Post-1865, the U.S. government aimed to resolve the “Indian Problem” through restrictive policies, military force, and assimilation, reshaping Native American lives permanently.
Policies and attitudes towards Native Americans post-1865
Following the end of the Civil War, the U.S. government adopted more aggressive strategies to deal with Native American tribes, especially those in the Great Plains. Rather than allowing Native groups to live semi-independently in their ancestral lands, federal authorities increasingly saw them as an obstacle to progress, particularly to westward expansion and settlement. With the development of railroads, new towns, and farmland, there was little space left for nomadic tribal life.
White Americans largely viewed Native Americans as uncivilized and in need of transformation into what they considered productive citizens. These attitudes were rooted in racist ideologies and the belief in Manifest Destiny—the conviction that the U.S. was destined to expand across North America.
Government policy shifted from removal—pushing tribes farther west—to assimilation, trying to turn Native Americans into American citizens by erasing their culture, traditions, and social structures.
Shift from removal to reservation
During the early 19th century, Native Americans had been forcibly relocated across the Mississippi River under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. However, after 1865, this policy evolved into placing tribes within designated reservations. These reservations were controlled by the federal government, often under the supervision of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and were designed to confine tribes to small, specific areas of land, disrupting their traditional, mobile lifestyles.
Key objectives of reservation policy included:
Confinement of tribes to limit their freedom of movement.
Encouragement of agriculture as a means to assimilate Native populations.
Suppression of traditional practices, languages, and governance systems.
Conversion to Christianity through missionary work and Christian schools.
These policies created an environment where Native Americans were heavily dependent on government rations and agents. The reservation system undermined tribal leadership, dismantled communal land ownership, and exposed Native people to disease, starvation, and economic instability.
Small reservations policy
The small reservations policy, implemented more aggressively after 1865, focused on dividing tribes into smaller, more manageable groups and isolating them within narrowly defined tracts of land. This was in stark contrast to the earlier idea of a vast “Indian Territory.”
Consequences of this policy included:
Loss of land and resources: Native Americans were pushed into areas with poor soil and harsh climates, making farming extremely difficult.
Destruction of traditional life: Plains Indians, such as the Lakota and Cheyenne, relied on buffalo hunting and seasonal migration, both of which became impossible under the reservation system.
Dependence on the government: Tribes were promised food, tools, and education by government agents, but corruption and inefficiency often meant these supplies were inadequate or never arrived.
Cultural disintegration: Native spiritual practices, communal traditions, and tribal governance were actively discouraged or banned on reservations.
While some government officials believed they were acting in the Native Americans’ best interest, the reality was a system designed to control, pacify, and assimilate.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876)
The Battle of the Little Bighorn was a major confrontation between U.S. forces and a coalition of Native American tribes. It represented one of the final acts of resistance by Plains Indians against government encroachment.
Background
The Black Hills of Dakota were sacred to the Lakota Sioux, yet this region became the center of conflict when gold was discovered there in 1874. Despite the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, which had granted the Black Hills to the Sioux in perpetuity, prospectors flooded the area. The U.S. government made minimal efforts to stop this invasion and instead pressured the Sioux to sell the land.
When many Sioux and Cheyenne bands refused to return to their reservations by the imposed deadline of January 31, 1876, the U.S. Army was dispatched to force their compliance.
The battle
On June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led the 7th Cavalry into an attack against what he assumed was a small Native encampment along the Little Bighorn River. In reality, he faced a combined force of over 2,000 warriors from the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes, led by respected leaders such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
Custer split his forces into smaller units, which weakened their effectiveness. His detachment of about 210 men was quickly surrounded and annihilated in what became known as Custer’s Last Stand.
Consequences
Although the Native American victory at Little Bighorn was stunning, it had devastating long-term consequences:
Public backlash in the U.S. was severe. Custer was turned into a martyr, and support for harsher military responses grew.
The government launched massive retaliation campaigns, eventually forcing the surrender of Sioux and Cheyenne groups.
Native American resistance on the Plains rapidly declined, as surviving leaders were captured or killed, and buffalo herds—their main food source—were slaughtered.
Little Bighorn marked the last major Native military victory, but it also accelerated the final push to confine all tribes to reservations.
The Dawes Act (1887)
One of the most significant attempts at assimilating Native Americans into white American culture was the passage of the Dawes General Allotment Act in 1887.
