Changes for Plains Indians

• Railroads

  • Under the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty tribes had to let railroad surveyors onto their land.
  • Railroads took away Indians’ land and disrupted the buffalo.  The government “extinguished” any Indian rights to land along the rail routes.
  • Some tribes (e.g. the Pawnee tribe in 1870) agreed to move onto reservations.
  • The Northern Pacific Railroad caused conflicts.
• Cattle industry

  • As cattle numbers increased, buffalo numbers decreased.
  • Because they could no long hunt buffalo, some Indians worked as cowboys – this took them away from their traditional way of life.
  • Cattle trails went through Indian land, leading to conflict with cowboys.
  • Many tribes would demand payment from cowboys to pass through their land.
• Gold prospecting

  • In California, gold prospectors murdered Indians who were in the way of possible gold claims.
  • Immigration from all over the world brought new diseases which killed many Indians.
  • New towns developed. Their Western culture was totally alien to Indians.
  • When gold was found in Montana in 1862, thousands travelled there along the Bozeman Trail, despite it being Lakota Sioux hunting ground (this went against the Fort Laramie Treaty).