H1: Kaiser Wilhelm and Germany

📋 Key Concepts

Sand Creek Massacre (1864): Chivington’s militia killed a Cheyenne village camped under the US flag. Red Cloud’s War (1866–68): Fetterman ambush; the 1868 Treaty guaranteed the Black Hills — until gold (1874) → Little Bighorn (1876) → revenge and forced surrenders. Buffalo destroyed (millions to near-extinction by 1885: railroads, hide hunters, army policy). Dawes Act 1887: allotment broke tribal land; Ghost Dance (1890) → fear → Wounded Knee Massacre (1890, ~250 dead) — the Plains wars end.

🧮 Worked Examples — Exam Style

❓ Practice Questions

✅ Answers

1. Sand Creek 1864 · Fetterman 1866 · Treaty 1868 · Little Bighorn 1876 · Wounded Knee 1890.
2. Dawes Act 1887: 160-acre allotments, 'surplus' sold, tribal structures broken.
3. Buffalo: ~30 million → near-extinction by 1885.
4. Ghost Dance: pan-Indian revival; Wounded Knee ~250 dead.

📌 Key Facts to Memorise

• McCoy's Abilene 1867; Chisholm Trail; drives 1866-85.
• Cowboys: 8-12 per drive, ~$25-30/month, ~25% black or Mexican.
• Big Die-Up winter 1886-87; barbed wire 1874; Johnson County War 1892.

🗺️ In the Exam

Chronology chains win here: treaty → gold → war → defeat → reservation → allotment → Ghost Dance → Wounded Knee. Name treaties and years — vague answers score low.

⚡ Targeted Drills

• 1851 → 1868 treaties; both broken by gold and railroads.
• Sand Creek 1864 (Chivington); Fetterman 1866; Red Cloud won his war.
• Black Hills gold 1874 → Custer 1876 → winter campaigns 1876–77.
• Dawes 1887 = allotment; boarding schools = cultural war.
• Ghost Dance → Sitting Bull killed → Wounded Knee 29 Dec 1890.

📖 Detailed Notes: Policy Timeline in Detail

• 1851 Fort Laramie: first great council — tribes assigned territories, US promised annuities; the "concentration" policy begins.
• 1864 Sand Creek: Colorado volunteers under Colonel John Chivington attacked Black Kettle’s peaceful Cheyenne (~150 dead, mostly women/children, scalps displayed in Denver) — northern outrage, but the pattern repeated.
• 1866–68 Red Cloud’s War: the Bozeman Trail through Lakota land; Fetterman’s 81 men ambushed and wiped out; the US abandoned the forts and signed the 1868 Treaty (the Great Sioux Reservation — "as long as the grass grows").
• 1874 Custer’s Black Hills expedition found gold → miners flooded in → government bought-or-took the Hills (1876) → Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse’s victories (Rosebud, Little Bighorn 25 June 1876 — Custer’s 210+ dead) → the army’s winter campaign broke the tribes (Crazy Horse killed 1877; Sitting Bull fled to Canada, returned 1881).
• Assimilation: boarding schools ("kill the Indian, save the man" — Carlisle 1879), Christian missions, the Dawes Act 1887 (allotment: 160-acre family plots, "surplus" sold — 2/3 of reservation land lost by 1934). Ghost Dance 1890 (Wovoka’s vision: the buffalo return, the whites vanish) → panic → Sitting Bull killed (15 Dec 1890) → Wounded Knee (29 Dec 1890): Hotchkiss guns fired on fleeing Lakota — ~250–300 dead; the last armed resistance.

⚠️ Common Errors

• Wrong: Little Bighorn was the last Indian victory Correct: It was the last major US defeat — resistance continued to Wounded Knee 1890
• Wrong: Reservations were voluntary Correct: Treaties were forced and then broken whenever gold or land was found

🧭 Board Focus — AQA

✍️ Extended Answer Plan — "The Dawes Act 1887 was the most destructive measure in Plains Indian history." How far do you agree? (16 + 4)

DAWES: allotment (160 acres/family) legally dissolved tribal land-holding; "surplus" sold — two-thirds of reservation land lost by 1934; it attacked the COMMUNAL idea that was the culture’s core.

OTHERS: buffalo destruction (starvation); Sand Creek/Wounded Knee (terror); boarding schools (children); the 1876 Black Hills seizure (sacred land).

Judgement: the Dawes Act was the QUIETEST and most complete destruction — it did not kill people but dissolved the legal and spiritual basis of their society. Conclude: bullets killed warriors; paper killed nations.

🔬 Case Study Focus — Wounded Knee, 29 December 1890

The 7th Cavalry (Custer’s old regiment) escorted ~350 Lakota — mostly Big Foot’s Miniconjou, many sick with pneumonia, fleeing after Sitting Bull’s killing — to Wounded Knee Creek. The army positioned four Hotchkiss rapid-fire guns on the ridge; a scuffle over a rifle (Black Coyote, deaf, refusing to surrender it) triggered the massacre: ~250–300 Lakota men, women and children killed in minutes; 25 soldiers died (mostly friendly fire). Bodies frozen in a mass grave dug by the escort. Congress awarded 20 Medals of Honor. Exam use: Wounded Knee answers "the end of the Plains wars" with the full policy arc — Ghost Dance panic + Sitting Bull’s death + army fear = the massacre that ended armed resistance with the murder of the unarmed.

🎯 Exam Tips

• 1868 treaty → 1874 gold → 1876 Custer — the Black Hills chain is exam gold.
• Dawes Act 1887 = the legal end; Wounded Knee 1890 = the military end.

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