What Teachers Need to Know - Core Knowledge Foundation · 2017-09-15 · lesson is on generalizations that apply to large numbers of peo ples and nations within a culture region

III. Native Americans: Cultures and Conflicts

300 Grade 5 Handbook

At a GlanceThe most important ideas for you are:

◗ Over time, the native people of the Great Basin, Plateau, and Plains cul-ture regions had developed cultures that were adapted to the environ-ment and shared similar cultural traits and characteristics.

◗ The coming of European Americans changed the way of life of theNative Americans.

◗ The federal government established the Bureau of Indian Affairs in1824 to “safeguard” the well-being of Native Americans.

◗ From the 1860s to 1934, the Bureau of Indian Affairs forced NativeAmericans onto reservations, broke up tribal holdings, and attemptedto impose a policy of assimilation.

◗ Between the 1850s and 1890, the army, settlers, miners, and ranchersfought a series of battles with the Native Americans that became knownas the Plains Wars.

What Teachers Need to KnowBackground

Anthropologists have categorized Native American peoples into cultureregions in order to study and understand them. A culture region is a geograph-ic area in which different groups have adapted to their physical surroundingsin similar ways, and share similar cultural traits and characteristics, such aslanguage, beliefs, customs, laws, dress, and housing. However, even within cul-ture regions, groups still retain certain individual group characteristics. Forthe purpose of presenting information to your students, the diversity of thegroups within areas is not discussed. For the most part, the emphasis in thislesson is on generalizations that apply to large numbers of peoples and nationswithin a culture region. In what is today the United States, there are eightNative American culture regions, namely, Eastern Woodlands, Southeast,Plains, Great Basin, Plateau, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and California.

This section deals with some of the Native Americans west of theMississippi—the Great Basin, Plateau, Northern and Southern Plains, andPacific Northwest. These were the Native Americans whose lands stood in theway of European Americans on their mission to extend the United States fromsea to sea.

At the points in history that are discussed here, native-born citizens andimmigrants alike believed that Native Americans stood in the way of progress.They believed that these people, who lived in buffalo-hide tents instead ofwooden or brick houses and who wore animal skins instead of cotton clothes,did not understand the value of the land or of hard work and were keepingenterprising Americans from actualizing that value. Today, many people feelthat the United States’ treatment of the native peoples was unfair and unjust.

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Cross-curricular

Teaching Idea

You may wish to introduce students toMorning Star and Scarface: the SunDance (a Plains legend, also knownas “The Legend of Scarface”) as wellas some Native American tricksterstories as discussed in the LanguageArts section, “Myths and Legends,”on pp. 70–71. 27 28 29 30

History and Geography: American 301

It is important in teaching this unit to try to help students see how the pursuitof “manifest destiny” studied in earlier sections of the curriculum looked verydifferent to the native peoples who were driven from their ancestral lands.

A. Culture and LifeThere is no definitive way to know how many people were living in the

Americas when Columbus first landed in the Caribbean. Various recent studiessuggest that some 5,000,000 lived in what is today the contiguous United Statesand another 2,000,000 in Canada and Alaska. According to the 2000 UnitedStates Census, there were about 3,000,000 Native Americans living in the UnitedStates. Today, they live mostly in Oklahoma, California, Arizona, New Mexico,and Alaska.

BeliefsAccording to Alvin M. Josephy,

“The life of almost all Indian societies was colored by a deep faith insupernatural forces that were believed to link human beings to all otherliving things. . . . [E]ach manifestation of nature had its own spirit withwhich the individual could establish supernatural contact.”

Along with these beliefs was the sense that there was a balance, or harmony,in nature that people should respect. Disturbing this balance resulted in sickness,pain, and death.

Common to many Native American cultures are the hero and the trickster.These characters are the subjects of stories passed down orally from generation togeneration, even to the present day. One character is the hero, who was responsi-ble for teaching the people their way of life. The other is the trickster, often in theform of Coyote, who gets himself into all sorts of trouble.

LifestylesStudents may have a stereotypical view of Native Americans as mounted buf-

falo hunters. However, only the Plains Native Americans and those from the Basinand Plateau areas, who acquired horses and moved onto the Plains to hunt buffa-lo, fit this description. Archaeologists have found evidence of prehistoric horsesin North America, but the horses may have died out thousands of years ago forthe same reason that mastodons died out. They were hunted to extinction, as theywere a source of food, clothing, tools, etc., to early inhabitants of the continent.

