George Custer on The Battle of Washita
The U.S. government violated treaties with American Indians and responded to resistance with military force, eventually confining American Indians to reservations and denying tribal sovereignty. George Custer was a Major General during the Civil War and in 1868 was placed in command of the 7th Cavalry Regiment which fought against Plains Indians after the Civil War. The excerpt is his recollection of an attack on an encampment led by the Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle.
I proceeded to the battle field, early on the morning of the 11th. Indians had evidently paid a hurried visit to the scene of the late Conflict. The bodies of nearly all the warriors killed in the…fight had been concealed or removed while those of the Squaws and Children, who had been slain in the excitement and confusion of the first charge as well as in self defense were wrapped in Blankets and bound with [lariats] preparatory to removal and burial. Many of the Indian dogs were still found in the vicinity lately occupied by the lodges of their owners; they probably subsisting on the bodies of the ponies that had been killed and then covered several acres of ground near by. As ten days had then elapsed since the battle and scores of Indian bodies still remained unburied or unconcealed some idea may be had of the precipitate haste - with which the Indians abandoned that section of country. A thorough examination of the immediate battle ground failed to discover any thing worthy of special report, except that Indian bodies were found which had [not] previously been reported in my first dispatch, and which went to prove, what we are all aware of now, that the enemy’s loss in killed warriors far exceeded the numbers (103) one hundred and three first reported by me.
General George Custer on The Battle of Washita, 1868.
Question 1
What was the purpose of attacks by the US army on Plains tribes like the one Custer describes?
Question 2
What advantages did the US army have in fighting Plains Indians?
Question 3
Ultimately, Custer is killed in 1876 when his regiment is ambushed at the Battle of Little Bighorn. What advantages did Plains Indians have in these conflicts?
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