Natalie Youssef Textbook Passage Massacre at Wounded Knee: Due to the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876 in the

Montana territory there has always been a misleading trust between the Indians and the Whites due to historical conflicts in the 19th century. Throughout this period there were times of desperation because of inclimate weather and lack of resources and because of the land ownership conflicts. There had been several different treaties and agreements between the Whites and Indians. Once the Indians signed, they agreed that they would stay and live on the reservation. By 1887 the U.S government began to change its policies toward Native Americans. The US government felt it was necessary for the Indians to adopt the English language in order to enable them to read, write, and speak in order to manage business with English speaking people. From then on there were missionary teachers and boarding schools in order to civilize the Indians. US military control had defeated and gained control over the Cheyenne and Sioux tribes from 1877-79. During this action of suppression the Indians were disarmed and dismounted. After their ponies were sold they were forced to rely on stock, farming, utensils, and wagons. With little food to eat and on the verge of desperation they were forced to kill cattle belonging to white people in order to sustain their lives. In the years 1889-1890 there was a huge amount of stress put on the Indians and Whites from the failure of the crops in the plains of their Dakota territories. Due to this tragedy, many Whites migrated over the mountains to the Pacific slope or returned to the east of Missouri or Mississippi while the Indians were forced to stay because they could not acquire occupation as easily as white people. It was the years of 1890-91 when there was a Ghost Dance; a movement in order to destroy the white people that was performed by the Indians in the reservation. This movement alarmed the white settlers, bringing federal troops to prevent breakouts and violence in the reservations. This caused a lack of trust between the Indians and the Whites. As a result of the lack of trust from the Ghost Dance movement the Indians were in the process of giving up their weapons on December 28, 1890 when an anonymous shot was fired off. This lead to two to three attacks from the Whites to the Indians killing at least 153 (some estimate nearly 300 people) Sioux Indians who were mainly innocent women and children. As for the white soldiers, 25 were killed. This massacre at Wounded Knee ended the conflict between the US government and the Indians for the time being.

Reflection: Discuss your engagement with this assignment. What was interesting/difficult/rewarding enlightening about it? It found it interesting to discover what caused the battle and who started it. Reading from multiple different perspectives gave me a deeper insight of the Wounded Knee Massacre than the knowledge and understanding I would have obtained from just reading out of a textbook. It was difficult for me to craft a text book passage outline since it is different from any other type of writing I have done before. It was rewarding when I managed to include all the main points of the battle in an organized fashion. It was and still is extremely difficult to write without a biased view on the topic. It makes me respect the authors of history textbooks. I have an understanding of the struggles and challenges they face while creating those textbooks. Also historical events can be extremely lengthy and detailed. It was a challenge to write concisely and summarize up a large point of history into a couple short paragraphs. Where do you see bias in your passage? What evidence of your own ideology do you see? After looking and reading over my textbook passage I found that I was bias by not including all of the details that lead to the cause of the battle because they included a my perspective or something I may not have agreed with. I tried to not have an opinion but you can still tell there is one because I did not include information on how the treaties were forced upon the Indians. It was more an act of desperation rather than an agreement. How has this inquiry informed, changed, or expanded your perception of the study of history? This inquiry has informed me of the Wounded Knee Massacre. I am now aware of how important it is to consider all types of documents and sources in order to have a clear understanding of an event in history. There are many different things I learned from different perspectives of the Wounded Knee Massacre. After reading many different documents I came to the understanding that Indians were not given the same rights as whites. Although I understand where the Whites would feel the need to fight the Indians I still believe as if they were harshly discriminated against and did not have nearly as many rights as the Whites did. Indians had many more struggles since they did not have the ability to move to a better area with food and resources. It is really heart breaking to read about the struggles and hardships many Indians had to go through. I still dont believe I will ever truly understand what they had to go through even after reading many different documents of their perspective. I am eager to watch this film regarding the Massacre to give me a visual of what happened because reading many documents did create confusion of which events and leading factors of the Massacre happened first. I would not have a clear

understanding of what had happened during this event if I were to have just read one source or used a history textbook.