Original subtitles

Though it would come to a devastating end, the American Civil War posed

something of an opportunity for Native Americans.

After having hundreds of thousands of acres of land taken from them for the

of white settlement, the Native Americans saw the event as a way of

few meager rights for their people.

This meant choosing sides.

Many Indians begrudgingly joined the Confederacy, though once the Union

up in the southern states, they switched sides.

It was not a matter of which side was right or wrong, but which side had a

greater advantage in protecting Native American interests.

The war was not about the indigenous peoples, but knowing the value of

when it came to warfare,

it didn't appear that their decisions regarding the Confederacy versus the

made any difference.

In the midst of the Civil War, the Meadowankinton and the Waka Pakute

living on a Minnesota reservation, found themselves engaged in yet another war.

Nearly 6 ,500 Native residents lived on this reservation where their leaders

built a soldier's lodge.

Its primary purpose was for the regulation of the village's hunting

it eventually became a meeting place for those who sought to resist U .S.

enforced policies against Native American ways of life.

The Dakota War of 1862 began.

on August 17th, when a few Dakota men killed five white settlers near Meeker

County.

The assassins fled to their reservation, asking for the tribe's protection

against retribution.

The request was appealed to Little Crow, one of the leaders of the soldiers'

lodge, along with a request to start a war against the whites.

Though Little Crow was more opposed to the idea than not, He agreed.

The next day, Meadowonkinton warriors attacked white traders and government

employees and defeated a relief force from Fort Ridgely.

Along the way, these warriors also attacked isolated farms and settlements

two counties.

One of those was Renville County, home to 1 ,207.

Between August 18th and 19th, nearly 200 of them were killed.

and more than 100 were taken captive.

The nearby Milford Township in Brown County, wherein resided mostly German

immigrants, was also attacked, and more than 50 killed.

Over 200 women and children were taken captive from the two locations.

On August 19th, the white residents of the upper agency were evacuated to a

safer area.

Upon receiving news of the attack, St. Paul's governor, Alexander Ramsey, sent

former congressman and governor Henry H. Sibley and a troop of volunteer

mercenaries out to hunt down the Dakotas.

As the settlers reached safety from the fighting, stories began to spread about

the Indian invasion.

Some of these accounts were real, while others were quite exaggerated.

By the time the news reached East Minnesota, Panic was high.

On August 20th and 22nd, the Dakota attempted two attacks on Fort Ridgely

were forced to retreat before striking a settlement on Lake Chautauqua. More

white women and children were kidnapped and taken into Dakota territory.

During that same time, 13 settlers would be killed in an attack at West Lake.

On August 23rd, the second battle at New Ulm began.

This would be the largest battle over a town since 1776, with 600 Dakota

soldiers fighting under Chiefs Wamanji -Tanka, Wabasa, and Makato.

Elected judge and military commander Charles Flandreau led the settlers in an

evacuation from the city as it was reduced to ashes and brought them safely

Henderson.

Around that same time, Little Crow's camp retreated out of reach to the upper

end of the reservation.

The soldiers' lodge began to oppose the war and sought to end it by creating the

Dakota Peace Party.

On August 28, Sibley and his men reached Fort Ridgely to retrieve some 350

American prisoners.

A burial party was sent out a few days later to tend to the aftermath.

and was consequently attacked at Birch Cooley.

Coincidentally, negotiations between Sibley and the Peace Party would also

commence on that day.

By August 3rd, Little Crow and his army reached the town of Acton.

More raids followed in Forest City, Hutchinson, and Fort Abercrombie.

Sibley succeeded in negotiating the release of 250 prisoners.

On September 23rd, he returned to the war at Wood Lake, where he and his

defeated Little Crow and his warriors.

Little Crow was able to flee to the West, and in his absence, the Dakota

Party granted the relief of 200 more hostages.

Even though the Civil War was not at all about Native Americans, more of them

became involved in it than not.

One such tribe to be caught in territory where the war was taking place was the

Cherokee.