Horses reappeared in the 1500s with the Spanish, who brought herds withthem from Spain. As the Spanish moved across Mexico and north of the RioGrande to found colonies, they went on horseback. By the 1600s, NativeAmericans were raiding Spanish settlements for horses, which they traded toother groups in a wide network. By the early 1700s, horses had reached NativeAmericans in the Plateau and Great Basin areas and greatly changed their ways oflife. For example, the Shoshone (Sacagawea’s people) moved into the Plains andbecame buffalo hunters rather than farmers. The Nez Perce turned from fishingand hunting to raising horses and trading them to hunting peoples. On the Plains,some groups that had been farmers, such as the Teton Sioux, turned to hunting




for their main source of food. The horse, which didn’t become widespread on thePlains until the early- to mid-18th century, made it possible for a number of tribesliving as agriculturalists along the rivers and fringes of the Plains to venture outonto the Plains following the bison herds.

Culture Areas

Great Basin• Intermountain lowlands (from Rocky Mountains to Sierra Nevada, across

Utah and Nevada and parts of Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, California, andWyoming); very dry and rocky with desert in places

• Hunting small game

• Gathering seeds, nuts, plants, and roots

• Seminomadic groups that traveled on a regular cycle from lower lands tohigher elevations in search of food

• Wickiups, cone-shaped houses made of poles covered with brush, bark, orgrass mats

• Animal skins for clothes Sandals made of plant fibersBasketry hats for women

• Believed in what dreams told people

• ShoshoneAcquired horsesMoved into Plains to hunt buffalo from horsebackTook on traits of Plains peoples, such as using buffalo skins for clothingToday, some 12,000 live on reservations

• UteAcquired horsesMoved into Plains to hunt buffalo from horsebackToday, some 7,000 live on reservations and farm or raise cattle

Plateau• Plateau of the Columbia and Fraser river basins in the area between the

Rocky and Cascade Mountains (including Canada); changes of seasonwith accompanying rain and snow; full rivers and lush forests

• Fishing, especially salmon, as major food sourceGathering of plants and berriesHunting game

• In winter, round houses covered with earth In summer, poles tied together and covered with bark or reeds

• Clothing made of animal skins Wove mats and baskets from grass

• Believed that each person could acquire a guardian spirit for life, whichcould be the spirit of an animal, a force of nature, such as the wind, or athing, such as rock

Use Instructional Master 37.

Fill in each blank with the correct term from the list below.

Native American Culture Review

Master 37 Grade 5: History & Geography

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Purpose: To review concepts and vocabulary relating to Native Americans

1. Another name for Sioux is .

2. A is designed to represent spirit beings of the Northwest.

3. The Ghost Dance is an example of a .

4. One of the Native American culture regions is the .

5. The current view is that policies toward Native Americans were

.

6. An armed conflict occurred at Wounded .

7. A is a cone-shaped structure used as a home.

8. Many were massacred at Sand Creek.

9. A totem pole is made by wood.

10. The lived in the Great Basin region.

11. About 80 percent of the died during a smallpox outbreak.

12. was an important resource for many Native Americans.Buffalo

Chinook

Ute

carving

Cheyenne

tipi

Knee

unjust

Plateau

ceremony

totem pole

Dakota

Plateau Ute totem pole Dakota ceremony Chinook

carving tipi buffalo Cheyenne unjust knee


• Nez PerceAcquired horses in the 1700s and developed large herds; bred AppaloosasTurned from fishing for their main food source to hunting buffalo on thePlains on horsebackContinued to live in the Plateau but traveled to the Plains to huntLost much of their land in the 1800sToday are farmers on an Idaho reservation

Plains• From Canada to central Texas and from the Rocky Mountains to the

Mississippi River; all changes of season with heavy to moderate precipita-tion

• Hunting buffalo and small game along with plant gathering on southernPlainsAlso seminomadic agriculture among some groups on northern Plains:farming corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers part of the year and huntingpart of the year

• Tipi: cone-shaped structure made of poles and covered with buffalo hides

• Clothing made of animal skins, moccasins

• Vision quest in which a young man or woman fasted alone away from thevillage in the hope of dreaming of a spirit who would guard him or her forlife

• BlackfeetDyed their moccasins black, hence the name Relied on the buffalo for their way of lifeMany deaths from smallpox, lack of food when buffalo died out, actionsof whitesToday, some 10,000 live as farmers and ranchers on reservations

