The massacre at Wounded Knee occurred on December 29, 1890, on the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota. It was an unfair, unlawful event that
happened between the American Indians and the United States of America’s government.
There were many factors that led up to this discriminating incidence. More than three hundred
Indians were killed or greatly injured during this battle. This battle was the last between the
American Indians and the government, and therefore, it changed the history that we know
The quarrel between the Sioux Indians and the United States government had been
going on for a while before the actual clash. On December 15, 1890, the famous medicine man
named “Sitting Bull” was shot and killed while the soldiers were trying to arrest him. He was
mistakenly believed to be a Ghost Dancer, and they killed him. The 7th
by Colonel James W. Forsyth. An argument started with a deaf Sioux named Black Coyote. The
United States wanted his rifle. He refused and was killed by the army men. The Sioux Indians
got very angry and started shooting. They fought for two hours, but eventually fell short of
ammunition. Both sides went into the battle with 900 rounds of ammunition.
The Ghost Dance movement was a religious program that involved the Native
Americans. Many Indians thought that if they practiced the Ghost Dance and stopped practicing
the ways of white men, the gods would create a new world and would extinguish all non-
Indians. The Ghost Dance involved men and women who could chant, pray, and dance. The
Ghost Dance also believed that the Indians had been set to live on reservations because they
“angered the gods” by not following in their traditional customs.
Govern...
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Jan. 2014.
Works Cited
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"Who Killed Sitting Bull? The Story of His Capture and Death as Told by Ann."
Bismarck Daily Tribune [Bismarck] n.d.: n. pag. Newsbank. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
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In 1875, Custer had made a commitment to the Sioux (aka. Lakota) that he would no longer fight Native Americans. Custer's promise happened to take place as a U.S. Senate commission meeting was taking place with the Lakota in an effort to purchase the gold mining fields in the Black Hills (which Custer had discovered a year earlier). The Lakota rejected the senate’s offer in favor of sticking with the 1868 treaty that promised protection of their lands. In spite of this treaty, LTC Custer was used by the government to assist in the removal of the natives living in the Northern Plains (Fox, 1997).
The white men were never content and were constantly on a mission to find more land. Indians
On December 29, 1890, the army decided to take away all of the Sioux weapons because they weren’t sure if they could trust those indians. Some people think a deaf man did this, but one man shot his gun, while the tribe was surrendering. Studies think that he didn’t understand the Chiefs surrender. The army then opened fire at the Sioux. There was over 300 indians that died, and one of them was their chief named Bigfoot. This is an example of how we didn’t treat Native Americans fairly, because if it was a deaf man then we probably should of talked it out before we killed all those innocent
The film, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, documents the annihilation of the American Indians in the late 1800s. The film starts out in the Black Hills of the Dakotas, a land sacred to the Sioux Native Americans. The Sioux claimed the land and their population flourished due to the good resources in the area. The white people want to gain control of the land and force the natives to relocate to another area. They want the natives to assimilate and believe that this strategy will improve the nation. Senator Henry Dawes comes up with the plan to relocate the natives to several reservations, where they can learn the ways of the white people. Dawes uses an americanized native named Ohiyesa, or Charles, as proof of the success of assimilation. The Sioux are forced to assimilate in order to protect their lives.
William Henry Harrison, later to become the ninth President of the United States, was a military officer born to a political family. Joining the military at a young age he rose in its ranks under the tutelage of General “Mad” Anthony Wayne where he served as a lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp during the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The winning of this battle paved the way for the “peace” signing of the Greenville Treaty. This single treaty ceded most of present day Ohio and pushed many Algonquians from their tribal lands. In less than 15 years time, by Harrison’s efforts, 48 million acres of Native American lands would be lost by cessation. Appointed as Superintendent of the North West Indians and Indiana Territory Governor he was undoubtedly the single most powerful white in the West. Harrison, having higher ambitions then frontier...
It was a great time of despair for the Native American people as the defeat of their nations by the ever westward expanding United States and subsequent placement onto reservations disrupted their culture and way of life as it had existed for hundreds of years. The decade leading up to 1890, which was a main focal point in the history of Native Americans, saw the passing of the 1887 Dawes Severalty Act which called for the breaking up of reservations and offering the Indians an opportunity to become citizens and giving them an allotment of land to farm or graze livestock on (Murrin 628). This breaking up of the different tribes’ social structure was just one of the many causes which led to the spiritual movement known as the Ghost Dance (or Lakota Ghost Dance) that swept across what remained of the Native American people in their various reservations. Other reasons for the Indian’s dysphoria at this time in their history included: lack of hunting, decease of the buffalo, forced abandonment of their religion, nearly forced conversion to Christianity, westernization, and having to farm for the very first time.
Scientists have recently discovered links to the Kiowa and Aztec religions. For example both tribes worshiped a stone image, Taimay, and both tribes followed a pictographic calendar. The language that the Kiowa spoke can be traced back to the Uto-Aztecan language like Latin and English. The Kiowa languages also have connections to the Bannocks, Comanche’s, Paragons, Paiutes, Pima, Shoshones, and Utes. The Kiowa and Aztec preformed many dances of praise including the Sun Dance. However, the Kiowa also had many unique dances including the Scalp, Corning, Feather, and Ghost praising nature and life. Each dance was preformed to celebrate different achievements. For example, the scalp dance was preformed when men returned ...
“Little Bighorn, Battle Of The.” Encyclopedia Of The Great Plains. Pg 1. Web. 12 March. 2014.
To many the trail of tears has no meaning or relevance in their life, but for some the Trail of Tears has great meaning since many of the native ancestors endured the hardships of this time. In the 1830s, Native Americans occupied many acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida. The main reason for the Trail of Tears was because the Americans wanted the Indians’ land for themselves so they could raise their cattle, and because of the good soil so they could grow and harvest crops. Their ancestors had lived on and cultivated this land for generations, and by the end of that generation very few Native Americans remained anywhere in the Southeastern United States. Many think that The Trail of Tears was just the “Five Civilized Tribes”, but there were many other smaller tribes involved too. Some tribes agreed to sign, and others were forced into it, but either way it went they all had to leave. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation on their way to their destinations, making The Trail of Tears one of the greatest hardships in Native American history.
Nardo, Don, “The Relocation of the North American Indian”, San Diego, California, Kid Haven Press, 2002, Print.
On March 5, 1770 the dreadful day came. A mob of people went in front of the Customs Office in Boston Massachusetts and started to throw stuff and give insults at the soldiers. As a result to this so-called harassment the soldiers fired on the crowd. The first to die was a black man named Crispus Attucks. He was a native of Frainghan, Massachusetts. He escaped from slavery in 1750 and had become a sailor. Crispus Attucks is considered the first martyr of the American Independence (Mahin 1). The four others who died were Samuel gray, a rope maker; James Caldwell, a sailor; Samuel Maverick, a seventeen year old apprentice and Patrick Carr, a leather worker and Irish immigrant. All in which were unarmed and brutally murdered. The soldiers killed three, mortally wounded two others, and wounded six. How much ha...
Brooks, Rebecca B. "The Boston Massacre." History of Massachusetts. N.p., 10 Nov. 2011. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Panzeri, Peter. 1995. Little Big Horn 1876: Custer's Last Stand. 8th Ed. New York, NY: Osprey Publishing.
Salgado Jr., Ernie C. "Native American Indian Killers." The Indian Reporter. N.p., July 2009. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. .
Big Foot was the chief of a subtribe of the Lakota called Miniconjou. He was very old and had pneumonia. He was taking his tribe to the Pine Ridge Reservation in south-western South Dakota.