At first, the Cherokee claimed neutrality, hoping to protect their

including their land.

This stance, though by default, placed their support on the side of the Union.

Though all Native Americans knew they were in danger of jeopardizing their

homes, freedom, and culture, should they end up on the losing side, there was

danger in not taking a side at all.

The Creek and the Choctaw tribes were able to gain mutual support and alliance

with the Confederacy under the political and economic commonality of being slave

owners. While nearly two dozen Native American tribes participated in the war,

only six sided with the Confederacy.

In some cases, Indian chiefs were bought and appointed in the Confederate Army

with higher ranks.

Many Native Americans fighting for the South did so in an effort to travel

with Confederate troops for the sake of offering their services to the Union.

In July 1863, the Confederates fought at the first battle of Cabin Creek in

Oklahoma. These forces were led by Cherokee leader General Stand Waite.

He led a second battle near the same location a few months later, with Waite

having advanced to brigadier general.

It was the last major Civil War battle to take place in the Indian Territory.

The Civil War began while the Cherokee tribe still lived primarily in Oklahoma.

Stan Waite was a respected leader of the Cherokee, and when the war broke out,

he supported the side of the Confederacy.

When he joined their ranks, he brought a large number of begrudging tribal

members along with him.

He was quickly promoted to colonel and was considered by some to be formidable.

Shortly after that, Chief Ross signed a treaty that granted the Cherokee

protection, food, livestock, and tools in exchange for their service.

It also meant that roads and military posts could be constructed within the

Cherokee Nation.

As a result of no Indians, including these ten Cherokee companies being

permitted to fight outside of Indian territory, the Second Cherokee Mounted

Rifles was formed.

This was one of the groups of Native Americans to defect to the Union, at

point they were joined by the Indian Home Guard.

In mid -1862, federal troops captured Chief Ross and moved him to Washington

then Philadelphia, where he proclaimed his...

and all Cherokee loyalty to the Union. It was then that Waite took over as

principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

He also drafted all Cherokee men, ages 18 to 50, into military service of the

Confederacy.

His skill and mind for guerrilla tactics made him a successful commander in the

field.

In May 1864, he was promoted to brigadier general.

and given charge of the Indian Cavalry Brigade, of which Creek, Osage, and

Seminole Indians were a part.

Waite went on to conduct one of the most notable attacks, which took place at

Pleasant Bluff in Oklahoma.

The raid involved the capturing of the Fort Gibson -bound Union steamboat J .R.

Williams. It had been carrying supplies worth over $100 ,000.

During the second battle of Cabin Creek, Waite and his brigade commandeered more

than 100 supply wagons and 700 mules.

They captured 120 prisoners.

The Cherokees still remaining were also taken, and as they were moved to the

south, some joined the Confederacy.

With multiple battles behind him by this point, and many more ahead, Brigadier

General Stan Waite would be on the losing side of the Civil War.

However... He was the last of the Confederate generals to surrender and

do so until June 23, 1865, two months after General Lee of the

Union Army had already surrendered at Appomattox.

In 1864, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Apache warriors gathered at Sand Creek in

southeastern Colorado, intent on maintaining peace even after the

encroachment and threats of violence.

from white Americans.

But on November 29th, Colonel John M. Chivington gave an order to disregard

natives' white flag of truce, and Chivington's troop of 700 militiamen

on the natives and showed no mercy.

Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians.

I have come to kill Indians and believe it is right and honorable to use any

means under God's heaven to kill Indians.

Kill and scalp all.

Big and little.

Knits make life.

Many of the victims were mutilated in the slaughter.

Chivington then ordered that the scalps of their victims be displayed in Denver.

The Federal Army was horrified.

and prepared for native retaliation.

The very few survivors of Lakota, Arapaho, and Cheyenne banded together to

strike back on white settlers, burning stagecoaches and destroying property.

But the Sand Creek Massacre had taken its toll.

Around 500 natives, men, women, and children had been killed.

Almost all of the chiefs were among the dead.

including White Antelope and Black Kettle, head chief of the nation.

