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This is the third discussion assignment worth eight points

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This is the third discussion assignment worth eight points. You are

to read Chapter 7 in the text, the Indian lecture and Baydo "Indian Wars of the West: An Overview in Reader book. This essay will help with your study of Chief Joseph and Red Cloud and give you a good overview of Indian leaders of the west. Then you choose ONE Indian leader from the following: Pontiac, Tecumseh, Chief Joseph, and Red Cloud. You are to read about this leader in the module area and watch the video on this leader.  (Links to an external site.)
  (Links to an external site.)
You are to become this leader and describe how you challenged the English or the United States government and what type of tactics your used and your level of success.
Finally you are to review all the Indian leaders covered in lecture and Chapter 7 along with your chosen leader and tell which Indian leader do you feel was the most successful and why. You are also to comment on two other students' choices of leaders.
Good luck on this Early Indian discussion.
chapter 7
THE EARLY AMERICAN INDIAN
This topic will cover the American Indian from the origins of the Indian to the passage of the Dawes Act in 1887. There are four parts to this topic: Part One- a series of theories or possible answers concerning the arrival of the Indian to North and South America will be explained, Part Two- this section will feature a description of the advanced societies in the United States in the Pre-Colombian period; the societies which we will described include the Hohokam, the Anasazi, and the Mound Builders of Cahokia, Part Three- this section is the European Period of Indian History and it will focus on Indian policy by Spain, France and England and also focus on the major Indian challenges from Pope, Philip and Pontiac, Part Four- this section will explain the United States treaty policy toward the Indian and will focus on five Indian challenges to this policy by: Tecumseh, John Ross, Chief Joseph, Red Cloud and Geronimo. Finally a preview of modern Indian policy will focus on a discussion and evaluation of the Dawes Act.
It is safely believed that there were no human beings in North or South America before 100,000 B.C. The key questions we need to answer then would be: Where did they come from? And how did they get here? Since there are no exact answers to these questions, we will discuss some possible answers or theories. The land theory is the most scientific and the most accepted theory. During the last great ice age the water level in oceans were down; the water between Siberia and Alaska is today called the Bering Strait. But during that last great ice age this was not water, it was a one thousand mile wide land bridge that connected Siberia and Alaska. Here is the scenario. Asian stone age hunters began to migrate across the land bridge from Siberia to Alaska; they moved in small family units in search of the bison: their major source of food. When that last great ice age ended around 10,000 B.C., land travel ended. Most experts would agree that the majority of Indians came from Asia across the Bering Strait land bridge and that they were originally part of the Mongoloid race from Asia. Another well proven and good scientific theory is that the early Indians came from Asia by water; there are strong currents in the Pacific Ocean such as the Japanese current that would take boats quite easily across the Pacific. In addition, there are many islands in the Pacific region and people could have migrated from island to island until they crossed the Pacific. Anthropologist Thor Heyderdahl not only proved Pacific travel when he took the raft Kon Tiki across the Pacific, but he also proved the possibility of Atlantic Ocean travel when he took a papyrus boat across the Atlantic from Egypt.
This leads us into theory three: the belief that Indians are a combination of races. This may explain the great variety of Indians both physically and culturally just in the United States alone. This theory says that Indians came by water from various places all over the world. There were many ancient races that sailed long distances such as the Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, and Phoenicians. There were many modern races that also sailed long distances such as the Irish, Welch, Swedes, even Africans. Theory three continues to focus on water travel but key here is that water travel could have taken place from various places all over the world: the ancient world and the modern world. Theory four is the religion theory; we have investigated various religions to see if they have tried to explain the origins of the Indian. The Mormons, for example, refer to the Book of Mormons and the reference to one of the lost tribes of Israel who traveled by water to America. Over the years that tribe split into various groups and the one group that survived was called the Lamanites. This group evolved into Indians. Many Mormons believe that the Indians are part of God's chosen people from the Middle East. While the Christian bible does not have any direct references to the origins of the Indians, the pope made two statements: a. that Indians were human and the descendants of Adam and Eve, and b. that Indians were Noah's relatives. This last statement is based on the idea that the ark made a stop in America and some of Noah's relatives got off and eventually became Indians. These religious theories are much more difficult to prove and are much less scientific.