• CrowAllied with white soldiers in Plains Indian Wars of 1800s (frequentlyfought the Sioux) Scouts for General Custer at the Battle of Little BighornToday, around 5,000 on a reservation in Montana

• Sioux: three branches known as Dakota (Santee Sioux), Lakota (TetonSioux), and Nakota (Yankton Sioux) Allies of the British in the American Revolution and War of 1812Fought as allies of Cheyenne at Little BighornMassacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee in 1890, end of Native Americanresistance Treaty giving Sioux the Black Hills ignored when gold found56-year court case (1923–1979) awards Sioux $105 million for Black Hills

• CheyenneOnce friendly toward whitesFought white encroachment on lands and massacre of Cheyenne at SandCreekWith Sioux, massacred General Custer and his soldiers at Little Bighorn Today, more than 7,000 on reservations


Teaching Idea

Once students have studied theNative American groups, have themresearch any Native American tribeor other culture group that once livedin your area of the country. Have stu-dents compare the experiences of thegroup with that of the groups studiedin Grade 5 by creating a Venn dia-gram or a chart.

Teaching Idea

Plains native peoples, like most otherNative Americans, did not have awritten language. They sometimesused pictures, or pictographs, torecord their stories. Warriors hadtheir exploits painted on their tipicovers or on buffalo robes.

Give students sheets of brownconstruction paper and crayons ormarkers. Invite them to create theirown pictograph histories of someplace they’ve been or somethingthey’ve done. Students should firstfold their sheet of construction paperinto the shape of a tipi and markwhere the overlap falls so that theydon’t draw and paint on the part thatwill not show.

Once students have made theirdrawings, they can form the paperinto the shape of a tipi and staple ortape it to hold.


III. Native Americans: Culturesand Conflicts


Teaching Idea

Use Instructional Masters 38a–38d,Native American Culture Regions,when discussing this topic.

Cross-curricular

Teaching Idea

Have students do research online andin print to find out more about the vari-ous native peoples of the regions stud-ied in this section, namely, the Plateau,Great Basin, and Plains.

Student reports could take the formof oral presentations, written papers, orart or music projects. Encourage stu-dents doing oral and written reports toillustrate them with copies of photos orartwork.

After the reports and projects havebeen completed, discuss with studentsthe great variety and great commonali-ties among the groups in each cultureregion.

• ArapahoFought white encroachment and joined with Cheyenne to avenge SandCreekToday, some 5,000 on reservations as farmers

Pacific Northwest • Narrow strip of coast in what is today the United States and Canada from

Prince William Sound to northern California; area with high annual rain-fall and lush forests

• Fishing: salmon, halibut, shellfish, codHunting whalesHunting gameGathering berries

• Rectangular houses made of wooden planks

• Clothing generally of shredded cedar barkIn cold weather, animal skin robesWoven cone-shaped hats with wide brims to protect against rain

• Spirit beings of the animal world: eagle, beaver, raven, bear, whaleUse the spirit beings as design motifs in their carvings, especially intotem poles and masksDeveloped a hierarchical society in which social status was important;the potlatch confirmed one’s rank in that social structurePracticed the potlatch ceremony, in which a wealthy member of thecommunity gave away all his belongings to show how wealthy andimportant he was

• KwakiutlNoted for their fine carving of animals in wood, slate, and shellAbout 15,000 when whites arrivedOnly a few thousand fishermen and farmers today

• ChinookFlattened children’s foreheads to show social rankAbout 80 percent died during an outbreak of smallpox in 1829

• YakimaOriginally lived on rivers in the Pacific Northwest and were primarilysalmon fishersToday, about 7,500 live on the Yakima Reservation and earn a livingthrough forestry

Plains Native Americans and Extermination of theBuffaloThe coming of the railroad and the influx of Easterners and European immi-

grants onto the Plains in the latter half of the 1800s changed the way of life ofPlains Native Americans forever. Up until the 1860s, the northern and southernPlains had few European-American settlers. But the Homestead Act of 1862encouraged settlement by giving 160 acres of land to any citizen or immigrantwilling to live on and cultivate the land for five years and pay a modest process-ing fee. That land was home to Plains Native Americans, whose way of lifedepended on hunting buffalo.

Use Instructional Masters 38a–38d.


