Why was the Battle of the Little Bighorn so significant? What did it mean for the future treatment of Native Americans?
1 Answer
It was the last Indian Victory(June 1876)
Explanation:
The Battle of Bighorn is nicknamed "Custer's Last Stand" since General Custer was killed there. It was a coalition of Sioux, Cheyennes and Comanches who defeated the 7th Cavalry. It occurred because of the violation of the Black Hills which was holy ground for the Indians of the Great Plains. It occurred in Montana.
Those Black Hills were invaded after a rumor reported that gold had been discovered there. Plus, bankers and tycoons in the East longed to build a second Transcontinental railroad line and it failed due to the failure of the Yellowstone expedition in 1873. Yet, Custer used the Press to fuel the influx of goldseekers in the Black Hills to enable the crushing of Indian presence there by his federal troops.
The Battle of Bighorn did not prevent the conquest of the West from being carried out and the Indian Wars ended in Wounded Knee when Sioux who had accepted to surrender were massacred after a white man had been accidently killed. It occured in South Dakota in 1890. The reservation policy became uncontested after Geronimo surrended in 1886, the Apaches had indeed been the last tribe to resist this policy.
