Railroad
colonization led to prosperity for the Americans while many Native Americans
lost their livelihoods and lives. Military officers viewed the railroad as a
method of transporting troops to various locations to take control of or
exterminate Native Americans. Railroads gave them the upper hand. The buffalo
had to move to avoid railroad construction which interfered in the lives of the
Plains Indians. The acquisition of horses made hunting buffalo and other large
animals easier. They depended upon the buffalo for food, clothing, trade,
shelter, and so much more. Some tribes, such as the Lakota, looked towards
buffalo as a way of guiding their lives. Buffalo carcasses lay rotting on the
plains when white men decided to kill the honorable beasts for pelts and out of
spite to hurt the Native Americans. Federal laws forced the railroad companies
to construct the railroad tracks with time constraints no matter who lived on
the property. Treaties laid the groundwork for the decimation of tribal lands.
Cultural and language barriers also fed the destruction of the lives of Native
Americans. Railroad tracks lined the terrain along the eastern coast since the
1830s with further expansion to the west at a later date. President Lincoln
strongly supported the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad and put
into place the Pacific Railroad Act to ensure its completion. The
Transcontinental Railroad encouraged colonization of western territories by
facilitating new settlements on Native American lands.
Before
the completion of the transcontinental railroad a trek to the western part of
the country meant dangerous crossings over rivers, deserts, and mountains or
the traveler(s) would venture around Cape Horn, sail to Central America or
cross the Isthmus of Panama while they risked deadly diseases such as yellow
fever or malaria. The thought of uniting the country by rail held the interest
of many since the locomotive was invented.
By the 1840s the railway networks
extended throughout the East, South, and Midwest. The drive to extend the
railway to the Pacific gained momentum. The gold rush and the annexation of
California after the Mexican/American War led to even more interest in
extending the railway westward. Andrew Jackson supported a railway route that
would run through Texas and other southern states. He believed there was less
harsh terrain in the southern states. Political parties split concerning their
beliefs about a southern or northern railway network.
During the 1850s Congress ordered
surveys to be conducted to determine the best route for the transcontinental
railroad. Theodore Judah, a civil engineer who helped build the railroad in
California, came on board and promoted a route that went through Nebraska,
Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range posed a
problem. Daniel Strong, a storekeeper, provided Judah with a better route that
only involved a gradual rise, a summit and only one mountain. Next investors
were sought and this was when the land which the Native Americans lived and
hunted came into question (Linda Hall Library, 2012)
Greenville Dodge, a railroad
engineer and later a Union General, met with Lincoln, an aspiring politician,
to discuss the building of a transcontinental railroad. Lincoln queried Dodge
about possible routes to the west coast. Dodge suggested the railroad should
run from Omaha, along the Platte Valley to the Rocky Mountains, over the
mountains to join with the railroad coming east from California. Dodge and Lincoln
initiated the ultimate construction project of the 19th century.
Dodge and Lincoln (until his assassination) continued their support and
involvement with the building of the Transcontinental Railroad throughout its
completion.
Slavery
and then the transcontinental railroad served as Lincoln’s driving force for
the country. During a campaign speech
for Illinois state legislature he announced “no other improvement… can equal in
utility the railroad” (Ambrose, 2000, page 27).
Four
wealthy men agreed to finance a portion of the railroad: Collis P. Huntington
and his partner Mark Hopkins (dry goods merchants); Charles Croker and Leland
Stanford (wholesale grocers and latter soon to be governor). They paid Judah to
survey the route for the railroad. Judah provided a presentation to Congress in
October of 1861. The southern states were not privy to the venture because of
the Civil War was well underway. President Lincoln vehemently supported the
construction of the railroads and convinced a leery Congress to come on board.
They felt the expensive venture had the potential to fail due to the mountains
and other difficult terrain and waterways. Lincoln sought to make the
Transcontinental Railroad a reality by implementing the Pacific Railway Act in
1862 (Linda Hall Library, 2012).