Theory five is the legendary theory. This theory is based on the belief that there were advanced people who lived on islands, but these islands suffered some physical disaster and sank into the ocean. Eventually these advanced island people became advanced Indians. The most famous lost island is the island of Atlantis. Some believe that this island was in the Atlantic ocean and it sank into the sea and the people moved to America and became Indians. The famous lost island in the Pacific is the island of Mu. Again this island sank into the sea, and the people moved to America and became advanced Indians. Theory six is the outer space theory. This theory does not say that Indians came from outer space, but this theory does try to prove outer space visitation and influence- we now have IFO- identified flying objects. The theory is based on a series of unanswered items such as the stone statues of Easter Island and the drawings on the ground at the Plain of Nazca in Peru and the evidence of an ancient landing field in Utah and the Pacific Northwest legend of the Thunderbird. Individuals such as Erich Von Daniken tell us that the only way to explain these unexplained phenomenon as well as other mysteries is by visitation from outer space. The final theory involves the Indian tribal stories of creation. Indians believe that they were always here and that they were created from nature and elements of nature. These tribal stories of creation, and they are many of them, are nonscientific and are difficult, if not impossible, to prove. And they do vary from tribe to tribe; some tribes talk of being created from the earth itself, others tell that they are the children of the moon and sun. Some others even believe that they came from the center of the earth. Whatever theory or theories make the most sense to you, we will never know exactly where they came from or how they got here. But we do now that by 1492 A.D. there were 1.6 million Indians in the United States alone, they lived in six hundred different tribes and spoke as many as three hundred different languages. But before the whites arrived in large numbers after 1492, there were three advanced groups of Pre-Colombian Indians in the United States: the Hohokam, the Anasazi, and the people of Cahokia.
The word "Hohokam" is a Pima Indian word that means the People Who Have Vanished. A people came out of Mexico around 400 B.C. and moved into the deserts of southern Arizona. They became very advanced desert farmers due to the fact that they dug hundreds of miles of irrigation canals in the deserts of southern Arizona and they also planted crops which took little moisture, such as the Jojoba plant. We now describe the culture of a group of people in southern Arizona who became the greatest Indian farmers, even though we do not know what they called themselves. We will call them The People Who Have Vanished: Hohokam. These desert farmers, who lived in a very harsh environment, developed a stable food supply and were able to develop an advanced culture. They planted Indian corn, beans, and squash. Nearby they built cities, the largest is known as Snaketown. In these cities they lived in pit houses built into the ground. They worshipped, danced with and ate rattlesnakes: considered the major spirit in their religion of nature. They were relatively small people who developed an arts and crafts system of pottery and shell jewelry and who developed a trade system with their neighbors as far away as the Gulf of California. The men even played a ball game in a large ball court. Indians games were not to win or lose but to developed physical endurance and survival. But something happened to these great desert farmers around 1200 A.D. and they began to move back to Mexico. We believe that an extended drought hit the region and that by 1250 A.D. the Hohokam were the People Who Have Vanished.
The Hohokam had neighbors to the north known as Anasazi. The word "Anasazi" is a Navajo word that means the Ancient Ones. These people came from Mexico about the same time as the Hohokam and moved north into what we refer to today as the Four Corners region of the Southwest. This is the only area where four states come together: New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. The Anasazi developed a stable food supply through farming, fishing, and hunting and became the greatest Indian builders in the United States. They initially lived in pit houses into the ground, but then they constructed cities into the sides of cliffs. The largest cliff city was Mesa Verde in Colorado; this city into the side of a cliff held a population over 1200 people. The major way into these cities was down the sheer face of the cliff and in these cities they were underground churches for the men known as kivas. The Anasazi were also apartment builders with the largest apartment known as Pueblo Bonito in the Chaco Canyon of New Mexico. This apartment held over 800 people and was over five feet high. These Anasazi were natural architects and natural engineers and many of their buildings still stand as monuments to their building techniques. These people also developed an advanced culture with their cities and apartments and their pottery and rock art-sign language on rocks- and their elaborate trade system that was centered in the Pueblo Bonito area. But they were also hurt by the severe drought of the 1200s and while most of them moved back to Mexico, some of them stayed in the area and influenced the culture of the Hopi and the Pueblos.