All of them had strongly advocated for peace with white settlers and the U .S.

government.

Even famed Kit Carson was appalled and outraged by the act.

Just to think of that dog Chivington and his dirty hounds up there at Sand

Creek. His men shot down squaws and blew the brains out of little innocent

children. You call such soldiers Christians, do you, and Indian savages?

What do you suppose our Heavenly Father, who made both them and us, thinks of

these things?

I'll tell you what. I don't like a hostile Redskin any more than you do.

when they are hostile, I've fought them hard as any man.

But I never yet drew a bead on a squaw or papoose, and I despise a man who

would.

A century and a half later, the question remains, why did Colonel Chivington

choose to attack an unsuspecting and otherwise peaceful lot of Native

and give the order for their brutal murders, let alone that one had been

the American flag, and even raised the white flag of truce shortly after the

soldiers began their deadly assault.

There was some speculation that Chivington was looking to run for

Colorado, and helping to defeat America's enemy would earn him a better

It has also been said that he received an order directing him to fight all

Indians he came in contact with.

It was also argued by the defense of Irving Halbert.

and 18 -year -old cavalrymen, that the massacre had been much smaller than

reported, and women and children were killed as accidental casualties of the

attack. And the attack was, in fact, retaliation for Indian warfare on

Captain Silas Sowell, who had also been present at Sand Creek and ordered his

men not to fire their weapons, offered a very different testimony against

Chippington and was murdered.

just weeks later.

Whatever Chivington's motive, the Sand Creek Massacre was an atrocity in

American history.

And though none who participated in this massacre were met with any sort of

punishment, it was the end of Chivington's political aspirations.

While the Cheyenne and Arapaho had been striving to gain peace between their

tribes and the white settlers and the U .S. government,

The Apaches in the southwest were vehemently resisting white invasion.

A leader to the Choconin Chiaquahua, Cochise and his people lived

in what is now the northern region of Sonora, Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Their people had resided in these areas well before the Spaniards had sent

expeditions to the New World.

When Spain and Mexico attempted to invade and take over Chiacawa lands, the

Apaches fought back with one war after another, in which they were almost

victorious.

When the Spanish realized the resilience of these particular Native Americans,

they began to attack Apache independence through subtler means, their supplies.

The Galvez peace policy offered the Apache poor -quality firearms, and

government -rationed liquor.

But once Mexico gained its independence from Spain and had full control of its

land, things took a turn.

Without Mexican trade, the Chiricahua resumed their traditional raiding in

to get needed supplies.

The Mexican government made a stand, calling for either the capture or the

neutralization of the attacking Chiricahua.

But Mexican forces were hardly a match for the strength and persistence of

Apache warriors, and they began to kill Apache civilians in an effort to

discourage future raiding.

Mexico found assistance through American bounty hunters, who were paid for

Apache scalps.

When Cochise's father was killed by these mercenaries, he retaliated with an

increase in attacks.

He was captured in 1848, but released in exchange for a number of Mexican

prisoners.

The consistent growth in the number of white settlers in Apache territory also

increased tension between the peoples.

In 1850, part of the area was purchased by the United States, and peace between

parties was rocky at best.

In 1861, Cochise and his band were falsely accused of a kidnapping and the

release of a local rancher's livestock during an Apache raid.

The ordeal became known as the Bascom Affair.

after an army officer, Lieutenant George Bascom, called a meeting with Cochise.

He believed that Cochise was responsible for the incident, while Cochise

insisted that the crimes had been committed by another band of Apaches,

under his control.

The meeting ended in a skirmish, with Cochise escaping and Bascom taking some

Cochise's relatives into custody.

Cochise also took hostages, and due to the U .S. troops' false claims in the

situation, Negotiations for the release of captives fell apart.

Both sides executed their hostages, sending Cochise into a greater fury,

led to more than a decade of relentless warfare.

The Mexican -American settlements of Arizona were repeatedly hard hit and

reduced to nothing more than useless, burned wasteland.

The death toll of Mexican -American settlers numbered in the hundreds.

