AMERICAN WEST: INDIAN WARS

FORT LARAMIE TREATY - 1851

Indian tribes agreed to stop attacking wagon trains of Oregon Trail in return for permanent control of a long ***** of land across the centre of the continent. The US government also promised to protect Indians

LITTLE CROW’S WAR - 1862

Little Crow was the leader of the Santee Sioux. Crop failure and a delay in the compensation payments meant the tribe were starving. They attacked government warehouses, before attacking the soldiers sent to deal with them. By October the war was over and the Santee Sioux were punished by being moved to a smaller reservation where their problems were made worse by the lack of clean water.

THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE -1864

The Cheyenne, led by Black Kettle, suffered a similar problem to the Santee Sioux from 1861 and began attacking wagon trains in desperation for food. They finally agreed to meet government officials to come to an agreement. Unfortunately while these talks were going on the army massacred 450 Indians in a dawn raid on their camp at sand creek. This led to the Cheyenne giving up their land claims in Colorado in return for land in Oklahoma.

FORT LARAMIE TREATY – 1868

Following Red Cloud’s war, the government signed a second fort Laramie treaty which created lots of smaller reservations. Red Cloud moved the Lakota Sioux to Dakota Territory, around the black hills. He believed he had won. However, the smaller reservations bought more change to the way the Indians lived, and further broke down their society. 

RED CLOUD'S WAR - 1866-68

The discovery of gold in Montana led to the Bozeman trail being set up. Unfortunately this trail broke the fort Laramie treaty, as it crossed the Sioux hunting grounds. Red Cloud, chief of the Lakota Sioux, along with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, attacked wagon trains and the army was sent in. The Sioux adapted their tactics and fought through the winter. They stopped people using the Bozeman trail and laid siege to the forts, trapping the army. Eventually the US government had to negotiate a new settlement.

BATTLE OF WOUNDED KNEE – 1890

Sioux rations were cut and a drought meant their crops failed. An Indian had a vision that if they kept dancing, the Great Spirit would bring back the dead and a great flood would carry the white people away. The US was worried and sent in the army to stop them. A group of Sioux joined together under Big Foot but the army caught them and took them to Wounded Knee. Indians started dancing and shooting broke out. After 10 minutes 250 Indian men, women and children were dead. It was the end of Indian resistance and the 'final tragedy'

BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG HORN       

Many branches of the Sioux joined together after they learned that the US government was planning to build fortes along the Bozeman trail because Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills. The Sioux refused to sell their land in the Black Hills. So the government ordered the Sioux onto small reservations. When the Sioux refused, they were declared 'hostile'. General Philip Sheridan was sent to defeat the Sioux. In June 1876 US armies, led by the generals Alfred Terry and John Gibbon, met at the Yellowstone river. Gibbon was set to march up the Little Bighorn river, and Lt Colonel George Custer was ordered to march round the Wolf mountains, as part of a two-pronged attack on the Sioux camp. The Sioux had been joined by the Cheyenne and Arapaho, making an army of more than 3,000 warriors, armed with Winchester repeating rifles. Custer marched his men through (not round) the Wolf mountains, to arrive at the Sioux camp first. Custer divided his 600 men into three groups. Custer sent Captain Frederick Benteen scouting, and sent Major Marcus Reno to attack the Sioux village from the south. Custer headed north of the village with 215 men. The Sioux cut off both Reno and Custer. Benteen rescued Reno, but Custer and all of his troops lost their lives. The Sioux withdrew when Terry and Gibbon arrived.