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THE AMERINDIANS' LAS T STAND
Wha thappenedto t h eAmeri ndia ns aswhitepeople
spreadacrossrhe plain sandmounta insofth e
American West?This cha pte raims to ans wer th at
question.Whenth e cowboysand homest ead er s arri ve d ont he
GTe,atPlains, A m erin d ianpeopleslike th e Siouxhad
beenroaming acr ossthemfo r h un d redso fY C oUS .T he
Siouxliv edbyh u ntingt he bu ffalo. Int he earlypar t
ofthenin eteenthce n t u ry.a nes ti m atedtwelvemillion
oft h esegentle,hCJ\'Yanimals wandered theGrea t
PLUllS.Theymovedaboutin herds.Sometimest hes e
herdswere sobigt hatth eystretc hedas far asth e eye
couldsee.Thebuffalo provided theSiouxw ith
everything th at theyn ccdcd-.foo d .clothin g ,to o ls,
homes.In the 18-Wswagon trains headingfo r O regonand
Califo rn iabegan to crossth e G rea t Plains.The
A me rin d ians u su all ylet the m passwithout trouble.
T henrailroad s began topushac rossth e grasslan ds.
T herailroad s carried white peoplewhostayedo nthe
p rairiesand begantoploughthem.
At first the Amerindians t ri ed todriveth e
new co mersawayfromth eirhu ntinggrounds. But
soonth eysawt hatt hi s was im po ssible .So the ym ade
tr eatiesw it h ebegovemmcntin Washington, gIvm g
uplargepieces o f th ei rland fo rw h itefarme rsto
settleu pon .In IRStth e Paw neepeo p lesig nedaway
an area thatto dayfo rmsmost o f the sta teof
Nebraska.In 1858t he Sio uxg aveupan area alm o st
as bigin SouthD ako ta .In theH~60sth eComanch e
and theK io wagaveu p landsin Kansas,Colo rad o
andT exas.In re tu rnfo rsuch agreementst he
governmentpromised toleavet heAmeri nd ians in
peace on th e land sth atrem ainedtheirs.
T h e FortLar amie tr ea tyofl868wast yp ical o f these
agr eements. So waswhathappenedto it. In this
tr eat yt hegovernmentdeclared thatlargeareas
betweentheMissouri River andt he Rock y
Mountainsbelong edtoth e Sioux.Itgavea so le m n
promiset hat thelandswouldremain Siou xproperlY
"aslong as[h e g rass sho u ldgro w andthewate r
flo w. "66
Fin e and movin gwords.Sixyearslater ,howe ver.
Ameri ca n so ld iers foundgoldin th e BlackH ills of
SouthDakota.The BlackI !ills weresacre dtothe
Sio u x and w hen [h egon' mmelHtriedtobuythem,
th e Sio uxrefusedto sell."One d ocsnot selltheEar th
upo nwhicht he peoplewalk , " saida chiefnam ed
CrazyH o rse.But t heAmeri cangovern me n t ignored
t heSioux's refusal.ItbroketheFortLaramie tr ea ty
andallowedprospect ors andm in ersto ente r the
BlackH ills. I n th e winte rof 1875 t ho u sandsofwhite
menpoured intothearea.
By this timetheA mer ind ianpeop lesoft he G reat
Plain s w er efaringano t herseriousproblem. The
buffalow asbegin ningto disa ppea r. More andmore
ofthelandthat[he biganim als need edtograzeupon
wasbein g takenbyra nchersand farmers.Wors e still,
whitehu n ters w er e shootingdown [heb uffaloIII
t ho usands.Theyk illedthemfo r thei r h id eso r for
spo rtand lefttheirfleshtorot .In j u sttwoyears
betwee nlH72and 1874th ehunter s alm o st
completel y destro yedth e g reat herds.AVIsitorto
t hePlains in 1 873 des cribedw h at h esawthere.
" Whereth er e w e re m yriad s [vas tnumbers]o f
bu ffa lo the year before.then' werenowmyria dsof
corpses.
T he A merind iansco uldnot u nderstandt his
behavior, " Hasthe white man becomea ch ildthathe
shouldreckle ssly kill and no t car?" askedaKiowa
chief.Bu r the A mer ican arm yencouraged the
slaug h ter.G eneral Sh eridan,theofficer\VI1O
commanded the armyin the West,saw the
extermin ati on of thebu ffal o asJwaytoen d
Amerindianresist ance to th e o cc upationoft heir
land ."Thesemenrth e buffalohunte rsIhavedone
more inth e lastt w o yea rsto set tl e[heInd ian
questionth anth e en tire reg u l ar ar m y hasdone in th e
lastthirtyyears, "h ewrote. "Send thempowd er and
leadandfo rthesakeoflas tin gpeaceletthemkill,
sk in , and sell um il thebuffalo esareextermina ted."
As mo resettlers claimedhomesteads in the West the
A m er icango vern me ntn ee d edmore lan d for t hem.
T o obta inth is it d ecid ed to fo rceth eAmerindiansto
giveuptheirw and eri n gwayoflife. Itsen t so ld iersto