Destruction of the Plains Indians Life Style

• Industrial schools were designed to change the Plains Indians' way of life
• The destruction of the buffalo took place between the 1870s and 1880s, with the peak between 1872 and 1874
• Professional buffalo hunters hunted millions of buffalo for their hides to make leather
• The hunters used powerful modern rifles to kill millions of buffalo
• The hunters left the rest of the buffalo to rot on the plains, deeply offending the Plains Indians
• By 1883, there were basically no buffalo left, devastating the Plains Indians who relied on them
• A pile of thousands of buffalo skulls near a bone processing plant in the 1880s was used to make fertilizers and glues
• Railroad companies sold hunting trips as pleasure trips, allowing hunters to shoot as many buffalo as they wanted
• Between the 1880s and 1890s, US government treaties forced Indians to find new ways to survive after the buffalo were destroyed
• Indians had no choice but to take up ranching or farming after the buffalo were destroyed
• The US government passed laws and treaties that controlled the Indians, leading to cultural change
• Indians were forced to change their culture away from the tribe and towards a more individual way of life
• Indian boys went to schools to learn English and get a white-style education
• Hunger and desperation made Indians adopt farming instead of hunting
• Some Indians adopted white ways and assimilated as US citizens
• Effects of hunger and desperation on Indians

  1. Some Indians adopted white ways and assimilated as U.S. citizens

  2. Others continued to resist or went back to their old ways

  3. They suffered unemployment, depression, and disease

  4. Many died
• Chief Sitting Bull: 'The life my people want is a life of freedom'
• Chief Sitting Bull said this in 1882
• Perception of the U.S. government by Indians

  There was often a perception that the U.S. government was in some way doing the Indians a favor by making them live a more civilized lifestyle
• Plenty Horses: 'The education I had received was of no benefit to me'
• Plenty Horses said this in 1888
• The Dawes Act was passed in 1887 to encourage Indians to farm land as families, not as tribes
• The Dawes Act was similar to the Homestead Act of 1862
• Indian families were given 160 acres to farm, single people got 80, orphans under 18 got 40
• Those Indians who took up the offer were usually given poor land that did not support them
• Some Indians lacked the skills to farm successfully
• Some Indians starved, while others gave up and moved back onto the reservations
• From the 1860s onwards, the way of life of the Plains Indians was systematically destroyed
• The destruction of the buffalo ended the independent nomadic lifestyle of the Indians
• The Indians relied further on U.S. government support and the reservation system
• Moves were made to undermine Indian culture and cause their assimilation
• The Dawes Act compelled Indians to adopt a European farming lifestyle and lose their land in the process
• The policy ended up reducing the amount the U.S. government had to spend supporting the Indians
• One event led to the next, ultimately affecting the Indians' way of life and land ownership
• Events linked together: Destruction of the buffalo -> Reliance on government help -> Undermining of Indian culture -> Dawes Act compelling European farming lifestyle