The Fetterman Massacre was a part of a larger war called Red Cloud's War (named after Red Cloud, the head of the Sioux Native American tribe). The Bozeman trail was a trail that passed through Sioux hunting grounds. The federal government began to connect other mining towns to the trail. The cheif of the Sioux tribe, Red Cloud was against the expanding of the trail, since his tribe's traditional hunting grounds would be inhabited by people other than members of the tribe. He was determined to stop this expansion. Captain William Fetterman was determined to wipe out the Sioux population. On December 21, 1866, he led any army of 80 men to do so. Red Cloud killed Fettermen and 82 other soilders during this attack. After the massacre, there was debate over Indian policy. Many white people of the East wanted to create a peace policy. These people felt it was their duty to "civilize" Native American tribes. Other whites felt that Indians were not capable of being civilized, so efforts to civilize them would be irrelevant, Certain white Westerners wanted control over the Native American population without peace. They wanted to punish Native Americans who rebelled against their proposition. In the end, the Easterners won the debate. Now that the peace advocates had the upper hand, the construction of the Bozeman trail was halted. The congress then ended the war.
American Studies Textbook
http://www.essortment.com/all/fettermanmassa_rfkt.htm
This massacre shows how the Native Americans, who had always believed in sharing land peacefully, were lead to do such a thing (kill many white settlers) because of the actions of these disrespectful, inconsiderate, and aggressive settlers.
ReplyDelete