Summary
summary of Native American civil rights advancement
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- OCR
notes on native Americans and there advancements in civil rights for OCR A LEVEL history
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Impact Of Westward ExpansionThe main reason why the position of Native Buffalo
Americans positions was already at threat by The buffalo was a key part of the existence of the
1865 was due to Westward Expansion. Native Americans in the Great Plains, so much
American Governments had encouraged that it was sacred to them. They used every part
settlers to move west to open the rest of the of it. the number of Buffalo was greatly reduced
continent for the growing population and as the white settlers and railways companies
because of belief of Manifest Destiny. As a advanced across the Great Plains. The new
result, the Native Americans were gradually settlements also restricted the Native Americans
driven out of their traditional lands. The 1830 to follow what remained of the herds and
Removal Act, the forced relocation of combined with the decline of numbers, the
thousands of Native Americans to designated settlement destroyed the Native Americans way
land, had seen tribes moved Alabama, Florida, of life.
Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia on
to the Great Plains in Oklahoma, which was designated Indian territory.
Manifest Destiny-
The belief that it was Americans’ God-given right to settle the rest of the continent
The north and south had different ideas of manifest destiny.
North: opposed to slavery, wanted to create independent territories full of white farmers
South: wanted a western expansion of Slavery
Government Treaties
Unable to resist advances of settlers, several tribes began to hand land over to the US
government
Year Treaty Tribes
1851 Fort Laramie Treaty Arapaho, Cheyenne, Sioux
1861 Fort Wise Treaty Arapaho, Cheyenne
1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty Comanche, Kiowa, Plains Apache
1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Arapaho, Lakota, Sioux
Plains Wars
Not only were the Native Americans losing land, but it was also having a massive impact on
their lifestyle as it affected their ability to follow buffalo herds. Although the government
made promises to ensure that the Native Americans were fed, these assurances were often
not kept. This became an even greater problem during the Civil War when the government
had more pressing concerns. As a result, many Native Americans, driven by hunger revolted
against the government and this resulted in a series of wars, known as the Plains Wars,
which lasted on and off from 1862 to 1868.
The American Civil War only added to these problems for the Native Americans. The
government withdrew the troops that had been stationed on the Plains. The Native
Americans had normally traded with the forts where the guards had been stationed, but the
troops who had replaced them were volunteers and often poorly disciplined, with little
interest in the Native Americans. This resulted in violence between the two groups, with the
most serious incident being the Sand Creek Incident in 1864, an attack by the US cavalry on
an undefended Cheyenne camp. It resulted in the death of around 230 people, mostly
women, children, and the elderly.
,Homestead Act 1862
Gave farmers a 160-acre plot free on the condition they farmed on it for 5 years.
The government was determined to control land in the West and create federal territories,
which were governed by officials. The government’s aim was to populate the region with
small-scale farmers. To do this, it passed the Homestead Act in 1862. This encouraged even
more movement to the West. It is estimated there were some 20,000 people settled on the
Plains by 1865. This was a serious consequence for the Native Americans.
The Railways
The desire to develop the US railway network so that it ran from coast to coast had a
significant impact on the Native Americans. Not only did some lines cross the Plains, but the
rail companies encouraged settlers to come and live on the land they had been given by the
government. These developments also disrupted the buffalo herds and brought large
numbers of white people to the region to hunt them. This only added to the dramatic fall of
buffalo numbers and therefore impact on the life of Native Americans.
___________________________________________________________________________
As a result of these developments, the position of the Native Americans was already in
decline at the start of the period. They had signed a number of treaties with the
government and handed over much of their land to be settled by white farmers. This and
the development of the railways made it harder for them to follow and hunt the buffalo
herds on which they depended on for food and way of life. As a result of this and the lack of
aid from the federal government, much of the population of Native Americans declined
through starvation, while those who did survive often suffered poverty. Therefore, even
before 1865, the culture and way of life of the Native Americans were under threat and, in
many ways because of government policy, this continues for much of the period.
The government gave them no help and was more focused on achieving manifest destiny
and gaining the land and their transcontinental railway then the impact it was having on the
Native American people.
, The Position of Native Americans in Gilded Age
Reservations
Reservations were lands designated by the US government for the Native Americans to
occupy as part of the treaties signed with the Native Americans. This process began in the
1850s but was speeded up in the 1860s as the main way of bringing about assimilation. At
first, the boundaries of the reservations were agreed by treaties between the government
and the Native Americans, but later the boundaries were imposed by congress.
_________________________________________________________________________
Throughout this period and the first half of the twentieth century, the federal government’s
aim was to assimilate the Native Americans. The policies to achieve assimilation may have
altered over the period, but the aim of assimilation remained constant. This aim meant that
the government would have to destroy the tribal lifestyle and bonds of the Native peoples.
This was to be achieved in a number of ways:
Education
Conversion to Christianity
Turning the Native Americans
The establishment of government reservations
The reservation policy prevented Native Americans from moving freely and pursuing what
was left of the buffalo herds. It allowed the government to destroy their way of life as:
Polygamy had to be abandoned
Braves could no longer demonstrate their skills
Herbal remedies were forbidden
Tribal laws were abolished
Communal living was ended
The power of the tribal chief was ended
Native Americans were thus forced to become farmers who inhabited a specific area of
land.
Additionally, parents were forced to send their children to school, where they were
forbidden from speaking their own language and were made to completely renounce their
traditional beliefs. Two off-reservation boarding schools were set up in Virginia and
Pennsylvania because the quality of education provided on the reservations was poor. They
provided boys with vocational training and girls with the skills for domestic service. The
education provided gave some Native Americans the opportunity to find better jobs with
some working in the Indian agency offices and others working as interpreters, or scouts to
army units.
At first, the rights of Native Americans to determine what happened to their land was
agreed. However, after 1871 they lost this right and Congress was given the power to decide
on setting up reservations, relocating tribes and redrawing any reservation boundaries
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