Wars

• Red Cloud

  Respected war leader of the Lakota Sioux Tribe
• Gold discovered in Montana

  1862
• Bozeman Trail crossed through important Lakota Sioux hunting grounds


  Thousands of gold prospectors were trespassing Indian land
• Lakota Sioux responded

  By attacking the gold prospectors
• US government attempted to create a new treaty with the Lakota Sioux


  To persuade the Lakota Sioux to allow prospectors to travel safely through the Bozeman Trail
• Before talks had even begun, Red Cloud discovered that the US government had begun building forts along the Bozeman Trail
• Red Cloud realised the government were going to allow prospectors to travel across the Bozeman Trail whether the Lakota Sioux agreed to it or not
• Red Cloud called off negotiations with the government and chose to fight instead
• Lakota Sioux attacked a fort along the Bozeman trail

  21st of December 1866
• Fetterman's 80 men were led into a trap by the Lakota Sioux
• Over 1,000 Lakota Sioux warriors surrounded them and all of Fetterman's men were murdered, stripped, scalped and mutilated
• This event became known as Fetterman's trap
• This was the US army's worse defeat ever against Plains Indians
• Fetterman's trap convinced the government

  They needed to try persuade the Lakota Sioux to allow prospectors to travel through the Bozeman Trail, rather than to continue fighting them
• It resulted in the second Fort Laramie Treaty
• Billy the Kid

  Grew up in mining camps in New Mexico, was frequently in trouble with the law for stealing, became notorious for escaping prison
• The Lincoln County War

  1. Conflict between cattle baron John Chisum and rancher Murphy over land and influence in New Mexico

  2. Billy fought on the side of Murphy and played a prominent role in the war
• Billy went on the run, but was eventually shot dead by sheriff Pat Garrett
• The Lincoln County War and the actions of Billy the Kid demonstrate the continuing existence of lawlessness in the American West
• Many people admired the way he stood up against powerful businessmen and the justice system was too weak to quickly deal with Billy
• Tombstone, Arizona

  A "cow town" where cowboys often drank and gambled
• Northern businessmen

  • Did not agree with the cowboys' behaviour
  • Wanted Arizona to be a peaceful place where people could do business
  • Wanted sheriffs and lawmen to police the town and control the cowboys' behaviour
• Vigil Earp

  Elected as sheriff
• Wyatt and Morgan Earp

  Served as deputies
• Rivalry between the Earps

  A group of ranchers and cowboys, led by the Clanton and McLaury families
• Confrontation on 26 October 1881

  1. Virgil Earp disarmed Clanton

  2. Clanton was fined for carrying a gun, as the town had created a law banning weapons

  3. Clanton was angry

  4. Clanton met with his family and the McLaurys

  5. A gunfight broke out at the OK Coral between the Earps, and the Clanton and McLaury families

  6. Three men were killed and two were injured
• After the gunfight

  A series of tit-for-tat killings continued
• In 1882

  1. Morgan Earp was murdered

  2. Wyatt Earp shot two cowboys who he believed to be responsible for his brother's murder

  3. Public opinion turned against the Earps

  4. They decided to leave town for their own safety
• The story of Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral is another example of the continuation of lawlessness in the American West
• Johnson County War

  Fought between cattle barons, and homesteaders and small ranchers
• The Johnson County War demonstrates the continuation of rivalry between cattle barons and homesteaders and shows that, even in the 1890's, people were still taking the law into their own hands
• Cattle barons in Wyoming

  • Appointed to key positions in government
  • Set up their own association, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WGSA), to protect their interests
• Cattle barons suffered great losses in Great Die up of 1886-7

  Small ranchers survived the winter with minimal losses
• Rustling had been a problem in Wyoming for years but, now that the cattle barons were struggling to survive, they wanted to put a stop to it
• First killings in 1889

  1. Small ranch owners, Jim Averill and Ella Watson, were living on land a cattle baron called Albert Bothwell wanted

  2. Averill wrote a letter to the local newspaper accusing Bothwell of being a land-grabber

  3. Bothwell then accused Ella of rustling a small herd of cows

  4. Bothwell's men caught and hanged Averill and Watson, and took over their land and cattle

  5. No one was prosecuted for these murders
• Retaliation by homesteaders and small ranchers

  1. Created their own association

  2. Decided to hold their own round-up of cattle before the WSGA's

  3. Meant they could claim all of the new-born cattle for themselves
• WSGA were furious

  Planned a full-scale invasion of Johnson County
• WSGA created a list of 70 people who they intended to kill
• WSGA hired and paid gunmen, done in full knowledge of Wyoming's governor
• WSGA's plan failed

  1. Small rancher Nate Champion heroically held them up all day

  2. By the time he had been killed, the alarm had been raised in a nearby town and the local people were ready to fight

  3. The US cavalry arrived and fought off the WSGA