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Great Plains Reservation
In 1834, the federal government had passed an act that designated the entire Great Plains as one enormous reservation. -
1850's
The federal government changed it's policies and created treaties that defined specific boundaries for each tribe. Most Native Americans spurned the government treaties and continued to hunt on their traditional lands, clashing with settlers and miners-with tragic results. -
Sand Creek Massacre
Most of the Cheyenne assumed they were under the protection of the U.S. government, and had peacefully returned to Colorado's Sand Creek Reserve for the winter. Yet an army commander in the West said he wanted no peace with the Native Americans until they suffer more. In response Chivington and his troops killed over 150 Natives, mostly women and children. -
Fetterman Massacre
Chief Red Cloud unsuccessfully appealed to remove whites from the Bozeman Trail. Angered, Crazy Horse ambushed Fetterman and his 80 troops and wiped them out. -
Treaty of Fort Laramie
Because of skirmishes along the Bozeman Trail, the government shut it down. In return, the Treaty of Fort Laramie, in which the Sioux agreed to on a reservation beside the Missouri river, was forced on the Sioux leaders. A few tribes that did not sign it expected to continue to hunt where they wanted. -
Black Hills Gold Rush
Within four years of the Treaty of Fort Laramie miners began searching the Black Hills for gold. Tribes in the area protested to no avail. Custer reported the Hills had gold "from the grass roots down", which started the Rush. -
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Red River War
Kiowa and Comanche started raiding for six years beginning in 1868, which led to the Red River War of 1864-1865. The U.S. army responded by herding all friendly tribes onto reservations, and opened fire on hostile tribes. Their orders towards hostile tribes were destroy the villages and ponies, to kill and hang all warriors, and bring back all women and children. With this plan the army crushed all resistance on the southern plains. -
Custer's Last Stand
In early June 1876, the Sioux, and Cheyenne held a sun dance, during which Sitting Bull had a vision of soldiers and some Native Americans falling from their horses. When Custer and his troops reached the Little Bighorn River, the Native Americans were ready for them. Led by Crazy Horse, Gall, and Sitting Bull, the warriors with raised spears and rifles-outflanked and crushed Custer’s troops. Within an hour, Custer and all of his men in the Seventh Calvary were dead. -
The Dawes Act
Congress passed the Dawes Act in 1887 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 7th Calvary rounded up about 350 starving Indians and took them to a camp called wounded knee creek in South Dakota. The next day the soldiers demanded the Natives give up all weapons they had. A shot was fired (no one knows from which side). The soldiers opened fire with deadly cannon. Within minutes the 7th Calvary slaughtered as many as 300 mostly unarmed Native Americans, including several children. They left the corpses to freeze. This bitter battle brought the Indian wars to an end.
