Question

briefly explain the importance of each of these events battle of the little bighorn, wounded knee massacre, dawes act

Answer 1

The Battle of Little Bighorn was a battle fought on June 25th, 1876, near the Little Bighorn river in Montana Territory. It was an armed confrontation between the combined forces of the Cheyenne and the Lakota Sioux tribes, against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Cluster.

After many confrontations between Native Americans and white Americans, in 1868, a reservation of land for the Sioux was established, in the Dakota territory, where they could hunt and maintain their traditions and culture. The conflicts arose again when, in 1874, gold was found in that area and hundreds of white fortune seekers arrived to the region. The U.S government opted for relocating the Sioux, one more time, to a different reservation area. This betrayal led many Sioux and Cheyenne tribesmen to leave their reservation and join Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, leaders of the Sioux on the Great Plains in Montana. By 1876 more than 10,000 Native Americans came together in a camp along the Little Bighorn River in resistance to a US War Department order to return to the reservation assigned assume the risk of attack.

This confrontation led as a result in an overwhelming victory of the Native American coalition.  Five out of the twelve companies ended destroyed, even Custer was dead; this marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst Us Army defeat in long Plains Indian War.

The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29th, 1890, near the Wounded Knee Creek, in the Native American reservation of Pine Ridge located in South Dakota. On December 15th, 1890, an attempt was made to arrest Sitting Bull, during this attempt the Chief was killed. Looking out for safety, a group of Lakota Sioux led by Chief  Spotted Elk, went towards Pine Ridge reservation.

The day before the massacre occurred, a 7th Cavalry detachment under Major Samuel Whitside intercepted a group of the Lakota tribe near the Porcupine Butte Peak and escorted them for 8 kilometers up to Wounded Knee Creek, where they camped. The rest of the 7th Cavalry Regiment arrived to the place under Colonel James Forsyth, and surrounded the campsite armed with four Hotchkiss canons.

In the morning of the 29th of December, the American soldiers entered the campsite with the only purpose of disarming the Lakota Native Americans. A struggle arose when a soldier tried to disarm a young Lakota named Black Coyote, who refused to give his rifle, some say because he was deaf that he did not understand the order. During the struggle, his rifle discharged, the sound of the detonation cause the 7th Regiment to start shooting against the natives killing men, women and children, and even some American soldiers. When the shooting was over, almost 150 members of the Lakota tribe were murdered and other 51 were injured; 25 soldiers of the 7th Regiment were also killed, and other 39 were injured.

The Dawes Act of 1887 authorized the federal government to disintegrate the lands that belonged to the Native Americans by dividing them into individual parcels. Violent conflict between Native Americans and white settlers was constant; most white Americans believed that a peaceful living with the natives was impossible because of their traditions, which they considered as barbaric and primitive. As a result of this belief, the federal government designed the reservation system, in order to give lands to the natives where they could move freely and keep them away from European settlers and their lands.

This was not enough and the conflict continued among them, as a result the Dawes Act ,signed by US President Grover Cleveland was signed. this Act gave him the authorization to expropriate and reorganize the lands of the natives in the American West. Only those Native Americans who accepted the individual parcel of land were qualified to become US citizens. What was left of that land was sold to white settlers.  

The main purpose of that Act was to lead to better relations between the Native Americans and the White Americans; but what really happened was the loss of indigenous culture, traditions and lands; families were also separated from the tribes. In other words, this diminished the power of Native American tribes.