Hunting the buffalo
The Sioux Indians inhabited the plains between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. This part of America was once like an ocean of grass, the homeland of the buffalo. The Indians lived from hunting the buffalo, some fishing, harvesting wild rice, taking care of forest products and even growing corn.
One of the tribes was called Dakota, which means the «allies». They lived around the south-western part of Minnesota. Their first encounter with Europeans took place around 1640. This led to a very negative development for them, because the French supplied a rival tribe of Indians with guns. Facing the threat of guns the Sioux tribe moved westwards towards the Rockies.
In 1815 the US Government started to make treaties with the Dakota Indians to ensure that they stayed as far west as possible. Reservations were made for them to keep them pacified.
The Minnesota uprising took place in 1862. This was an Indian reaction to the unfair treatment by the Government and to the reduction of game in their area. They were thoroughly defeated by the US Army, which led to many Indians running away to Canada and out to the Dakotas.
On June 25th and 26th 1876 the battle of Little Bighorn took place. The cause of this battle was the fact that the Indians were forced away from land, which had been guarantied to be theirs. These lands were the Black Hills and the Yellowstone River Regions. The Indians failed to move to the reservations assigned to them, resulting in the Army moving in. The troops in command of George Custer attacked and were completely wiped out by the Indians led by Sitting Bull.
On December 29th 1890 the last battle between the Indians and the US Army took place at Wounded Knee. The Army had already on the 15th killed the Sioux Chief Sitting Bull in an attempt of arresting him. They proceeded to the Indian reservation at Wounded Knee to put an end to the action going on there. The Indians in their desperation caused by the Government continuously breaking their treaties and reducing their territories, had turned to the Ghost Dance religion. The Army came to disarm the militant Natives who were claiming their rights. No party intended to fight, but the emotions took over and the whole situation ended with a massacre of the Indians.
A new action was carried out in 1973 by a group of 200 militants belonging to the American Indian Movement. They picked the old battle site of Wounded Knee as their arena of demonstration against the authorities. The town was occupied and the Indians varied between shooting and negotiating. The result after 70 days was the loss of two Indian lives and a complete destruction of the little town.