Little Bighorn and Reservations

Describe the 1876 battle, its cause, what followed, and forced moves to reservations.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 51

Our next story jumps ahead to 1876, after the Civil War, which you'll learn about soon. By then, settlers, railroads, and hunters were pushing onto the Great Plains.
In a treaty of 1868, the United States promised the Black Hills to the Lakota. The hills are sacred to them. Then gold was found there, and miners rushed in. The government broke its promise.
Many Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho people gathered by the Little Bighorn River, with leaders like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. They wouldn't give up their way of life.
In June 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Custer attacked with his soldiers. Warriors defending their families defeated them, and Custer and about 260 of his men died.
It was a victory, but the army sent many more soldiers. Hunters had killed nearly all the bison that Plains nations depended on. One by one, the nations were forced onto reservations, which are lands set aside for them, often far from their homes.
Children were often sent away to schools that banned their languages. Yet the nations held on. Today many govern themselves, and they're working to keep their languages and ways alive.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:

SS4H3.b — Describe the impact of westward expansion on American Indians; include the Trail of Tears, Battle of Little Bighorn and the forced relocation of American Indians to reservations.