This is a little camp made by the Sioux tribe. This is the chief's tipi. They dance and ride around the chief's tipi before they go on a raid. This is a good image to show the vast amount of land they used to call their home. It also shows the traditions of this tribe, how they circle the chief's tipi before they raid the enemy. The Native Americans were often called savages back then, but savages wouldn't take time making those headdresses and paint themselves before battle. They had a very complex culture even during war time.
This is a home made by the Diegueño tribe, which used to live in most of San Diego county. The tribes in Southern California would make homes like this or better. Houses like this were built for a permanent home, instead of tipi's that a lot of Plains Indians used so the can relocate quickly. The Diegueño tribe had little ranches. They were definitely not uncivilized.
This photo was taken after the massacre at Wounded Knee. 297 of men, women, and children were killed at the hands of the U.S. army. This massacre happened after the military confiscated most of the Native Americans' weapons. They were killed because they didn't want to give up their culture, religion, traditions, land, and possessions. After the attack, those that survived had no choice but to give those up and live on reservations where the U.S. told them how to live. This is important because it is a good depiction of how the Native Americans, and their culture, were decimated.
This picture was taken to show how effective the Regina Indian Residential School was. So not only was the United States trying to assimilate Native Americans, but Canada was doing the same thing. There is a saying that goes with the Dawes Act: "Kill the Indian, save the man." The purpose of the Dawes Act was to assimilate the Native Americans, like Thomas Moore, into American culture. They taught them how to be "civilized" by teaching them how to dress, how to style their hair, how to stand, and other things that Americans considered proper. They also taught them how to live. They wanted them to live with their immediate families in a cabin and a have a small farm to sustain just their immediate family. They did this to split up the tribes. Back to the picture, this demonstrates how the Dawes act affected the Native Americans; mainly their culture.
Although the population of Native Americans stays relatively the same between 1865 to 1898, it is still a good graph to show what happens to the population of Native Americans when American settlers start moving to a certain area. Oregon was a common place to settle before 1865. The Great Plains was the common place to settle after 1865. You can assume a graph of the population of Native Americans in the Great Plains would be similar to this graph except the decline of the Native American population would be after 1865.
This is the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868). This treaty was signed by the United States and the Sioux. It forced the Sioux to live in the Black Hills in the Dakota territory. Even though it was signed by the United States, they break it a couple years later and kick them out of the Black Hills because gold was discovered there. This document. is a good representation of how little respect the U.S. had for the Native Americans. They lie to them, treaty after treaty.
"... The party sent to Wounded Knee to
bury the dead Indians returned late
last night. They found and buried
eighty-four bucks and sixty-three
squaws and children. It was also found
that five had been buried by the In
dians. In addition to this total of 152
others have been carried away by hos
tile scouts, etc., sufficient to swell the
number of dead Indians as a result of
the battle of Wounded Knee to fully
200, with several others yet to die in the
improvised hospital here.
A little Indian baby girl about three
months old, one of the youngest sur
vivors of the battle of Wounded Knee,
who lay for three days beside the dead
body of its mother, has been adopted by
Mrs. Allison Mailor, a wealthy lady of
New -York City. ..."
"Abilene Weekly Reflector. (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, January 08, 1891, Image 5." News about Chronicling America RSS. Reflector Pub., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2016. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84029386/1891-01-08/ed-1/seq-5/>.
bury the dead Indians returned late
last night. They found and buried
eighty-four bucks and sixty-three
squaws and children. It was also found
that five had been buried by the In
dians. In addition to this total of 152
others have been carried away by hos
tile scouts, etc., sufficient to swell the
number of dead Indians as a result of
the battle of Wounded Knee to fully
200, with several others yet to die in the
improvised hospital here.
A little Indian baby girl about three
months old, one of the youngest sur
vivors of the battle of Wounded Knee,
who lay for three days beside the dead
body of its mother, has been adopted by
Mrs. Allison Mailor, a wealthy lady of
New -York City. ..."
"Abilene Weekly Reflector. (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, January 08, 1891, Image 5." News about Chronicling America RSS. Reflector Pub., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2016. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84029386/1891-01-08/ed-1/seq-5/>.
This Passage is from the Abilene Weekly Reflector, a newspaper in Abilene Kansas. It is talking about the aftermath of the Battle of Wounded knee. It shows what the survivors of this massacre are going through mentally. A little three year old girl just witnessed her mother being shot right in front of her. That is something no one should have to go through, no matter the age. There are probably similar cases like this with other survivors. This shows that the U.S. military showed no mercy at all to these innocent Native American women and children.