The Act authorized land grants and
governmental bonds which in the beginning amounted to $16,000 for flat land,
$32,000. per mile for difficult terrain and $48,000 per mile for mountain
construction. The government doled out bonds for every 40-mile increment (Cox,
2015). Deadlines were set and broken concerning the amount of track to be laid
in a certain amount of time. Two companies, the Central Pacific Railroad and
the Union Pacific Railroad, were involved in the construction of the transcontinental
railroad. The federal government set up a portion of the land to be granted to
the railroad companies and the rest was allotted to the federal government. The
land was divided into townships and the railroad companies were granted the odd
number of plots, which resembled a checkerboard. The land granted to the
railroads could be sold to white settlers to pay off their debt. Upon sale of
said land, the railroads still had mineral rights to the land (Ambrose, 2000).
Land that did not belong to them, land that was inhabited by Native Americans.
Numerous western tribes faced various hardships such as genocide and
depravation because of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad such as
the Lakota, Pawnee and Cheyenne.
Lakota:
The movement of the buffalo guided
the Lakotas’ whereabouts on the Plains. They sought to stay near the buffalo
and believed the buffalo taught them how to live life in an honorable and wise
way. The Lakota depended on them for
everything from food to clothing. The Lakota lived on the land with a
reciprocal relationship formed by the expansiveness of the location itself. It
was not like moving from one strange home to another, wherever they were they
were at home.
Over hunting and trapping of beaver
led in the drop in value of the beaver pelts and a corresponding switch to the
buffalo robe trade. Lakota women supplied furs for the trade. Lakota men rode
into buffalo herds and made individual kills. Any claim on a buffalo or
something taken from a buffalo occurred through relationships with women.
Lakota women’s skills and creative work existed between the Native American
expansiveness and the pressures of the global fur trade. White settlers and
entrepreneurs killed many buffalo for their skins and left the rest of the buffalo
rotting on the Plains. The white settlers killed millions of buffalo for the
fur trade.
The Treaty of Horse Creek
established a smaller area on the Plains for the Lakota and the U.S. government
granted themselves an area south of the Missouri River, east of the Rockies,
and north of New Mexico and Texas. These land allotments gave the federal
government the right to construct railroads, military forts and other forms of
infrastructure in the above area. As a result of this infringement, the Lakota
and American military fought to hold onto their land holdings which went
against the Lakota expansiveness techniques of setting up their home wherever
the buffalo settled. Angered by the boundaries set regarding their territory
they had access to which involved territory at the Platte River, they argued
that they needed to hunt as far south as Republican Fork of the Kansas River
and the Arkansas River. The federal government ignored their complaints and set
up trading posts and military forts throughout the area. The Lakota geared up
for battle by moving north and they resupplied their arms by trading with the
Red River Metis (Karuka, 2019).
The land allotted to Native
Americans contradicted the land grants to the Union Pacific. “To honor the
property claim is to abrogate treaty obligations to honor the treaties would be
to dissolve capital claims on territory and resources” (Karuka, 2019, page 67).
President Lincoln signed into law the Pacific Railroad Act on July 1, 1862.
This act represented a set of property claims that did not reflect reality.
U.S. sovereignty served as the basis for the land claims for the railroad. The
Union Pacific Railroad Company was financed by 100,000 shares valued at $1,000.
The shares reflected Congress’ sovereign claims over lands deemed necessary for
the transcontinental railroad which authorized Native American lands as public
lands in which the Union Pacific constructed the railroad. The railroad was
granted 200 feet on each side of the line for stations and buildings. The law
stipulated that the failure of constructing 100 miles of track within two years
after the law’s passage with a further requirement of constructing 100 miles
each additional year led to the forfeiture of the Union Pacific’s assets.
A legislative flag was placed on
Lakota land on August 17, 1862. Lakota’s eastern relatives rose up against the
famine and intrusion in Minnesota and fought to hold onto their land. They
surrendered on September 26 and were treated as war criminals. Women, children
and elders were held in a concentration camp at Fort Snelling in which
approximately 300 people died at this camp. Remaining Lakotas were transported
to Davenport, Iowa to be imprisoned. More than a third died while at the
prison. Four months later President Lincoln ordered an execution of 38 Lakota
men in Mankato, Minnesota which was the largest public execution in the history
of the U.S. Six days after the
execution, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. An end to slavery
occurred while the U.S. government entertained a corrupt territorial expansion
which involved theft, occupation and genocide.
The federal government with the help
of the military sought genocide of the Lakota. Wherever the Lakota went when
they followed the buffalo, the U.S. army followed them and attacked. William T.
