W5: The Fight for the West

Select one question and respond with researched material using the AIE readings, the course content, and the film. Post your main statement by Friday night and reply to at least two classmates by Sunday night.

1. Look at the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851). In two Treaties of Fort Laramie, 1851 and 
2. 1868, the United States agreed that the Black Hills belonged to the Sioux. Why, then, have the Black Hills repeatedly been a great source of contention and a call to war between the Sioux and the United States? How did the Indians defend the Black Hills? What strategies did Native Americans adopt to respond to declining populations and a loss of land?
   Further reading to help with this answer: Fort Laramie, Treaty of, Treaty Site: Fort Laramie, Wyoming, Sioux, Etc., Treaty of Fort Laramie and Westward Expansion. Primary source: Fort Laramie, Treaty of (1851), Fort Laramie, Treaty of (1868)
3. How did the Plains Indian Wars of the West start and end? How did they affect the Western Plains Indians? How did the various Euro-American settlements affect Native Americans? What boundaries were created to close the West to American Indians? A boundary is not necessarily geographical. Further reading: Plains Culture Upended by Warfare, 1863-1871 and American Indian Wars and Little Bighorn, Battle of the
4. How did Native American groups culturally survive the brunt of the American onslaught during the nineteenth century? What price did Indian communities pay? What resources did they use to create a viable identity and society? Further reading: Reconstruction Treaties, 18651868, Executive Order Reservations and Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
5. Who were some notable “Indian Messiahs”? What was the cultural, political, and historical significance of the “revival” of the Sun Dance and the Ghost Dance by the Lakota and other tribes? Compare and contrast the Ghost Dance of the 1880-1890s with other modes of Native American religious reconfiguration that we have encountered during this course, such as the Pueblo Revolt of 1680; the Midwiwin of the Ojibwa; the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century “prophets” such as Neolin and Tenskwatawa ; and the earlier Plains Sun Dance. Further reading: Ghost Dance Movement, Anishinabe Ceremony and Ritual, Tenskwatawa and Neolin
6. What was President Grant’s “Peace Policy”? In what ways was it a departure from previous policy? How did it change thinking about the place of Indians in American society? How did it influence subsequent policies towards Native Americans? Further reading: Grant’s Peace Policy and Policy in the West