Indian Wars

More and more fights were breaking out between the Indian tribes and US soldiers....

There was one Lieutenant Colonel named George Armstrong Custer, he was a stupidly cocky guy. He led his troops to attack, head on, a group of some 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho.

This ended in a lot of death, even Custer died, this was the Battle of Little Bighorn. It was a huge victory for the Indians, but now , the government was even more dead set on stomping the Indians.

(Little Big Horn is in picturesque Montana, you should visit, its really nice, and educational!)

Next up is Wounded Knee in South Dakota.

U.S. Calvary told the Sioux to give up their guns, one guy wasn't down with this...




After playing tug of war with the gun, it of course went off and then everyone and their dog started shooting.


Half of the Sioux men were killed, and the women and children fled. The soldiers followed and shot them while they ran.

Some bodies of women and children were found up to 3 miles away, this was really really terrible.

Some Americans were horrified by what had happened.



Others were ok with it..

Wounded Knee was the last conflict with the Plains Indians, but there was still some resistance in the Northwest and Southwest.

Here we are in the Northwest, lets say hello to the Nez Perce Tribe.



They lived in Idaho and Oregon and raised cattle, but, of course, settlers started moving onto their land. The very SAME land the government had allotted to them.



Eventually, the government wanted all of their land, so the Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph headed off to Canada after a fight broke out between settlers and some Nez Perce.

They were within 40 miles of Canada and they were stopped by the U.S. Army.


They were then placed in Oklahoma, another problem solved for the ol' white people.

In the Southwest we have the Apache, led by Geronimo. They led raids on settlers for years, eventually they were captured and sent to an internment camp. Another "victory" for white settlers.

The Reservations that were set up to be the new home for the tribes served 2 purposes..

1. Give Indians the really crappy land no one really wanted.
2. Teach them the art of being "American".

Instead of participating in the customs that the Indians had for centuries, the government decided that was not a good idea and to embrace white culture.




Well, now that those pesky Indians are learning to love Toby Keith and Levis, lets check in on the white folk...