To what extent was the expansion of American political sovereignty over the West between the years 1860-1900
genocidal?
In your response you should do the following.
• State a relevant thesis that directly addresses all parts of the question.
• Support the thesis or a relevant argument with evidence from all, or all but one, of the documents.
• Incorporate analysis of all, or all but one, of the documents into your argument.
• Focus your analysis of each document on at least one of the following: intended audience, purpose,
 historical context, and/or point of view.
• Support your argument with analysis of historical examples outside the documents.
• Connect historical phenomena relevant to your argument to broader events or processes.
• Synthesize the elements above into a persuasive essay that extends your argument, connects it to a
 different historical context, or accounts for contradictory evidence on the topic.
Document 1
“Be it enacted, That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years,
and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as
required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms against the United States
Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first of January, eighteen hundred
and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter-section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands, upon
which said person may have filed a pre-emption claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, be
subject to pre-emption at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, per acre; or eighty acres or less of such
unappropriated lands, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, to be located in a body, in conformity to the legal
subdivisions of the public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed: Provided, That any person owning
or residing on land may, under the provisions of this act, enter other land lying contiguous to his or her said land,
which shall not, with the land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the aggregate one hundred and sixty
acres.”
-The Homestead Act, May 20, 1862
Document 2
The soldiers charged the Sioux camp about noon. The soldiers were divided, one party charging right into the
camp. After driving these soldiers across the river, the Sioux charged the different soldiers [i.e., Custer's] below,
and drive them in confusion; these soldiers became foolish, many throwing away their guns and raising their
hands, saying, "Sioux, pity us; take us prisoners." The Sioux did not take a single soldier prisoner, but killed all of
them; none were left alive for even a few minutes. These different soldiers discharged their guns but little. I took
a gun and two belts off two dead soldiers; out of one belt two cartridges were gone, out of the other five.
-
An Eyewitness Account by the Lakota Chief Red Horse
Of the Battle of Little Big Horn, 1881
Document 3
An Act to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. . . .
Be it enacted, That [names of corporators]; together with five commissioners to be appointed by the Secretary of
the Interior... are hereby created and erected into a body corporate... by the name... of "The Union Pacific
Railroad Company"... ; and the said corporation is hereby authorized and empowered to lay out, locate, construct,
furnish, maintain and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph... from a point on the one hundredth meridian of
longitude west from Greenwich, between the south margin of the valley of the Republican River and the north
margin of the valley of the Platte River, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory, upon the route and terms
hereinafter provided...
Sec. 2. That the right of way through the public lands be... granted to said company for the construction of said
railroad and telegraph line; and the right... is hereby given to said company to take from the public lands adjacent
to the line of said road, earth, stone, timber, and other materials for the construction thereof; said right of way is
granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad when it may pass
over the public lands, including all necessary grounds, for stations, buildings, workshops, and depots, machine
shops, switches, side tracks, turn tables, and water stations. The United States shall extinguish as rapidly as may
be the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act...
Pacific Railway Act, July 1, 1862
Document 4
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That in all cases where any tribe or band of Indians has been, or shall hereafter be, located upon any
reservation created for their use, either by treaty stipulation or by virtue of an act of Congress or executive order
setting apart the same for their use, the President of the United States be, …… to allot the lands in said
reservation in severalty to any Indian located thereon in quantities as follows: To each head of a family, onequarter of a section; To each single person over eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; To each orphan
child under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section....”
-An Act to Provide for the Allotment of Lands in Severalty
to Indians on the Various Reservations
(General Allotment Act or Dawes Act), 1887.
Document 5
“If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian....we can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all
men alike.... give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. You might as well expect
the rivers to run backward as that any man who is born a free man should be contented when penned up and
denied liberty to go where he pleases. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be
recognized as men. Let me be a free man.... free to travel.... free to stop....free to work...free to choose my own
teachers.... free to follow the religion of my Fathers.... free to think and talk and act for myself.”
-Chief Joseph, Nez Perce, 1887.
Harper's Weekly
DOCUMENT 6
“With a few exceptions all live in frame houses, all wear citizens' clothes, most them speak English, nearly all
between ten and twenty-five years of age can read and write. In their habits they are reasonably industrious,
sober, peaceable, and in the main, moral. The old-fashioned customs are dying out among them gradually. A great
many of the old ones still hold to their ideas of superstition and their Indian doctors, but while they patronize
their doctors they don't seem to have much confidence in them beyond their supposed services to the sick, and
even then they do not entirely ignore the white physician. In their recreations the customs of civilization
predominate, they are good-natured, fond of joking and of music, and in favor of education…. The educational
facilities of this agency consist of one boarding-school for boys and girls capable of accommodating comfortably
65 scholars. School was taught continuously from September 19 to June 30, with an average attendance of about
52 scholars. More could have been procured, but they were not considered desirable on account of health or
morals, my idea being that it were better to have fewer in number and better in discipline and health; and, in
consequence, better advancement was made in studies both educational and industrial than had been made the
year previous.”
- Report of the Secretary of the Interior; Being Part of the
Message and Documents Communicated to Congress
“Condition of the Indians, Habits, etc.,” August, 1888
Document 7
A Kiowa ledger drawing possibly depicting the Buffalo Wallow battle in 1874,
one of several clashes between Southern Plains Indians and the U.S. Army during the Red River War
Document 8
“The Indian School is under the jurisdiction of the superintendent of the Reservation. The Government farmer,
who is a member of the tribe, is the sole representative of the Indian Office at this place. Practically all that he has
to do is give out aid to several old, dependent Indians. The best of order prevails here, so that no supervision is
needed. If the rank and file of the population are considered, this is the most thoroughly civilized Indian
jurisdiction I ever have visited. Its one need is proper medical attention, and I would suggest that the Indian Office
make an arrangement for a contract physician for this place.”
-Ketcham to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, June 1918
Document 9
The men were separated, as has already been said, from the women, and they were surrounded by the soldiers.
Then came next the village of the Indians and that was entirely surrounded by the soldiers also. When the firing
began, of course the people who were standing immediately around the young man who fired the first shot were
killed right together, and then they turned their guns, Hotchkill guns, etc., upon the women who were in the
lodges standing there under a flag of truce, and of course as soon as they were fired upon they fled, the men
fleeing in one direction and the women running in two different directions. So that there were three general
directions in which they took flight.
There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce, and the
women and children of course were strewn all along the circular village until they were dispatched. Right near the
flag of truce a mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still
nursing, and that especially was a very sad sight. The women as they were fleeing with their babes were killed
together, shot right through, and the women who were very heavy with child were also killed. All the Indians fled
in these three directions, and after most all of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not
killed wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys who were not wounded came out of their
places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them
there.
Of course we all feel very sad about this affair. I stood very loyal to the government all through those troublesome
days, and believing so much in the government and being so loyal to it, my disappointment was very strong, and I
have come to Washington with a very great blame on my heart. Of course it would have been all right if only the
men were killed; we would feel almost grateful for it. But the fact of the killing of the women, and more especially
the killing of the young boys and girls who are to go to make up the future strength of the Indian people, is the
saddest part of the whole affair and we feel it very sorely.
-Lakota Accounts of the Massacre at Wounded Knee,
End of Documents