Why did the Indians
lose the struggle for
the plains?
Buffalo
An American tannery found a way in
which they could manufacture high
quality leather from buffalo skin
This meant that the price for buffalo skin went
up, causing a rise in the hunting of Buffalo
More Americans hunted the Buffalo,
which the Indians depended on for living
Americans
began to hunt
Buffalo for sport
Decreasing numbers of Buffalo meant that the Indians
struggled to live because they relied so heavily on them
Buffalo meat would be used for food
Hides would be used for clothing and teepees
Technology
The Americans had more advanced
technology, particularly when it came
to weaponry
This meant that, in warfare, the
Indians had less a chance of success
that the Americans, meaning they
could be overpowered relatively easily
The reservation
policy
The Indian reservations
were split into multiple,
smaller reservations.
Undermined the
importance of chiefs
and community to the
Indians
There were no chiefs, each man
was in charge of his own family
The Indians were made to
farm and stay in one area,
this was very much against
what they would normally do.
Indians would normally live on the
land and move with the Buffalo
If the Indians did not accept the new terms,
then the Americans would start to fight them
They were forced to accept the land
Education
The Americans would take the children of
the Indians, from their families and put
them into boarding schools
Here they would be taught English, to
be Christians, and live like Americans
They would be punished if they spoke
their native language, and were taught
to have no respect for any aspects of
the Indian way of life
The Battle of Wounded Knee
American troops arrived at the Sioux
camp at Wounded Knee with the intention
of removing weapons from the Indians
A single Indian, believed to be deaf, resisted
and in the confusion created, firing started
It is almost unfair to call it a battle, it is
best described as a massacre
A lot of the American soldiers involved in The Battle
at Wounded Knee were at the Battle of Littel
Bighorn, also. For many of them, this was revenge
for those they had lost.
Because of the Ghost dance movenent, which
was now being treated as a military threat
The movement began from an Indian who
had a vision. He told that an Indian
messiah was coming, and that if the
Indians remained peaceful, and danced the
"Ghost Dance", all the dead Indians would
come back to life, the whites would
disappear and the buffalo would come back
This was the last battle for the plains.
Many Indians died, old and young, men
and women
It is said that all of the hope that
Indians had was lost that day too