The End Red Clouds Analysis

Document C Chief Luther Standing Bear, My People, the Sioux Source: Chief Luther Standing Bear, My People, the Sioux (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929). “It did not occur to me at the time that I was going away to learn the ways of the white man. My idea was that I was leaving the reservation and going to stay away long enough to do some brave deed, and then come home again alive. If I could just do that, then I knew my father would be so proud of me.” 1. What does this statement infer about what the Native Americans felt was occurring?

The shocked militia, not expecting the Indians to fight back, abruptly turned and fled, many dropping their weapons and supplies in the panic. Black Hawk's band gleefully collected what they had left and retreated up into present day Wisconsin to begin trying to get back safely across the Mississippi River. This Indian victory was a major demoralization to the United States (“Black Hawk War begins”).

Many of the Indians that left with the missionaries were gone for many years and did not know how much had changed back at home. In the story The Soft-Hearted Sioux a young man comes back home after receiving an education from the missionaries. He had left before he was taught how to survive out in the wild. He came back to dying and starving parents. He was brainwashed by the missionaries because he went against his family’s customs and told the medicine man never to come back and that God will save his father. He started preaching God’s words to his people and they left the community. His father was growing sicker and sicker and he needed food. His son went out everyday trying to get something but had no skills in hunting. His father had told him to go two hills over and he could find meat. With no concept of ownership, the son went and killed a cow that belonged to an American. Upon leaving with the meat he was chased down and attacked by the “owner” of the cattle. The son accidentally killed the man and fled back to his father’s teepee only to realize that he was too late and that his father had died. He was so conditioned by the white man that he had forgotten his ancestors’ ways of survival.

Shawnee leader, Tecumseh, was not a happy Native. He blamed the greed and oppression of the Europeans for the destruction of the Native American cultures. The Europeans greed led them to strip the land from the Natives, and try in forcing their religion upon the Natives. Tecumseh believed that the land was for all. There was nothing about selling, taking, and giving the land away. The Europeans just did not have that mindset at all. Red Jacket was a Seneca leader. He was very discouraged of the fact that they took the land of the Natives, but even more because they wanted to force their religion upon the Native Americans. The Europeans were ruthless when it came to this. They did not think about their feelings and the actions that could hurt the Natives. (Doc 4, 5, 6)

"My People the Sioux" is a good literary work written in 1928. This book leaves an everlasting impression with some because it definitely intensifies the sympathy for the Indians. Luther Standing Bear, also known as Plenty Kill, portrays the dramatic and traumatic changes about the Sioux throughout their traditional way of life. As a young boy growing up, he experienced many of these hardships first hand between his people and the whites. This autobiography is quite valuable as it helps allow us to envision what really happened in the battling times of the Indians. Luther stated this quote, which to me, is unforgettable and very well said. It reads:

Once the Sioux figured out that they now had a chance to push the Ponca’s out of Indian Territory, that’s just what they did. They took their crops, horses, and gave many threats towards them. The third most famous war called the Great Sioux war began in 1876. Although the U.S. government had won the war, it still didn’t mean they would stop pleasing the Sioux. The U.S. government gave what was left of the Ponca land to the Sioux. The treaty they made with the Ponca’s was completely broken. They cheated the Ponca Indians, and they were furious. In January 1877, Edward C. Kemble asked the Ponca’s to let him speak during church service. He told them that the government had given their fields and farm to the Sioux for a greater purpose. He also told them that they be getting new virgin lands in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). By this time the there only 738 Ponca Indians in the tribe, which meant they were not much of a force to the federal government.

Black Elk explains the Lakota ideology and what it means to be native. Black Elk falls very ill. While ill, Black Elk has a vision known as “The Great Vision”(Neihardt 17 footnote 1). The Wasichus, a name for white people, start building the iron road, and the start of treaties being made. “Wherever we went the soldiers came to kill us”(Neihardt pg 105), this quote was spoken by Black Elk at the beginning of destruction of the Lakota Nation. Black Elk and his tribe leave for Grandmother’s land (Canada). While in Canada, the Lakota perform the Horse Dance. Cuts-to-pieces’ son was the first human to be healed by Black Elk, and after this miraculous deed happens his tribe performs the Heyoka ceremony. After the Heyoka ceremony, Black Elk performs the final part of his Great Vision. Black Elk travels over the big water and when Black Elk recovers from being sick, he then returns home to find his people dying from starvation and sickness. The messiah is introduced, and rumors are spreading that this man promises a new “better” world is coming, where all their loved-ones are alive and buffalo still roam. Historically known as the Massacre of Wounded Knee, Wasichus came into the native camp, at this time there were so few native tribes left that multiple tribes banded together and slaughter men women and children. This is when the Lakota Nation has one final battle against the U.S. Army. “Brothers, this is a very hard winter. The women and children are starving and