The highest level of Indian culture in the United States before the arrival of the white man came with the mound buildings of Cahokia. In the midwest there were groups of Indians who built dirt mounds for burial, defense, as tribute to the gods, and for status- they began to put houses and council buildings on large mounds. One of the most advanced groups of mound builders would be the Mississippi Mound builders known as the people of Cahokia. In the east St. Louis region today is found the largest man made mound ever built in the United States. This is the Cahokia mound, often called monk's mound. This mound took apx. 200 years to build and it covers 18 acres and is nearly 250 feet high. On the top of this mound lived the sun-god: god on earth- who was the ruler of the city of Cahokia. Cahokia is not only the largest mound, but Cahokia is urban Indian America. Cahokia was a city which led a population of 30,000 Indians as early as 1200 A.D. and the population base in and around the city was over 50,000. It took white society two hundred years to establish the city of Philadelphia with a population of 30,000. Yet around 1200 A.D. there was a larger city in the center of the country; this was a trade city and this was a military city. In the center of the city was the large mound; on the top of the large mound lived the god-man ruler of the city. He was the leader of the city and he also was responsible for the ceremonies of human sacrifice which took place on the top of the large mound. On the terraces on the side of the large mound lived the important people of the city: the high priests, the businessmen, and the military leaders. There was an active marketplace in the city and there was obviously an outstanding administration evident in this city. Thousands of pounds of Indian corn was brought into the city on a daily basis to feed the inhabitants of Cahokia; a sanitation and water system was developed. And the military conquered neighboring Indians and turned them into slaves. In and around the city was the empire of Cahokia. This is the most impressive Indian empire that ever existed in the United States; it is believed to be the size of the present state of New York. Eventually there were problems with the empire; we are not exactly sure what happened to the empire and people of Cahokia. But by 1300 A.D. the city and empire was gone and only the big mound remained. This Pre-Colombian period ended with the first voyage of Columbus and now the European period in Indian history began.
Each European country had a different policy for the Indian. We need to discuss those policies so you can decide which policy you feel may be the best and which policy may be the worst. The Spanish were first to come to America and they began to exploit the land. In order to do this, they needed mass labor. They now created the encomienda system of Indian slavery which physically and culturally abused the natives. It was this system that appeared among the Indians of the Southern United States. This was also the system used for the Indians in Central America and South America. The Spanish were also Catholic and they wanted the natives to become Catholic and they forced them to become Catholic. This encomienda policy was brought into the Southern United States by Spanish civilians and Spanish priests. The French established their empire in the north: primarily in Eastern Canada. There is no doubt that the French treated the Indians best with their trade system. The Indians played a major role in this trade system and suffered little physical or cultural abuse. The Indians were allowed to acquire items such as furs and traded with the French for beads, cloth, kettles, tools, blankets and the like. The Indians became part of a business partnership system that stretched across Eastern Canada. The French even had more relationships with Indian women and married more Indian women than any other European. This French trade system affected few Indians in the United States. The English policy toward the Indian may be the worst of all. From day one the English had no use for the Indians along the East Coast region. They did not want to use them as slaves, or trade with them, or even Christianize them. They felt that the Indians were squatters on the king's land and they wanted them out. Initially there was a period of friendliness when there were few English settlers, but eventually the desire for Indian land led to tension and to war and then to the removal and/or extermination of the natives. One must remember that war became part of English policy and would also be an essential part of United States policy.
There were three major challenges to the Spanish and English policy. Pope was a Tewa Pueblo shaman (holy man) who appeared in New Mexico in the mid-1600s and who was the victim of the encomienda system there. He was tortured, beaten, and abused. He decided that the Spanish must go because they were a real threat to the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico. He began to travel and create a unity among the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico; there had never been a unity among the more than eighty Pueblo tribes. Pope now had to plan a spontaneous revolt against the Spanish. But the Pueblo Indians had no exact time frame as we do today, so the planning of a day for a revolt seemed near impossible for Pope. But he developed a rope system; he traveled to various Pueblos and left behind a rope with a series of knots on the rope. Each morning one knot would be untied until there were no more knots. This was the day for the revolt. This rope system worked and on August 10, 1680 there occurred the Pueblo Revolt: the most successful Indian revolt in American history. The Spanish were driven from New Mexico and the city of Santa Fe was destroyed. This was not just a one time revolt it was a sustained revolt and the Spanish were kept out of New Mexico for some 16 years. It is too bad that the great leader and the most successful Indian leader Pope became a dictator and demanded tribute from the Pueblos because this led to his murder and to the end of the Pueblo Revolt. The Spanish returned and reconquered the Pueblos.
Metacomet was a Wampanoag Indian of Massachusetts; he and his people were victims of the Puritan view of Indians as devils. Puritans began to kill and burn Indians because they were devils. Metacomet is better known in American History as King Philip, the name that the Puritans gave to him. Philip decided to stop the Puritan threat by forming an alliance of the New England tribes. This was difficult because these tribes had always been natural enemies and had raided each other for years. But Philip did create a unity and he did create an Indian army; this was the first inter-tribal army ever formed. The tactics that he began to use were raids-hit and run warfare. The Puritans now decided the Philip was really the king of the devils and something must be done about him. So in 1675 they went to war against him in King Philip's War. During the war Philip had a difficult time keep his army together, but what ended the war in 1676 was the work of Wampanoag traitor Aldeman who killed Philip out of jealousy. For a reward Aldeman was given the hand of Philip and he wore this hand around his neck as a hand necklace to show what he had done to the great leader Philip. While Philip was the first major challenge to the English policy in general and to the Puritan policy in particular, the greatest challenge came from Pontiac.
