How Did American Indians Change The Life Of Native Americans?

American Indians have been around for more than 15,000 years. Although Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, there were already people living in what is now called the United States. During the 1800s, American Indians had to deal with all the immigrants from Europe “invading their land”. The Native Americans tried to resist relocation due to the Westward Expansion, but because of reduced population through disease and warfare and assimilation with the immigrants, they didn’t have much of a choice. In 1598 the Spanish brought over horses and that changed the life of American Indians. In the mid-1700’s, almost all of the tribes moved out to the plains to hunt buffalo. Horses made travel and hunting much easier for them. Native Americans used buffalo hide for making tepees, clothing, shoes, and blankets. Unlike the immigrants, the American Indian people believed that land was something that could not be owned. Tatanka Lyotanka, also known as Sitting Bull, led the Sioux tribe by strength and purpose. Lieutenant General George Armstrong Custer found gold on the Sioux reservation in the Dakotas. Chief Sitting Bull refused to sell his land to Custer and instead convinced Chief Crazy Horse to fight. On June 25, 1876, Custer and a few hundred of his men
fought against thousands of Sioux and Cheyenne in the Battle of Little Bighorn. Custer and all his men were beaten, they won the fight, but did not win the war. After the fight, the US government stepped up their military action, and the following year, Chief Crazy Horse surrendered. Although Sitting Bull fled to Canada, in 1881, he surrendered and was sent to a reservation where he was later killed by reservation police. After the Battle of Little Bighorn, more tribes were encouraged to resist the forced relocation to reservations. In 1877, Chief Joseph attempted to lead the Nez Percé from present-day Oregon to Canada, rather than go to their given reservation in Idaho. After the US army threatened to attack, Chief Joseph and the Nez Percé backed down. Before Chief Joseph’s dad died, he told his son, “Step your ears whenever you are asked to sign a treaty selling your home.” November 29, 1864, 150 Arapaho and Cheyanne women and children were killed at the massacre of Sand Creek. Because the Sioux tribe suffered from poverty and disease, they performed a tradition called the Ghost Dance so that the lands and way of life would be restored. Sitting Bull was killed because of the Ghost Dance. On December 28, 1890, the seventh cavalry (Custar’s old regiment) rounded up 350 starving and freezing Sioux and brought them to Wounded Knee creek in South Dakota. The next day, they forced the Native Americans to give up all their weapons so they would not be armed. A single shot was fired, it was unclear from which side the shot was fired, but the soldiers opened fire with a deadly canon killing more than 300 unarmed American Indians. The seventh cavalry left them all to freeze on the ground. Some Native Americans assimilated to the advancing white culture.
In the early 1800’s more than 65 million buffalo roamed in America. By 1890, less than 1000 buffalo were left due to settlers and tourists shooting and hunting them for sport. In 1887, the congress passed the Dawes General Allotment Act splitting Native American land into allotments, destroying the Native American culture of communal property. The government took the “leftover” land and sold it to the American Settlers. The government also took away children from their families and sent them schools like the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania to “Americanize” them. By 1932, settlers had taken over 2/3 of land that was set aside for Native
Americans. Americans were not the nicest people when it came to Native Americans. They did not want to respect their way of life and all they wanted to do was take their land for themselves. The Native Americans tried to resist relocation due to the Westward Expansion, but because of reduced population through disease and warfare and assimilation with the settlers, they didn’t have much of a choice.