Before the arrival of the white settlers, buffalo were plentiful on the GreatPlains. Native Americans killed buffalo, but not in such numbers that the animalswere endangered. The Native Americans generally used every part of the animal.They ate the meat for food and turned the skins into teepees, clothing, and stor-age vessels. Bones were used as utensils and tools. Muscle and sinew were usedfor sewing pieces of hide together. When the European-American settlers arrived,Native American hunters provided them with buffalo hides in exchange for man-ufactured goods. Later, European-American hunters killed buffalo themselves tofeed the construction crews that built the transcontinental railroads across theplains and to supply hides to tanneries to be made into leather goods. Much ofthe killing was done between 1870 and 1883, and by 1890 less than a thousandbuffalo remained. Some hunters also killed for sport, shooting buffalo from trains.Some scholars estimate that as many as 15 million buffalo were killed during the1800s. By the turn of the twentieth century, the buffalo were gone in many placesand the animal had become an endangered species. It is thought that there wereonly 34 buffalo left on the northern Plains. The combination of the land-takingand the extinction of the buffalo brought major changes to the lives of the NativeAmericans.

B. American Government Policies

Bureau of Indian AffairsThe Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was set up in 1824 by the United States

Government within the War Department and transferred to the newly createdDepartment of the Interior in 1849. The BIA’s avowed purpose was to safeguardthe welfare of Native Americans. However, in practice, the BIA implemented poli-cies to remove Native Americans to reservations and to promote native accommo-dation and assimilation into European culture, which often meant destroyingNative American culture and values. During the 1800s, there was a westernEuropean tradition of imposing Christianity and middle class morals and valueson native peoples worldwide. This tradition was also practiced in the UnitedStates.

Forced Removal to ReservationsIn 1871, the federal government passed the Indian Appropriation Act. Under

the provisions of the law, the United States government withdrew recognition ofseparate Native American peoples as sovereign nations and stated that it wouldno longer enter into treaties with any Native American group. Treaties that werein force would be honored. That, however, proved to be a hollow promise when-ever gold or silver was found on Native American lands or when American set-tlers wanted more land. (Native Americans were not granted U.S. citizenshipuntil 1924.)

The Plains Native Americans were forced onto reservations. Although theywere hunters, not farmers, the federal government tried to turn them into farm-ers. Not only did they not know how to farm, the reservations they were forcedto live on were often not particularly suited to farming.

The BIA’s purpose was to oversee the reservations and provide food, clothing,and other necessities to the Native Americans. However, greed and corruption


Teaching Idea

The decimation of the buffalo popula-tion during the 19th century is a sadchapter in American history.However, students may be pleased toknow that the buffalo has recentlymade a comeback. You can finddetails on the web.

Teaching Idea

The BIA’s title was changed to theIndian Service and still remains anagency of the Interior Department.Have students do research on theInternet and in newspapers and newsmagazines to find out what the IndianService manages today.

buffalo hide




Teaching Idea

The history of the treatment of NativeAmericans by the United States may bedisturbing to students. Explore it in thecontext of earlier European attitudestoward Native Americans and Africans.Consider also the concept of manifestdestiny if the class has studied SectionI of American History and Geographyfor Grade 5. It is important that studentsbe able to see how westward expan-sion must have looked to native peo-ples as well as white settlers.

often guided the actions of government agents in the BIA and the NativeAmericans saw little of the aid that was meant to sustain them in their new lives.

Attempts to Break Down Tribal LifeCorruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs became so widespread that by the

1880s the protests of Native Americans and their supporters could no longer beignored. In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act, which broke up the land hold-ings on the reservations. The land was divided into parcels of 160 acres, and eachhead of a household received a parcel. Any land that was not disposed of in thisway could be sold to non-Native Americans. Native American families had tohold the land for 25 years, at which time they could sell it. Many did sell theirland, and then had nothing to live on when the money was gone. By 1932, 96 mil-lion acres of the 138 million acres set aside for Native Americans in 1887 nolonger belonged to them.

One of the reasons that advocates believed the reservations should be brokenup was because they believed that the “communal life” of Native Americans—thatis, living in and sharing with a large extended group—kept individuals fromdeveloping a sense of ambition and becoming more like white Americans. Inbreaking up the reservations, reformers believed they were trying to encouragepersonal initiative. As part of the Dawes Act, federal funds were to be used foreducating and training Native Americans and encouraging them to adopt thehabits of what western Europeans and white Americans considered “civilizedlife.” These included owning land, settling in one place as opposed to movingaround on a seasonal basis, farming or doing other kinds of modern labor, wear-ing European-style clothing, speaking English, learning to read and write, andaccepting the Christian religion. The Dawes Act also made considerable quanti-ties of land available in the West. The goal was to assimilate the Native Americansto the American way of life, in much the same way immigrants were assimilated.

