Conflict with Native Americans (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
Impact on Native Americans
Native American life on the Great Plains
The largest concentration of Native Americans resided in the Great Plains, a vast region spanning the centre of the USA. These tribes maintained a nomadic lifestyle, meaning they did not establish permanent settlements but instead moved continuously across the landscape. Their movements tracked the migration patterns of buffalo herds, upon which their entire existence depended. They lived in tepee villages designed for rapid assembly and disassembly, allowing them to follow the buffalo as needed.
The buffalo shaped every aspect of Native American life on the Plains. It determined their living conditions, laws, systems of governance, and religious practices. This deep connection to the buffalo and the land meant that any disruption to the herds would fundamentally threaten their way of life.
Westward expansion and its consequences
Initial government attitudes
Before the 1860s, the US government adopted a largely hands-off approach towards Native Americans. White Americans showed little interest in the Great Plains, which they viewed as inhospitable and economically unviable. The government was content to allow Native Americans to live freely in these areas, which formed the vast centre of the country. The Plains remained largely undisturbed by white settlement during this period.
Changing policy from the 1860s
This situation transformed dramatically from the 1860s onwards when government policy shifted towards actively encouraging settlement of the West. As white settlers pushed beyond the Appalachian Mountains' natural boundary, Native Americans faced gradual removal from their ancestral territories. The advancing frontier brought increasing conflict as settlers encroached on lands Native Americans had occupied for generations.
By the early 1860s, several tribes, particularly the Sioux and Cheyenne, responded with hostility to the growing presence of white settlers and the US Army on their lands. The Army established positions across the Plains to protect wagon trains and settlers in regions where Native Americans were known to resist incursions. This military presence intensified tensions and made violent confrontation increasingly likely.
The railroad's destructive impact
Railroad construction across the Plains inflicted severe damage on Native American communities. Railway companies received government land grants to finance their enterprises, which they used to attract settlers through various schemes. For Native Americans, the trains disturbed and scattered buffalo herds, whilst simultaneously transporting ever-greater numbers of land-hungry settlers to the Plains.
The Scale of Migration
The scale of this migration was staggering: in 1870, the railroad's first full year of operation, it carried 15,000 passengers. Twelve years later, this figure had reached one million. This mass movement of settlers made the dispossession of Native Americans inevitable.
The second gold rush and treaty violations
Discovery in the Black Hills
During the mid-1870s, a second major gold rush began in the Black Hills of Dakota. Rumours of gold deposits in this region had circulated since the Civil War, and prospectors discovered small amounts near present-day Custer in South Dakota in 1874. The following year brought the discovery of much larger deposits in Deadwood Gulch, triggering a flood of thousands of gold-seekers to the newly established town of Deadwood.
The Treaty of Laramie ignored
Treaty Violations
This gold rush created a severe problem: the US government had recognised the Black Hills as belonging to the Sioux through the Treaty of Laramie of 1868. Once again, these treaty rights were disregarded entirely. White American prospectors and settlers poured into Native American territory with impunity, setting the stage for violent conflict.
The Great Sioux War, 1876
Causes and government ultimatum
The Great Sioux War erupted in 1876 following the discovery of gold in the Black Hills and the subsequent invasion of Native American territory by prospectors and settlers. The US government initially attempted to maintain order by keeping prospectors out, but the sheer volume of people made this impossible. The government then offered the Native Americans $6 million for the land, but this proposal was rejected.
Believing the Native Americans were being unreasonable and had hardened their position, the government issued an ultimatum demanding that all Native Americans return to their designated reservations. Any individual who failed to comply by 31 January 1876 would be classified as hostile. Many Native Americans either never received this threat or deliberately chose to ignore it.
Military response
Popular and political pressure from the white American majority eventually forced the government to take decisive action to remove Native Americans from the Black Hills. Following some initial setbacks, the Battle of the Little Bighorn proved to be the decisive engagement of the war. A large and well-equipped US Army force succeeded in driving out the Native Americans from the region.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, 25 June 1876
The Battle: A Tactical Disaster
George Custer commanded part of an expeditionary force tasked with rounding up Sioux and Cheyenne tribes who had abandoned the Great Sioux Reservation and were defying government orders to return.
Custer's Fatal Decision: Rather than waiting for the remainder of his force to arrive, Custer divided his men into three units and attempted to encircle the Native American encampment.
The Outcome: His unit of 200 soldiers came under attack and were quickly overwhelmed by superior numbers. All were killed. This battle represented a rare but short-lived victory for Native Americans, as the US Army's subsequent campaigns proved unstoppable.
The Sand Creek Massacre, 1864
Context of the attack
During the Civil War, regular Army soldiers were withdrawn from the Plains to fight in the East. They were replaced by volunteer forces who lacked proper training and discipline. This resulted in numerous atrocities against Native Americans, the most notorious being the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864.
The massacre
An Act of Extreme Brutality
On 29 November 1864, a force of approximately 700 troops from the US cavalry launched an attack on an undefended camp belonging to the Cheyenne tribe at Sand Creek. The soldiers killed and mutilated elderly men, women, and children in an act of extreme brutality. This massacre exemplified the violence that characterised the US government's approach to removing Native Americans from desired territories.