The raids continued, including the Battle of Dragoon Springs, wherein both

Apaches and Americans were killed, though the Apache fared better than

enemies and more easily adapted to the harsh terrain southwest.

In 1862, Cochise, Chief Mangus Colorados, and 500 warriors

faced off against an army of volunteers.

The Americans tipped the balance of the fight by bringing in caisson -mounted

howitzer artillery, eventually forcing the Apache warriors to retreat.

Biographer Aurora Hunt described the reaction of the Apache to this new sort

weaponry. This was the first time that the Indians had faced artillery fire.

Nevertheless, they fought for several hours before they fled.

Warfare would continue between the Americans and the Apaches throughout the

1860s. It only grew worse after the Americans tricked Mangus Colorado into

attending a meeting in early 1863, which was nothing more than a ploy to capture

and eventually kill him. Conflict did not end until 1872, when a peace treaty

was finally negotiated between the Apaches and General Oliver O. Howard.

Cochise spent the last two years of his life on his new reservation in

southeastern Arizona, where he died of natural causes.

As many tribes were fighting to keep their land from being further overrun by

non -native citizens, the United States was facing civil war.

Just as a good number of Indians joined the side of the Confederacy, there were

those who equally supported the Union.

Eli S. Parker was a member of the Seneca tribe, one of the six nations of the

Iroquois. Located in upstate New York.

His father had fought during the War of 1812, and as a descendant of Seneca

leaders such as Red Jacket and Handsome Lake, Parker was already on a path for

leadership.

Early on, Parker was resistant towards learning the English language, but

realized that it was necessary if he hoped to live successfully in both white

and native worlds. He attended.

and graduated from Yates College in 1845, where he excelled in debate.

Many of his friends belonged to the Grand Order of the Iroquois, a group

consisting of white supporters of the Native American cause, specifically in

York. He traveled with them to Washington, D .C., as a translator.

Parker met up with President Polk, who assured them that their proposed treaty

for land preservation would pass in front of the Senate for review.

Parker returned to school to study law and became an agent for the Office of

Indian Affairs.

In late 1848, due to political disorder, Parker was unable to be admitted to the

New York Bar.

Native Americans weren't considered U .S. citizens.

Naturalization was non -existent in their regard, though they had been

American soil centuries longer than any other people.

He passed the next decade studying engineering, and while working on a

construction project in Galena, met Ulysses S. Grant.

Parker gained a position as superintendent of a project in Dubuque,

He lost this position when Abraham Lincoln became president and gave the

position to a Republican engineer.

It is believed that his interest in joining the Union was a way of following

his father's footsteps.

He was originally denied enlistment because that war was stated to be

whites and therefore not his concern.

But Parker's enlistment was eventually granted, and he was promoted to

general, and later wrote the paperwork that would be signed by General Lee upon

Lee's resignation at the end of the Civil War.

Though the Civil War was indeed the largest war held on American soil, its

conclusion, In 1865, it was not the end of war for the Indians.

A multitude of battles would follow, with tribes continuing to raid white

American forts and settlements that had yet to recover from the Civil War.

Improvement did not come for Native Americans.

The craze for westward expansion was on the rise, and the Indians could not

escape it.

The Cherokees were not excluded from this gross inconvenience, though many

supported the American cause and fought during the Civil War.

Philip Henry Sheridan was a Union general, with all of his military

gained during the Civil War.

With his troop, Sheridan destroyed the Shenandoah Valley, and with it, the

majority of Confederate supplies in 1864.

The residents of this area later referred to the event as the burning.

Sheridan was considered a war hero to Northerners and held in high esteem by

General Grant.

But President Andrew Johnson declared him a traitor.

In 1867, Sheridan was sent to the Great Plains, where battle between white

settlers and Native Americans was ever increasing.

In order to end this and move Indians to reservations by force, Sheridan

attacked tribes during the winter, while they were stationary, with little

defense or escape, and then promoted the destruction of the American bison,

therein destroying the primary food source of the Plains people.