Indian SchoolsWell-meaning Americans set up schools to “civilize” and assimilate Native

Americans. This experiment had been tried even in the colonial era. BenjaminFranklin recorded the results of one such attempt in which it was proposed tosend several Native Americans to the College of William and Mary in Virginia inthe 1740s. A chief wrote back to refuse the white man’s offer:

We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in thoseColleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men, while with you,would be very expensive to you. We are convinced, that you mean to dous Good by your Proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who arewise must therefore not take it amiss, if our Ideas of this kind ofEducation happen not to be the same as yours. We have had someExperience of it. Several of our young People were formerly brought upat the Colleges of the Northern Provinces: they were instructed in allyour Sciences; but, when they came back to us, they were bad Runners,ignorant of every means of living in the woods. . . neither fit for Hunters,Warriors, nor Counselors, they were totally good for nothing.

We are, however, not the less oblig’d by your kind Offer, tho’ wedecline accepting it; and, to show our grateful sense of it, if the Gentlemen


of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take Care of theirEducation, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them.

After the Indian Wars in the West, similar efforts were made to educate youngNative Americans for success in American society. The Carlisle Indian School inCarlisle, Pennsylvania, was one of 106 day and boarding schools for young NativeAmericans run by the federal government. Carlisle was founded by CaptainRichard C. Pratt, who had fought in the Indian Wars and led a group of buffalosoldiers. Pratt’s approach to educating Native Americans was summarized in awell-known phrase: “kill the Indian and save the man.” That is, he wanted to killoff the “Indian” ways of thinking and living in order to create men and womenwho he believed could prosper in American society. Pratt explained his philoso-phy as follows:

The Indians under our care remained savage, because forced backupon themselves and away from association with English-speaking andcivilized people, and because of our savage example and treatment of them. . . .

We have never made any attempt to civilize them with the idea oftaking them into the nation, and all of our policies have been against cit-izenizing and absorbing them.

. . .We invite the Germans to come into our country and communi-ties, and share our customs, our civilization, to be of it; and the result isimmediate success. Why not try it on the Indians? Why not invite theminto experiences in our communities? . . . .

It is a great mistake to think that the Indian is born an inevitable sav-age. He is born a blank, like all the rest of us. Left in the surroundings ofsavagery, he grows to possess a savage language, superstition, and life.We, left in the surroundings of civilization, grow to possess a civilizedlanguage, life, and purpose. Transfer the infant white to the savage sur-roundings, he will grow to possess a savage language, superstition, andhabit. Transfer the savage-born infant to the surroundings of civilization,and he will grow to possess a civilized language and habit. . . .

As we have taken into our national family seven millions of Negroes,and as we receive foreigners at the rate of more than five hundred thou-sand a year, and assimilate them, it would seem that the time may havearrived when we can very properly make at least the attempt to assimi-late our two hundred and fifty thousand Indians . . .

The school at Carlisle is an attempt on the part of the government todo this. . . . Carlisle fills young Indians with the spirit of loyalty to thestars and stripes, and then moves them out into our communities toshow by their conduct and ability that the Indian is no different from thewhite or the colored, that he has the inalienable right to liberty andopportunity that the white and the negro have. Carlisle does not dictateto him what line of life he should fill, so it is an honest one. It says to him that, if he gets his living by the sweat of his brow, and demon-strates to the nation that he is a man, he does more good for his race than hundreds of his fellows who cling to their tribal communistic surroundings. . . .


Use Instructional Master 39.

Study the map. Use it to answer the questions below.

Native American Reservations, 1890

Master 39 Grade 5: History & Geography

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Purpose: To read and interpret a U.S. map featuring Native American reservations in 1890

1. In 1890, which state or territory had the largest area of reservation lands?

2. In what state was the Battle of Little Bighorn fought?

3. How do you think the Native Americans felt about being forced to live on reservations?

Answers will vary.

Montana

Indian Territory

Wounded KneeWounded KneeMassacreMassacre

MMiiss

ssiissss

iippppii

RRiivv

eerr

MississippiMississippi

LouisianaLouisiana

MinnesotaMinnesota

Little Big Horn

Sand Creek Massacre

Wounded KneeMassacre

Gulf ofMexico

PA C I F I C

O C E A N

Mis

siss

ippi

Riv

er

Idaho

Wyoming

NorthDakota

SouthDakota

Nebraska

Kansas

Montana

Washington

Oregon

California

NevadaUtah

Territory

Iowa

Wisconsin

Illinois

Missouri

Arkansas

Tenn.

