Question

How did the power of the Plains Indians end by 1890?

Answer 1

Hint: The Sioux, the largest of the plains Indians, controlled lands stretching from Oklahoma to Canada. They drifted between seasons, unlike east coast natives. It was dubbed "following the buffalo" by others.

Complete answer:
i) Following the Civil War, the United States made a deliberate attempt to move westward and establish a firm claim to the lands west of the Mississippi.
ii) The lands west of Missouri and the Mississippi are technically owned by the US government. Any settler who would sit on several acres of land for a year would get free land from the state.
iii) The Sioux and a few other smaller tribes already lived on this land. The Sioux, on the other hand, did not believe in land possession, which is a prevalent characteristic of all Native Americans in North America.
iv) As a show of protection for settlers, the US government built a series of small forts staffed by cavalry.
v) In 1868, the United States signed an agreement with the Sioux nation, stating that America would not seek to conquer any more territory than it already had.
vi) Custer's travels in the Dakotas and his death on June 26, 1876, indicate that the compromise was never honoured by the American government. Despite his failure, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and other Sioux figures, some of whom had flown to Washington and talked with Congress, were given assurances that the government's word would be kept.
vii) These leaders knew that in the long term, they would lose. When the number of white settlers grew, so did their willingness to fight them.
viii) Much had been herded into "reservations" by 1890. Almost all of the reserves were on property that the US government considered unacceptable.

Note: The slaughter of the buffalo herds exemplifies the blind arrogance and selfishness with which Americans rushed through the West without considering or trying to comprehend the Plains Indians' way of life. The vast herds of buffalo that had supported the Indians for generations were limited to a meagre few thousand in just a few years.