Week 5/Module 5: Student Checklist
* Remember, you'll have from Monday, February 18 through Monday, February 25 at 11:59 pm to complete
everything on the checklist for Module 5.
1. Welcome back, everyone! I hope your week is off to a great start! For this week’s Module 5, let's
begin by reading/listening to the Week 5 PowerPoint Lecture. Remember that lecture notes are also
provided. The lecture will be building off of the history we’ve been learning in Modules 3 and 4 in
particular. Our Week 5 PowerPoint starts out a new important key term, "Manifest Destiny," which we'll
need to keep in mind throughout the lecture and this week's Module materials. As you read/listen,
please be sure to take careful notes and be thinking about how Manifest Destiny connects to the events
unfolding in the US from the mid to late 1800s, from the Gold Rush and Westward Expansion, to the
Civil War, and and post-Civil War "Indian Wars."
2. Next, please read the required Smithsonian article with more information about the Sand Creek
Massacre. This article provides more details about what was happening during after the Gold Rush
during the Civil War era, particularly with the genocidal Indian Wars in the name of Westward Expansion
and Manifest Destiny. While you're reading, again, be sure to take note of your thoughts/reactions, and
be thinking about connections to this week's PowerPoint lecture.
3. After, please listen to/read the lyrics of Bob Marley's song, "Buffalo Soldier." This song is one of my
favorites because I love Bob Marley and his feel-good musical style, but if you pay close attention to his
lyrics, the message is much deeper and even painful. Of course, enjoy the song, but also be thinking
about interpreting the connection to this week's discussion of "Buffalo Soldiers" and through the lens of
post-Civil War genocidal armies in the West.
4. Lastly, be sure to complete Blog #3 in Module 5. You can either access our Discussion Blog #3 by
clicking on the link provided within the Module 5 Folder, OR by clicking on the "Discussion" link on the
left-hand side of the screen on our Blackboard page. The prompt and thorough directions are posted
underneath the Blog #3 link within our Module 5 Folder. Please remember to post one 300 word
minimum response (total, not for each question in the prompt), and then post another 150 word
minimum response to one peer.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at any time!
Have a wonderful week!
AMIND 141: Week 5 Lecture Notes
Slide 1: Welcome back! This week we’ll be building off of last week’s lesson on boarding schools, forced
assimilation, and removal by discussing “Indian Country” which will focus on the key term “Manifest
Destiny” and the effects of US Expansion in the mid-1800s.
Slide 2: First, let’s discuss this week’s key term manifest destiny, which is the 19th century belief that
American settlers were destined, with the God-given right, to expand settlements from coast-to-coast of
North America in order for the United States to reach its full potential. This concept is often connected
with American Exceptionalism, the idea that Americans were doing what was right for the greater good
of the country. As we continue on in this week’s lecture, be thinking about how this term connects to
the events unfolding in the expansion of the United States.
Slide 3: To begin thinking about Manifest Destiny and connect to last week’s lesson, we will go back in
time a few years to discuss the California Gold Rush and how California achieved statehood. The Gold
Rush lasted from about 1848-1855 and was sparked by gold nuggets found in Sacramento Valley at
Sutter’s Mill in early 1848, just days after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed ending the
Mexican-American War. News of gold spread all over the world and led thousands of gold-hungry
settlers to California travelling overland or by sea (through Panama or around Cape Horn.) Here we have
two pictures of advertisements from the time period encouraging settlers to come to California for gold.
Slide 4: The population of settlers in California grew exponentially – from 800 in 1848 to around 100,000
a year later in 1849. This tremendous growth sped up the process of California achieving statehood by
1850. As you can imagine, this drastic increase in settler population and competition for resources had
devastating effects on California Natives. The US occupation and settlement ultimately exterminated
more than 100,000 California Native people over gold by 1870.
Slide 5: Five years after the ending of the Gold Rush in the West, the Civil War occurred in the East. The
Civil War happened from 1860-1865, and President Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861 (only 2 months
after the South ceded from the Union.) Many argue that the South’s secession and Civil War was based
on “states’ rights, not slavery.” However, every settler in the southern states aspired to own land and
slaves or more land and slaves because wealth and status depended on property ownership. Most nonslave-owning settlers actually supported and fought for confederacy.
