A Century of Dishonor: The Wars of the West

  • 1st Treaty of Fort Laramie

    1st Treaty of Fort Laramie
    The 1st Treaty of Fort Laramie was the first major treaty between the US and the Plains Indians. The Treaty recognized the Native Americans' claims to the Great Plains and recognized the Black Hills as part of the Sioux territory and guaranteed access to hunting grounds. It also allowed the US the right to build forts and roads and travel across the Indian lands. Source:Power Point
  • Long Walk of the Navajo Indians

    Long Walk of the Navajo Indians
    The Long Walk of the Navajo Indians was a 300 mile march that the Navajo were forced to walk across the desert to Bosque Redondo Reservation in New Mexico. The US Army forced them to do this after the Navajo refused to settle on a reservation. The US troops made raids on the Navajo's fields, homes, and livestock forcing the Navajo to surrender. Countless Navajo died on the march. Source: textbook Chapter 18
  • Fetterman Massacre

    Fetterman Massacre
    In 1866, Sioux warriors ambushed the command of WILLIAM J. FETTERMAN, whose troops were trying to complete the construction of the BOZEMAN TRAIL in Montana. Of Fetterman's 81 soldiers and settlers, there was not a single survivor. The bodies were grotesquely mutilated. Source: www.ushistory.org
  • 2nd Treaty of Fort Laramie

    2nd Treaty of Fort Laramie
    The 2nd Treaty of Fort Laramie stated that the US agreed to close the Bozeman Trail, abandon the forts, and provide reservation land to the Sioux. The treaty came as a result of a group of Lakota Sioux warriors ambushing and killing 81 cavalry troops because the US was building forts along the Bozeman trail which ran right through the Sioux hunting grounds. Source: Wars of the West powerpoint
  • Battle of Little Bighorn

    Battle of Little Bighorn
    In the Battle of Little Bighorn, Sioux forces led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull surrounded and defeated Custer and his troops. It was the worst defeat the US Army suffered in the west. The Battle of the Little Bighorn was also the Sioux's last major victory. Source: Textbook chapter 18
  • Sitting Bull surrenders to the US Army and goes to Standing Rock Reservation

    Sitting Bull surrenders to the US Army and goes to Standing Rock Reservation
    In 1881, Sitting Bull and a few followers returned from Canada where they had moved following the Battle of Little Bighorn. They had run out of food during the hard winter and joined the Sioux on Standing Rock Reservation in Dakota Territory. Source: Textbook Chapter 18
  • Publication of A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson

    Publication of A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson
    Custer's last stand caused massive debate in the East. Helen Hunt Jackson was the most vocal critic and she wrote a book called "A Century of Dishonor". This blistering assault on United States Indian policy chronicled injustices toward Native Americans over the past hundred years. In the book she pushed for reform of US Indian policy.
    Source: War of the West powerpoint and textbook ch 18
  • Sitting Bull performs in the Wild West Show with Buffalo Bill Cody

    Sitting Bull performs in the Wild West Show with Buffalo Bill Cody
    Buffalo Bill, who rode for the Pony Express, fought in the American Civil War, and served as a scout for the Army, also created a Wild West show that toured the United States and Europe. Lakota Sioux chief Sitting Bull was part of the cast for four months in 1885, and since then, they had created a strange friendship. Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull performed together in Wild West shows that toured the U.S. and Europe, and forged a friendship. source: www.ushistory.com
  • Dawes Severalty/General Allotment Act

    Dawes Severalty/General Allotment Act
    The Dawes Severalty/General Allotment Act of 1887 tried to lessen traditional influences on Indian society by making land ownership private rather than shared. The act also promised but failed to deliver US citizenship to Native Americans.

    Source: Textbook ch 18
  • Beginning of the Ghost Dance Movement

    Beginning of the Ghost Dance Movement
    Many Native Americans were living on reservations and starving so a Paiute Indian named Wovoka began a religious movement, the Ghost Dance, that predicted the arrival of paradise for Native Americans. In this paradise, the buffalo herds would return and the settlers would disapper. Source: Textbook ch 18
  • Sitting Bull's Death at Standing Rock Reservation

    Sitting Bull's Death at Standing Rock Reservation
    In 1890, the police at Standing Rock Reservation attempted to arrest Sitting Bull but ended up killing him. Many Sioux left the reservations in a protest following Sitting Bull's death. Source: textbook ch 18
  • Massacre at Wounded Knee

    Massacre at Wounded Knee
    On December 29th, 1980, the US Army shot and killed about 150 Lakota Sioux (women and children) near Wounded Knee Creek. This incident became known as the Massacre at Wounded Knee. It was the end of the Indian Wars. Source: textbook ch 18 and Wars for the West powerpoint