Sheridan had little regard for what sort of casualties were made in the process.

If a village is attacked and women and children killed, the responsibility is

not with the soldiers, but with the people whose crimes necessitated the

Three columns of U .S. armed forces made the first attack in 1868 on the Kiowa,

Comanche, Arapaho, and Cheyenne in Oklahoma.

It was George Armstrong Custer's surprise attack along the Washita River

made this particular part of the invasion successful.

William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of the Division of the Missouri, was also

part of Sheridan's army.

Sherman's tactics also consisted of surprise attacks, hitting the southern

region between late 1874 and early 1875 and the northern regions in that

following year.

In contrast to those eager Indian killers were generals such as Nelson A.

He was among the few who still showed some semblance of soldierly respect

the Indians that they fought against.

Though Sheridan denied ever making any such statement, it's claimed that he was

overheard declaring that the only good Indians I ever saw were dead.

Though many historians label Sheridan's attack as a massacre rather than a

remotely necessary tactic, the results were still the same, less Indians.

Others who remained now moved on to reservations with more land cleared for

American settlers.

As part of Sheridan's strategy for clearing Indians off their own lands to

way for more American settlements, he employed General Custer.

Custer had already faced a military court conviction for desertion and

mistreatment of soldiers with a 12 -month punishment of suspension from

Two months before his suspension was over, General Sheridan reinstated him

his campaign against the Cheyenne.

It didn't matter that Custer had a less than exceptional record.

Sheridan wanted him for his fighting skills.

On November 26th, Custer located Chief Black Kettle's encampment along the

Washita River.

Custer did not bother to learn who was within the camp, nor to find out exactly

where they were.

If he had, he would have known.

that this encampment was already on reservation soil, and this peaceful

was actually under the protection of Fort Cobb.

Completely disregarding the white flag flying over the main buildings, Custer

made a surprise attack at dawn.

The village had been surrounded the night before, and by the time the

ended, with only a few Cheyenne having escaped, more than one hundred Indians

were dead, including Chief Black Kettle.

While historians now view this event as a massacre, it was then hailed as a

victory against the Native Americans and led to the restoration of Custer's

tainted reputation.

His tactic for making these indiscriminately violent surprise

encampments would persuade those who remained to move to reservations, but

also lead to his eventual defeat.

In something of an effort to simplify Native American affairs, the U .S. began

to pass several acts to make this happen.

In 1851, the Appropriation Bill for Indian Affairs was created, and 20 years

later, a rider was added by the House of Representatives.

No Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be

acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with

the United States may contract by treaty.

But no obligation of any treaty lawfully made and ratified with any such Indian

nation or tribe prior to March 3, 1871, shall be hereby invalidated or impaired.

This saw the end of any new treaties made between the federal government and

Native American tribes, though any treaties ratified prior to 1871 were

recognized.

This also meant that all Native Americans were now deemed wards of the

government. The end of any new treaties also meant the end of the exchange of

land for food, supplies, money, or livestock.

which put many tribes into a greater hardship than what they had already

This amendment was decided between the House of Representatives and the Senate,

who had already been in conflict over who would control Indian affairs.

The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 would stay in place for almost a century

until federal Indian policy changed and then returned the power to self -govern

back to the tribes.

Though the act of creating treaties supposedly began as an honorable gesture

purpose behind them quickly shifted to the benefit of Americans and became less

and less about the well -being of Indians.

When the nature of a treaty no longer suited the interests of those who had

created them it was broken, rewritten or replaced altogether.

In the Removal Act of 1830 Indians were removed from land east of the

Mississippi River and placed on land that was granted theirs forever.

Because of the number of white immigrants traveling westward in search

on which to settle, this land was retracted.

Some, as with an 1874 treaty that stated that the U .S. government could

purchase the Black Hills of South Dakota, were not even legal, as it had

been signed by a few Sioux individuals.

and not three -quarters of the tribe, which was required according to an 1869

Sioux Treaty, Congress passed a law and ruled the prior Treaty of 1869 as

invalid.

