The Wild WestThe Wild West

I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass. Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.

Stephen Vincent Benet

The Plains IndianThe Plains Indian• By mid-1800s only 150,000• Many tribes relocated from East• Adaptation to environment• Horses, weaponry, guns• The Buffalo … their destruction

would spell the DOOM of the Indians’ way of life.

White Man’s Solution

• 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty

1. Reservations

2. Wards of the nation

3. 1865 Civil War ends …

Indian Wars 1864-90• 1864 Sand Creek Massacre aka

Chivington Massacre• 1874 Gold in the Black Hills• 1876 Little Big Horn1. Sioux and Cheyenne2. George Armstrong Custer3. Crazy Horse4. Sitting Bull

Nez Perce and Chief Joseph• 1877 Northwest

• OO Howard

• Failed escape

• “My heart is sick

and sad. From where

the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”

Geronimooooooooooo!

• Southwest

• Apache

• 1886

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

• 1889 Ghost Dance Cult• Visions and invincibility• Dec. 1890 Sitting Bull killed• Panic leads to escape leads to

massacre• Approx. 300 dead• “west is won”

“white man’s road”

• Assimilation• Dawes Severalty Act1. Divvy ups the reservation lands

between families.2. Can be a citizen if give up tribal

ways• Failure

Gosh darn they still have too much land…

• 1862 Homestead Act

• 1889 Indian Territory

• Oklahoma Land Rush

• 1890 Census declares the frontier is closed!