Time

6:C0AM

Open Continental Breakfast/Questions?
 

Source: Scottsbluff Information Site
Educational Material/Non Commercial
 

Readings provided by UB-TAH before the fieldtrip

*Visit Historical Markers in the Area*

Lecturer: John Barton, Historian

Resources Available Online:

• The Oregon Trail by Mike Trinklein and Steve Boettcher
• The California Trail by the National Park Services
• The Pony Express by the American West
• The Mormon Trail by the National Park Services
• UB-TAH Collection of Resources

Fort Robinson Museum, NE
Fort Robinson State Park and Museum
is 3 miles west of Crawford, NE on US highway 20
Fort Robinson Museum
PO Box 304
Crawford, NE 69339-0304
Phone: 308-665-2919
E-mail: fortrob@bbc.net

Core Curriculum K-4 Standards
Core Curriculum K-5-12 Standards
Core Curriculum Historical Thinking K-5-12
Utah Core Curriculum K3-6 (New Core Curriculum)
Utah Core Curriculum K 7-12

Information:
"From Crazy Horse to the cavalry to the K-9 Corps, Fort Robinson played host to them all. Experience the long and varied history of this outpost on the Plains. The museum at Fort Robinson is located in the 1905 post headquarters building. Museum exhibits trace the history from the post's role guarding the Red Cloud Agency (1874-77) through the housing of World War II German POW's (1943-46). Among the many fascinating objects you will see in the museum's exhibits are the only known dog kennel from the K-9 Corps of World War II, marksmanship medals earned by Caleb Benson, a Buffalo Soldier at Fort Robinson between 1902 and 1909, and nineteenth-century Sioux objects related to the Red Cloud Agency.

To learn more about Fort Robinson's history, you can visit more than a dozen historic structures and sites such as the 1904 blacksmith shop, the 1908 veterinary hospital, the 1887 officers' quarters, the 1875 guardhouse and adjutant's office, and the old post cemetery. A museum library featuring materials on Fort Robinson, military, and western history is available to researchers for inhouse use."

Source:  Fort Robison Museum Website
Educational Material/Non Commercial
 

Dull Knife:
As Remembered by Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman):

"The life of Dull Knife, the Cheyenne, is a true hero tale. Simple, child-like yet manful, and devoid of selfish aims, or love of gain, he is a pattern for heroes of any race.
Dull Knife was a chief of the old school. Among all the Indians of the plains, nothing counts save proven worth. A man's caliber is measured by his courage, unselfishness and intelligence. Many writers confuse history with fiction, but in Indian history their women and old men and even children witness the main events, and not being absorbed in daily papers and magazines, these events are rehearsed over and over with few variations. Though orally preserved, their accounts are therefore accurate. But they have seldom been willing to give reliable information to strangers, especially when asked and paid for.

Racial prejudice naturally enters into the account of a man's life by enemy writers, while one is likely to favor his own race. I am conscious that many readers may think that I have idealized the Indian. Therefore I will confess now that we have too many weak and unprincipled men among us. When I speak of the Indian hero, I do not forget the mongrel in spirit, false to the ideals of his people. Our trustfulness has been our weakness, and when the vices of civilization were added to our own, we fell heavily.

It is said that Dull Knife as a boy was resourceful and self-reliant. He was only nine years old when his family was separated from the rest of the tribe while on a buffalo hunt. His father was away and his mother busy, and he was playing with his little sister on the banks of a stream, when a large herd of buffalo swept down upon them on a stampede for water. His mother climbed a tree, but the little boy led his sister into an old beaver house whose entrance was above water, and here they remained in shelter until the buffalo passed and they were found by their distracted parents.

Dull Knife was quite a youth when his tribe was caught one winter in a region devoid of game, and threatened with starvation. The situation was made worse by heavy storms, but he secured help and led a relief party a hundred and fifty miles, carrying bales of dried buffalo meat on pack horses.

Another exploit that made him dear to his people occurred in battle, when his brother-in-law was severely wounded and left lying where no one on either side dared to approach him. As soon as Dull Knife heard of it he got on a fresh horse, and made so daring a charge that others joined him; thus under cover of their fire he rescued his brother-in-law, and in so doing was wounded twice.

The Sioux knew him as a man of high type, perhaps not so brilliant as Roman Nose and Two Moon, but surpassing both in honesty and simplicity, as well as in his war record. (Two Moon, in fact, was never a leader of his people, and became distinguished only in wars with the whites during the period of revolt.) A story is told of an ancestor of the same name that illustrates well the spirit of the age.

It was the custom in those days for the older men to walk ahead of the moving caravan and decide upon all halts and camping places. One day the councilors came to a grove of wild cherries covered with ripe fruit, and they stopped at once. Suddenly a grizzly charged from the thicket. The men yelped and hooted, but the bear was not to be bluffed. He knocked down the first warrior who dared to face him and dragged his victim into the bushes.

