The U.S. Forces Native Americans from Their Homes
The U.S. Forces Native Americans from Their Homes examines the violent displacement of Native peoples during the settlement of the Great Plains after the Civil War—a critical topic in 8th grade U.S. history. As settlers moved west under the Homestead Act, the U.S. government pursued a policy of confining Native Americans to reservations, breaking treaty after treaty when valuable land was discovered. Military campaigns—the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876), the Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890)—marked the violent end of Native resistance. The Dawes Act (1887) attempted forced assimilation by breaking up tribal lands, destroying traditional economies and ways of life.
Key Concepts
The land that the United States expanded into was not empty. It was the ancestral home of many Native American nations. As American settlers moved west, they wanted this land for farms and towns, which led to conflict.
The U.S. government created policies to take this land. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act . This law allowed the government to use soldiers to force Native Americans to leave their homes and move to unfamiliar territories.
Common Questions
How did U.S. policy toward Native Americans change after the Civil War?
After the Civil War, U.S. policy shifted from negotiating treaties to aggressively confining Native peoples to reservations while opening their lands to white settlement. When valuable resources like gold were discovered on reservation lands, treaties were broken and the reservations shrunk. Military force was used against Native peoples who resisted confinement.
What was the Battle of Little Bighorn?
The Battle of Little Bighorn (June 25-26, 1876), also called Custer's Last Stand, was a major U.S. Army defeat. Lieutenant Colonel George Custer attacked a large combined Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho camp without adequate reconnaissance. His entire force of 268 men was annihilated by warriors led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. It was the Native Americans' greatest victory and last major offensive success.
What was the Massacre at Wounded Knee?
The Wounded Knee Massacre (December 29, 1890) was the killing of approximately 250-300 Lakota men, women, and children by the U.S. 7th Cavalry in South Dakota. Soldiers fired on a group being disarmed. The massacre ended the Ghost Dance movement—a spiritual movement that promised restoration of the Native way of life—and marked the end of the Indian Wars.
What was the Dawes Act and what did it do?
The Dawes Act (1887) broke up tribal lands by allotting individual plots (160 acres) to Native American families, with remaining land sold to white settlers. The law was intended to force assimilation by making Native people into individual farmers instead of tribal members. It was catastrophic: Native Americans lost 90 million of their 138 million reservation acres by 1934, devastating tribal economies and cultures.
How did the destruction of the buffalo affect Plains Indians?
The Plains Indians' entire way of life depended on the American bison (buffalo). By 1889, professional hunters had reduced the estimated 30-60 million buffalo of 1800 to under 1,000. The U.S. government encouraged the slaughter as a deliberate policy of destroying the economic foundation of Plains Indian resistance. Without buffalo, the Plains peoples could not sustain their traditional way of life and were forced onto reservations.
When do 8th graders study the forced removal of Native Americans from the Great Plains?
Native American displacement in the Gilded Age is covered in 8th grade history in the Industrialization and Changing West unit (1870-1900), as the final chapter of the centuries-long story of European and American expansion at the expense of indigenous peoples.