The Indian Wars

Taking the Plains

Between 1862 and 1877 a series of wars was fought on the Plains. They are often told as separate clashes, but together they were one process: the taking of the Plains from the Native peoples who lived there. The Native peoples were defending their homes. As settlers, railroads and gold pushed onto their land, and treaties were made and broken, the Plains peoples fought to hold the land and the way of life it carried. ⚠️ This is a grave story. The wars were often terribly violent and Native communities suffered greatly. It is held here honestly, with dignity, and without graphic detail.

The pressures, and the outcome

The wars followed a hard pattern, from the pressures that started them to the outcome they reached. Hold both.

Order the Indian Wars

Put these events of the Indian Wars into the order they happened.

• Little Crows War is fought in Minnesota in 1862
• Red Clouds War is fought over the Bozeman Trail forts from 1865 to 1868
• The Treaty of Fort Laramie recognises the Black Hills as Sioux land in 1868
• Gold is found in the Black Hills and the treaty is broken
• The Great Sioux War, including the Little Bighorn, ends in defeat by 1877

What was unusual about Red Clouds War

What was unusual about Red Clouds War of 1865 to 1868?

• It was a rare Native victory: the US abandoned its forts, and a treaty recognised the Black Hills as Sioux land
• It was settled peacefully with no fighting at all
• It was fought against a foreign country, not the US
• It was the very last of all the Indian Wars

Words for the Indian Wars

Five words that let you explain the wars as a process, rather than just list the battles.

Spot the pressures on Native land

Three of these were pressures that pushed the US onto Native land. Choose the three.

• Railroads pushing across the Plains
• Settlers and homesteaders wanting farmland
• The discovery of gold in the Black Hills
• A shortage of soldiers in the US army
• Native nations inviting settlers to take their land

One process, not separate clashes

The sharpest answers show that the Indian Wars were one connected process of dispossession, not a set of unrelated fights. The same pressures drove each war. Settlement, railroads and gold pushed onto Native land, and treaties were made and then broken when they stood in the way. Resistance could not change the outcome. The Plains peoples fought hard and even won, at Red Cloud and at the Little Bighorn, yet each time the US answered with overwhelming force. Coming right after the Civil War, a reunited nation turned its army and railroads west, and by 1877 the Plains peoples were confined to reservations. Seeing the one process, and its link to westward expansion, is the grade 9 move.

Match each term of the Indian Wars to what it was

Find the sentence that shows the process

A student writes about the Indian Wars. Select the ONE sentence that shows them as one process of dispossession.

• Driven by settlement, railroads and gold, and by treaties made and broken, the Indian Wars were one long process by which the Plains were taken from the Native peoples who defended them.
• The Native peoples started the wars for no reason at all.
• The wars had no connection to settlement or the railroads.
• The Native peoples gave up their land willingly and without a fight.

Why historians look for the pattern

Historians are careful not to read a series of wars as a string of separate accidents. They look for the pattern that connects them. When the same causes appear again and again, and each conflict ends the same way, the events are better understood as one process than as chance. Seeing that pattern is what turns a list of battles into an explanation. Hold that idea. To judge these events, ask what drove each one and how each ended, and look for the single process running through them all.

Complete the account of the Indian Wars

The conflicts by which the Plains were taken were the _____. A formal agreement with Native nations, repeatedly broken, was a _____. The land Native peoples were confined to was a _____. The sacred Sioux land seized after gold was found was the _____. The 1876 battle where a US force was destroyed was the _____.

Judge the Indian Wars

Which is the soundest understanding of the Indian Wars?

• One connected process by which the Plains were taken from Native peoples, driven by settlement, railroads, gold and broken treaties, ending in defeat and reservations despite fierce resistance
• A set of random, unconnected clashes with no shared cause
• A peaceful handover in which Native peoples gave up their land
• A series the Native peoples ultimately won

Resistance, and the outcome

The strongest answers hold both together: the depth of the resistance, and the outcome it could not change.

Judge the Indian Wars like an examiner

You are marking three claims about the Indian Wars. For each, choose the soundest judgement.

• An essay says the Native peoples gave up their land without a fight. Is that safe?
• An essay says the wars were unconnected random events. Is that safe?
• An essay says winning at the Little Bighorn saved the Sioux. Is that safe?

Write: why the Plains were lost

Why did the Indian Wars happen, and why did the Native peoples lose their land despite fierce resistance? Explain the pressures, weigh the resistance against the outcome, and reach a judgement. This is written in English and is not auto-marked.

• Explain the pressures: settlement, railroads, gold and broken treaties
• Explain the wars from Little Crows War to the Great Sioux War
• Explain the Native resistance and its victories
• Explain why overwhelming force and broken treaties led to defeat
• Reach a supported judgement holding resistance and outcome together