ation. The effects of these heartless killing were many on the Indians. Many of the tribes were left without their chiefs and holy men. These were the men they looked to for guidance and hope. A culture of Indians that numbered 1,850,000 at the time of Columbus had dwindled to less that 250,000 at the time of Wounded Knee. (Zinn, 22) The Indians now had an ultimatum-live out your life on the reservation or die. Reservation life only deteriorated and the land the Indians were to live on got smaller and smaller. In total, tribal leaders were convinced or tricked into signing 371 treaties up through the 1870s, ceding almost all of their land to the government. By Supreme Court ruling, the remaining small tracts constituted "dependent nations." (Thurman, 1) While some Indian resistance was crushed by dramatic massacres, for the most part Indians were subdued by a combination of disease, alcohol, food rationing, the cooperation of Indian collaborators, and the theft of Indian children for boarding schools. (Thurman, 1) The Bureau of Indian Affairs, until its transfer to the Interior Department, was part of the War Department. (Thurman, 1) White homesteaders were used to police the Indian people, while others came to see them as good trading partners. In 1936, federal autho...
