2. Treaties and Manifest Destiny
• Grades: 9 – 12th Grade
• Discuss what treaties are and why they were made
between Indian tribes and the U.S. Government.
• Time Period: Discovery, Conquest and Treaty
Making 1532-1828
• Lesson Description:
• Students learn about the treaty-making process
with American Indians in the United States and in
South Dakota specifically.
3. Manifest Destiny
• a term that came to describe a widespread belief in
the middle of the 19th century that the United
States had a special mission to expand westward.
• the specific phrase was originally used in print by a
journalist, John L. O'Sullivan, when writing about
the proposed annexation of Texas.
• Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHemd90ZdsU
4. Perceptions About Land
• Europeans viewed land on which they did not
recognize active improvement or permanent
settlement as free land;
• The concept of land ownership was foreign to
Native people. Can you imagine today owning the
breathing air?
• These differences in thought about the use,
occupation and ownership of land sparked serious
conflict between Native peoples and would- be
settlers over land in North America.
5. Treaties
Questions people have today about treaties:
• “Are treaties still valid?”
• “Do treaties give American Indians special rights?”
• “Aren’t treaties bad for American Indians?”
• “Weren’t all the treaties just broken anyway?”
6. Sovereignty Before the 19th
Century
• At the time of European contact with the North
American continent, all Indian nations exercised the
powers of sovereigns by:
• forming treaties,
• trade agreements,
• military alliances with other Indian nations.
7. Treaties
• A Treaty is an agreement
between two nations.
• Why did treaties develop?
• to prevent war over disputed
areas.
• to gain ownership of an area of
land.
• to gain access to resources in a
given area.
Sioux Treaty of 1868, National Archives and
Records Administration
General Records of the United States
Government
Record Group 11
National Archives Identifier: 299803
8. Pros & Cons of Treaties
• Pros
• Can be used in order to avoid major conflicts that could
lead to war.
• Can help protect the rights of one or both parties, by
getting an agreement in writing.
• Cons
• If not written clearly, misunderstandings can lead to
further disagreements.
• Could be used to take advantage of other group.
9. Handout
• Key events that affected the
lives of the Oceti Sakowin
people - a 19th century time
line.
• Please refer to the handout
provided for a brief
discussion of the historical
context Indian policy &
treaty making/violation.
Photograph of a poster
advertising land taken inside
Dacotah Prairie Musem,
Aberdeen, SD. Courtesy of Ioana
Hojda
10. Treaties of Fort Laramie of 1851
and 1868
Photograph taken during negotiations preceding the
1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. "Photograph of General
William T. Sherman and Commissioners in Council with
Indian Chiefs at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, ca. 1868”. Image
Source: National Archives, identifier 531079.
1851
• safe passage of settlers to California
in exchange for goods and services
• created a short period of peace
which allowed more settlers to
enter or travel legally through tribal
lands.
1868
• guarantees Sioux reservation land
including the Black Hills, and
hunting rights in Montana,
Wyoming, and South Dakota
11. Treaties Matter
• Originally, treaties were made to reduce animosities
between settler governments and tribes, delimit non-
Native settlement, or to establish relations of trade,
peace and war.
• Successively - they became a means by which tribes
attempted to retain portions of their original territories
or self-governance in the face of an overwhelming
number of settlers and soldiers encroaching on their
lands
• Today - many treaties are very important in modern
times: some protect tribes and support the fact that
tribes are sovereign governments and have certain
rights (to hunt and fish on ceded lands)
12. Take-aways
• Native American treaties and agreements signed
with United States government a detailed record of
the developing relationship between a rising super-
power and a people that now suffer from
disproportionate social deprivation and lack of
opportunities
• as the US became more powerful in the middle of
the Nineteenth Century it was able to drive harsher
bargains with enervated tribes
13. Resources
• http://indianeducation.sd.gov/ocetisakowin.aspx
• http://aktalakota.stjo.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8668
• Keasley, A., Meyer, R. C., Reeder, M., Centre Communications., BCI Eclipse (Firm),
Brentwood Home Video (Firm), & Navarre Corporation. (2005). The great Indian wars.
New Hope, Minn.: Distributed by BCI Eclipse Co.
• Loewen, J. (2008). Lies my teacher told me (2nd ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Stremlau, R. (2005). "To Domesticate and Civilize Wild Indians": Allotment and the
Campaign to Reform Indian Families, 1875-1887. Journal Of Family History, 30(3), 265-286.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0363199005275793
Editor's Notes
Teacher Background:
In Race and Manifest Destiny, Reginald Horsman has shown how the idea of “God on our side” was used to legitimize the open expression of Anglo-Saxon superiority vis-à-vis Mexicans, Native Americans, peoples of the Pacific, Jews, and even Catholics.76Loewen, James W.. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (p. 90). The New Press. Kindle Edition.
The clash of cultures that began in 1492 was inevitable given the settlers’ drive to control new lands and the ways in which they justified the acquisition of these lands.
Tell students that they will learn about the treaty-making process with American Indians in the United States generally and then specifically in SD.
Discuss the concept of treaties with the students. In many areas, treaties became the legal basis used by the U.S. government to acquire and change ownership of lands originally occupied by American Indian peoples.
Explain to the children that treaties were, at first, agreements between tribes and non-Natives to co-exist.
In North America, indigenous peoples were dispossessed of their lands by the U.S. government and non- Native settlers.
A treaty is a binding agreement under international law concluded by subjects of international law, namely states and international organizations. Treaties can be called by many names: treaties, international agreements, protocols, covenants, conventions, exchanges of letters, exchanges of notes, etc.; however all of these are equally treaties, and the rules are the same regardless of what the treaty is called.
Why is this important? The Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851 created a short period of peace which allowed more settlers to enter or travel legally through tribal lands. However, as more non-Indians traveled through Sioux treaty lands, there were more opportunities for conflict and misunderstanding. The conflicts led members of Congress to think that another treaty was necessary.
The treaties created a new problem for the Sioux. Once the government had established specific territorial boundaries for the tribes, federal agents could negotiate for more land cessions. The Sioux came to the 1868 treaty council with a great deal of power because Red Cloud and Sitting Bull had fought settlers, miners, and the Army. However, the Sioux lost land in this treaty council, and over the next forty years would continue to lose land originally promised to them by the Treaty of 1851.
Today, treaties have a legacy that is both tragic and a source of hope. Most treaties have been broken or violated in one way or another by the U.S. government, resulting in massive losses of land that were originally set aside for the exclusive use and occupancy of Native people. In addition to the attendant problems land loss created for tribes, the promise of food, goods, services and payments were not always delivered as specified in treaties.