Native Americans
Way of Life
Most Native Americans' main resources came from the buffalo. The Native Americans depended strongly on the buffalo because they used all of the buffalos parts for their basic needs such as food, shelter, and clothing. The Native Americans hunted the buffalo and migrated with them as the seasons changed similar to the nomadic way of life since they never settled down in one place for a long time but moved as their resources moved. Native Americans used to travel by foot but when Spanish explorers brought horses into America it made the Native Americans' hunting and traveling much easier.
Native American Tribes
There were many Native American tribes in the Great Plains which stretched from Canada to Texas. The main tribes were the Apache and Comanche (Texas and Oklahoma), Cheyenne and Arapaho (Central Plains), Pawnee (Nebraska), Sioux (Northern Plains). Plain Indians depended on the horse and buffalo for survival.
Changes to the West/Treaties
Changes came to the Plains Indians when miners and settlers began crossing the Plains in the mid-1800s. The United States government made treaties with the tribes which excepted Indian claims to much of the Great Plains but also allowed Americans to build forts and roads and travel across Indian homelands. The United States also promised to repare any damage done to the Native Americans' homeland but they did not keep their promise. With the gold rush miners clashed with the Native Americans as they were traveling through their land. This caused the United States government to issue new treaties which created reservations, areas of land set aside for Native Americans where they were expected to stay which made hunting buffalo next to impossible for the Indians. When the miners and pioneers continued to cross the Plains the U.S. built forts on the side of the roads to protect them.
Key People/Leaders and Battles/Treaties
Crazy Horse and Red Cloud where Sioux chiefs who fought the U.S. Army because their trails led through their hunting grounds. The Western army was led by William Tecumseh Sherman who threatened to exterminate the Sioux. At the same time the U.S. government was making Southern Indians move off their lands.In the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge most Indians agreed to move onto reservations but many did not want to give up their hunting grounds and fighting broke out betwen the Comanche and combined forces of the Texans and U.S. Army. The Comanche's access and in 1875 Quanah Parker, the last Comanche leader surrendered. In the Northern Plains Colonel George Armstrong Custer's soldiers found gold in the Dakota territory and the U.S. government insisted the Sioux Indians sell the reservation land in the Black Hills. Sitting Bull protested against it and other Sioux leaders followed him and refused to give up their land. Fighting soon broke out between the U.S. Army and the Sioux which resulted in the U.S. Army's greatest defeat at the Battle of Little Big Horn also known as Custer's Last Stand where 264 U.S. soldiers were killed by Sioux forces led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse was captured and died in prison while Sitting Bull fled to Canada. Wovoka a Paiute Indian started a religious movement know as the Ghost Dance which predicted the arrival of a time of paradise for Native Americans with plentiful buffalo herds and no pioneers. U.S. officials feared the Ghost Dance would lead to a Sioux uprising. This led to the arrest and killig of Sitting Bull in 1890. Later at Wounded Knee Creek 150 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops known as the Massacre at Wounded Knee which was the last major event of years of war on the Great Plains.