Wednesday, May 1, 2013
The Black Hills War
- 1840's: White settlers started taking up the land and the Natives would either be transported away somewhere else, or they would sign a peace treaty so that the Indians will live elsewhere as long as the government supplies them with food, financial aid, health care, and schools.
- 1850: The government broke the promises, so the Sioux started attacking wagons and scaring the white people away.
- 1851: Peace treaty for there to have parts of land where there are no whites.
- 1856: Forts and roads were being built in the Sioux's land, so Red cloud and other Sioux destroyed them.
- 1871: No more Peace treaties.
- 1874: White gold seekers take up land after gold is discovered.
- 1875: The Sioux refused to sell the land to the white people.
- 1876: Lt. Col. George A. Custer and over 200 men invaded the land to attack and claim what they thought was rightfully theirs. Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and many other Indians wiped them all out.
Portrait of “The Battle of Little Bighorn” on June 25, 1876.
Important People in the Black Hills war:
From the Sioux:
Red Cloud
Crazy Horse
Sitting Bull
From the White side/Government:
Lt. Col. George A. Custer
The Ghost Dance Movement 1890
- In 1889, a medicine man called Wovoka had a vision that he was taken to the spirit world and saw the earth swallowing up the whites and bringing back dead ancestors.
- God instructed him that if he and his people did the Ghost dance every night, his vision would become a realityWhites believed that the religion’s purpose was to kill all of their kind.
The Ghost Dance ^^^
Result of the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890 ^^^The Sundance
- It lasts for 28 days, but the last 4 days are the most important.
- On the second, they cut a tree bring it to the center of the ceremony for the piercing.
- On the third, male sun-dancers who agreed to be get two incisions cut in their chest by the Medicine Man/Men.
- Then pegs are added into the holes, making the sundancer blessed.
- The dancers go to the tree in the center of the ceremony where there are ropes attached to the top, and attach these ropes to the pegs.
- they dance to and back from the tree three times, and then yank themselves back with all of their might, ripping off the skin where the pegs are held in.
- The skin is then cut off the pegs, and placed at the center base of the tree, completing the sacrifice.
- Afterwards the participants get to endure a feast especially for them to celebrate.
- Only the Lakota Sioux contains the piercing for their ceremony.
- They are the warriors of the American Indians, and consequently sacrifice for everyone.
Sketch of the piercing for the Sundance.
Religion/Beliefs
- The Sioux worshipped the "Wakan Tanka" otherwise known as the Great Spirit.
- There is a spirit or God for everything that exists.
- There were underwater spirits, The White Buffalo Woman, and The Thunderbirds, which are in the sky.
- The Buffalo Woman would give each tribe a medicine pipe, which helps people see visions.
- For the Sioux, visions and dreams were ways to talk to the spirits.
The White Buffalo Woman ^^^
- Because of the White Buffalo Woman, the Sioux had a wheel that represents the four colos of life, and the four directions. (North, South, East, West.)
- It's called the Medicine Wheel. The Four colors are:
North – (Red)
wisdom, place where the ancient ones passed over
South – (White)
youth, friendships
East - (Yellow)
beginnings, family
West – (Black)
solitude, adulthood
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