Sherman proved to be an ally to the Union Pacific Railroad. Sherman’s interests
consisted of having the railroad as a means of military occupation. The
military mapped the sites of the Lakota winter camps, in which the army attacked
and killed the Native Americans while they were the most vulnerable. They held a
multitude of successful campaigns against the Lakota people during the winter
months. They were able to do so because they moved troops in subzero
temperatures due to the railroad. (Karuka, 2019).
Reports indicated Native American resistance
and theft. Approximately a thousand warriors led by Red Cloud ran away with
railroad stock along the Platte River. Greenville Dodge, a military leader,
referred to the Union Pacific as an extension of the army. “At any moment I
could call into the field a thousand well officered” (Karuka, 2019, page72).
The main goal of the military was not management of labor or competition with
the Central Pacific Railroad, but the colonization of the lands occurred where
the Union Pacific Railroad was located. Captured Confederate soldiers assisted
with defending the Union Pacific construction. Sherman believed the railroad
served as a threat and destruction of the Lakota tribe. He hoped to move more
troops out west to take care of the “Indian Problem.” Sherman also believed the destruction of the
buffalo would destroy the Lakota people (Karuka, 2019).
Red
Cloud had different ideas about what he wanted to see for the country. He
voiced his hopes by comparing the past to the present. “...the country was
filled with traders instead of military posts” (Karuka, 2019, page 77). He wanted relationships based on reciprocity
instead of domination. Instead more treaties were put into place which gave
authority to the U.S. government to take even more of their land and place more
military posts on their territory. The treaties also encroached on hunting
rights. The 1868 Treaty negotiations involved the construction of the Northern
Pacific Railroad which went through Lakota lands. Sitting Bull did not take the
infringement on their rights to the invasion of their land lightly. His
leadership led to the halting of the railroad’s progress. Treaties, Acts and
military actions created havoc and ruined the lives of the Lakota. They did not
take it laying down. They put up a fight. However, the U.S. military’s mighty
fire power, treachery and numbers got the best of the Lakota.
Pawnee
The Pawnee resided on amazing and
fertile land where farmhouses, barns, and fields filled with wheat, oat, and
corn crops existed. The Pawnee managed to maintain their communal relationships
based on cooperation in which they extended to the military presence in their
territory. Pawnee men served as scouts for the U.S. military and fought against
hostile tribes to protect the railroad construction. They also worked on the
construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. White settlers also conducted
commercialized farming on their land which interfered with their cultural
practices. The Pawnee tribe were involved in treaty implementation in which
they were promised trade regulation and protection. The Pawnee women, a
generous and caring people, kept caches filled with harvested vegetables made
available to the village and any neighboring villages if needed which
represented the Pawnee mode of relationship. At first, the Pawnee viewed the
U.S. army as a powerful ally that could help them fight their long-standing
enemies. However, the U.S. government kept taking more and more from them such
as land and other resources.
The Union Pacific Railroad started
laying track from Omaha, Nebraska in 1865. The territory in which Kansas and
Nebraska are currently located served as the homeland of the Pawnee people.
They numbered at approximately 20,000 when the Transcontinental Railroad was
being constructed. Every year the Pawnee traveled up to 500 miles to hunt
buffalo on the plains. The Pawnee returned to their villages to harvest their
crops and spend the winter. American settlements continued to expand through
Pawnee territory and the tribe lost its homeland in Nebraska and were moved to
a reservation in Oklahoma (Rex-Atzet, ND).
Grandparents provided vital
instruction and guidance to their grandchildren as part of their generational
cultural practices. In 1857, in an effort to enhance colonialism, the U.S.
government enforced the Pawnee to reside on a reservation through one of the
treaties. The Pawnee were subjected to giving up even more of their territory.
As part of the treaty negotiations Pawnee children were forced to attend
schools. “In order to improve the condition of the Pawnees, and teach them civilized
life, the United States agreed to found two manual labor schools, and would
potentially open an additional two schools if it found them necessary. The
curriculum at these schools would be directed by the U.S. federal government,
and would include the various branches of a common-school-education, as well as
the arts of agriculture and of their own. All Pawnee children between seven and
eighteen years old shall be kept constantly at these school for, at least nine
months in each year, and parents or guardians would have their annuities
deducted in an amount equal to the value, in time, of the tuition thus lost”
(Karuka, 2019, page 111). The federal government stepped in to control the
relationship between caregivers and their children. The children, not allowed
to participate in the hunting parties or the annual harvest, lost valuable
opportunities to learn valuable lessons. The children were forced to live at
reservation schools (Karuka, 2019).
