Lesson 2: The Army, Politics & Government, Indians & Wars

The events presented in this lesson are the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the 1862 Homestead Act with a brief look at homesteading, as well as the Minnesota Sioux migration to the Dakotas. Military persons included in this lesson are Generals Henry H. Sibley, Alfred Sully, and William Harney; Majors John M. Chivington and Edward W. Wynkoop; and Lieutenant John L. Grattan. John Bozeman and the Bozeman Trail are included, as well as Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle.

Introduction

Long before gold was discovered in California a few adventuresome souls migrated across the Plains. Most were involved in the fur trade. Their numbers were so few, in comparison to the Native Americans, that they had little effect. What wild Plains creatures they killed for meat and furs in no way began to decimate the animal population. Most of the Plains Indians welcomed these whites, for they brought eastern goods to trade with the Indians.

There were depredations by the Indians towards the whites but counting coup on their enemies was their way of life. Raiding each other’s bands and stealing horses were accepted signs of courage and cunning, with a few scalps added in of course. The whites that came into the Indians' land were not treated any differently. It was the code of the land — the Indians’ land.

The Nez Perce became knowledgeable of the white man’s religion and sent some of their brethren eastward to Saint Louis to find missionaries that would come to the Far West and teach them the white mans’ religion. These Indians wanted to gain the superior power they felt the white mans’ religion would give them was - a concept beyond the understanding of the missionaries. Soon Doctor Marcus Whitman and the Reverend Henry Spalding, with their wives, were on their way to Oregon Country, bringing the white mans’ religion with them.

Unfortunately, the missionaries were intent on making farmers out of these native people and insisted they stop roaming and stay in one place. The idea became the accepted white assumption of how all Indians should live.

Oregon Trail, Whitman Mission

The Whitmans were massacred by the Indians but this didn’t stop the flood of whites coming across the Plains to Oregon and eventually to California, then setting up camp at all points in between across the Great Plains.

By the 1840s wagon trains began snaking across the Plains. Most were headed for Oregon but folks were starting to get the idea that California was the place to be. Gold was discovered there and the flood was on.

San Francisco Gold Rush

It wasn’t long before the Indians had had just about enough of the whites killing off their buffalo, their cattle eating the good grass, and cholera spreading amongst them. But the Indians’ protests did little good so they fought back any way they could.

The east was filling up. It wasn’t something that folks sat down and decided they'd do. It just happened. It wasn’t the first time that people outgrew the bounds of their territory and had the need to survive. And survival was just plain human nature — be they white or red, or any other color.

There was another factor involved in all this. An awfully lot of people had, and still have, the need to see what lies beyond the next hill — and then the next. Of course, if someone else tries to hurt them they’re going to holler, then in rides the cavalry to the rescue.

The Whitmans made an interesting journey west. Want to hear more about them? You can, at:

Narcissa Prentiss Whitman http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/grea... This is a mulit-part article that takes you from east to west with the Whitmans and the Spaldings.

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