Standards of Learning, VA Dept. of Education

1. HOW DID WESTWARD EXPANSION
IMPACT NATIVE AMERICANS

2. VOCABULARY
 Treaties
 Sitting Bull
 Ghost Dance
 Dawes Act
Wounded Knee
 Natural Resources
 Relocation
 Assimilation
 Reservations
 Little Bighorn
 Chief Joseph
 Impact

3. ONLINE RESOURCES
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/six/

4. OPPOSITION TO WESTWARD EXPANSION BY
NATIVE AMERICANS
 Battle of Little Bighorn
 P. 545-546 textbook
 In 1868, Americans broke a treaty
with the Sioux Native Americans
over the rumor that their lands in
the Black Hills of the Dakotas
contained gold.
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Click on image for
reading/video on
Crazy Horse

5. BATTLE OF LITTLE BIGHORN…CONT.
 The Sioux refused to give up their lands and
joined forces with the Cheyenne Native
Americans to stand up to the United States.
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 The United States send Colonel George Custer
and his army to round up the Sioux and relocate
them onto a reservation
 A battle took place on June 25, 1876, Custer
and all his men were killed.
 This was the one major Native American victory
over the United States

6. OPPOSITION TO WESTWARD EXPANSION
BY NATIVE AMERICANS
 Sitting Bull, Lakota Sioux Chief
 “I do not want to sell any land. Not
even this much.” he said holding a
pinch of dust.
 “If we must die, we die defending
our rights.”
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Click on CD image for
Sitting Bull song…

7. OPPOSITION TO WESTWARD EXPANSION BY
NATIVE AMERICANS
 Geronimo, Apache Leader
 P. 546 in textbook
 Southwest Region
 1880’s
 Geronimo escaped the
reservation and fled to Mexico
 He returned with a band of
followers and led a series of
attacks against settlers in
Arizona
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Read the New York Times obituary
for Geronimo on February 18,1909
Click on book to
research Geronimo’s life

8. FORCED RELOCATION FROM TRADITIONAL
LANDS TO RESERVATIONS
 Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perce
 P. 546 textbook
 1877
 Nez Perce, Tribe of Native Americans
 Refusing to relocate to a reservation in
Idaho, he traveled with his people for three
months in an attempt to escape to Canada
 He was forced to surrender just 40 miles
from the Canadian border
 Along the way, he earned the respect from
many white settlers for his humane
treatment of others
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Click here to learn about Chief Joseph…

9. OVERVIEW: IMPACT OF WESTWARD
EXPANSION ON THE NATIVE AMERICANS
 Reduced population
through warfare and
disease
Battle of
Wounded
Knee
 Video – America: the
Story of Us; History
Channel; “The Last of
the Sioux”
 Note: any graphic images are recreations of
the events made for educational purposes.
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10. OVERVIEW: IMPACT OF WESTWARD
EXPANSION ON THE NATIVE AMERICANS
 Assimilation Attempts
 How did they try to make Native
Americans change so that they would be
more like the “white man?”
 The Dawes Act
 Lifestyle Changes
 Reduction of the Buffalo
Population
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11. OVERVIEW: IMPACT OF WESTWARD
EXPANSION ON THE NATIVE AMERICANS
 Reduced their homelands
through treaties that were
broken
 As soon as a valuable
natural resource was
discovered in Indian
territory, the US would
break the treaties they
signed with the Native
Americans and force them
to relocate…again.
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