Slide 6: Lincoln’s campaign for presidency appealed to vote of land-poor settlers who wanted the
government to “open” up Indigenous lands west of the Mississippi for settlement, or in other words,
take over Indigenous lands. These “free-soilers” wanted cheap land that was free of slavery. During this
time period, new gold rushes across the country brought waves of settlers to squat/attempt to take over
more and more Indigenous lands. Because of this, some Indigenous people preferred a Confederate
victory in the Civil War, in hopes of dividing or weakening the United States.
Slide 7: Lincoln’s free-soiling resulted in Minnesota becoming a non-slavery state for “free-soilers” in
1859, which led to the Dakota Sioux reaching verge of starvation by 1862 due to competition for
resources. When the Dakota Sioux mounted an uprising to drive out settlers, the Union Army troops
crushed the revolt, slaughtered Dakota civilians, and rounded up several hundred men. Three hundred
prisoners were sentenced to death, but under Lincoln’s orders to reduce the numbers, 38 were selected
at random to die in the largest mass hanging in US history. The revered Dakota leader, Little Crow, was
not among those hanged, but he was assassinated the following summer along with his son by a settler-
farmer who collected a $500 bounty for him. This instance is an example of heightening “settler-lawand-order” and anti-Indian hysteria.
Slide 8: As mentioned in last week’s lesson, forced removal during Jackson’s administration had
relocated the “5 Civilized Tribes” to Oklahoma. After their forced removal and the Trail of Tears,
Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws had rebuilt their towns, farms, ranches,
institutions, newspapers, schools, and orphanages. They were resilient and flourishing. A tiny group of
elite in each nation actually owned slaves and held private estates, but most continued collective
agrarian practices. However, all 5 Civilized Tribes signed treaties with the Confederacy.
Slide 9: Soon a conflict emerged between “mixed bloods” and “full bloods.” The wealthy, assimilated,
slave-owning minority who dominated politics favored Confederacy, and the non-slave owning poor and
traditional majority wanted to stay out of the Anglo-American war. John Ross, the Cherokee chief at the
time, first called for neutrality, but later agreed to negotiate a treaty with the Confederacy. Nearly 7,000
men of the 5 nations went to battle for the Confederacy. During the war, however, many Indigenous
soldiers went to the Union forces with African Americans who fled to freedom.
Slide 10: There were also cases of resistance against the Confederacy. A few months after the war broke
out, 10,000 men in Indian Territory (volunteers, African Americans who freed themselves, and some
Anglo-Americans) engaged in guerilla warfare against the Confederate army. They fought from
Oklahoma to Kansas, where many joined unofficial Union units. This multiethnic battle force and selfliberation by African Americans (happening all over the South) led to Lincoln’s eventual 1863
Emancipation Proclamation, which allowed freed Africans to serve in combat.
Slide 11: Genocidal armies emerged in the West as Lincoln called for volunteer fighters in the West to
help fight the Confederate army and the settlers responded. With very few Confederates to fight in the
west, the volunteers fought Indigenous people instead. Here are two pictures of different
advertisements for volunteer fighters. This generated and perpetuated anti-Indian hysteria and violence.
Land speculators west of the Mississippi sought statehood for occupied former-Mexican territories, and
there was an eagerness to undertake ethnic cleansing of Indigenous residents to achieve necessary
population balance in order to attain statehood. The Lincoln administration did little to prevent
genocidal actions by territorial authorities because of preoccupation with the Civil War in the East. Yet
the emerging “settler-law-and-order” during the Civil War began to set a pattern for postwar genocide.
Slide 12: While preoccupied with the Civil War, Lincoln didn’t forget his free-soilers. In 1862, several Acts
were passed to encourage Westward Expansion through major land grabs from Indigenous residents.
The US government broke multiple treaties with land grabs in order to achieve statehood that had been
delayed in Colorado, North and South Dakotas, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New
Mexico , and Arizona. The colonization plan for Westward expansion was carried out over the next 30
years.
Slide 13: After the Civil War and the Land Grabs of 1862 came a period of rapid industrialization. Instead
of land granted to single-family homesteaders, much of the land was passed to large operators or land
speculators. Because of this, industrialization quickened. Between 1863-1864, federal banking acts led
to national currency being established. Land became even more of a commodity, and “real estate”
remained the basis of the US economy. Rapid industrialization and the post-Civil War call for unity
within the union also propelled rapid “Americanization,” which connects to last week’s discussion on
boarding schools and assimilation. More Indigenous territories were carved out as federal land grants to
railroad barons were not limited to the width of the railroad tracks – the land grants formed a
checkerboard of square-mile sections stretching for miles on both sides. By 1871, the Indian
Appropriation Act declared the “no Indian nation or tribe” would be “recognized as an independent
nation, tribe, or power with whom the US may contract by treaty.”
