GA - The Closing of the Western Frontier Lesson

The Closing of the Western Frontier

84 “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.” Attributed to Gen. Philip Sheridan, who in fact said something only slightly less objectionable: “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead.”

Poster of Sitting Bull

Old Conflict

As eastern regions of the United States became more industrialized after the Civil War, people seeking rural livelihoods moved farther and farther west. In turn, Native Americans had to compete with these newcomers for land. For example, the Sioux signed a treaty with the U.S. government promising "no white person or persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy" Sioux territory in the Dakotas but, when gold was discovered there, the government tried to buy the land from the Sioux, who refused to sell it. The Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, then fought U.S. Army troops, led his people to a brief exile in Canada, and finally agreed to settle on a reservation.

About 10 years later, Sitting Bull's people became associated with a Sioux religious movement. The Native Americans believed their ceremonies would cleanse the world of evil, including the white man, and restore the Sioux's lost greatness. Government officials ordered Sitting Bull's arrest. He died in a brief gun battle.

After Sitting Bull died, several hundred of his people fled to an area of South Dakota called Wounded Knee. U.S. soldiers went there to confiscate weapons from the Sioux. A gun was fired - nobody knows by whom - and U.S soldiers then opened machine-gun fire, killing more than 300 Sioux. This ended the Native Americans' long conflict against Americans settling Native American lands.

View the presentation below on the Closing of the Western Frontier.

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