How Did the Development of the West Affect the Plains? (Edexcel GCSE History)

By 1876, the lives of the indigenous people of the Plains had undergone significant changes. This is due to the impact of European colonisation and westward expansion.

Indigenous tribes had lived on the Plains for centuries. Many tribes lived a nomadic lifestyle centred around hunting buffalo. They lived in close harmony with the land and celebrated the Wakan Tanka.

By 1876, the lives of indigenous peoples on the Plains dramatically altered. European settlers and the expansion of the railroad destroyed the Plains. The US government's policies aimed at assimilating the indigenous peoples. This took away a lot of the indigenous peoples' traditions and customs.

The indigenous tribes lost much of their lands. Indigenous tribes were forced off their ancestral lands and onto reservations. These reservations were often far from their traditional hunting grounds and resources. Reservations led to economic, social and cultural challenges for indigenous communities.

The US government gave huge land grants to railroad companies

• Took land away from indigenous tribes

• Forced tribes through treaties onto reservations

• Reduced grazing for the buffalo

• Fencing the land disrupted the buffalo's migration patterns

• The Northern Pacific Railroad caused the Great Sioux War

Buffalo hunters travelling to the Plains by the new railroads

• The near-extermination of the buffalo

Increasing the number of cattle on the Plains. By 1880, there were 4.5 million cattle

• Took away grass from the buffalo. This decreased the number of buffalo on the Plains

• Indigenous people became cowboys or worked on cattle ranches

• A loss of a traditional, nomadic lifestyle

The establishment of cattle trails, for example, the Goodnight-Loving Trail

• Some tribes monitored who used the trails

• Tribes like the Comanche attacked the cowboys to steal their cattle or horses

• Attacks from the US Army to keep the trails open

Prospectors find gold, such as in Montana Territory in 1862

• Attacks and murders of indigenous peoples for blocking access to gold

• Tribes were removed from land suspected of having gold

• Mass migration brought diseases that killed indigenous peoples

• To reach Montana, settlers disregarded the Fort Laramie Treaty. They travelled on the Bozeman Trail through the Lakota Sioux's land. This caused Red Cloud's War

Establishing new towns near gold reserves

• Western stores, churches and schools destroyed the indigenous culture in the region

Appointed new reservation agents who had strong Christian values

• Indigenous people forced to convert to Christianity

• Supplies still unfairly distributed. The government also cut rations to some tribes, e.g. the Sioux in 1890

Ely Parker, a man with indigenous ancestry, became the Commissioner of Indian Affairs

• Parker insisted that indigenous peoples were 'helpless and ignorant wards'

• Indigenous tribes no longer involved in negotiations and had no freedom to make their own choices

The government provided a $2 million budget to improve existing reservations and to create new ones

• As many reservations continued to shrink in size, many tribes still suffered from poor conditions

• Tribes who continued to refuse to live on reservations were treated as 'hostile'. The US Army used force against them