The whole caravan was in the wildest excitement. Several of the swiftest-footed warriors charged the bear, to bring him out into the open, while the women and dogs made all the noise they could. The bear accepted the challenge, and as he did so, the man whom they had supposed dead came running from the opposite end of the thicket. The Indians were delighted, and especially so when in the midst of their cheers, the man stopped running for his life and began to sing a Brave Heart song as he approached the grove with his butcher knife in his hand. He would dare his enemy again!

The grizzly met him with a tremendous rush, and they went down together. Instantly the bear began to utter cries of distress, and at the same time the knife flashed, and he rolled over dead. The warrior was too quick for the animal; he first bit his sensitive nose to distract his attention, and then used the knife to stab him to the heart. He fought many battles with knives thereafter and claimed that the spirit of the bear gave him success. On one occasion, however, the enemy had a strong buffalo-hide shield which the Cheyenne bear fighter could not pierce through, and he was wounded; nevertheless he managed to dispatch his foe. It was from this incident that he received the name of Dull Knife, which was handed down to his descendant. As is well known, the Northern Cheyennes uncompromisingly supported the Sioux in their desperate defense of the Black Hills and Big Horn country. Why not? It was their last buffalo region -- their subsistence. It was what our wheat fields are to a civilized nation.

About the year 1875, a propaganda was started for confining all the Indians upon reservations, where they would be practically interned or imprisoned, regardless of their possessions and rights. The men who were the strongest advocates of the scheme generally wanted the Indians' property -- the one main cause back of all Indian wars. From the warlike Apaches to the peaceful Nez Perces, all the tribes of the plains were hunted from place to place; then the government resorted to peace negotiations, but always with an army at hand to coerce. Once disarmed and helpless, they were to be taken under military guard to the Indian Territory.

A few resisted, and declared they would fight to the death rather than go. Among these were the Sioux, but nearly all the smaller tribes were deported against their wishes. Of course those Indians who came from a mountainous and cold country suffered severely. The moist heat and malaria decimated the exiles. Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces and Chief Standing Bear of the Poncas appealed to the people of the United States, and finally succeeded in having their bands or the remnant of them returned to their own part of the country. Dull Knife was not successful in his plea, and the story of his flight is one of poignant interest.

He was regarded by the authorities as a dangerous man, and with his depleted band was taken to the Indian Territory without his consent in 1876. When he realized that his people were dying like sheep, he was deeply moved. He called them together. Every man and woman declared that they would rather die in their own country than stay there longer, and they resolved to flee to their northern homes.

Here again was displayed the genius of these people. From the Indian Territory to Dakota is no short dash for freedom. They knew what they were facing. Their line of flight lay through a settled country and they would be closely pursued by the army. No sooner had they started than the telegraph wires sang one song: "The panther of the Cheyennes is at large. Not a child or a woman in Kansas or Nebraska is safe." Yet they evaded all the pursuing and intercepting troops and reached their native soil. The strain was terrible, the hardship great, and Dull Knife, like Joseph, was remarkable for his self-restraint in sparing those who came within his power on the way.

But fate was against him, for there were those looking for blood money who betrayed him when he thought he was among friends. His people were tired out and famished when they were surrounded and taken to Fort Robinson. There the men were put in prison, and their wives guarded in camp. They were allowed to visit their men on certain days. Many of them had lost everything; there were but a few who had even one child left. They were heartbroken.

These despairing women appealed to their husbands to die fighting: their liberty was gone, their homes broken up, and only slavery and gradual extinction in sight. At last Dull Knife listened. He said: "I have lived my life. I am ready." The others agreed. "If our women are willing to die with us, who is there to say no? If we are to do the deeds of men, it rests with you women to bring us our weapons.

As they had been allowed to carry moccasins and other things to the men, so they contrived to take in some guns and knives under this disguise. The plan was to kill the sentinels and run to the nearest natural trench, there to make their last stand. The women and children were to join them. This arrangement was carried out. Not every brave had a gun, but all had agreed to die together. They fought till their small store of ammunition was exhausted, then exposed their broad chests for a target, and the mothers even held up their little ones to be shot. Thus died the fighting Cheyennes and their dauntless leader.

Author: Charles Eastman
Source:  Indigenous people Website
Educational Material/Non Commercial
 

Pine Ridge History:
"The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (Oglala Oyanke in Lakota, also called Pine Ridge Agency) is an Oglala Sioux Native American reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota. Pine Ridge was established in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border and consists of 8,984.306 km² (3,468.86 sq mi) of land area, the eighth-largest reservation in the United States, larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

Most of the land comprising the reservation lies within Shannon County and Jackson County, two of the poorest counties in the U.S. In addition, there are extensive off-reservation trust lands, mostly in adjacent Bennett County, but also extending into adjacent Pine Ridge, Nebraska in Sheridan County, just south of the community of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, the reservation's administrative center and largest community. The 2000 census population of all these lands was 15,521. However, a study conducted by Colorado State University and accepted by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development estimate the resident population to be approximately 26,000.