At the turn of the century, the Supreme Court would give Congress the power to

alter or terminate any Native American treaty, regardless of Native American

consent.

Whereas these treaties had been made in great part for the purpose of protecting

the Native Americans from white immigration and to provide the Indians

and supplies in exchange for land, they were neither respected nor followed.

The original honorable goal was soon recognized as a means of transferring

inhabited by Native Americans to settlers in a forced and fast manner.

Not only did this mean that the land on which Native Americans could dwell was

diminishing, at a head -spinning rate, but it also meant that nomadic tribes

once followed the buffalo as a means for food were now restricted to what they

could eat.

The treaty system became nothing more than a reflection of the truer interest

white America.

They made many promises and only kept one.

They promised to take our land, and they did.

The act of breaking treaties came on just as quickly as that of making them,

this crippling process wouldn't end, not even well into the 20th century.

Though the interest in protecting Native Americans appeared to be less present

than not, there were some white Americans who changed their views of

indigenous neighbors and began working towards bettering.

the Indians' lives, if not through somewhat radical means.

Richard Henry Pratt had been one of the many Americans who had fought against

the Indians.

After also participating in the Civil War, he began to see the increased

injustice directed towards the Native Americans.

The dire struggles which they were being faced caused him to have a change of

heart. With tribal populations diminishing from constant war with

devastation to the buffalo as a food supply, Pratt recognized that the

were also facing extinction.

In 1879, Pratt founded a school for Indians in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

The school was initially started as a means to civilize the natives. Upon

in Indian children, Pratt would tell the families, Kill the Indian, save the

man.

He also warned those families that more white immigrants would come, and

educating their children was the best way to keep them from being taken

advantage of.

Bringing them to Carlisle would give them a way to integrate.

Carlisle was the way forward.

Upon arrival, Students would have their photographs taken and would then receive

a makeover, changing their clothing and their hair before another photograph

would be taken.

Some students were unrecognizable after these transformations, and after

attending the school for a few years, some even lost their native languages.

Families considered the clothing that their children were dressed in to be the

uniform of the enemy because they were dressed like the whites.

Because Carlisle was run like a military academy, nearly 200 children who were

unfit and in poor health died as a result. In 1882, Pratt employed teachers

train the students in a new physical activity in the hopes of toughening them

and building their strength.

That game was football.

While it did help in improving the physique of some, Pratt nearly ended the

after one student suffered a broken leg.

Pratt declared the game uncivilized, but the students protested, still wanting

to play.

Pratt was moved by the passion the students showed for the game, and he

under two conditions.

They had to play the best teams, and they had to play fairly.

Because the Carlisle students were a good 120 pounds lighter than their

teammates, it was easy for them to be taken advantage of during games.

Despite these discrepancies, Pratt reminded his students to be gentlemen.

He viewed them as equal to their white peers and eventually brought Glenn Pop

Warner aboard as their coach.

The Carlisle football players would improve.

and win against some of the best teams in the nation.

While some students felt the school was more of a prison than a place of

education, Delaware Indian Albert Exendine thought highly of Pratt,

the father of Indian education.

He was one of Carlisle's students who went on to achieve higher education and

also later coached football.

In the mid -19th century, and with so much westward expansion happening in the

United States, it is hard to imagine there being any Native American people

had not had some sort of interaction with white Americans.

Up until 1862, Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa tribe had had no personal

dealings with anyone other than Indians, and all warfare had been intertribal.

Sitting Bull was born in the Grand River Valley of South Dakota and became a

warrior at the age of 14 during a raid against the Crow.

He had heard stories of the unpleasantness of reservation life and

displeased with the treatment shown to his fellow people.

He resolved to protect those that he could from the white man's world, vowing

that he'd never sign a reservation -related treaty.

as long as he lived. In 1857, he became a tribal war chief.

Sitting Bull and other members of the Teton Sioux tribe moved to the valleys

the Powder and Yellowstone Rivers, where the population of buffalo and other

game had yet to dwindle.