Slide 14: The wars that were happening in the West during the Civil War did not end when the Civil War
ended. In fact, they got worse as more killing technology , weapons, and seasoned soldiers were added,
and these wars carried on to the end of the century. Many demobilized officers and soldiers without
jobs after the Civil War ended up joining the “army of the West.” Prominent Civil War generals led the
“army of the West,” including Generals Philip Sheridan (the man whom was quoted in last week’s
lecture on Boarding schools as saying “the only good Indian is a dead Indian), and George Armstrong
Custer.
Slide 15: One of the most infamous incidences involving militias was the Sand Creek Massacre, which
occurred at dawn in November 1864, on Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado territory. Over 700 1st and
3rd Calvary and other troops slaughtered over 150 displaced and captive Cheyenne and Arapaho men,
women, and children who were under the leadership of the great peace keeper, Black Kettle. They had
been camping under a truce flag and had federal permission to hunt buffalo in order to feed themselves.
In early 1865, the Colorado territorial governor informed them that they could no longer leave their
reservation to hunt. Despite their compliance with this order, John Chivington led 700 Colorado
Volunteers to attack Cheyenne and Arapaho people without warning.
Slide 16: A couple years prior to the Sand Creek Massacre, US Army colonel James Carleton formed the
Volunteer Army of the Pacific in 1861, based in California. In Nevada and Utah, colonel Patrick Connor
commanded a militia of about 1,000 California volunteers who had spend the Civil War years massacring
hundreds of unarmed Shoshone, Bannock, and Ute people. Carleton led another contingent of militias in
Arizona to suppress the Apaches who were resisting colonization under their great leader, Cochise.
Slide 17: Following his campaign against the Apaches, Carleton was promoted to brigadier general and
place in command of the Department of New Mexico. He brought in seasoned Colorado volunteers to
attack Navajos and declared total war. Carleton also brought in the infamous Indian killer Kit Carson and
enlisted him as principal commander. Carleton’s genocidal army had unlimited authority in the West,
and the government’s preoccupation with the Civil War allowed Carleton to engage in a series of searchand-destroy missions against Navajos.
Slide 18: Carleton’s war against Navajos culminated in 1864 in a 300 mile forced march of 8,000 Navajo
civilians to a military concentration camp at Bosque Redondo in the southeastern New Mexico desert.
This forced removal is recalled in Navajo oral history as the “Long Walk,” and one quarter of the
incarcerated died of starvation. Navajos weren’t released and allowed to return home until 4 years later,
in 1868, and their permission to return home was not based on the deadly conditions in which they had
been living. Instead, it was because Congress had determined the camp to be too expensive to maintain.
By 1865, Carleton was appointed as major general in the US army for his “noble deeds” with the Navajo.
Because of this promotion, Carleton now led the Fourth Cavalry against Plains Indians.
Slide 19: Genocidal campaigns against Indigenous civilians continued through President Grant
administration 1869-1877. After Civil War, many freed black troops were sent out West, the
government’s way of getting rid of “Black and Indian problem.” To gain control of Plains Indians’ lands,
US policy direct the army to destroy their basic economic base, the buffalo. During this time period,
buffalos were killed nearly to extinction – only a few hundred were left by the 1880s. The army in charge
of killing buffalo were often referred to as “Buffalo Soldiers,” as mentioned in Bob Marley’s song, which
we’ll be listening to and analyzing this week. This concludes this week’s lecture, and we’ll continue
building off of this material next week.
