Changes in the ways of life of Indigenous peoples of the Plains Flashcards

All 8 cards in this deck

Give two ways the railroads changed the lives of Indigenous peoples of the Plains.

They lost land along the routes, with many tribes signing treaties to live on reservations; and hunting grounds were disrupted as buffalo were fenced off and shot from the trains for sport and hides.

What happened after gold was found in the Black Hills in 1874?

Prospectors poured onto Sioux land, breaking the second Fort Laramie Treaty; the government tried to buy the Black Hills and the Sioux refused.

What did the second Fort Laramie Treaty (1868) create?

The Great Sioux Reservation in Dakota, including the Black Hills, for the exclusive use of the Sioux, with white settlers and prospectors barred from it.

True or false? All Sioux leaders accepted the second Fort Laramie Treaty (1868).

False. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse refused to agree to it or live on the reservation, sowing the seeds of future conflict.

What was the aim of the US government's reservation policy towards Indigenous peoples?

To confine them to fixed areas away from their traditional lands, 'civilise' them by making them farm, and leave them dependent on government supplies and easier to control.

What was Little Crow's War (1862)?

A rising by the Dakota Sioux in Minnesota: starving after crops failed and promised government payments did not arrive, Little Crow attacked the reservation agency and settlers before being defeated by the US army.

What happened at the Sand Creek Massacre (1864)?

Colonel Chivington led a dawn raid on Black Kettle's Cheyenne camp, which believed it was under US army protection, massacring about 150 men, women and children.

What was the significance of Red Cloud's War (1866–68)?

Red Cloud's Sioux forced the US government to close the Bozeman Trail and withdraw troops from its forts, leading to the second Fort Laramie Treaty (1868).