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Technology's Impact On Plains Indians In The 19th Century

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Americans had already started an impact on Plains Indians life first by their idea of Manifest Destiny and expanding to the west through God’s given rights for economic benefits like mining and farming in new fertile land. Making expansion deals like the Mexican Cession where the U.S. gained Upper California and New Mexico. The lives of Plains Indians in the latter half of the 19th Century were dramatically impacted by a combination of technological developments and government actions, as they faced increased encroachment on their lands, destruction of their traditional way of life, and forced assimilation into Euro-American society. In the later half of the 19th century Plains Indians were greatly affected by the technological developments …show more content…

This allowed for the transportation of goods and people across vast distances, which opened up the West to settlement and commerce. The expansion of railroads, however, had a devastating impact on the buffalo herds, which were essential to the Plains Indians' way of life. The railroads allowed for the hunting of buffalo to become commercialized and more efficient, leading to the decimation of the buffalo herds, which was the main source of food for the Plains Indians. This was supported by “the Extermination of the American Bison,” which states that the extermination of the buffalo’s was caused by Americans reckless greed, wanton destructiveness, and improvidence. The Buffalo’s also supplied the Indian with food, clothing, shelter, bedding, saddles, ropes, shields, and innumerable smaller articles of use and ornament. William Honardy wrote this document at this point of time because he believed that the slaughter of buffaloes was unjustifiable and wanted to explain why Americans killed the buffaloes. This all shows that with the killing of buffaloes by Americans, they were affecting the Plains Indians way of life using new technological developments like the modern breech-loading rifles and other sporting fire-arms in

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The migration of Americans to the west was a good thing for innovation and building up the United States as a country, but the Native Americans who lived in these lands were changed forever. Any Native Americans found in lands where United States citizens wanted land was immediately excavated from their land and brought to an Indian reservation of some kind. Overtime though, these Indian reservations began to limit due to the rising population in Americans during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. “They [Lewis and Clark] provided valuable information about the topography, the biological sciences, the ecology, and ethnic and linguistic studies of the American Indian. The mysteries of

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In the first paragraph Helen discusses how tribes who lived in the area before the Cheyennes over hunted. Causing the buffalo to run off, and not return. Being the most important animal in Indian culture, if the tribe couldn’t hunt

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Before the 1860’s the native americans were living in peace until the Colonists attacked. The Western Expansion of 1860-90 greatly affected the lives of Native Americans, due to the powerful role

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Also, it affected the food source of the Plains Indians. The buffalo was one of those that were affected by

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During the late 19th century, there was a huge increase in new technologies that would eventually affect the Indians that lived on the Great Plains, including the Trans Continental railroads and barbed wire. In fact, the government would also make efforts to limit the presence of the Plain Indians, and establish acts that would affect their culture of life, like the Dawes Severalty Act and the Homestead Act of 1860. The establishment of the Railroad finished in 1869, connecting the East and West. It influenced the amount of white settlers traveling to any part of the country and would eventually affect the Indians. This would affect the Indians because it brought more white settlers to their land.

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Warfare was the most predominant threat that faced the Plains Indians which occured from the expanding American economy and the scarcity of horses. Knowing they would die, some Indians released their horses in the winter season and would collect survivors in the spring. The Crees and Assiniboines saw their horse population diminishing so they started to rely on the raids of neighboring villages to provide them with horses. Warfare also led to the overall decline of bison. Because bison were scarce, formerly allied tribes fought for resources.

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The great herds were not decimated overnight. The slaughter was a gradual process, reaching its full momentum in the 1870s. The Native Americans of the Great Plains had relied upon and hunted buffalo for thousands of years. Without the arrival of the Caucasians—and with them the gun, the horse, and the market for bison products—it seems likely the Indians could have lived sustainably with the bison far into the future.

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In his diary he discusses how they would hunt. They hunted for Buffalo by foot. They would shoot at multiple Buffalo and only killed a few. The people traveling westward didn’t admire the animals as the Indians did. Previously in the book it talks about how Americans traveling westward would hurt the herds the Indians depended on.

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First of all, Native Americans were settled on a hotbed of natural resources which included oil and precious metals such as silver and gold. There was also much fertile land that would entice farmers and frontiersmen to move out west. On this land there was so much potential economic opportunity for farmers, cattle drivers, miners and many other occupations. The government developed the popular public misconception that the indians were misusing the land and that Americans had the right to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in the west. These ideas led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which authorized encroachment of Indian lands by the US government in order to divide up reservations and control Indian activity.

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For thousands of years, the Indians have hunted buffalo, and they were under the influence that they would remain in their lands as long as they do not overhunt them. Luther Standing Bear wrote a short story in 1928 based on his experience with the bison called “The Plains Were Covered with Dead Bison”, he specifically states how the white people took the gifts from their Creator: “These people were taking away the source of the clothing and lodges that had been provided for us by our Creator, and they were letting out food lie on the plains to rot.” Of course having their source of food, clothing, and shelter snatched from them was an awful act, and a truly sorrowful moment, but most importantly, it was also disrespecting and depressing moment for them culturally and spiritually. Standing Bear wrote this story in order to get people from his present and future to understand how significant and important the bison meant to them, and how the mass murder of the buffalo affected everybody, whether that was for the good (Europeans) or the bad (Indigenous people). Even after all the suffering and disrespect, Standing Bear states that his tribe and people did not murder the Europeans or go down to their level: “These people cared nothing for us, and it meant nothing to them to take our lives, even through starvation and cold.

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“These soldiers cut down my timber, they kill my buffalo and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting.” Buffalo, or the American bison, populations have become almost extinct in the wild going from several million to just a couple hundred in just a few years. This was caused by the buffalo’s hides sold for high profits making them desirable to the colonials who over hunted them and drove them towards endangerment and even hurt the Native American populations who relied on the buffalo as their main source of food. Because of this the buffalo were a very important part of the 1800s and western expansion and ultimately led to the fate of many Native American tribes.

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Class, When considering the events regarding the Plains Indians there are three things that come to mind first as contributing factors to the decline of their culture. The existence of the buffalo was seriously threatened. The white pioneers brought disease not experienced by the Indians. The federal government fought them with “military force”.

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Life for the Native Americans was much harder during and after the western expansion. For example, the US took land from the Indians leading the formation of reservations, White men almost hunted the Buffalo , an important food source for the Indians, to extinction, and forced the Indians to get rid of their culture. Because of the western expansion, the area of land the Indians could occupy decreased significantly. The government would make treaties with the Indians allowing them to keep a certain area of land, but this would soon be broken ; When the Pacific Railroad Act was passed it stated that wherever a track was laid the company would own any land 200 ft surrounding the track including Indian land ; the Government would make sure that

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-PBS (WHY). This greatly affected the Indians since they lost so many lives that day. The adaptation to the whites, the extinction of buffalo, and the domination of whites are just some of the reasons how the Native Americans land and culture was affected by the Westward Expansion. Although the Native Americans lost much of their homeland and their way of life, they still proved that even threw the worst conditions possible they stick together and fight through

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Discussion Question #3 Andrew Isenberg cites the horse, fur trade, and epidemic disease as the main factors for Plains Indians shifting from semi-sedentary nomadic hunters by the start of the 19th century. The largest impact on the Plains Indian way of life was the reintroduction of the horse to the Americas by Spanish colonists. Before having the extended range to more easily and efficiently hunt bison, Plains Indians had diverse methods of food procurement. These methods, called ecological “safety nets” by William Cronon and Richard White, included gathering numerous plants, hunting different types of animals, and raising crops (65).

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