Group+3

Read pp. 639, 642-643, "The End of the Trail." a. Be able to IDENTIFY Helen Hunt Jackson's //A Century of Dishonor.//

Helen Hunt Jackson -- Massachusetts's writer of children’s literature -- pricked the moral sense of Americans in 1881 published A Century of Dishonor
 * the book chronicled the sorry record of government ruthlessness and chicanery in dealing with the the Indians

b. What were the two basic views on what to do with Indians?


 * Humanitarians wanted to treat Indians kindly and persuade them to “walk the white man’s road”
 * Hardliners insisted on current policy of forced containment and brutal punishment
 * NEITHER side showed much respect for culture

c. Be able to IDENTIFY the Battle of Wounded Knee and the Dawes Severalty Act, and notice the intentions of those who spearheaded "humanitarian" efforts to aid the Indians.

Dawes Severalty Act
 * Christian reformers wanted Indians to give up their tribal religions and to join white society -- in 1884 the reformers joined the military men and successfully persuaded federal government to outlaw the sacred Sun Dance -- when “Ghost Dance” cult spread to Dakota Sioux, the army bloodily stamped in the Battle of Wounded Knee
 * 1890 -- an estimated 200 Indian men, women, and children were killed as well as 29 invading soldiers
 * 1887 -- dissolved many tribes as legal entities, wiped out tribal ownership of land, and set up individual Indian family heads with 160 free acres
 * if Indians behaved themselves like “good white settlers” they would receive full title to their holdings and citizenship in 25 years

d. Be able to IDENTIFY the Carlisle Indian School.

In 1879, the government funded the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, where native american children were taught English and "civilized". The schools founders motto was "kill the Indian and save the man."

e. How was the Dawes Act ill-suited to Indian culture, and what economic cost did the Indians pay for this policy? What finally reversed this policy, and when?

The Dawes Act forced civilization onto many Indians, and dissolved many tribes, wiped out tribal ownership of land, and set up individual Indian family heads with 160 acres each. Reservation land not allotted to the Indians under the Dawes Act was to be sold to railroads and white settlers, with the proceeds used by the federal government to educate and “civilize” the Indians. The Dawes Act struck directly at tribal organization and tired to make rugged individualists out of the Indians. This legislation ignored the inherit reliance f traditional Indian culture on tribally held land.