Little Bighorn Dbq

1876-1877: The Battle of Little Bighorn

- The Indians were informed that if they did not come into the reservation by January 1, 1876, the task of forcing them to submit would be handed over to the War Department.

- On February 1, 1876, the War Department ordered the military to subdue the Sioux.

- On March 1, three expeditions were to be launched against the Sioux simultaneously, one under General Gibben, one under General Crook, and the third under General Custer.

- Custer was instructed to march southward until he struck the trail Reno had discovered and continue in that direction until he hit the head-waters of the Tongue River. If he found no Indians, he was to head northward down the valley of the Little Bighorn.

- Custer disobeyed

They believed he died heroically against murderous Indians. However, Sitting Bull reflected “I feel sorry that too many were killed on each side, but when Indians must fight, they must.”

- Eastern Americans sympathized with Custer, not Sitting Bull, and they would come to regard the fight at Little Bighorn as the height of Indian treachery. Their demand for vengeance would echo for decades.

- In April 1877, Crazy Horse, an important war chief, led a group of Oglala Sioux to the Red Cloud Agency and surrendered, however he proved to be resistive, "incorrigible wild man, silent, sullen, lordly, and dictatorial," as the Indian agent described him.

- General Crook ordered his arrest and confinement and he was taken into custody on September 5, 1877 and stabbed to death in a skirmish, but it was unclear by whom he was wounded.

- By 1878, the buffalo herds had been decimated and the Sioux tribes were forced onto agencies for rations.

- In 1879, Indian reformer Captain Richard H. Pratt opened the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. He believed removing children from their communities would eradicate their heritage and enable them to assimilate into American life. Spotted Tail, a Brule chief, had agreed to send some of his offspring to the

- Wovoka, a Paiute, began delivering a series of prophetic messages that depicted a future which would restore Native Americans to their life before the European settlers.

- Wovoka's visions were of resurrection of tribal members who had died, restoration of game animals, a flood which would destroy only the white settlers, and a time that is coming which would be free of suffering and disease.

- The Bureau of Indian Affairs saw the Ghost Dance as a barbaric ritual and set out to abolish it.

- Settlers near the Sioux reservations demanded the suppression of the religion, for they were convinced it was a prelude to war or outbreak.

- McLaughlin complained of the evil influence exercised by Sitting Bull and a few other malcontents and advised their removal from among the Indians in June of 1890.

- On December 15, Sitting Bull’s arrest was warranted. However, he was killed in a skirmish that erupted because of his attempted arrest.

- On the night of December 23, after hearing of Sitting Bull’s death, the old chief Big Foot and 350 of his Minneconjou followers slipped away from Cheyenne River Agency to head to Pine Ridge to seek refuge with their Oglala