Ky.

Ind.

Mississippi

Louisiana

Colorado

ArizonaTerritory

New MexicoTerritory

Texas

IndianTerritory

Minnesota

MEXICO

CANADA

WE

N

S0

0 150 300 kilometers

300 miles150

Major Native Americanreservations, 1890

Battle/massacre site

Teaching Idea

Indian schools like the CarlisleSchool raise important questionsabout national identity, assimilation,and diversity. How much assimilationmust take place for a nation to remaina unified nation? To what extent is itimportant that the people in a countryhave the same culture, language,ideas, and ways of life? To whatextent is it important that a nation notbe totally homogenous, that there bediversity of thinking and various subcultures? How much do we haveto have in common to prosper as anation? These questions are still verymuch debated today, and students inGrade 5 can be introduced to theargument.

Richard H. Pratt / “The Advantages of Mingling Indians with Whites”, pp. 260–271. From an extract of the Official Report of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of Charities and Correction (1892), pp. 46–59.




Teaching Idea

Pictures of students at the CarlisleSchool, as well as documents describ-ing the school, are available on theweb. Student may also be interested inlearning about Jim Thorpe, a champi-onship runner educated at the CarlisleSchool.

At the Carlisle School Native American children as young as seven years ofage were sent to become Christians and English speakers. They were to forgettheir traditional ways and embrace the values of mainstream society. The schooltaught both academic subjects and preprofessional skills. Students learned read-ing, writing, and arithmetic. Boys studied carpentry, tinsmithing, and black-smithing. Girls studied cooking, sewing, and baking. The boys wore uniformsand the girls wore Victorian-style dresses. Long hair was cut short. Shoes wererequired and no moccasins were allowed. Students were not allowed to speaktheir native languages. All of this was well intentioned, but in the attempt toassimilate children to a new culture, the educators at Carlisle were also systemat-ically destroying the culture into which their students had been born.

C. Conflicts

The Plains WarsThe period from the 1850s to the 1880s on the narrowing frontier saw a num-

ber of conflicts between settlers and soldiers and the increasingly desperate anddwindling Native American population. These conflicts are sometimes called thePlains Wars. It was not surprising that some Indians resisted westward expansion.As United States General Philip Sheridan said:

We took away their country and their means of support, broke up theirmode of living, their habits of life, introduced disease and decay amongthem, and it was for this and against this that they made war. Could any-one expect less?

Sand Creek MassacreIn the 1850s, the Arapaho and Cheyenne in Colorado had been forced to

accept a small area of land near Sand Creek for their reservation. Within ten years,gold had been found on the reservation and settlers and miners wanted SandCreek. A conflict began and scattered fighting continued for three years untilChief Black Kettle and his band camped near Fort Lyon asking to negotiate forpeace.

In November 1864, militia under the command of “Colonel” JohnChivington, a Methodist minister, led an attack against Black Kettle’s camp.Chivington and his men claimed to be seeking revenge on the Native Americansfor an earlier attack on white miners. They attacked Black Kettle and his campeven though it was flying both a U. S. flag and the white flag of truce. Chivingtonand his force carried out their attack on a camp of sleeping men, women, chil-dren, and elderly. It is estimated that up to 500 Native Americans were killed (andin some cases mutilated) by Chivington’s men.

Some Americans applauded Chivington’s actions, but many others were dis-gusted. A Congressional committee investigated the attack and ultimately con-demned Chivington’s massacre.

Crazy HorseCrazy Horse (Ta-sunko-witko), a chief of the Oglala Sioux, was one of the

strongest leaders of the Native American resistance on the Great Plains. Duringthe 1850s, he acquired a reputation as a great warrior, based on the bravery hedisplayed in conflicts with other groups of Native Americans. Later, Crazy Horsewould turn these skills against the white men.


In the 1860s, Crazy Horse refused to remain on the reservation assigned tohis people, insisting instead on venturing out to hunt buffalo. He also led attackson the army and white settlers. In 1866 he led a party of roughly 1,000 warriorsin an attack on soldiers near Fort Kearny in the Wyoming Territory. Crazy Horseled a decoy party that drew the commander and some soldiers out of the fort. Thesoldiers were then ambushed by a large Native American force and 80 soldierswere killed. The defeat, known as the Fetterman Massacre, was the worst defeatthe army had suffered at the hands of the Native Americans up to that point.

