native americans

• Native Americans on the Great Plains


  • Largest population of Native Americans
  • Tribes were almost entirely nomadic and roamed the plains freely
  • Followed the buffalo
• Christopher Columbus thought he had found a new route to India when he first arrived in America so the Native Americans were called 'Indians'
• Destruction of the Buffalo


  1. Between 1840 and 1885 the buffalo were hunted to almost extinction

  2. Their numbers fell from an estimated 13 million in 1840 to around 200 in 1885

  3. Settlement on the edge of the Great Plains

  4. Construction of the railroads across the Great Plains

  5. Destruction of the buffalo's natural habitat

  6. Introduction of new diseases
• Hunting for sport


  • Buffalo were hunted for food and sport
  • Hunting increased when the railroads reached the Great Plains
  • Special excursion trains were run so that people could go out and shoot buffalo for sport
  • Buffalo hunters were employed to keep the workers on the supplied with fresh meat
• Hunting for hides


  • In 1871, an easter tannery discovered a process to produce high quality leather from buffalo hides
  • This caused the price of buffalo hides to increase
  • Railroads had reached the Great Plains, trains could transport the hides east to the tanning industry
  • Hunters were armed with powerful rifles with a long range
  • Hunters killed using a method called a stand which was an extremely efficient way of hunting
  • By 1875 the southern herd had been destroyed, by 1883 the northern herd was destroyed
• Hunting for bones


  • It was not until after the hide was removed were the bones of buffalo picked
  • Homesteaders and crews of professional 'bone pickers' collected skeletons and took them by wagon to railroad sidings
  • From there they were sent east to the factories
  • In the east, the bones were ground into fertiliser, or made into buttons, combs and knife handles, hooves were made into glue
• Government policy was to attract settlers to populate the West
• As the white settlers pushed westwards, the Native Americans were gradually removed from their traditional lands
• By the 1860s several tribes such as the Sioux were hostile to white settlers and the federal army on their lands
• The Great Sioux War 1876-77

  1. 1876-The Great Sioux War broke out after the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of Dakota and gold prospectors and settlers poured into Native American territory

  2. The government offered the native Americans 6 million dollars but they refused

  3. After they refused the government embarked on Reservation Policy and decided to remove all Native Americans from the Black Hills

  4. After some setbacks such as the Battle of Little Bighom, the US army wiped out the Native Americans
• Reservation Policy


  • Native American culture was seen as a threat to the US way of life
  • To bring an end to their nomadic lifestyle, they were forced into reservations where they would be Americanised
  • They would be forced into farming and converted to Christianity
  • They were totally dependent on the white man for food, clothing and shelter
  • Many starved as the government did not always provide enough food
• By 1900, only about 100,000 of the 240,000 Native Americans who had inhabited the Plains in 1865 remained
• The Dawes Act (1887)


  • The Dawes General Allotment Act (1887) broke up reservation land into small allotments
  • Native Americans who accepted the allotments and 'adopted the habits of civilized life' were to be granted US citizenship after 25 years
  • Reservations were set up on the most barren, least fertile land