The reservation was the setting for Adrian Louis' novel "Skins" as well as the 2002 Chris Eyre adaptation of the same name, and the 2000 book, On the Rez, by Ian Frazier."

Late 1800s: Creation and Massacre
Tashun-Kakokipa (They-Fear-Even-His-Horses) at his lodge on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1891Pine Ridge Reservation was originally part of the Great Sioux Reservation established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and originally encompassed approximately 60 million acres (240,000 km²) of parts of South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. In 1876, the U.S. government violated the treaty of 1868 by opening up 7.7 million acres (31,000 km²) of the Black Hills to homesteaders and private interests. In 1889 the remaining area of Great Sioux Reservation was divided into seven separate reservations: Cheyenne River Agency, Crow Creek Agency, Lower Brule Agency, Rosebud Agency, Sisseton Agency, Yankton Agency and Pine Ridge Agency.

On December 29, 1890 at Wounded Knee, over 300 men, women and children were killed by the United States 7th Cavalry. The Native Americans were being transported to the Sioux reservation at Pine Ridge (see: Wounded Knee massacre).

The 1970s: Protest and Violence
Starting on February 27, 1973, the reservation was the site of the Wounded Knee Incident, a 71-day stand-off between entrenched American Indian Movement (AIM) activists and FBI agents and the National Guard. The AIM activists were led by Dennis Banks and Russell Means. During the firefight, two FBI agents were killed and a U.S. Marshal was paralyzed.

Following the peaceful conclusion of the 1973 stand-off, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation experienced several years of violent incidents. The murder rate between March 1, 1973 and March 1, 1976 was 170 per 100,000. Detroit had a rate of 20.2 per 100,000 in 1974 and at the time was considered “the murder capital of the US.” The national average was 9.7 per 100,000. It was originally noted by AIM representatives that there were many unsolved murders of a number of opponents of the tribal government installed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, In 2000, this theory was "debunked" when the FBI released a report accounting for most of the deaths. AIM, in turn, offered its own rebuttal to the FBI report. One of the murders during that period involved a civil rights activist, Ray Robinson, who worked with Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young in the 1960s. His body has not been found.

On June 26, 1975, the reservation was the site of an armed confrontation between AIM activists and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in an event which became known as the Pine Ridge Shootout. This resulted in the death of two FBI agents and one AIM activist. The hunt for the killer(s) of the two FBI agents led to the controversial acquittals of AIM members Bob Robideau and Dino Butler as well as the extradition, trial, and conviction of Leonard Peltier. The perceived lack of substantive evidence in Peltier's trial is the subject of much controversy.

On February 24, 1976, Anna Mae Aquash, a Mi'kmaq activist and member of AIM was found shot to death by the side of State Road 73 in the far northeast corner of the Pine Ridge Reservation. The alleged motives for the murder was the mistaken belief that Ms. Aquash was a government informant but that she also knew Leonard Peltier killed the FBI agents in 1975. In 2004, one of Anna's captors was found guilty of murder. Another suspect was recently extradited to the U.S. to also stand trial for the murder."

Source: Internet Various
Educational Material/Non Commercial
 

Wounded Knee History:
"After Sitting Bull's death, Big Foot feared for the safety of his band, which consisted in large part of widows of the Plains wars and their children. Big Foot himself had been placed on the list of "fomenters of disturbances," and his arrest had been ordered. He led his band toward Pine Ridge, hoping for the protection of Red Cloud. However, he fell ill from pneumonia on the trip and was forced to travel in the back of a wagon. As they neared Porcupine Creek on December 28, the band saw 4 troops of cavalry approaching. A white flag was immediately run up over Big Foot's wagon. When the two groups met, Big Foot raised up from his bed of blankets to greet Major Samuel Whitside of the Seventh Cavalry. His blankets were stained with blood and blood dripped from his nose as he spoke.

Whitside informed him of his orders to take the band to their camp on Wounded Knee Creek. Big Foot replied that they were going that way, to Pine Ridge. The major wanted to disarm the Indians right then but was dissuaded by his scout John Shangreau, in order to avoid a fight on the spot. They agreed to wait to undertake this until they reached camp. Then, in a moment of sympathy, the major ordered his army ambulance brought forward to accept the ill Minneconjou chief, providing a warmer and more comfortable ride. They then proceeded toward the camp at Wounded Knee Creek, led by two cavalry troops with the other two troops bringing up the rear with their Hotchkiss guns. They reached the camp at twilight.