The Pawnee men were given the
opportunity to apprentice in blacksmith, tinsmith, and gunsmith shops along
with working in grain and lumber mills. The United States government set up the
above opportunities along with reservation farms which served the outlying
white settler communities. Provisions in the treaty included, “Pawnees agree to
prevent the members of their tribe from injuring or destroying the houses,
shops, machinery, stock farming utensils, and all other things furnished by the
Government, and if any such shall be carried away, injured, or destroyed, by
any of the members of their tribe, the value of the same shall be deducted from
the tribal annuities” (Karuka, 2019, page 111). Pawnee workers answered to the
Pawnee agent, not to their tribal leadership. One of the articles in the treaty
provided four Pawnee men with horses and money for an expedition against the
Cheyennes in hope of securing more Pawnee scouts (Karuka, 2019). More treaties
were put into place that involved further annuities which would make the life
of the Pawnee women easier. They were provided brass kettles, hoes, butcher
knives and needles. Their lives were changed drastically.
In 1864, some of the Pawnee men
graded four miles of railroad track because the Union Pacific Railroad
contractor could not secure workers. The commissioner of Indian Affairs (name
unknown) suggested the railroad be renamed the “Pawnee and Pacific Union
Railroad” due to the Pawnee assistance with the construction of the railroad
through their protection and labor. In June 1864, he requested 100 rifles be
given to the Pawnee men because of their land was reduced greatly which impeded
their mobility. On a scout campaign in 1864, Pawnee men provided their own
horses, their wages were supposed to reflect the care of their horses, which it
did not. Pawnee men chose to fight but after hearing rumors about possibly
being forced to fight in the Civil War, they took off on a winter hunt instead.
Measles
and diphtheria ran rampant through the reservation schools which led to many
children dying. The administration decided to only accept the healthiest of the
children into the schools instead of making the necessary changes to ensure the
children’s health needs were met. The school officials found out that the
Pawnee parents took their children on a summer hunt and the school officials adamantly
stated that the school must have authority over the children and not the
parents.
In
January 1867, John Becker, a Pawnee agent, informed the U.S. government that
the Union Pacific Railroad had driven the buffalo from the Pawnee hunting
grounds at the Platte River Valley. Part of his report included Pawnee women
who continued to farm near their villages. The federal government moved the
land they could farm on further away from their homesteads, which went against
their cultural tradition of maintaining caches. The work Pawnee women did
during the past before U.S. government interference, provided the lifeline for
the Pawnee communities. Their importance was being eliminated. Part of the
breaking of family cultural practices involved complete isolation of Pawnee
children from their families to enforce the learning of the English language.
The federal government made an effort to enforce a complete withdrawal from
their traditional cultural practices (Karuka, 2019).
The
Union Pacific workers depended on the Pawnee scouts for protection, however,
the Pawnee questioned what type of people they were. To prove their
disapproval, they disappeared from their scouting duties because the workers
appeared to be pathetic men covered in mud as they buckled under the weight of
the heavy rails. The Pawnee provided an example of a suitable camp for the
white workers. They constructed a lodge of cut wooden poles and took the covers
off the wagons and stretched them over the poles. Grass was placed under the
structures and a fire was built to dry out clothing and to warm the workers.
Younger men tended the horses. They demonstrated how the various generations
worked together.
In January of 1869 Frank North
enlisted a new company of Pawnee scouts. A previous group of scouts, who had
been discharged from their duties, had been attacked by U.S. military. The
soldiers had been encouraged to attack the Pawnee men by white settlers who
lived in the area, near Mulberry Creek. The Pawnee said the men who were attack-ed
had traveled to trade with southern nations by old trade routes. Nine Pawnee
veterans were murdered. An army surgeon dug up their graves and beheaded them.
Their skulls were sent to the Army Medical Museum in which they remained until
1995 (Karuka, 2019).