In the south of central Montana during 1876 on June 25th and 26th, a battle happened known as the Battle of Little Bighorn or also known as “Custer’s Last Stand”. The Native American Tribes that were involved was the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes. They were battling against the 7th regiment of the US Cavalry which was led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. In the year of 1868 Lakota leaders agreed to a treaty known as Fort Laramie Treaty which was suppose to give the Lakota leaders a large reservation for their tribes. But in accepting the treaty they also accepted giving up their nomadic lifestyles and agreed to a more stationary livelihood in the reservation. Some leaders like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse did not agree

In 1874 the US Army sent a force under Colonel Custer into South Dakota. When gold was discovered in the area, the federal government declared that all Sioux Indians not in reservations would have to be subjugated by Custer’s troops. Many Sioux refused to cooperate, and Custer began to attack. At the battle of Little Bighorn, in June 1876, Custer split his troops, and a larger force of Indians wiped out all of his men. After this defeat, the army took a different course by harassing the Sioux in attrition. Indians eventually lost the will to resist as these strategies were commonly successful against the Sioux. In the December of 1890, approximately 300 Indians were killed by US troops at Wounded Knee. This massacre was the indication to the end of Indian opposition. The Plains Indians were eventually conquered and forced into reservations.

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”).

The Black Elk realized in having the power to cure people as few other spiritual leaders could. Black Elk, being a little afraid, always influenced his friends into fighting believing and thinking always about his vision, which seemed reality to him. All his life he was getting more strength after losing someone close to him, this was a sign of the flow of powers to him from the spiritual world. Going through sorrow and despair, Indians had to stand up for themselves. Indians were proudly keeping on fighting the Wasichu, many times left with two horses and wounded.

‘Beneath Clouds’ directed by Ivan Sen and ‘Baked Beans and Burnt Toast’ written by Jacqui Larkin both explore the theme identity in the four main characters, Peter, Jacqui, Lena and Vaughn. Ivan Sen uses mise en scène, dialogue, setting and symbolism when directing to stoutly portray the identity of Lena and Vaughn. Correspondingly Jacqui Larkin scrutinizes identity primarily through dialogue, metaphors, hyperbole and imagery in order to emphasise the problems Jacqui faces with identity. Seemingly both Sen and Jacqui both explore Identity but in similar and distinctive ways to make the audience ponder about how the main characters are feeling relating to their identity throughout the film and book.

Custer’s death and defeat at Little Bighorn, led the Army to change its tactics. The troops surrounded villages of Red Cloud and Red Leaf. There, they arrested and confined the leaders, holding them responsible for failing to turn in those from hostile bands. After, the tribal leaders finally signed a new treaty giving the Black Hills to the United States (Keenan 213).

The movie, filmed in 2007, depicts the lives of the Sioux Indians as if they were not a people that mattered. In the movie, they say, “the Indians lived like the poorest of whites.” They were pushed around and told repeatedly they could not stay on their own land. This was due to the Westward Expansion in the United States at the time. By 1876, most of the American Indians had already been forcibly relocated to reservation land. Red Cloud, a Sioux leader, settled with some of his tribe on the Sioux Reservation of the Dakota Territory and took the aid of the US government. When this happened, other Sioux leaders, such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, saw it as a surrender. These leaders refused to assimilate and went on to live life in their traditional way. Unfortunately, this all changed when the US found gold on Sioux land in the Black Hills. The movie tells the story of the Sioux Indians fight to try to remain in control of their own lives and stay on their own land. Then when they no longer can, the movie shows their path to surrendering to the whites and assimilating into the American culture.

Sitting Bull interpreted the disappearance of the buffalo as something that was temporary while Plenty Coup interpreted it as the buffalo being gone forever. Despite having a more aggressive response, Sitting Bull was no less a responsible chief in a sense that his actions had the ends of preserving and strengthening his culture and his people. Though Lear did not provide much information about the Sioux, it is clear that the Sioux and the Crow underwent a very similar experience. They lost their meaning in everyday life, however Sitting Bull believed it would return.