In the 1870s, Crazy Horse led additional attacks on railroad workers and thearmy. He and his followers helped destroy the troops of George A. Custer at thefamous battle of the Little Bighorn. After Little Bighorn, the army pursued CrazyHorse more intensively. He was forced to surrender in May 1877. Later that year,he was killed during a tussle with a guard. A memorial to Crazy Horse is current-ly under construction in South Dakota.

Sitting BullSitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotake) was the Dakota Native American chief who led

the Sioux tribes in their efforts to resist American expansion. As a young man hegained a reputation for bravery and skill in battles against the Shoshone and othertribes, which gave the Dakota more land on which to hunt.

Sitting Bull began a long career of resistance to the U.S. Army and the whiteman in 1863. Along with Crazy Horse, he became a chief leader of NativeAmerican resistance.

In 1868 the Sioux made a peace treaty with the U.S. government that gave theSioux a reservation in the Black Hills (current-day South Dakota). In 1876, thegovernment ordered the Sioux onto reservations when gold was discovered in thearea and white miners wanted to prospect for gold. Sitting Bull and others did notcomply. The noncomplying Native American chiefs camped in the valley of theLittle Bighorn River. Sitting Bull performed a ritual known as the Sun Dance andentered into a trancelike state. He reported that he saw the defeat of army soldiers,which foretold the defeat of General Custer and his men at the Battle of LittleBighorn.

After Little Bighorn, the Army applied additional pressure. By this point thebuffalo population, on which the Sioux depended, was rapidly waning. Many ofthe Sioux suffered from hunger, and growing numbers began to surrender. SittingBull and other Sioux who continued to resist the government went to Canada andlived there from 1877 to 1881. He continued to lose followers to starvation andfinally was forced to surrender.

For some time Sitting Bull was confined to a reservation. Then, in 1885 hewas allowed to join Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. He was paid $50 a week for rid-ing around the arena and he gained a popular following; however, Sitting Bullremained with the show for only four months.

Ghost Dance The Ghost Dance was a ceremony associated with a movement that began

among the Paiute [PIE-oot] in western Nevada in the 1880s. It was led byWovoka [woh-VOH-ka], a Paiute mystic. He claimed that if the Ghost Dance wasperformed often enough, in time the settlers would disappear, the buffalo wouldreappear, dead Native Americans would be reborn, and land would be restored tothe Native Americans.





Cross-curricular

Teaching Idea

You may wish to introduce students to“I will fight no more forever,” by ChiefJoseph as discussed in the LanguageArts section, “Speeches,” on pp. 83–90.Chief Joseph (1840–1904) was born inthe Wallowa Valley in what is nownortheastern Oregon. His tribal namewas Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, orThunder Rolling Down the Mountain.After succeeding his father as leader ofthe Wallowa band of Nez Perce in 1871,Chief Joseph refused to allow the U. S.government to force his people fromtheir tribal lands. However, ChiefJoseph was unable to resist the government and later died on theColville Reservation in Washington.According to his doctor, he died of abroken heart. 32

The Ghost Dance conveyed a powerful message, inspiring hope in its believ-ers. Word of the Ghost Dance was picked up by other bands and found its wayonto the Plains. The government had the army break up the religion, fearing newoutbreaks of violence just as the Plains Native Americans seemed to be subdued.Government officials gave orders to arrest Sitting Bull, one of the most importantnative leaders on the Plains and a supporter of the Ghost Dance. A scuffle brokeout as officials were trying to arrest him, and Sitting Bull was accidentally killed.

Battle of the Little BighornThe Battle of the Little Bighorn is also known as “Custer’s Last Stand.” The

Little Bighorn River flows through southeastern Montana. It was on its banks, onJune 25, 1876, that Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and part of his SeventhCavalry were completely destroyed. Sioux and Cheyenne, led by Chiefs CrazyHorse and Gall, carried out the attack.

The stage had been set for the battle when, in 1874, Custer invaded the BlackHills. This land was sacred to the Sioux and had been ceded to them in a treatyby the government. (See p. 309.) Custer already had a bad reputation amongNative Americans. He had earlier led a raid on a peaceful Cheyenne village atWashita, killing many of the inhabitants.