Railroad colonialism and manifest
destiny led to the demise of a rich Pawnee traditional culture and they lost
most of their land and their traditional cultural practices were seriously
impacted. They cooperated with the U.S. government and its military which
involved the provision of protection against hostile marauders during the
construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. They also worked as laborers for
the railroad. A people adept at agriculture before the arrival of the Americans
were treated as if they were novices. Their children lost the opportunity to
learn valuable life lessons by the enforcement of reservation schools. One of
their main sources of food was taken from them, the buffalo. A rich traditional
Pawnee culture was greatly taken asunder.
Cheyenne
The
Cheyenne left the Great Lakes area and moved to the Tongue River region in
Montana and Wyoming and near the Platte River in Wyoming and Nebraska.
Eventually they formed two divisions, the Northern and Southern Cheyenne. They
expanded to ten bands by the 1800s and were spread all over the Plains. The
Cheyenne adopted the use of horses, which became a large part of their culture.
They trained the horses to go on buffalo hunts. The Cheyenne adopted the Sun
Dance, the tipi, and formed military societies. By the mid 19th
century the Cheyenne’s population totaled approximately 5,000. The bands split and some stayed near the
Black Hills while others remained near the Platte River of central Colorado.
The Arapaho and Lako-ta (Sioux) were their allies. By the mid-1800s, they left
their agricultural and fishing life along with pottery traditions and switched
to a nomadic Plains culture. They used tipis instead of earth lodges and their
diets consisted of bison, wild fruits and vegetables. The Fort Laramie Treaty
of 1851forced them to settle down on their first enforced Cheyenne territory in
northern Colorado (Grinnell, 1972). White settlers continued to encroach on
their lands.
In August of 1867, a group of
Cheyenne men who were returning from Pawnee country crossed the railroad tracks
of the Union Pacific Railroad near what is now Cheyenne, Wyoming. They saw a
railroad crew and decided to wreck a railroad car by laying logs across the
tracks. Some of them ran back to the crew and frightened them into speeding up
the handcar. The logs tipped the car off the tracks. Sleeping Rabbit suggested
they try to derail a train. They cut a telegraph line, pulled out railroad ties
and dislocated the track itself. They waited to see what happened. A Union
Pacific train was barreling down the tracks at full speed without knowledge of
the broken track. The train derailed horribly and there was a lot of wreckage.
They entered the train and gathered food, clothing and whatever else they
wanted. They returned the next day and found bread and sweet foods, which they
ate for lunch. The U.S. army and Pawnee scouts tried to find them. The
derailing of trains occurred on many occasions.
The Cheyenne communities were
perceived as a threat to the white settlers and the Union Pacific Railroad.
Industrialization and occupation continued to be more pertinent than the rights
of Native Americans when it came to the land they resided on. Greenville Dodge
received accolades for his management and engineering skills, however, his
experience supervising U.S. military operations carried more notable attributes.
With military leaders such as Dodge, the railroad became a militarized economy
which consisted of men who did not have any relationship to the location they
served or to anyone they found on the path they traveled.
During the fall of 1866, a group of
soldiers traveled from Fort Sanders, Wyoming Territory, to escort a Union
Pacific engineering company. Dodge requested an additional 20 soldiers to join
them to help prepare the winter camp in the Black Hills. The engineers used
lumber that was stored at the army posts. The Union Pacific Railroad depended
upon the army to protect them and provide them with necessary supplies, if
necessary. The army’s resources were stretched to the limit to accommodate the
railroad personnel (Karuka, 2019).
The Cheyenne Dog Soldiers conducted
raids to acquire needed and wanted things. Most of their land had been taken
away and the wild game was limited due to over hunting by the white settlers.
The Dog Soldiers and their allies knew the land well. The military were forced
to react to the presence of Indians on their own lands. “An image from the Dog
Soldier ledger book shows Big Crow in an attack on a wagon train, in which the
wagons are circled, and the teamsters engaged in defensive fire. Another image
shows the capture of an Overland Stage Company coach. Attacks on railroad work
and engineering parties, on infantry and cavalry details, on army posts, and on
wagon trains, give us glimpses of Dog Soldier herding tactics” (Karuka, 2019,
page 139). Some of the Cheyenne stood by their belief that the land belonged to
them and the white people were intruders.
