Why The Indians In Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

If we both remember correctly the Indians weren’t treated equally. The Indians in Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee were starving for several days and different tribes would come in and destroy everything they had. When problems came up like this the government wouldn’t even help me out. They had struggled with a lot of other problems to. The land promised to the Native Americans was stolen under false treaties resulting in thousands of casualties.
The first issue was when the Cheyennes had found out that the that soldiers are building a fort in the Powder River Country. A Cheyenne warrior tried to warn some Arapahos of coming soldiers, but they do not believe him, and their village is destroyed by one military column. A group of Sioux chase the half-starved, frozen soldiers of two other military columns and attempt to beat them in battle but overpowered. “Finally the chiefs agreed to accept a full wagon load of flour, sugar, coffee, and tobacco in exchange for granting permission for the train to over to Powder Ridge. “The officer told me,” George Bent later said, “to hold the Indians back away from the train and he would unload the goods on the ground. The wagonload of goods had already been divided by the first party of
Indians, so these newcomers demanded more goods, and when the officer refused they began firing on the coral” (page108). I think the government should have stopped the soldiers from destroying their villages. The Araphos try so hard to stay safe and stay sheltered. When they destroyed the villages, they no longer have anything left. The government should have stepped in when they made the Indians back away from the train. They should've gotten more goods than what they had received. Everything should be equal then there wouldn’t be a fight. Red Cloud finds out that the peace treaty he signed included items he did not know about. Donehogawa, an educated Native American, is Commissioner of Indian Affairs at the time. He invites Red Cloud and several other Sioux to state their case to President Grant in Washington, D.C. is successful, but Donehogawa loses his influence due to political pressure and resigns. “The Commissioner of Indians Affairs did not learn about it until three months later. A young Army officer, Lieutenant William B. Pease acting agent for the Blackfeet, jeopardized his career in submitting the facts to the commissioner. Using the pretext of the theft of a few mules from a wagon freighter, Major Baker had organized his winter expedition and attacked the first camp in his line of March” (page178).
The government should have sat all of the Indians down together so they could all understand the treaty. The Indians didn’t know what they were signing. If the government would have sat them all down together then they could have explained it to them and the Indians could have discussed the treaty. The Kiowas are forced to go to a reservation.
They resolve to leave the reservation to fight the white hunters who are destroying the buffalo but are overpowered. Some tribes choose to go back to the reservation, while others hunt buffalo at Palo Duro Canyon, the last remaining range. The Army destroys their village and forces the Kiowas to surrender. “This was how by guile and treachery most of the Kiowas were forced to give up their freedom. For the Comanches there was something ironic in the government’s forcing them to turn away from buffalo hunting to farming. The Comanches had developed an agricultural economy in Texas, but the white men had come there and seized their farmlands, forcing them to hunt buffalo in order to survive” (page
244) The government should have told the Indians that they are allowed to stay on their own reservation. It’s not for the Indians to have to move somewhere else. Manipulated by deceptive treaties, the Santee Sioux surrender most of their land for money and provisions they mostly do not receive. Little Crow does not want to fight the military might of the United States but has no choice when some of his men kill white settlers. The Santees are ultimately overpowered by the Army and by a Santee traitor.
“The money did not arrive, and there were rumors that the Great Council (Congress) in Washington had expended all their gold fighting the Great Civil War and could not send any money to the Indians. If they could drive the soldiers from the valley, then all white settlers would go away. The Santees could gain nothing by killing a few white people at New Ulm” (page 39).
I think the government should have let them receive their money and goods. If they are suppose to get the money and goods then they should get them. White settlers ignore a treaty and begin settling on Native American territory. After Cheyennes and Arapahos meet with the Colorado governor to try to maintain peace, many Cheyennes are mutilated or massacred in their Sand Creek village. The Cheyennes split, some going north to join the Northern Cheyennes and the Tetox Sioux in Powder River Country, while others go south, below the Arkansas River, where they coerced into signing away their land in Colorado. “In 1851 the Cheyennes, Arapahos, Sioux, Crows, and other tribes met at Fort Laramie with representatives of the United States and agrees to permit the Americans to establish roads and military posts across their territory. Both parties to the treaty swore “to maintain good faith and friendship in all mutual intercourse, and to make effective and lasting peace” (page 68). The government should have made it clear that they should keep peace and stay instead of starting a big war with the tribes. The government have should of went to all of the meetings that they had with each other so they could make sure things were clear. Also that they were clear with each other. The government in this book seemed very lazy and seemed like they didn’t really care about the Indians that much. There were many times that the government should have stepped in and helped them. When the government did step in, they would step in during the smaller problems instead of the bigger problems.