The Dawes General Allotment Act Essay

Document E, called the “Massacre of Our Troops,” is an article from the New York Times published on July 6, 1876. It is written by Muggins Taylor, a scout for General Gibbons, and therefore, the account of events is from a white man’s perspective. As stated in the document, “Gen. Custer found the Indian camp of 2,000 lodges on the Little Horn, and immediately attacked it” (Doc E). This clearly depicts his harsh treatment of Native Americans as he attempted to kill them so Americans could possess their land. The Indians were surrounded by Custer’s regiment and merely reacted to his initial attack. Additionally, Document K, which is from the perspective of Crazy Horse, describes the situation that his tribe was in. Crazy Horse states, “They say we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape but we were hemmed in and we had to fight” (Doc K). While most people believe that the Indians savagely attacked the white settlers, they truly had no choice. Custer’s troops had surrounded the Indian village leaving them with no option but to fight back. Custer planned an attack on the Native Americans portraying his deplorable treatment of the Native

In 1874 gold was discovered in the Black Hills. President Grant was forced to make a harsh decision because the Black Hills were located in the Great Sioux Reservation that the Indians had gained under the Treaty of 1868. President Grant allowed miners to enter the Black Hills and insisted that this act would be legalized. Government attempted to acquire the Black Hills where the gold was located however Sitting Bull was against the sale of the land. The Great War of Sioux 1876 resulted from a disagreement between miners and Indians. Miners had already began to come to the Black Hills to mine for goal and the government allowed these things to happen. Because Sitting Bull and his army men were not sure of what would happened when the white men entered they were forced to attack in fear. “They had not interfered with the gold rush, and although they had not signed the Treaty of 1868, in sanctioned their residence in the unceded territory.”(Utley pg34). Sitting Bull gave orders to his young soldiers to harass whites at

There was a great willingness to keep the poor in one place and so by

The conflict that occurred between the U.S. Government and the Native American Indian tribes, known as the Great Sioux War. It was a lengthy, disjointed struggle between the U.S. Army and the allied tribes of the Teton Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians that occurred in the span of fifteen months between, March 1876 and May 18771. Hostilities between the U.S. Government and the Native American Indian tribes grew due to the movement of settlers on the land promised to them. The Northern Plains, which consist of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana, is where the majority of the war took place. The most prominent battle of this war was the Battle of Little Big Horn, due to the amount of casualties taken by the U.S. 7TH Cavalry led

Source C Textbook Entry About Little Bighorn, Source B: Kate Bighead Interview (modified), and Source A: Cameron Report (modified) were the most helpful to me. In Source C Textbook Entry About Little Bighorn would be the most helpful to find out why there was conflict between the US Army and the Lakota Sioux in the late 1800s because it gives facts about why the war was started. An example is “For years the Lakota Sioux conducted raids against white settlers who had moved into Sioux lands.The U.S. government ordered all Lakota Sioux to return to their reservation by January 31, 1876. They refused. The situation was turned over to the military." The second most helpful to me was the Source B: Kate Bighead Interview (modified) because it told

Aboriginal Land Rights Aboriginal Australians have always had an eternal bond with the land. For the 50,000 years or more, they have occupied the continent; the land provided not only the basic needs, but also the spiritual beliefs. In the Dreaming, the forms of the land, mountains, rivers, landscapes and animals took shape and the spirit of ancestors resided in places that became sacred sites to the Aboriginal people. The land to these people were their most precious commodity. When white settlement began in Australia in 1788, the concept of terra nullius {the land belonging to no-one} was adopted by the British.

The Homestead Act was a vital part of the Westward Expansion and a unique opportunity for people. The Homestead Act was the first time the government had ever offered free land, and the land was offered to anyone, regardless of citizenship, gender, or adulthood. Even teenagers wanting a new life started homesteads because the minimum age was 15 to own a piece of land according to the Homestead Act. It was an opportunity for many people to start their life over and to build something. However, the way was hard and fraught with difficulty but the rewards were worth the effort.