Dodge saw the need to maximize an
army presence because the raids happened more readily. Union Pacific subcontractors,
who resided near Fort Sedgwick, were raided and they took everything. The
workers were terrified and refused to go back to work. An engineering company
had a mule taken from them. Cheyenne women relied on mules as pack animals.
Groups of railroad workers, who made railroad ties, felt threatened and left
the area of the Black Hills, and the raiders destroyed their tools. Another
engineering party lost two of its members to raids. Dodge stressed to Sherman that he needed more
soldiers to protect the construction of the railroad and was hopeful that more were
provided to him.
Dodge mentioned two threats the Dog
Soldiers posed for the railroad: The first one was sabotage and the second was
the terror faced by the railroad workers. He feared without military protection
the building of the railroad would come to a complete halt. He referred to the
area they were working in as the worse and most dangerous Indian country. The
military operation also became dependent on the railroad. Dodge sent a telegram
in July 1867 to request more soldiers to assist with the completion of the
North Platte crossing. Augar, Dodge’s superior, ordered Dodge to divide the
cavalry between protecting the workers who were constructing the railroad
tracks and at the same time provide protection for the surveyors. Augar ordered
the movement of troops from the area to be canceled. And if Dodge could not
sufficiently provide protection for the railroad, he was to contact Augar
immediately and he would report to Sherman. The railroad served as the first
priority for the army.
Disease ran rampant between the
railroad personnel and military. Cholera struck many at Fort Lyons, Ellsworth
and Harker. Travelers continued to spread the disease westward (Karuka, 2019).
In October 1867, southern Cheyenne
and Arapaho leaders begrudgingly negotiated the Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek
which shrunk territorial Indian land boundaries by half. The treaty served as a
huge risk because attempts at peace in the past only led to massacres,
encroachments and other maladies due to the occupation of the Americans. They
were hopeful that the annuities promised them would guarantee community
survival.
“…tribes party to the agreement…
withdraw all pretense of opposition to the construction of the railroad now
being built along the Platte River, and westward to the Pacific Ocean; and they
will not in future object to the construction of railroads, wagon-roads,
mail-stations, or other works of utility or necessity, which may be ordered or
permitted by the laws of the United States” (Karuka, 2019, page,143).
Dodge sent a request to Augar in
January 1868 to provide military escorts for railroad parties who worked
between Fort Sanders and Green River. He further requested that the Union
Pacific construction crews, who worked from Little Laramie to Bitter Creek,
needed protection for a distance of approximately 200 miles. The army
established nine additional posts throughout the region. Rapid infusion of
military presence was implemented. Railroad workers were ordered to carry
weapons. The abilities of the Dog Soldiers were put to the test. The U.S.
military managed to push the Dog Soldiers out of the Plains and they were
forced to relocate to the foothills of the Rockies. The Trans-continental
Railroad neared completion. The Cheyenne lost most of their horse herds and
wealth which forced them to rely on an annuity economy. They were reduced from
a powerful independent tribe to a tribe who was reliant of the U.S. government
to address their needs.
The Transcontinental Railroad was
completed in 1869. The Americans viewed the railroad as economic progress while
Native Americans saw the Transcontinental Railroad as a threat that destroyed
their communities and their cultures. Railroad companies gained millions of acres
of land from the U.S. Congress which was aided by a variety of treaties
negotiated between the tribes and the U.S. government. President Lincoln coined
all land, even land granted to tribes through treaties, as public land, to
ensure the railroads had access to land they deemed necessary for the
completion of the railroad. He implemented
the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 to ensure the completion of the railroad.
Native American resistance to railroad construction was not illegal or savage. The
Native American resistance posed risks for railroad investors and railroad
contractors. Military presence enforced the progress of the construction of the
railroad. Some of the tribes fought diligently to protect their land from the
encroachment on their land of the military, railroad companies and white
settlers. Others, such as the Pawnee, decided to work with the railroad and
military to aid in the construction. In the end, the Transcontinental Railroad
finished completion, the tribes lost most of their land and many lost their
lives as a result of the American takeover of their land, which resulted in the
genocide of many Native Americans as colonialism and imperialism reared its
ugly head.
