Tensions Between Settlers and Plains Indians

• Plains Indians were suspicious of white people because:

  • Resources were scarce on the Plains. New settlers threatened their food supply.
  • The migrant trails disrupted their buffalo hunting.
  • The migrants’ oxen ate the grass that was needed for the Indians’ livestock and hunting.

  
• Plains Indians were suspicious of white people because:

  • They sometimes got caught up in tribal conflicts, and thought the Indians were attacking them.
  • They thought the Indians were an inferior race who would be wiped out.
  • Indians sometimes stole their cows and horses.

  
• The Fort Laramie Treaty

  1851
• The Fort Laramie Treaty (1851)


  In 1851 the government organised the Fort Laramie Treaty to try to solve the conflict between Plains Indians and white settlers.

  Its aims were to:

  • Agree on fixed territories for each tribe
  • End conflicts between the tribes
  • Guarantee safe access for white migrants across the Plains