AMIND 141: Week 5
Key Term: Manifest Destiny
“Manifest Destiny”is the 19th century belief that
American settlers were destined, with the God-given
right, to expand settlements from coast-to-coast of
North America – connected to American
Exceptionalism
Gold Rush
1848-1855
Sparked by gold nuggets found
in Sacramento Valley at Sutter’s
Mill in early 1848, just days after
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
was signed ending MexicanAmerican War
News of gold discovery spread,
leading to thousands of wouldbe gold miners travelling
overland across mountains or by
sea (through Panama or around
Cape Horn)
Gold Hungry Settlers
Settler population went from 800 in 1848 to estimated
100,000 in 1849
Sped up process of CA achieving statehood
Gold seekers from all over the world
Devastating effects on California Native people:
torture, rape, starvation, and disease in sought-after
goldfields while wiping out food sources and natural
resources
US occupation and settlement exterminated more
than 100,000 California Native people by 1870
Civil War and Lincoln’s Presidency
Civil War 1860-1865
Military roots to American institutional
development runs deep
President Lincoln inaugurated 1861 – 2
months after South ceded from Union
Many argue that South’s secession and Civil
War based on “states’ rights” not slavery –
but every settler in southern states aspired to
own land+slaves or more land+slaves
Wealth and status depended on property
owned
Most non-slave-owning settlers supported
and fought for confederacy
Lincoln’s Free-Soilers
Lincoln’s campaign for presidency appealed to
vote of land-poor settlers who wanted government
to “open” Indigenous lands west of Mississippi for
settlement
“Free-soilers” wanted cheap land free of slavery
New gold rushes brought waves of settlers to squat
on more Indigenous lands
Some Indigenous people preferred Confederate victory
(in hopes of dividing/weakening U.S.)
Results of Lincoln’s Free-Soiling
Minnesota became a non-slavery state for “free
soilers” in 1859
Led to Dakota Sioux on verge of starvation by
1862
When Dakota Sioux mounted an uprising to drive
out settlers, Union Army troops crushed revolt,
slaughtered Dakota civilians, and rounded up
several hundred men
300 prisoners were sentenced to death, but under
Lincoln’s orders to reduce numbers, 38 were
selected at random to die in the largest mass
hanging in US history
The revered Dakota leader, Little Crow, was not
among those hanged, but was assassinated the
following summer with his son by a settler-farmer
who collected a $500 bounty
Heightening “settler law and order” and antiIndian hysteria
Civil War and Indian Territory
5 Civilized Tribes relocated to Oklahoma during
Jackson administration: Cherokees, Muskogee/Creeks,
Seminoles, Choctaws, Chickasaws
After forced removal and Trail of Tears, rebuilt their
towns, farms, ranches, institutions, newspapers,
schools, and orphanages
Tiny group of elite in each nation owned slaves and
private estates, but most continued collective agrarian
practices
All 5 Civilized Tribes signed treaties with Confederacy
Civil War & Indian Territory Continued
Conflict between “mixed bloods” and “full bloods”
emerged: Wealthy, assimilated, slave-owning minority who
dominated politics favored Confederacy and Non-slaveowning poor and traditional majority wanted to stay out of
Anglo-American war
John Ross, Cherokee chief, first called for neutrality, but
later agreed to negotiate treaty with Confederacy
Nearly 7000 men of the 5 nations went to battle for the
Confederacy
During war, however, many Indigenous soldiers went over
to the Union forces with enslaved African Americans who
fled to freedom
Resistance Against Confederacy
A few months after war broke out, 10,000 men in Indian
Territory (volunteers, African Americans who freed
themselves, and some Anglo-Americans) engaged in
guerilla warfare against Confederate army
Fought from Oklahoma to Kansas, where many joined
unofficial Union units
Multiethnic battle force and self-liberation by African
Americans (happening all over the South) led to
Lincoln’s eventual 1863 Emancipation Proclamation,
which allowed freed Africans to serve in combat
Emerging Genocidal Armies in the West
To get professional soldiers in the east to help fight
Confederate army, Lincoln called for volunteer
fighters in the West – settlers responded
With few Confederates to fight, the volunteers
fought Indigenous people instead
Land speculators in trans-Mississippi West sought
statehood for occupied former Mexican territories
Generated strong anti-Indian hysteria and
violence
Eagerness to undertake ethnic cleansing of
Indigenous residents to achieve necessary
population balance in order to attain
statehood
Lincoln administration did little to prevent
genocidal actions by territorial authorities because
of preoccupation with Civil War in East
Settler “law and order” set pattern for postwar
genocide
Colonial Policies and Land Grabs of
1862
Throughout Civil War, Lincoln didn’t forget his “free-soilers”
Homestead Act of 1862 – encouraged western migration by providing settlers
