Trans-Mississippi West Unit:
THE CONQUEST OF THE NATIVE
AMERICANS
INTRO TO TRANS-MISSISSIPPI WEST
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Thomas Jefferson’s
Vision for America
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Jefferson envisioned a
nation of hardworking
independent farmers
“Empire for Liberty”
Land in the west served
as a form of “welfare”
for the poor
INTRO TO TRANS-MISSISSIPPI WEST
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The Concept of Manifest Destiny
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Idea that the United States was destined by
God to expand to the Pacific Ocean (and
perhaps beyond)
To bring the benefits of democracy to “more
backward peoples”
“Away, away with all these cobweb issues of
rights of discovery, exploration, settlement,
continuity, etc.… our claim to Oregon would
still be best and strongest. And that claim is
by the right of our manifest destiny to
overspread and to possess the whole of the
continent which Providence has given us.”
American Progress, 1872
INTRO TO TRANS-MISSISSIPPI WEST
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Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis- 1893
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The American Character has been shaped by
the frontier experience
 The
inventive mind
 Rugged individualism
 Combination of strength and intelligence
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Most important effect “The
frontier individualism has from the
beginning promoted democracy.”
 The frontier experience is the reason why there is a
higher level of democracy in the US than anywhere
else
 Do you agree?
U.S.- NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS
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Indian Intercourse Act of 1790
U.S. Government’s view of Native American Tribes
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“Nations within a nation”
U.S. – NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS
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Frontier line ignored by settlers
Government supports settlers with military
The “X-factor”
JEFFERSON’S NATIVE AMERICAN POLICY
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“In this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach
the Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us as
citizens or the United States, or remove beyond the Mississippi.”
“As to their fear, we presume that our strength and their weakness is
now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to
crush them, and that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives
of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be foolhardy enough to take
up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that
tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi, as the only condition
of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our
final consolidation.”
Thomas Jefferson (1803) in a private letter to Indiana Territorial
Governor William Henry Harrison
NATIVE AMERICAN RESISTANCE
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Factors that doomed Native Americans east of the
Mississippi River
TRANS-MISSISSIPPI WEST
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“The Great American Desert”
Key factors in the “collision course”
“FRIENDS OF THE INDIAN”
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Continuation of Jefferson Policy
 Tribes would live on reservations
 Bureau of Indian Affairs- guidance
 U.S. Military would provide protection
 “Civilize the savages”
 How successful was this policy?
DESTRUCTION OF THE BUFFALO
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Encouraged by RR companies
Buffalo hunted nearly to extinction in 1880s
Ruins culture of the Plains Tribes- why?
TRIBES’ DEPENDENCE ON THE BUFFALO
SAND CREEK MASSACRE- 1864
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Estimated 163 Cheyenne killed- mostly women and
children.
Bodies mutilated, draws retaliation from Cheyenne,
Arapaho and Sioux
BATTLE OF LITTLEBIGHORN-1876
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Battle stems from U.S. violation of the Ft. Laramie Treaty after
gold is discovered in the Black Hills in Dakota Territory
Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho combine to eliminate Custer’s
Army- known as “Custer’s Last Stand”
REACTIONS TO “CUSTER’S LAST STAND”
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“The Indian is undoubtedly a savage, and a savage greatly
spoiled by the kind of contact with civilization which he gets at
the West. There is generally no interest whatever in him or his
fate. But there should be some interest in our own good faith
and humanity, in the lives of our soldiers and frontier settlers,
and in the taxation to support our Indian policy. All this should
certainly be enough to arouse a public demand for a thorough
consideration of the subject, and the adoption of a system
which … would tend to spare us the constant repetition of such
sorrowful events as the slaughter of Custer and his brave men.”
“The Custer Massacre”, Harper’s Weekly Magazine, August 5,
1876
RED RIVER WAR
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Fought against Apaches- major battles fought in 1874-1875
Warrior tribe led by Geronimo
War ends in 1886 effectively ending the Indian Wars
THE NEZ PERCE
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Previously good relations with white settlers
Gold discovered on their land
Some Nez Perce agreed to a treaty
Some white settlers killed (Youths or another tribe?)
THE NEZ PERCE
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“When I think of our condition, my heart is
heavy. I see men of my own race treated as
outlaws and driven from country to country,
or shot down like animals.”
“I know that my race must change. We
cannot hold our own with the white men as
we are. We only ask an even chance to live
as other men live. We ask to be recognized
as men. We ask that the same law shall
work alike on all men. If an Indian breaks
the law, punish him by the law. If a white
man breaks the law, punish him also.”
Chief Joseph in Washington DC, 1879
ASSIMILATION OF THE TRIBES
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Reformers- “Friends of the
Indian”
Native Americans had to be
assimilated out of Native culture
 Christianized
 Individualized
 Americanized in dress, gender
roles
Helen Hunt Jackson and others
 Outraged over continuous
violation of treaties
ASSIMILATION OF THE TRIBES
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The Dawes Severalty Act
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Land distributed to individuals
Citizenship
Impact of the Dawes Act
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Successfully undermines tribal
authority
Fails to lead Native Americans on
a path to prosperity or assimilate
them into white society
THE GHOST DANCE
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Paiute Prophet Wovoka has a vision
Ghost dance spreads through the Sioux tribe
Seen by whites as a warning of tribal retribution
WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE- 1890
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300 malnourished, freezing Sioux at Wounded Knee Creek
(South Dakota)
Nearly all massacred, many survivors freeze to death
NATIVE AMERICAN RESERVATIONS TODAY
PINE RIDGE- SOUTH DAKOTA
NAVAJO RESERVATION- MONUMENT VALLEY
NATIVE AMERICAN TEAM MASCOTS
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Should they be changed?