Red Cloud's Revenge Essay

Of course, as soon as rumors that the Black Hills contained gold began to circulate, this promise became as empty as any others made by the 'Great White Father' to native peoples. And on May 17th 1876, the breaking of this treaty precipitated the crushing defeat of the 7th Calvary at the hands of the Sioux nation led by the defiant, "You need not bring any guides; you can find me easily. I will not run away" , Sitting Bull (Cooke 136) in the Battle of Little Bighorn (Cooke 133-151). But this battle, though a victory over the Anglo invaders, was temporary and short-lived. By September 5, 1877 Crazy Horse was dead, Sitting Bull was in exile in Canada and "…in all the Great Plains, from Canada south, there was no longer a free tribe or a "wild" Indian. It had not taken long; in 1840 the boundary of the permanent Indian Country had been completed and the Great Plains were to belong forever to Indians. A mere thirty-seven years later every solemn promise had been broken and no bit of ground large enough to be buried in remained to any Indian that could not--and probably would--be arbitrarily taken from him without warning" (Andrist 300). The Westward expansion was on, and the push to break up and the sell the Great Sioux Reservation was supported by a "westward-pushing railroad [and] promoters eager for cheap land to be sold at high profits to immigrants"

On June 25, 1876, The Battle of Little Bighorn took place near the Black Hills in Montana. This was one of the most controversial battles of the 20th century and the line between good guys and bad guys was grey at best. Gen. George Armstrong Custer (reduced to LTC after the civil war) had 366 men of the 7thU.S. Cavalry under his command that day. Sitting Bull (A Medicine Man) led 2000 braves of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes (Klos, 2013). At the conclusion of the battle, the stories of the Indians savagery were used to demonize their culture and there were no survivors from the 7thcavalry to tell what really happened.

At Ft. Ridgely, anger and fear festered after the first attack on the fort as to when reinforcements would come. This also held true for the town of New Ulm which was scrambling to defend itself under the leadership of Colonel Flandrau. While these towns were being attacked, Sibley had gathered an army of 1,340 troops, but still complained about the lack of supplies and training his men had. As the book aptly put it, however, “…neither were the defenders of New Ulm and Fort Ridgley, and they fought with determination, improvised when necessary, and made do without what they could not get and still they bested superior numbers of Indians” (177-178). Sibley’s delays in advancing his troops and attacking the Indians caused heavy responses from the people of Minnesota. Many called for

The Sand Creek Massacre involved many native tribes, including the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Sioux, Kiowa, and Comanche. Among many of these tribes were the targeted, Black Kettle and White Antelope leaders of the Cheyenne. Left Hand and Little Raven were the Arapaho chiefs. “The Cheyenne and the Arapaho were the tribes that were mainly affected in this massacre.” (Hoig 15)

Black Elk seemed disgusted by the behavior of the United States government. Black Elk had lived through the government’s unlawful slaughter of Chief Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. He had seen the Battle of Little Bighorn where an attempt was made to forcibly take their sacred land. Black Elk had witnessed the massacre of men, women, and children at the Battle of Wounded Knee. Black Elk went as far to say that “I did not know then how much was ended….I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.” Black Elk experienced the true injustices done by the government, and lived long enough to see their negative impact (“Black Elk”).

After moving 42 miles in three days, Custer realized that “directly west, in his front, are the very Indians the columns [were] searching for.” He massed his forces and deployed scouts to confirm the enemy's position. Before dawn on June 25th, they found “6,000 to 7,000 natives . . . encamped about 15 miles away . . . in the expansive Little Bighorn Valley.” Post-battle analysis confirmed “at least 2,000 warriors” in a settlement that “cover[ed] nearly two miles.” During this reconnaissance, Custer believed the enemy had discovered his column, and hastily began his attack, “fearing the natives might escape.”

With the whites moving in on the Black Hills in search for gold, they wanted to buy it from the Lakota people. Crazy Horse moved and set up camp around the area and led raids on the miners. With these attacks, the whites decided to build more forts in the Lakota area, and force all of the Lakota people into agencies. Crazy Horse and the people who had followed him believed that they had to drive out the whites, and that the buffalo would return.

Many wars were fought between the Indians and whites. One of them occurred in 1864 to 1865. During the summer of 1864 Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors fiercely fought against U.S. troops. Cheyenne leader, Chief Black kettle led attacks on miners, Farms and travelers. Weary of fighting he soon accepted a tribal land outside Pueblo Colorado but only to see his men, woman and children massacred by drunken Colorado militants (not US regulars). Another war that was fought was between the U.S. troops and the Sioux tribe. In 1863 the Sioux tribe was defeated but regained strength in 1866. Their leader, Red Cloud, soon retired to a reservation in the Dakotas but they didn’t stay long. The army knew that the tribes, Kiowa, Commanche, Arapaho, Cheyenne and Sioux were gathering at a general location. So the army tried to pincer them south of the Yellowstone River with a three-pronged force. The Indians decided to attack each prong separately.

In a letter to “The Southern Press,” dated July 20, 1850, G.K. Lewis shared his knowledge and frustrations regarding the many invasions by the Indians. What could be worse than knocking someone down when they are merely trying to pick up the pieces after being defeated? These vicious attacks by the Indians did not only take place in the United States, they took place in Mexico as well. Unknown to most readers, Indians are not as innocent as one is accustomed to believing. In actuality, some Indians were persistent as they inflicted numerous depredations less than 20 miles from Fort Brown, one of the largest military posts in Texas. During this time, it was just a blatant disregard for law and order. The manner in which these vicious

After war Indian and American fighting continued with the Indian raids against whites, white militia responded with attacks into Indian territories.

vOne day one souix woman hid one white girl and her children in a hole because she was protecting them from other Sioux, who were trying to kill all of the

In chapters 16 and 17 we learned many things; a big portion was about the natives. Focusing on their treatments that consequently lead to their demise. As the white settlers moved in showing dominance, people could tell changes were coming. There were many adjustments made by the Plains Indians, yet they faced hardships such as, lack of supplies, adequate weapons, sicknesses, and declining tribe numbers

On the morning of December 29, 1890, many Sioux Indians (estimated at above two hundred) died at the hands of the United States Army near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Indians were followers of the Ghost Dance religion, devised by Wovoka, a Paiute prophet, as a spiritual outlet for Indian repression by whites. The United States Army set out to intercept this group of Native Americans because they performed the controversial Ghost Dance. Both whites’ and the Sioux’s misunderstanding of an originally peaceful Indian religion culminated in the Battle of Wounded Knee. This essay first shows how the Ghost Dance came about, its later adaptation by the Sioux, and

The 7th Cavalry was looking for an excuse to mete out retribution for Custer. If it hadn't been for Wounded Knee, they would have found another reason. When the Cavalry won it was a battle, like Sand Creek, where Southern Cheyenne women and children were murdered, was still a battle. But if Indians won, it was an automatic massacre. I refuse to call them "Native Americans" because they were all independent nations until European illegal immigrants came at them in such numbers, and with such treachery, such as handing out smallpox infected blankets, that the Natives had no chance. Now the whites are condemning the very thing that they practiced from 500 years ago until the present

massacre, and A Man Called Horse showed an imperialist white man going native. And of course the ne