Impact of the Peace Policy & Reservations

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The Impact of US Government Policy

The Peace Policy and the use of reservations had a big impact on Plains Indians' lives.

Ullysses Grant's Peace Policy

The Peace Policy of 1868 aimed to solve the problems caused by reservations and more white settlers creating their homes on the Plains.
The Peace Policy was signed in 1868 by the US President at the time, Ulysses S. Grant. Grant had led the Union army in the American Civil War.

Ely Parker

Ely Parker was born into a Seneca family. The Seneca people are a tribe of indigenous North American people (seriously).
Ulysses S. Grant appointed Ely Parker, a Plains Indian, and someone he had fought with in the American Civil War as the 'Commissioner of Indian Affairs'. Ely Parker helped to design Grant's Peace Policy.

What was in the Peace Policy of 1868?

At the time there were about 300,000 Plains Indians in the USA.
Parker wanted to 'supply them [the Plains Indians] with means for engaging in agricultural and mechanical pursuits for their education and moral training'.
This sounds like an attempt to impose a settler lifestyle and settler values on the Plains Indians population.
Religious leaders were installed to try to impart this 'moral training' and more money ($2M) was given to the Plains Indians to improve their reservations and create new ones.

Shrinking reservations

The Plains Indians were trapped in a negative spiral.
Their reservations kept shrinking in size. This meant that there was less food available for them to eat.
Because they had less food, they needed government money and food provisions.
For example, John Iliff was funded by the US government to provide beef to the Sioux tribe.
This spiral moved the Indians away from their nomadic lifestyle.

1The Early Settlement of the West, c1835-c1862

1.1The Plains Indians: Beliefs & Way of Life

1.1.1The Plains Indians - Social Structure

1.1.2The Plains Indians - Way of Life

1.1.3End of Topic Test - Social & Tribal Structures

1.1.4Grade 9 - The Plains Indians

1.2Migration & Early Settlement

1.2.1The Oregon Trail & Gold Rush

1.2.2Manifest Destiny

1.2.3Major Migrations - Donner, Mormon & Farmer

1.2.4End of Topic Test - Migration and Early Settlement

1.2.5Grade 9 - The Early Settlement of the West

1.3Conflict & Tension

1.3.1Fort Laramie Treaty & Indian Appropriations Act

1.3.2Lawless Towns

1.3.3End of Topic Test - Conflict & Tension

2Development of the Plains, c.1862–c.1876

2.1The Development of Settlement in the West

2.1.1Causes of the American Civil War

2.1.2The American Civil War

2.1.3Homesteading & Railroads 1862-1876

2.1.4Continuing Law & Order Problems 1862-1876

2.1.5Ranching, Cattle & Cowboys 1862-1876

2.1.6End of Topic Test - Development of the Plains

2.2Changes in the Way of Life of the Plains Indians

2.2.1Impact of Railroads & Settlers 1862-1876

2.2.2Impact of the Peace Policy & Reservations

2.2.3The Indian Wars (1862-1868)

2.2.4End of Topic Test - Changes in the Way of Life

2.2.5Grade 9 - Development of the Plains

3Conflicts & Conquest, c.1876–c.1895

3.1Changes in Farming & Settlement

3.1.1Farming & the Cattle Industry 1876-1895

3.1.2The Exoduster Movement & Oklahoma Land Rush

3.1.3End of Topic Test - Exodusters, Land Rush & Cattle

3.2Conflict & Tension

3.2.1Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp and the Range Wars

3.2.2Little Big Horn, the Ghost Dance & Wounded Knee

3.2.3Destroying the Indian Way of Life

3.2.4End of Topic Test - Conflict and Tension

3.2.5Grade 9 - Conflicts & Tension

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