He strongly believed that independence from the white men relied on native

access to the buffalo.

During this time, his reputation as a visionary, and holy man steadily grew.

But in 1865, U .S. soldiers began a steady stream of invasions against

River territory.

Sitting Bull studied and learned their tactics, strengths, and weaknesses.

Contrary to this and Sitting Bull's beliefs, Red Cloud, who had been leading

Tetons, signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

By doing so, Red Cloud agreed to reservation life, and his influence

tribe waned significantly.

Because Sitting Bull was adamantly against both treaties and reservations,

more Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho began to follow him.

In 1873, Sitting Bull had a brief run -in with General Custer, who happened to

be guarding surveyors for the Northern Pacific Railroad in Montana Territory.

The two would meet again in three years at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

A year later, outside conflict increased for the Sioux when gold was discovered

in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

A report made by Indian Inspector E .C. Watkins to the Commissioner of Indian

Affairs declared that hundreds of Indians in the Montana, Wyoming, and

Dakota territories were expressing open hostility towards the United States.

The Great Sioux War began in 1876 and would end with the Battle of the Little

Bighorn in 1877, a battle during which Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and an

alliance of tribes would defeat Custer.

After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull was forced to flee to

Canada with a vengeful army in his wake.

He spent several years there, but surrendered to U .S. forces in 1881 as a

prisoner of Fort Randall, South Dakota.

Two years later, he was forced to settle on the Standing Rock Reservation, where

he continued to advocate against the government's stealing of Indian lands.

For a brief time in 1885, Sitting Bull traveled with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild

West show.

Before his death in 1890, Sitting Bull had brought popularity to the ghost

dance, a tribal religion that decreed the end of the white man and the return

of dead Indians and buffalo.

Threats from the government to cease his preaching resulted in Indian police

being sent to make Sitting Bull's arrest, where he was shot and killed.

To this day, Sitting Bull is remembered.

for his courage and stubborn resistance towards white domination.

By the time Eli S. Parker was appointed as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in

1869, the nation of Native American peoples was in dire need of assistance.

At first, the legality of Parker's appointment was heavily scrutinized.

While he was not considered a U .S. citizen, President Grant was able to get

Attorney General to agree to the arrangement.

Parker was still a taxpayer, after all, as well as having a previous trustworthy

reputation with the government.

Parker's first order of business was to rid the Office of Indian Affairs of

those agents who had corrupted the relations between the government and

Americans. To do this, Parker would have to become a liaison to his people.

and remedy the wrongs created prior to his arrival he began by replacing those

who had instigated Native American hardship with new agents from the

Civil War Army officers who had proven their integrity relations between the

United States and Indian nations significantly improved these changes

difficult for powerful and corrupt politicians to continue with their old

and it drew the wrong sort of attention.

A congressional committee insisted on investigating Parker, convinced that he

was in violation after purchasing emergency supplies for starving tribes,

because he had not involved the whole of the Commission on Indian Affairs before

doing so. Parker argued that the priorities of Congress worked against

-being of Native Americans, and their slow, bureaucratic actions had been the

cause for Indian struggle.

Parker had taken the matter into his own hands by purchasing food and supplies

and had them sent to those in need.

After his nemesis in Congress called him out for public humiliation on the

matter Parker resigned from his post in 1871.

Even after his resignation Parker continued to keep close relations with

President Grant.

with their friendship continuing until Grant's death in 1885.

Parker also continued working for the interests of both Indians and Americans

and served on the New York Board of Commissioners.

He died in August 1895 in Fairfield, Connecticut, where he was buried.

In January, two years later, his body was exhumed and reinterred next to his

ancestor and famous Seneca order, Red Jacket.

By 1875, the majority of Native American tribes had felt the full and less than

positive effects brought about by white American immigration.

This led to repeated conflicts, wars, and the overall worsening of conditions

for the Indian population.

The increase in Indian removal from their sacred homelands to reservations,

the sake of making even more room for settlement growth, drove Sioux and

Cheyenne warriors to join Sitting Bull in Montana.