At the camp, the Indians were carefully counted; there were 120 men and 230 women and children. Major Whitside decided to wait until morning to disarm the band. They were assigned a camp site just to the south of the cavalry camp, given rations, and provided with several tents as there was a shortage of tepee covers. A stove was provided for Big Foot's tent and the doctor was sent to give aid to the chief. To guarantee against escape from the camp, two troops of cavalry were posted around the Indian tents and the Hotchkiss guns were placed on the top of a rise overlooking the camp. The guns were aimed directly at the lodges.

During the night the rest of the Seventh Cavalry marched in and set up north of Major Whitside's troops. Two more Hotchkiss guns were placed beside the two already aimed at the lodges. Colonel John Forsyth took over command of the operation and informed Major Whitside that he had orders to take the band to the railroad to be shipped to a military prison in Omaha.

In the morning a bugle call awakened the camp and the men were told to come to the center of the camp for a talk. After the talk they would move to Pine Ridge. Big Foot was brought out and seated before his tent. The older men of the band gathered around him. Hardtack was issued for breakfast. Then the Indians were informed that they would be disarmed. They stacked their guns in the center, but the soldiers were not satisfied. The soldiers went through the tents, bringing out bundles and tearing them open, throwing knives, axes, and tent stakes into the pile. Then they ordered searches of the individual warriors. The Indians became very angry but only one spoke out, the medicine man, Yellow Bird. He danced a few steps of the Ghost Dance and chanted in Sioux, telling the Indians that the bullets would not hurt them, they would go right by.

The search found only two rifles, one brand new, belonging to a young man named Black Coyote. He raised it over his head and cried out that he had spent much money for the rifle and that it belonged to him. Black Coyote was deaf and therefore did not respond promptly to the demands of the soldiers. He would have been convinced to put it down by the Sioux, but that option was not possible. He was grabbed by the soldiers and spun around. Then a shot was heard; its source is not clear but it began the killing. The only arms the Indians had were what they could grab from the pile. When the Hotchkiss guns opened up, shrapnel shredded the lodges, killing men, women and children, indiscriminately. They tried to run but were shot down "like buffalo," women and children alike.

When the mass insanity of the soldiers ended, 153 dead were counted, including Big Foot; but many of the wounded had crawled off to die alone. One estimate place the final death toll at 350 Indian men, women and children. Twenty-five soldiers died and 39 were wounded, most by their own shrapnel and bullets. The wounded soldiers were started back to the Pine Ridge agency. Then a detail of soldiers went over the battlefield, gathering up any Indians that were still alive and placing them in wagons. As a blizzard was approaching, the dead were left where they had fallen. The wagons with the wounded arrived at Pine Ridge after dark. They contained only 4 Sioux men and 47 women and children. These people were left outside in wagons in the bitter cold while a search was made for housing for them. Finally the Episcopal mission was opened, the benches removed and hay scattered over the floor as bedding for the wounded Sioux. As they were brought in, those who were conscious could see the Christmas decorations hanging from the rafters.

After the blizzard a burial party returned to the battlefield, they found the bodies including that of Big Foot, frozen into contorted shapes."

Wounded Knee, 1973

"The Wounded Knee site played another significant role in the history of the Sioux nation, in 1973 in the second siege of Wounded Knee. The siege began as an occupation of the church at Wounded Knee in protest of the government of Dickie Wilson, the officially sanctioned government of the reservation. This government was so corrupt that several groups had sprung up to provide alternate paths to accomplish their ends by cooperative efforts. These groups supported the young people who occupied the church. There had been almost open warfare on the reservation for some time before the occupation. Now the tribal government called in the troops to lay seige to the church. Many accounts of this period are available. The books that I recommend can be found in the acknowledgements and essential reading lists.
There are also tributes to those who fell in the "battles" in both sieges at Wounded Knee in the lyrics of modern Native American musicians. Among these are Bury my heart at Wounded Knee by Buffy Sainte-Marie and For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash by Joy Harjo & Poetic Justice.

There is a movement now to make a national monument of the Wounded Knee site. At first glance it would appear to provide a small amount of historical balance, a recognition that many of our fellow human beings, our Indian brothers and sisters, were massacred here by a troop of ignorant and scared men paid by the United States government to make sure that no trouble was caused for the white men seeking their fortunes in this "new territory." But this is not our monument, our sacred place. It belongs to the Sioux. It must be honored in their way; not with paved parking lots and souvenirs, rangers to give a sanitized version of what happened here to tourists who will stop for a few hours and spend a few dollars. There is active opposition to this park proposal from within the Pine Ridge community. The park opponents have a detailed list of reasons for their opposition.

Source:  http://www.hanksville.org/daniel/lakota/Wounded_Knee.html
Educational Material/Non Commercial
 

Yes