CULTURE CLASH

Plains Indians Culture

• Included dozens of nations, inc. Sioux, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, Pawnee, Apache, Comanche

• Advanced economy had trade between tribes 1000s of miles away.

• Two animals shaped their lives–Horses: Brought by Spanish.

Allowed more & faster travel. Made hunting possible

–Buffalo: Wal-Mart on hooves! Got everything they needed from bison

Products made of bison

• Food (meat)

• Shelter (skin)

• Clothes (skin)

• Weapons (bone)

• Religious needs (horns)

Social Life

• Men: Hunters, warriors, dads

• Women: Butchers, made goods

• Kids: Well-schooled in parents’ job

• Community: No one leader! Gov’t was by counsel - not by force

• Land: No private ownership

Battle of the Little Bighorn

• 1876• Col. George Custer leads 7th

Cavalry in attack on Sioux HQ• Charges into low ground• In less than 60 minutes, entire 7th

Cav is killed• Last major Sioux victory

• George Custer

How do you take the Indian out of the Indian?

How do you take the Indian out of the Indian?

• “Destroy the buffalo, and you’ll destroy the Indian” - WT Sherman

• Herd reduced to >1,000

• Dawes Act breaks up reservations & gives “private land” to Indians.

Ghost Dance & Wounded Knee

• 1890: Religious movement (Ghost Dance) tells Sioux it will return the old way of life.

• Some believe a magic shirt will stop US bullets

• US officials alarmed, order Sitting Bull’s arrest

Sitting Bull

• Battle of Wounded Knee (1890, SD)

–Sioux told to drop weapons, but someone fires

–US opens fire; 300 dead in 15 m.

–Sitting Bull assassinated

–Last of the Indian Wars

Development on the Plains

• Once bison cleared, cattle can graze on prairie grass

• New RR networks allow transport of beef to E. Coast

• Trails are blazed to railheads

Vaqueros = Buckaroos

• Cowboy culture pretty much ripped off from Mexicans– Chappereras = chaps– Charqui = jerky– Bronco Caballo = bronco– Mestenos = mustangs– Rancho = ranch

Getting cattle to market

• Chicago cattle dealer Joseph McCoy creates 1st “Cow Town” in Abilene

– Trails meet rails

– Feed lots & stock yards @ Abi.

– Slaughterhouses @ Chi.

End of the Open Range

• ?? How do you make a fence ??

• Invention of barbed wire makes it cheap to claim your “own” land

• Era of “wide open” West ends (except for on Nat. Am. Reservations)