with 160 acres of “public” land; in exchange, settlers paid small filing fee and
agreed to live on land for at least 5 years to establish ownership
Morrill Act 1862 – transferred large tracts of Indigenous lands to states to
establish land grant universities specializing in agriculture and mechanic arts
The Pacific Railroad Act 1862 – provided private companies with nearly 200
million acres of Indigenous lands
Homestead Act 1862 – 1.5 million homesteads were granted to settlers west of
the Mississippi, nearly 300 million acres taken from Indigenous collective
estates and privatized for market
US government broke multiple treaties with land grabs in order to achieve
statehood that had been delayed in Colorado, N. and S. Dakotas, Montana,
Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona; colonization
plan for Westward expansion carried out over next 30 years
Results of Post-Civil War: Rapid
Industrialization
Instead of land granted to single-family homesteaders,
much of the land was passed to large operators or
land speculators
Industrialization quickened = land as commodity
“real estate” remained basis of US economy
1863-1864 federal banking acts and national currency
established
Civil War set template for rapid “Americanization” –
connection to last week’s discussion on boarding
schools
Federal land grants to railroad barons were not limited
to the width of the railroad tracks – formed a
checkerboard of square-mile sections stretching for
miles on both sides, carving more out of Indigenous
territories
1871 Indian Appropriation Act – declared that “no
Indian nation or tribe” would be “recognized as an
independent nation, tribe, or power with whom
the US may contract by treaty”
Indian Wars After Civil War
Military campaigns against Indigenous nations constituted
foreign wars during the Civil War, but the end of Civil War
did not mark end of wars against Indigenous peoples
Carried on to the end of the century
Added more killing technology and seasoned soldiers
Demobilized officers and soldiers without jobs after Civil
War ended joined “army of the West”
Prominent Civil War generals led army of the West,
including: Generals Philip Sheridan (“The only good
Indian is a Dead Indian” from last week’s Boarding Schools
lecture) and George Armstrong Custer
Sand Creek Massacre
Most infamous incident involving militias: Sand Creek
Massacre
Occurred at dawn, November 1864, on Sand Creek in
southeastern Colorado territory
Over 700 1st and 3rd Calvary and other troops slaughtered
over 150 displaced and captive Cheyenne and Arapaho men,
women, and children
Leadership under great peace keeper Black Kettle
Camped under truce flag and had federal permission to hunt
buffalo to feed themselves
In early 1864, Colorado territorial governor informed them that
they could no longer leave reservation to hunt
Despite compliance with order, John Chivington led 700
Colorado Volunteers to attack Cheyenne and Arapaho people
without warning
Carleton’s Genocidal Army
US army colonel James
Carleton formed Volunteer
Army of the Pacific 1861, based
in CA
In Nevada and Utah, colonel
Patrick Connor, commanded a
militia of a thousand CA
volunteers who spent Civil War
years massacring hundreds of
unarmed Shoshone, Bannock,
and Ute people
Carleton led another contingent
of militias to Arizona to suppress
the Apaches, who were resisting
colonization under their great
leader Cochise
Carleton’s Genocidal Army Continued
Following campaign against Apaches, Carleton was
promoted to brigadier general and placed in
command of the Department of New Mexico
Brought in seasoned Colorado Volunteers to attack
Navajos--declared total war
Enlisted infamous Indian killer Kit Carson as
principal commander
Unlimited authority and the government’s
preoccupation with Civil War allowed Carleton to
engage in a series of search-and-destroy missions
against Navajos
Carleton’s War Against Navajos
Culminated in 1864--300 mi. forced march of 8,000
Navajo civilians to military concentration camp at
Bosque Redondo in southeastern New Mexico desert
Recalled in Navajo oral history as the “Long Walk”
¼ of incarcerated died of starvation
Navajos weren’t released and allowed to return home
until 1868
Permission not based on deadly conditions – rather
because Congress determined the camp too expensive to
maintain
Carleton appointed as major general in US army in
1865 for these “noble deeds”
Carleton now led Fourth Cavalry against Plains Indians
Genocidal Campaigns Continue
Genocidal campaigns against Indigenous
civilians during President Grant
administration 1869-1877
Black troops out west – government’s way of
getting rid of “Black and Indian problem”
US policy directed army to destroy basic
economic base of Plains Indians – the
buffalo
Buffalos killed to near extinction – only a few
hundred left by 1880s
Commercial hunters only wanted skins;
bones shipped to the East for various uses
Often referred to as “Buffalo Soldiers” –
mentioned in Bob Marley’s song
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