American West Treaties And Acts Flashcards
What was the Indian Removal Act (1860)
TheIndianRemovalActbrought the plains Indians underthecontrolofthe UnitedStates.Itforcedthoseliving eastoftheMississippiRivertomovewest beyondthePermanentIndianFrontier,sotheycouldliveseparatelives.This meantmoving46,000NativeAmericans.
What was the Trail of Tears?
The Trail of Tears was the forced removal of eastern tribes to land west of the Mississippi River in the 1830s, under the terms of the Indian Removal Act. Many Native Americans died on the journey.
What was the Permanent Indian Frontier? (1834)
The Permanent Indian Frontier was a border along the Mississippi River, dividing the eastern United States from what became known as ‘Indian Territory’.
Indian Reservation
The US government made it sound as if the move was to protect them, and that they would be looked after.
Many tribes were struggling to survive as a result of having less land, less food, and more disease.
They thought that moving to the reservations would mean that they could continue their way of life and customs in peace.
Problems of Indian Reservation
Chiefs often agreed to treaties which they could not enforce on their tribes as they did not have the authority to do so.
Some reservations were situated far from sacred places that the Native Americans wanted to visit.
Some rival tribes were placed together on the same reservations, which caused its own issues.
The land in the reservations was often poor quality, even for those who did attempt to farm. This meant that the Native Americans were even more dependent on the government for supplies.
The government often reduced the size of the reservations after pressure from white Americans, who said that it was unfair that the Native Americans had so much land.
What was the Fort Laramie Treaty? 17th September 1851
The Fort Laramie Treaty gave land and money to each Plains tribe if they let settlers, travellers, and government agents cross the Plains in safety.
What was the Homestead Act? 1862
The Homestead Act was a law, signed by Lincoln, which gave farmers 160 acres of Plains land (called a homestead). The land was free so long as it was successfully farmed for five years. It cost just $10 to register and claim this land.
What were the problems with the Homestead Act?
More land went to the railroads (300 million acres), and to cattle ranchers, who paid highly for it.
Many homesteaders bought their land from the railroad companies, instead of through the government scheme.
Rich landowners sometimes abused the scheme by getting employees to claim land as a homesteader, then handing the rights over to the landowner.
Part of the scheme allowed people to pay $1.25 an acre for land, which they were allowed to sell after six months of living there and ploughing at least an acre of it. They could earn profits using the scheme.
What was the Second Fort Laramie Treaty? 1868
The Second Fort Laramie Treaty was an agreement signed after the failure of the first Fort Laramie Treaty. It was signed by the Lakota and Dakota Sioux, the Arapaho, and the US Government.
Terms of Second fort Laramie treaty
TheUSArmyclosedthefortsontheBozemanTrail.
GreatSiouxReservationwascreated,whichincludedthesacredBlackHills.The Siouxagreednottoattacktravellers if nopermanentwhitesettlementswerebuiltontheirland. ItgavetheUSGovernmenttheauthoritytopunishanyonewhobroketheTreaty
What was the Dawes Act? 1887
The Dawes Act was a law which distributed Indian reservation land to individual Native American families. They were given a plot of land, with the intention that they would become self-sufficient farmers.