During the battle Reno was some 3.5 miles away and failed to march to the sound of gun fire (9112 West Legends The Battle of Little Bighorn Weiser). The fight lasted less than an hour

The Battle of Tippecanoe was one of the major steps towards the War of 1812. It took place on November 8, 1811, in a clearing near Prophet’s Town. It was also perhaps one of the most controversial battles in the War of 1812. Although a peace treaty had been made one day prior before the Battle of Tippecanoe, the Native Americans attacked, which caused the American soldiers to fight back, who were led by General William Henry Harrison. The Native Americans had been led by Tecumseh, a Shawnee Indian Chief. The Battle of Tippecanoe was a controversial battle which the Natives Americans started, and ultimately, lost.

Everything was going very well for the settlers in the west, except for disputes and battles with the native Indian tribes. The tribes had signed many treaties with the Americans regarding their land and their safety; however, the treaties were loosely followed and ignored for the most part. In 1868, the Lakota were having conflicts with the US Army. The Lakota were angry that the army kept coming into their territory. This led to Red Cloud's War. Congress passed the Fort

The Dawes act reflected the interests of the Americans over the interests of the American Indians in a couple ways. The first way is that it sought to push them onto reservations. The American wanted the American Indians land but the American Indians wanted to keep all of it. The other way is that it tried to Americanize the American Indians. The Indians wanted to keep on doing their way of life how they did it hunting, gathering, and owning no personal property. However the Dawes act divided land to each individual and broke apart their traditional ways.

These events in the Powder River region were called “Red Cloud’s War,” that resulted in a high victory for the Lakota. The Lakota had contested the Bozeman Trail to all nonnative travels. Army supply trains had to fight their way through, and soldiers were bottled up in their forts. The Natives saw no necessity to negotiate a new treaty and held in contempt all government proposals to do so. Ultimately in 1868 the U.S soldiers disbanded from their forts along the Bozeman Trail as a gesture to reopen treaty

There has always been a big debate on whether the Cherokee Indians should have or should not have been removed from the land they resided on. Although the common consensus of the whites was for removal, and for the Cherokees it was against removal, there were some individuals on each side that disagreed with their groups’ decision. The Cherokee Indians should have been removed from their homeland because the Cherokees would not have been able to survive on their own with the way they were living, they would not have been able to exist amidst a white population, and if they were removed, the whites would have helped them create a new and prosperous civilization.

"They are shrieking for Freedom," said a patriot. Congress liked the drawing, so before the end of 1782, an eagle holding a bundle of arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other was accepted as the seal.The image was completed with a shield of red and white stripes covering the breast of the bird; a crest above the eagle's head, with a cluster of 13 stars surrounded by bright rays going out to a ring of clouds; and a banner, held by the eagle in its bill, bearing the words "E pluribus unum". Yet it was not until 1787 that the American bald eagle was officially adopted as the emblem of the United States. The official adoption happened only after many states had already used the eagle in their coats of arm, as New York State did in 1778. Though the official seal has undergone some modifications in the last 200 years, the basic design is the same. (Bald Eagle - National Wildlife Federation)

The History Channel series of Wild West Tech has a total of three seasons, each episode containing and focusing on a major aspect of the American West. This particular episode, episode nine of season one, discusses the tactics, technology, and general information of the Native Americans. It explores the weapons and tools used by the Native Americans as well as the Whites. This episode also discusses the stories, wisdoms, and traditions of Native American warriors and leaders such as Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Quanah Parker. A major battle mentioned and explained in the film was the battle of Little Big Horn, a battle which determined how the west was won, and/or lost. Native Americans were very skilled at turning the simplest of materials into the most effective and deadly weapons of all time, and they got a portion of their materials from trade and raiding the white settlers on their land. In the last half of the 19th Century, the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho were fighting to keep their original homeland, from the western borders of Iowa and Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Canadian border all the way down to Mexico. In the fall of 1866, the war reached Chief Red Cloud.