Native Americans—
The End of an Era
Who has not watched a typical cowboys-and-Indians film? People
the world over have heard of Wyatt Earp, Buffalo Bill, and the
Lone Ranger and of the Indians Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse,
and Chief Joseph, as well as many others. But just how authentic
have Hollywood's renderings been? And how evenhanded have their
portrayals of the Indians been?
The story of the conquest of the Native North Americans (Indians)
by Europeans raises questions.* Have the history books dealt the
Indians a fair hand? Are there any lessons to be learned about
greed, oppression, racism, and atrocities? What is the true story
of the so-called cowboys and Indians?
Custer's Last Stand and the Massacre at Wounded Knee
In the year 1876, medicine man Sitting Bull of the Lakota (one
of the three main divisions of the Sioux) was a leader at the
famous battle of the Little Bighorn River, in Montana. With 650
soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel "Long Hair" Custer thought
he could easily defeat 1,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. This
was a gross miscalculation. He was facing probably the largest
group of Native American warriors ever assembled-about 3,000.
Custer split his 7th Cavalry Regiment into three groups. Without
waiting for support from the other two, his group attacked what
he thought would be a vulnerable part of the Indian camp. Led
by headmen Crazy Horse, Gall, and Sitting Bull, the Indians wiped
out Custer and his unit of some 225 soldiers. It was a temporary
victory for the Indian nations but a bitter defeat for the U.S.
Army. However, terrible revenge was only 14 years away.
Eventually, Sitting Bull surrendered, having been promised a pardon.
Instead, he was confined for a time at Fort Randall, Dakota Territory.
In his later years, he appeared in public in Buffalo Bill's Wild
West traveling show. The once illustrious leader had become a
mere shadow of the influential medicine man he used to be.
In 1890, Sitting Bull (Lakota name, Tatanka Iyotake) was shot
to death by Indian police officers who had been sent to arrest
him. His killers were Sioux "Metal Breasts" (police-badge
holders), Lieutenant Bull Head and Sergeant Red Tomahawk.
In that same year, Indian resistance to the white man's dominance
was finally broken at the massacre of Wounded Knee Creek on the
American Great Plains. There, about 320 fleeing Sioux men, women,
and children were killed by federal troops and their Hotchkiss
rapid-fire cannons. The soldiers boasted that this was their vengeance
for the slaughter of their comrades, Custer and his men, on the
ridges overlooking the Little Bighorn River. Thus ended over 200
years of sporadic wars and skirmishes between the invading American
settlers and the besieged resident tribes.
But how did Native Americans get established in North America
in the first place? What kind of life-style did they have before
the white man first set foot in North America?# What led to their
final defeat and subjection? And what is the present situation
of the Indians in a country now dominated by the descendants of
the early European immigrants? These and other questions will
be discussed in the articles that follow.
* While the term "Native American" is now preferred by
some, "Indian" is also still commonly used in many sources.
We will be using these terms interchangeably. "Indian"
is the misnomer given to the natives by Columbus, who thought
that he had reached India when he landed in what is now known
as the West Indies.
# In these articles we are dealing only with North American Indians.
The Amerindians of Mexico, Central America, and South America-Aztecs,
Maya, Incas, Olmec, and others-will be considered in future issues
of this magazine.
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