Key provisions
Each Native American head of household was to receive 160 acres of land.
Single adults received 80 acres, and children received 40 acres.
The land was to be held in trust by the government for 25 years, after which the owner would gain full title and U.S. citizenship.
Any land not allocated to Native Americans was labeled “surplus” and sold to white settlers and railroad companies.
Aims of the Act
The Act sought to:
Break up tribal land holdings and eliminate communal property ownership.
Encourage private land ownership, mirroring the American ideal of individual farming.
Force Native Americans to adopt Euro-American values, including capitalism, Christianity, and patriarchy.
Undermine tribal governance and legal systems.
Consequences and failures
Though marketed as reform, the Dawes Act had devastating effects on Native communities:
Native American land holdings fell from 155 million acres in 1881 to just 78 million acres by 1900 and continued to decline.
Many Native Americans did not understand the concept of private ownership and were coerced or tricked into selling their allotments.
A lack of training, tools, or credit made farming on these plots nearly impossible.
The Act further fragmented tribal unity and destroyed traditional ways of living.
Corruption among land agents meant that many promises of support, such as schools and farming tools, went unfulfilled.
The Dawes Act institutionalized cultural destruction under the guise of help and remains one of the most criticized policies in U.S. Native American history.
The Battle of Wounded Knee (1890)
By 1890, Native American resistance had largely ended, but one final tragedy marked the symbolic and practical end of Native sovereignty on the Plains: the massacre at Wounded Knee.
The Ghost Dance Movement
The Ghost Dance began as a spiritual revival among Western tribes, particularly the Lakota, in response to years of suffering. The movement, founded by the Paiute prophet Wovoka, preached nonviolence and a vision of a future where:
White Americans would vanish.
The buffalo would return.
Ancestors would rise from the dead.
Native lands and traditions would be restored.
This peaceful movement caused panic among U.S. officials, who feared it would inspire a new wave of resistance.
Events leading to the massacre
In December 1890, U.S. authorities tried to arrest Sitting Bull, believing he supported the Ghost Dance. He was killed during the confrontation.
A band of Lakota fled south to Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota.
On December 29, 1890, the U.S. Army surrounded the group and began disarming them.
The massacre
During the disarmament, a shot was fired—likely by accident—which prompted the soldiers to open fire. Within minutes:
Approximately 300 Lakota, including women and children, were dead.
Survivors were hunted down or left to die in the snow.
Aftermath
The massacre shocked some parts of American society, but many saw it as a justified military action.
It effectively ended any form of Native resistance and reinforced the view that Native Americans had been defeated.
Wounded Knee became a powerful symbol of the tragic consequences of U.S. policies toward Native peoples.
The closing of the frontier
In 1890, the U.S. Census Bureau declared that the American frontier was “closed”—there was no longer a clear line between settled and unsettled lands. This announcement had major implications for Native Americans.
Implications for Native Americans
With the frontier gone, there was no remaining land where Native tribes could live undisturbed.
The government shifted entirely to assimilationist policies, abandoning any pretense of respecting tribal autonomy.
Native Americans were increasingly regarded as wards of the state, to be integrated into American society or left to decline on reservations.
Their cultural, economic, and political independence had been systematically dismantled.
Symbolic impact
The closing of the frontier represented the end of an era in American history—an era in which Native American resistance and identity had been key forces.
For many Native peoples, it marked the final loss of freedom, land, and traditional ways of life.
The mythology of the American West celebrated the bravery and determination of settlers, but ignored or vilified Native experiences and resistance.
By the early 20th century, Native Americans had been largely pushed to the margins of American society. Their land was gone, their cultures attacked, and their futures left in the hands of a government that had long viewed them as a problem to be solved.
FAQ
Boarding schools were a central tool in the U.S. government's assimilation policy, designed to strip Native American children of their cultural identity and integrate them into white American society. These institutions, such as the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (founded in 1879), removed children from their families, often forcibly, and relocated them hundreds of miles away. Once enrolled, children were required to abandon their native languages, traditional clothing, and spiritual practices. Their hair was cut short, and they were given English names. The curriculum focused heavily on English literacy, Christianity, and vocational training like carpentry or domestic service. Discipline was often harsh, and any display of Native culture was punished. The psychological impact was profound—children frequently returned home alienated from their communities and unable to fully reintegrate. Boarding schools contributed significantly to the loss of indigenous languages and traditions, and their legacy is one of cultural trauma and long-term disruption to Native American family structures.
