Why did the Indians lose the struggle for the plains?

Why did the Indians lose the struggle for the plains?

1. Buffalo

   • An American tannery found a way in which they could manufacture high quality leather from buffalo skin
     • This meant that the price for buffalo skin went up, causing a rise in the hunting of Buffalo
       • More Americans hunted the Buffalo, which the Indians depended on for living
   • Americans began to hunt Buffalo for sport
     • Decreasing numbers of Buffalo meant that the Indians struggled to live because they relied so heavily on them
       • Buffalo meat would be used for food
       • Hides would be used for clothing and teepees

2. Technology

   • The Americans had more advanced technology, particularly when it came to weaponry
     • This meant that, in warfare, the Indians had less a chance of success that the Americans, meaning they could be overpowered relatively easily

3. The reservation policy

   • The Indian reservations were split into multiple, smaller reservations.
     • Undermined the importance of chiefs and community to the Indians
     • There were no chiefs, each man was in charge of his own family
     • The Indians were made to farm and stay in one area, this was very much against what they would normally do.
       • Indians would normally live on the land and move with the Buffalo
   • If the Indians did not accept the new terms, then the Americans would start to fight them
     • They were forced to accept the land

4. Education

   • The Americans would take the children of the Indians, from their families and put them into boarding schools
     • Here they would be taught English, to be Christians, and live like Americans
     • They would be punished if they spoke their native language, and were taught to have no respect for any aspects of the Indian way of life

5. The Battle of Wounded Knee

   • American troops arrived at the Sioux camp at Wounded Knee with the intention of removing weapons from the Indians
     • A single Indian, believed to be deaf, resisted and in the confusion created, firing started
       • It is almost unfair to call it a battle, it is best described as a massacre
         • A lot of the American soldiers involved in The Battle at Wounded Knee were at the Battle of Littel Bighorn, also. For many of them, this was revenge for those they had lost.
     • Because of the Ghost dance movenent, which was now being treated as a military threat
       • The movement began from an Indian who had a vision. He told that an Indian messiah was coming, and that if the Indians remained peaceful, and danced the "Ghost Dance", all the dead Indians would come back to life, the whites would disappear and the buffalo would come back
   • This was the last battle for the plains. Many Indians died, old and young, men and women
     • It is said that all of the hope that Indians had was lost that day too