Pontiac was an Ottawa Indian from the Midwest who appeared in the 1760s and who saw the English building a series of forts on the land of his people. Pontiac was similar to Philip in that he also created a unity of the local Indians and also created an Indian army. But Pontiac was better known as a warrior than was Philip and he was able to convince more tribes to join his unity and to join his army. Pontiac created the largest Indian army in American History. Pontiac now decided not to use raids against the English forts, but to use European military tactics that he had learned from the French. Pontiac should be remembered as the major Indian general in Indian and in American History. He used siege warfare- sustained warfare- against the forts in 1763. This was called Pontiac's Rebellion. For months the Indians in Pontiac's army cut off the soldiers from food and supplies. Before the English surrendered the forts, they used conscious biological warfare against Pontiac. Smallpox blankets were given to Pontiac during a peace meeting and these blankets caused the death of numerous members of Pontiac's army. They had no immunity to smallpox and the results were devastating. Pontiac surrendered but his challenge was not over. So the English hired an Indian to kill Pontiac. Pope, Philip, and Pontiac were the most important Indian leaders during the European period; they were all killed by their own people.
The United States came into existence in 1783 after the American Revolution. The United States now had to develop an Indian policy, but it would be different from the English policy. The United States decided that Indians owned the land upon which they lived, but the United States had to acquire ownership of the land because whites were moving west. So the United States had to set up a system to get agreement from the tribes to give up their land. The early government leaders believed that each tribe was like a nation, so the agreement made with Indians to get their land would have to be an international agreement. This is why the government began making treaties with tribes; these treaties were international agreements- agreements between nations- and the purpose of these treaties was real estate in nature. The Indian treaties involved the transfer of title to the land from the tribe to the federal government. But the Indians did not believe in private property, they believed in land use. So the early attempts at treaties were not successful. The government now turned to the use of war-just and lawful war- to implement the treaty system. Wars and treaties would go hand in hand.
The evolution of the treaty system involved a one hundred year period and saw five major Indian leaders challenge this system. The first period of treaty making began under President George Washington. This Washington period of treaties involved the Indians of the Midwest and also gave them an opportunity to stay on the land, have contact with whites, and become white. This was not a very realistic goal of the treaty system. The major challenge to this period came from Tecumseh, the Shawnee Indian. Tecumseh is considered the number one challenge to the United States government and the most relevant Indian leader today. Tecumseh believed in Indian consciousness; he felt that Indians must give up their tribes and come together and live in the west in a nation of Indians. This nation would be a barrier to the advance of white society. He traveled throughout the eastern United States and convinced more than 8,000 Indians from various tribes to come together and live in a nation in the region of what is today the state of Indiana. The government leaders saw Tecumseh as a great threat and sent General William Henry Harrison to deal with Tecumseh. Harrison in 1811 recruited an army and moved against the nation; the major city of the nation was located along Tippecanoe Creek and now in November, 1811 occurred the battle Tippecanoe which easily destroyed the nation and the credibility of Tecumseh. This battle also made Harrison a military hero and eventually president of the United States in 1840. Tecumseh turned to England to get help and participated in the War of 1812 where he was killed during the Battle of the Thames in Canada. So ended the greatest threat to the United States government.
The second period of treaty making began with the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 as president. Jackson believed that Indians should be removed from the Eastern United States and placed in the southern region of the Great American Desert in a place called Indian Territory. For the next twenty years the removal policy of treaty making was quite successful in removing the majority of the eastern Indians. The Indians that were most directly affected were the five civilized tribes of the Southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, and Seminole. The Cherokee of Georgia had become the most civilized and most advanced tribe in the United States by the time of Jackson. But they were a real problem to the state of Georgia and gold was discovered on Cherokee land. Plus Jackson wanted the Cherokee removed. The major challenge to the removal policy came from mixed blood Cherokee John Ross. Ross decided to fight the removal policy within the system. He first met with Jackson whom he had fought with but Jackson knew that removal was a popular policy and he refused to help Ross. Ross then took his case with the help of a minister to the supreme court and in 1833 Chief Justice John Marshall heard the case of Worcester v. Georgia. Marshall hated Jackson and he ruled in this case that the prior treaties that the Cherokee had which allowed them to stay on their land were legal and he also ruled that the Georgia laws that had destroyed the Cherokee nation were illegal. While this was a blow for Jackson's removal policy, Jackson would not enforce this decision. An illegal treaty of removal was made with some Cherokee and now the advanced, civilized Cherokee were rounded up and placed in concentration camps where they began to die. Ross reluctantly agreed to lead the rest of the Cherokee from Georgia to Indian Territory in which is today Oklahoma. In the winter of 1836-7 the Cherokee moved with few supplies and little food. When this Trail of Tears was over, more than 4,000 of the 12,000 Cherokee had died. This is considered the lowest point in our government's treatment of Indians.
