How Did The Westward Expansion Affect The Lakota Sioux Tribe

One group that the westward expansion affected greatly was the Lakota Sioux tribe. While Sioux derived from a word that meant “snake”, Lakota meant “friend”. Lakota is one of three major subdivision in the Sioux tribe, the others being the Dakota and Nakota tribes.
One famous Lakota Sioux is Sitting Bull, who was affected by the westward expansion greatly. During this time period, some Native American tribes were forced to move into reservations. In the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and some other tribes defeated George Armstrong Custer’s armies. Despite this, Sitting Bull had to surrender his tribes years later when they were about to go starving (Sitting Bull).
The government pushed Native Americans into reservations to keep them out of Euro-American settlements used for farming, ranching, and mining. For living there, Natives were paid an annuity. It was not much money, and normally had to be used to buy food and supplies from traders who were Euro-Americans. Around the areas that the reservations were, there were also Christian missionaries. These missionaries viewed the Natives as inferior,

He was killed during all of this, which led tensions to rise. Despite the warning signs, the Lakota Sioux still continued the Ghost Dances. When the U.S. Army’s 7th cavalry told Ghost Dancers of Lakota chief Big Foot to lay their weapons down, a quarrel started between a soldier and a Native. There was a shot, and chaos ensued directly after. It is unknown which side of the fight shot the bullet. About 150 or more Lakotas were killed in the battle, about half of them women or children. 25 men passed from the cavalry as well. Most historians believe that the cavalry started the fight as revenge for the Battle of Little Bighorn, as aforementioned. This put an end to the Ghost Dances. It was the last major battle for the Lakotas, who never wanted to move west