all right this is openstax u.s history chapter 17 section 4 the loss of american indian life and culture so one thing to note is that there is a much longer history uh here between european or white settlers uh and native americans or indians uh you know one that dates back you know at the earliest maybe maybe to 1607 with the jamestown colony which was created by english colonists way back you know 300 400 years before the period that we're talking about so we're not going to be you know reviewing kind of the longer story here instead we're kind of jumping in in the mid 1800s and we're going to begin with talking about the indian removal act which was one of the policies the united states took towards the indigenous or native american population this was created in 1830 in order to remove indian populations from within states to federal territory initially it pretty much started off as a spat between the state governments and the federal you had tribes that were living within various states georgia in particular the states wanted to remove the indians the federal government for the most part at least the judicial branch of the federal federal government wanted to honor the treaties that were made with those tribes but the executive branch the president at the time andrew jackson and the congress and the states eventually won out and so those who did not comply with the indian removal act were forcibly moved the trail of tears is the force migration you know of indians in which it was very brutal 4 000 died on this forced migration and where they were moved to was oklahoma which became known as indian territory and what's important here is that for the most part this act was really designed to apply to states that were east of the mississippi but of course the period or not the period but rather the geographic area we're talking about now is what is west of the mississippi and in regards to native americans who lived west of the mississippi there was you know you know there was a you know the indian removal act didn't necessarily apply to them instead there was a reservation type system and this only compounded as more and more settlers increasingly moved west of the mississippi river uh this was put forward by the first treaty of fort laramie so more or less what the reservation says sorry reservation system says is that there's designated land which native americans may occupy and here's the important part which settlers can not right so this treaty system or this reservation system is essentially an agreement that there are certain lands in which certain tribes can occupy and that white settlers will stay out the problem was was that this part of the bargain didn't hold up and in many cases settlers continued to settle on land that was specifically set aside by treaties for native americans and this led to conflict the dakota war was one example of a conflict that broke out due to treaties essentially being broken the sand creek massacre was another example of extreme violence between this time the us i believe was the us army and native americans in colorado you had john shivington who was responsible for killing 100 native americans many of which were women and children and both of these examples you know the dakota war and the sand creek massacre were examples of this treaty system or this reservation system not fully you know working out for either side really especially for native americans who were often outgunned and out trooped in many of these clashes and so you had new treaties that were passed in order to try and remedy this more or less what these new treaties dictated was that there would be additional lands or additional reservations that would be placed in an effort to try to reduce the violence and in many cases native americans got the short end of the stick because those lands were now smaller in area and were also less desirable so the treaty of medicine lodge creek suggested to move more of these tribes to the indian territory this was oklahoma which was very hot dry arid it was not a very pleasant place to go if you did not comply with the treaties often times native americans would be persecuted hunted down or you know resist or rebel against you know these orders the second treaty of fort laramie prompted to move native americans like the sioux the plains indians to the black hills of dakota and that worked out as long as those lands were undesirable so right here these were generally undesireable lands however when gold was discovered in the black hills the us offered to buy and when the indians refused to sell the land which now had gold on it that's when the clashes started the battle of little bighorn is probably the most significant battle in what we're just generally called the indian wars right indian wars all these various clashes were called the indian wars sitting bull who you see pictured right here was able to really get a group of a confederation of different tribes including lakota sue other plain indians and resist this forcible relocation out of the black hills in which they refused to sell their land so he was the leader for indians at battle of little bighorn all right uh general george custer was leading the american cavalry and when he attacked sitting bull and this other group of native americans general george custer was killed in action uh over 200 plus americans were killed also at the battle of little bighorn it was a defeat in fact the worst defeat for the us in the indian wars and some have suggested that this was the beginning of the end because you know the united states had a lot of success on the battlefield in these conflicts with native americans here george custer who is a rather popular general and along with a lot of other troops were killed by sitting bull and native american forces and this only uh sort of made the effort to force you know sending bull and others to comply with the treaties and the reservation laws even that much stronger and so eventually sitting bull himself he flees and escapes to canada those who were not as successful in escaping to canada usually were apprehended by american forces if they chose to resist with the you know demands to to go on reservations essentially you have a another story about another group the nez perce tribe so this is a tribe in oregon and idaho and their leader chief joseph he is the leader of the nest purse it's a really compelling story about his effort to escape to canada like sitting bull did um but unlike sitting bull uh chief joseph was not successful in reaching canada and the mez purse won't they were also forced off their land like many other native americans in the united states the battle of wounded knee is sometimes called the last stand for independent native americans you know you know roughly about by the year 1900 um more or less any native americans living within the continental united states are subjected to the us government in some way shape or form and the battle of wounded knee is like the last hurrah so to speak when a group of indians who are resisting u.s orders to get on reservations clash with american forces which was a defeat on the indian side and a victory for the american side but this was partially inspired by the ghost dance which was a religious movement which sought to unite the remaining tribes and you know seeing this as a threat possibly the ghost dance you know this religious movement that could possibly unite the different tribes together against american occupation it ultimately led in the ending of native american sovereignty now a lot of these instances here ranging from the sand creek massacre to the battle of little bighorn to the battle of wounded knee these were all incredibly violent and you know violence was something that really neither native americans nor the us government saw as you know option number one it would was necessary if needed but was not seen as option number one but rather a lot of people in kind of like the american middle class opted for americanization and assimilation and that is essentially for indian culture to give way to american culture that you know peace can be achieved in the west if native americans simply just give up their language their dress their culture and become americans now this was a possible solution but it was very one-sided in essence it was to completely abandon native culture and and go completely in the direction of american culture which was not uh not not openly embraced to say the least by many and there was a lot of different ways that assimilation could take place you know simulation is simply just a term that we use to describe to it's kind of like to to be more like right so to assimilate into something means that you just kind of become more like them one of them was in terms of land many native americans use land communally communally whereas most americans believe in private property individual land ownership so if native americans give up their communal practice of land you know farm like independent farmers like american zoo that's one way to become more american adopt christianity of course as the predominant religion in in america protestantism in particular uh and education you know looking specifically at something like language right you know english and these were you know potential you know kind of like pathways to becoming american right and as you can see it's completely one-sided right you know it's completely one-sided some of the ways in which this was practiced was boarding school the carlisle indian school is one example maybe the most well-known was located in pennsylvania this was where native americans were taught more about american culture and also really forced to disconnect with kind of previous ways of life the dolls dawes act is also one of these examples this was a law that required individual land ownership so rather than allowing land to be used communally it was made law that native americans on certain reservations have to become private individual land owners what it essentially amounted to is not just a destruction of indian culture and again that's really what in some ways what the goal is it's not just to embrace american culture but it's also an effort to get rid of any native american culture what it essentially amounted to is that once everybody was also given the individual land ownership excess land was sold and what this amounted to was essentially a land grab and so at the end of the day when the dos ability act was over you had more hands or sorry more land in the hands of you know white land speculators or settlers and less land in the hands of native americans so it wasn't only about simulation but in some sense it was just outright uh taking taking land away it wasn't until 1924 that u.s citizenship was extended to native americans you know ever since the constitutional period the constitution identifies we the people and native americans or indians as two separate groups it was hoped that assimilation could help expediate this process and by granting citizenship some were you know some native americans participated in what was called the last arrow pageant which was a symbolic gesture of you know shooting the last arrow so no longer embracing native american culture and fully embracing u.s or american culture