On his expedition in 1874, Custer wanted to find out whether there was goldin the Black Hills. When the rumors of gold turned out to be true, word spreadquickly and miners soon followed. The Native Americans protested the encroach-ment of people into the land, but the army seemed unable to remove the tres-passers. In an effort to keep peace, the federal government offered to buy theBlack Hills from the Sioux. The offer was refused because the Sioux felt theycould not sell land that was sacred to them.

The government then ordered the Sioux onto reservations by February 1876.Sitting Bull and many others did not comply, and the federal government sent thearmy out looking for them. Custer was in charge of an advance party of 600 offi-cers and enlisted men. There is debate about whether Custer misunderstood orignored his orders, but when his scouts sighted a Native American village, he tookpart of his regiment and attacked. Unfortunately for him and his 236 men, theyhad located a small part of the major Sioux and Cheyenne encampment thathoused 2,500 warriors. Custer and his men were surrounded and killed withinminutes. His remaining troops narrowly escaped to the main army. 65

The army gave chase and by winter 1876–77, most Sioux either had fled intoCanada or, seeing no hope of outrunning and outlasting the army, had surren-dered. Those who surrendered were sent to reservations. In 1881, Sitting Bull andhis band returned from Canada to reservation life.

Wounded KneeAfter the death of Sitting Bull, a group of Sioux joined Sitting Bull’s half

brother, Big Foot, and left the reservation. Like his half brother, Big Foot was astrong supporter of the Ghost Dance. About 500 U.S. Army troops set out afterBig Foot’s group, which included 100 warriors and 250 women and children. BigFoot was persuaded to lead his people to Wounded Knee, in what is today thePine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, where they were tobe disarmed and led to a reservation. When the army attempted to disarm the

Teaching Idea

As you are discussing the various con-flicts listed in this section, create achart that will help students trackthem. Include the name, date, location,and key facts. Then, once all the con-flicts have been studied, students cansummarize what they learned in para-graph form.



Native Americans, many refused to surrender their weapons. A young warriorraised a rifle above his head and declared he would not give it up. A scuffle brokeout and the warrior’s rifle went off, probably accidentally. The frightened soldiersopened fire. By noon, 300 Native Americans, including Big Foot and manywomen and children, lay dead. The army suffered 25 dead and 39 wounded,though many of these were probably victims of friendly fire.

The Battle of Wounded Knee—some prefer to call it a massacre, not a bat-tle—put an end to the Ghost Dance movement and, although scattered NativeAmerican resistance continued, Wounded Knee Massacre is widely seen as mark-ing the end of the Indian Wars, one of the saddest chapters in American history.

ReviewBelow are some ideas for ongoing assessment and review activities. These are

not meant to constitute a comprehensive list. Teachers may also refer to thePearson Learning/Core Knowledge History & Geography series for additional infor-mation and teaching ideas.

• Consult with local universities or libraries to see if there is a Native Americanspecialist (such as a professor, exchange student, or librarian) who can come tothe class and give a presentation on an aspect of Native American culture and his-tory. Before inviting the speaker, have students write personal letters to introducethemselves and ask a question that they would like answered. Deliver these let-ters to the specialist prior to the presentation.

• Have students choose a Native American group from this section and write ashort research paper about that group. Have students focus on how the group’sculture reflected where they lived. Students should consult three outside sourcesand then present their papers to the class. They may choose to also include a visu-al aid with their presentation. Check that students follow correct format for writ-ing the short paper.

• While studying this section, focus on the concept of conflict and what caus-es conflict. Use other aspects of history to discuss this with the class, such as theCivil War and westward expansion. Have students reflect in journals about whatwe can learn about historical conflict and read those entries aloud. How will theyapply what they have learned about history as they grow into adults?

• Work with your school media specialist and compile a classroom library ofNative American myths written as picture books. Have each student choose abook, read it, and share a summary with the class. Then, meet with a kindergartenclass while they are studying Native Americans and have book buddies share theNative American myths.

• Have students study an aspect of a Native American culture and write theirown myth to describe the culture. After writing the myths, have students illus-trate them and create a class book of Native American myths.

• You may also ask the following questions after completion of this unit ofstudy.

The Big Idea in ReviewNative American cul-tures were disrupted,displaced, and profound-ly altered by the west-ward expansion of theUnited States and thegovernment’s policies inthe 19th century.


Documents

What Teachers Need to Know - Core Knowledge Foundation · 2017-09-15 · lesson is on generalizations that apply to large numbers of peo ples and nations within a culture region