Reading Questions

1. How many Indian tribes are there in North America?
   According to ncai.org, “There are 562 federally recognized Indian tribes, bands, nations, pueblos, rancherias, communities and Native villages in the United States. Approximately 229 of these are located in Alaska; the rest are located in 33 other states. Tribes are ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse.”
2. Photographer of picture of Chief Garfield on p. 453: Edward Sheriff Curtis
3. The name of the man pictured is Jicarilla Apache chief in 1904, later named Chief Garfield. White officials assigned new names to the Indians because they wanted to give them English or Spanish names. Jicarilla chose the name Garfield himself.
4. White Americans' goals for Indian tribes in the West: they tried to force the region to be what they imagined it would be. They were determined to not allow Indian tribes to be an obstacle in the spread of the white society.
5. The traditional policy of the federal government was to regard the tribes simultaneously as independent nations and as wards of the president, and to negotiate treaties with them that were solemnly ratified by the Senate.
6. What had the government done prior to 1860 that hadn't been successful and why: The government attempted to erect a permanent frontier between whites and Indians, to reserve the region west of the bend of the Missouri River as permanent Indian country. It was unsuccessful because treaties or agreements with the tribes rarely survived the stress of white settlers eager for access to Indian lands.
7. White benefits of the "Concentration" policy and putting Indians into reservations: It divided the the tribes from one another and made them easier to control and also allowed the government to force tribes into scattered locations and to take over the most desirable lands for white settlement, but it didn't survive the basis of Indian policy for long.
8. How did the Indian Peace Commission get Indians to agree to treaties and move to new reservations in the west? Government agents cajoled, bribed, and tricked representatives of the tribes into agreeing to their treaties during a series of meetings.
9. Issue with the Bureau of Indian Affairs' management: the bureau's agents were products of political patronage and were often extremely incompetent and dishonest. Even honest and competent ones were poorly prepared and didn't understand the tribes causing them to not be successful.
10. A form of economic warfare against the Indians: the relentless slaughtering of the buffalo herds which supported the tribes' lives. 
11. Buffalo products popular with Americans: buffalo hides for robes, belts, and leather.
12. Other factors that impacted them: Railroad companies hired people to kill buffalo to thin the herds and avoid obstruction to the railroad traffic. They were also killed to be sold in the booming new market.
13. Buffalo population in 1865 vs 1875: 15 million buffalo to less than a thousand 
14. The buffalo killing was encouraged because the Indians relied on them for survival. Without buffalo, the Indians would diminish also which is what the whites wanted.
15. I was not able to watch the video, but I have eaten bison. I don't anymore because I am a vegetarian and have been since 2009.
16. Ted Turner use for bison and why it's controversial: He is saying that we should "eat it to save it" meaning that if there is no market for it, they will not be bred anymore leading to their decline, but I disagree. If we allow them to be free, they will reproduce on their own. If we are only breeding them to be killed, what's the point? The different views from different people is what causes it to be controversial.