act aimed to "Americanize" 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 reservation to the settlers, and the resulting income be used by Native Americans to buy farm implements.
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The Seventh Cavlary - Custer's old regiment - 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 was unclear. The cavalry opened fire and slaughtered as many as 300 unarmed Native Americans. This was the end of the Indian wars.