The mass slaughter of the buffalo in the late 19th century had a devastating impact on Plains tribes, both economically and culturally. The buffalo was the foundation of life for many Native American groups, especially the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Comanche. It provided food, clothing, shelter, and tools, and held spiritual significance in tribal traditions. Between the 1860s and 1880s, the U.S. government encouraged the destruction of buffalo herds as a military strategy to weaken Native resistance. Railroad companies and commercial hunters also killed millions of buffalo for sport and trade. By 1885, fewer than 1,000 buffalo remained in the wild. Without this essential resource, tribes could no longer sustain their nomadic lifestyle or feed their people, forcing many onto reservations out of desperation. The loss of the buffalo removed not only a food source but a central part of tribal identity and independence, accelerating the collapse of Native resistance and deepening their dependency on government supplies.
The 1886 Supreme Court decision in United States v. Kagama was a major blow to Native American sovereignty. The case involved a Native man, Kagama, who was charged with murder on reservation land. The Court ruled that the federal government—not tribal or state authorities—had jurisdiction over major crimes committed on reservations. This decision established the principle that Native American tribes were "domestic dependent nations," lacking full sovereignty and subject to federal authority. It reinforced the notion that tribal governments could not operate independently of U.S. law, further eroding their legal and political autonomy. The ruling paved the way for increased federal control over internal tribal matters, including land distribution, criminal justice, and education. It also weakened the ability of Native tribes to resist assimilation policies legally. The decision symbolized a shift away from recognizing tribes as semi-sovereign entities and contributed to the broader campaign to dismantle traditional governance structures and integrate Native peoples into the American legal system.
White settlers often justified the seizure of Native American lands through a combination of religious belief, economic ambition, and racial ideology. The most powerful justification was the belief in Manifest Destiny—the idea that the United States was divinely ordained to expand from coast to coast. Many Americans saw westward expansion as both a right and a duty, interpreting Native cultures as primitive and obstacles to progress. Racial theories of the time labeled Native Americans as inferior and incapable of civilized behavior, legitimizing forced removal and assimilation. Economic motivations also played a huge role. Settlers sought fertile farmland, and the government promoted westward migration through policies like the Homestead Act and land grants for railroads. The discovery of natural resources such as gold and silver on Native lands further increased pressure for their displacement. Religious missionaries added moral weight to expansion by aiming to “save” Native souls through Christianity. Together, these justifications framed conquest as necessary and virtuous.
The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 marked a turning point in U.S. policy by formally ending the recognition of Native American tribes as independent, sovereign nations with whom the federal government could make treaties. Prior to this, Native tribes were treated as foreign nations in diplomatic negotiations, with treaties signed to establish boundaries, trade terms, and conflict resolutions. The 1871 Act stated that no tribe would be recognized as an independent nation, effectively reducing all tribes to wards of the state. This meant any agreements were now treated as legislative acts rather than diplomatic treaties. The result was a significant decline in tribal political authority and a sharp increase in federal oversight. Without treaty-making status, Native leaders had less power to negotiate on behalf of their people, and the government could unilaterally impose policies, including land redistribution, education mandates, and relocation. The Act symbolized a broader shift toward assimilation and federal domination over Native life, stripping tribes of their diplomatic identity.
Practice Questions
Explain two effects of the Dawes Act (1887) on Native American communities.
One effect of the Dawes Act was the significant loss of Native American land. By breaking up reservations into individual allotments, surplus land was sold to white settlers, reducing Native landholdings by millions of acres. A second effect was the erosion of tribal culture. The Act aimed to assimilate Native Americans into white society by encouraging individual farming and private property, which clashed with communal traditions. This disrupted tribal governance, separated families, and contributed to cultural decline, as many Native Americans lacked the means to farm effectively and became dependent on government aid.
Write a narrative account of the events leading to the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890.
After years of suffering on reservations, many Native Americans turned to the Ghost Dance movement, which promised the restoration of their lands and way of life. The U.S. government viewed this as a threat and responded with military force. In December 1890, Sitting Bull was killed during an attempted arrest, increasing tensions. A group of Lakota fled to Wounded Knee Creek, where the U.S. Army surrounded them. As soldiers tried to disarm the group on December 29, a shot was fired, and the troops opened fire, killing around 300 Native Americans, marking the tragic end of resistance.