Here, they gathered together, prepared to fight for the return of their lands

one of the last armed efforts to preserve the Native American way of

In spring of 1876, these tribes gained two victories over the U .S. cavalry and

planned for another attack in the summer.

In preparation for this impending attack, The U .S. Army sent three

attack the Indians and force them back onto the reservations.

One of these columns included the 7th Cavalry and General Custer.

On June 25, Custer spotted a Sioux village about 15 miles from where he and

troops were camped.

He also discovered a group of Indian warriors waiting nearby.

Not knowing if he and his army had also been discovered, And not wanting to be

caught by surprise, Custer went ahead without official orders and commenced

attack. Little did he know that the true number of warriors that he and his men

would face would be triple to his own.

Custer's army was divided into three groups.

He sent Captain Frederick Benteen to the upper valley to head off any escape

attempts by way of the Little Bighorn River.

Major Marcus Reno was sent to attack the village.

Not knowing that he would encounter and have to negotiate terrain full of bluffs

and ravines in order to get there, Reno's plan to strike at both the

and southern ends brought delays to his plan and thwarted the desired results.

After attacking the southern end, Reno and his men fought for about ten minutes

before having to retreat to the trees and brush along the river.

Still in a vulnerable and indefensible position, they went further uphill

the bluff, but already had an army of Indians in their wake.

At about the same time that Reno and his men were pushed out of the village,

Custer and about 210 of his men attacked.

The Cheyenne and Hunkpapa Sioux came at them in a full defense, pushing Custer

and his men back out again.

Unbeknownst to Custer, Crazy Horse had his army ready to strike, and they did

swiftly by closing in around Custer and his men.

Custer gave orders for his men to shoot and stack their horses as a sort of

blockade from Indian arrows and gunfire, but it proved to be too little too

late.

Through the united effort of the tribes, it took less than an hour for Custer,

and his men to be killed.

After another day of fighting, Reno and Benteen and their combined armies were

forced to flee.

They had learned that two more forces of warriors were coming to join the fight,

and they knew they could not win.

263 U .S. soldiers were killed in what has been deemed the worst military

disaster in American history.

After the U .S. soldiers had fled, the Indians stripped and mutilated the dead

soldiers, believing that it would cause the soul of their enemies to walk the

earth forever, never to reach heaven.

Ironically, Custer's body was stripped and cleaned, but neither mutilated nor

scalped.

It is speculated that because he'd been wearing buckskins rather than a

soldier's uniform, he'd been mistaken for an innocent.

and because his hair had been cut short, there was no point in scalping.

It wasn't long after the battle had ended before a myth began to spread,

that Custer's preservation had been due to respect for his fighting abilities.

Because so few of the Indians involved in the battle would have known Custer's

identity, it is unlikely that such respect would have been shown for those

reasons.

Even though the Battle of the Little Bighorn reflected the resilience and

determination of the Indians who fought in it, it was but the pinnacle of their

power, and the collapse of the Sioux Nation would follow almost immediately.

Custer's death stirred an outrage that caused the boundary lines of the Black

Hills Territory to be redrawn.

This meant that the land that the Sioux had fought to keep was now part of the

territory outside of reservation lines.

and free to be claimed by a white settlement.

Custer's last stand signified the end of the Sioux as well, and within a year,

the nation was defeated.

Centuries of colonist invasion, war, raiding, theft of lands and resources,

and otherwise complete disregard for the indigenous people would bring many

tribes together.

for a common cause.

For these people, it was not about greed or power or financial superiority,

but for the sake of maintaining a culture that had successfully carried

throughout time.

While white support of Native American lives was minimal and nearly non

-existent at times, there were some, as with Pop Warner, who would change their

discriminating views to help better Native lives.

And, as with Eli Parker, some were able to achieve new heights previously

unimaginable by Native Americans and bring some improvement within their

lifetimes.

Even with these changes, America's first residents would still face decades of

struggle, mistreatment, and discrimination before much more

ever be made.