Whites were now moving across the west in large numbers, the removal policy of Jackson must now be modified by the 1850s. The last period of treaty making is known as the reservation period. Government leaders decided to place western tribes on isolated parcels of land known as reservations. It was decided by these government officials that this would be undesirable land so whites would not want the land. These treaties took away the best land of the tribes and gave them the worst to live upon in rural ghettoes known as reservations. Since many of the western tribes were mobile and since many of the Indian men in these tribes were trained as warriors, there was much resistance to this policy and there were a series of Indian wars in the west. Three Indian leaders emerge as the major challenges to the reservation policy. Red Cloud was an Oglalla Sioux who found that the government was building a road through his buffalo hunting grounds; this road was known as the Bozeman Trail and it led to the gold mines of Bozeman, Montana. Red Cloud tried to stop the building of army forts along this trail by the use of psychological warfare. Red Cloud wanted to drive the soldiers crazy and force them to leave. His tactics involved: keeping the soldiers awake at night through animal noises as well as shaking the walls of the fort, taunting the soldiers during the day by standing outside the range of the guns, sneaking into the fort when the soldiers were asleep and stealing their clothes and food and cutting off all the legs of all the fort furniture- just to name a few of the tactics of psychological warfare. Red Cloud is considered the number one challenge to the reservation system. He negotiated the Fort Laramie Treaty in which the government agreed to abandon the forts and to close the Bozeman Trail and to set up the Great Sioux Reservation which was an open reservation: Indians could continue to leave the reservation and hunt the buffalo. Red Cloud was a successful warrior and a successful negotiator.
Chief Joseph was a Nez Perce Indian who challenged the reservation system by trying to take his people to Canada where they would be safe. He led 750 men, women and children for four months on the ultimate war of flight: known as the Nez Perce War of 1877. They outrun and outsmarted ten separate units of the army and traveled nearly 1200 miles from Idaho to Montana and to near the Canadian border where they were captured after the Battle of Bear Paw Mountain. The successful of Joseph and his people was due to the use of spontaneous strategy. They did what they had to do to avoid or outsmart the army: they used massive firepower, they used horse strategy, they even tied straw to the horns or longhorn cattle and sent the cattle with burning horns into the army camp in the middle of the night so that they could get supplies. Joseph was captured and gave the most famous speech of surrender in Indian History; his famous words, "I will fight no more forever" signaled the end of the Indian wars and the success of the reservation system.
The last challenge to the reservation system came from Chiracahua Apache Geronimo. For years Geronimo traveled in and out of Mexico and used guerilla warfare against various army units. This particular Apache tribe was expert at guerilla warfare and Geronimo caused a great deal of frustration among government military leaders. There was a period when the leaders even decided to use camels against the Apaches, but with little success. Eventually in 1886 Geronimo surrendered and the resistance to the reservation system was over. And the treaty system was over. Congress in 1887 passed the Dawes Act and modern Indian policy began. This is a policy of law and of court decision. But from the Indian standpoint Indian policy began in a very disastrous way. The purpose of the Dawes Act was to turn Indians into whites. So the act got rid of tribes, reservations, and Indian culture. The government surveyed the reservation into acres and at the same time created a list of tribal members, although many traditional Indian names were turned into white names. Then each Indian on the list was given acres of what had been reservation land. The purpose here was to create the concept of private property among Indians. If each Indian worked their land for 25 years, they would be given the land and given citizenship.
The Dawes Act lasted until 1934 and its effects were devastating for American Indians. The Dawes Act is also the number one example of passing a law and getting rid of a minority group; one day you are an Indian and now you are an Indian no longer. Tribes and reservations were illegal. Indian culture began to die out; this law was the greatest threat to Indian culture in American History. During the period of the Dawes Act Indians began the poorest Americans, the sickest Americans, and the least educated Americans. This is how modern Indian policy began.