Reservation policy and its implementation
Rationale for reservations
Native Americans presented what the US government viewed as a substantial obstacle to its territorial ambitions. Their independent existence granted them a degree of self-determination that white Americans found unacceptable. Moreover, many tribes actively resisted encroachment and posed what was characterised as a danger to settlers. The government therefore implemented its reservation policy as a means of ending their traditional nomadic lifestyle and bringing them under federal control.
Objectives of 'Americanisation'
The policy involved relocating Native Americans to government-controlled reservations where authorities could undertake what they termed 'Americanisation'. Native Americans, whom white Americans regarded as savages, would be separated from their dependence on hunting buffalo.
The Assimilation Strategy
The reservation system aimed to destroy their traditional way of life through:
- Forced agricultural labour
- Conversion to Christianity
- Training in farming techniques
This represented a systematic attempt to eliminate Native American culture and replace it with white American values.
Harsh realities of reservation life
The Devastating Reality of Reservations
Conditions on reservations proved extraordinarily harsh:
Failed Agricultural Policy: The objective of transforming Native Americans into farmers failed substantially because much of the land allocated proved impossible to cultivate.
Starvation and Dependence: The government supplied food to residents, but this proved insufficient, leading to widespread starvation. Even more humiliating than the physical deprivation was the total dependence on white Americans for food, clothing, and shelter. This destroyed Native American dignity and self-sufficiency.
Corruption: Some Native American agents appointed to manage reservations proved dishonest, misusing government resources for personal enrichment. The combination of poor land, inadequate supplies, starvation, and corruption made reservation life a form of cultural and physical destruction.
Changing historical interpretations
Earlier perspectives
In earlier American history books, the treatment of Native Americans on the Plains received relatively minor attention within the broader narrative of United States history. These accounts typically adopted the viewpoint of white Americans, some of whom believed that expansion was justified by the supposed need to bring 'civilisation' to the West. This perspective reflected traditional attitudes that minimised or excused the dispossession and violence inflicted upon Native Americans.
Revisionist historiography
During the late twentieth century, younger historians began examining events from the Native American perspective.
A Turning Point in Historical Understanding
In 1970, Dee Brown published his influential work Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which documented how Native Americans lost their land, lives, and liberty to white American settlers. This book marked a turning point in historical understanding.
Five years later, in 1975, Francis Jennings published The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism and the Cant of Conquest. Jennings challenged the traditional narrative that portrayed Westward expansion as a civilising mission. Instead, he characterised it as driven by material interest and naked territorial expansion. These works fundamentally altered how historians and the public understood this period of American history.
Contemporary perspectives
Reverend D.J. Burrell's sermon, August 1876
Primary Source: A Critic from Within
Following the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Reverend D.J. Burrell delivered a sermon in Chicago that reflected white American attitudes. He questioned who should be held responsible for what he termed "this dark and sorrowful event", noting that the history of American dealings with Native tribes constituted "a record of fraud, and perjury and uninterrupted injustice".
He acknowledged that white Americans had:
- Driven Native Americans from their ancestral homes and hunting grounds
- Treated them "as having absolutely no rights at all"
- Made "beggars of them"
General Crook's assessment, July 1878
Primary Source: A Military Perspective
Writing in the Army and Navy Journal in July 1878, General Crook provided a stark assessment of the situation facing Native Americans. He noted that buffalo had disappeared and Native Americans could no longer catch sufficient rabbits to sustain themselves and their families.
Crook's Observation: When questioned what they should do, Crook observed: "Starvation is staring them in the face, and if they wait much longer, they will not be able to fight. All the tribes tell the same story. They are surrounded on all sides, the game is destroyed or driven away; they are left to starve, and there remains but one thing for them to do – fight while they can."
Key Events Timeline
| Event | Date | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Homestead Act | 1862 | Encouraged mass settlement of the West |
| Sand Creek Massacre | 1864 | Approximately 700 cavalry troops killed Cheyenne men, women, and children |
| Treaty of Laramie | 1868 | Recognised Black Hills as Sioux territory (later violated) |
| Completion of Pacific Railroad | 1869 | Accelerated settler migration; disrupted buffalo herds |
| Second Gold Rush begins | Mid-1870s | Prospectors invaded Black Hills despite treaty |
| Great Sioux War | 1876 | Government forced Native Americans from Black Hills |
| Battle of the Little Bighorn | 25 June 1876 | Custer's force of 200 wiped out; short-lived Native American victory |
Key Points to Remember:
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Native American life on the Plains depended entirely on buffalo herds and a nomadic lifestyle; disruption to either threatened their existence.
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From the 1860s onwards, government policy shifted from tolerance to active removal, driven by settler demand for land and resources.
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Treaty violations, particularly the Treaty of Laramie 1868, demonstrated that Native American rights were disregarded when they conflicted with white American interests.
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The reservation policy aimed to destroy traditional Native American culture through forced agricultural labour, religious conversion, and cultural assimilation; harsh conditions, starvation, and corruption made reservation life devastating.
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Historical interpretations have evolved from justifying expansion as 'civilisation' to recognising it as territorial conquest driven by material interests, particularly through the work of historians like Dee Brown (1970) and Francis Jennings (1975).