AGENDA Looking West Notes

Video Clips Readings

Homework: Read “Myth of the American Cowboy” Be prepared to discuss/write about it

Looking West1865 - 1900

American History HonorsOctober, 2015

Ms. Costas

Essential Questions: What were the causes of America’s westward

expansion after the Civil War? How did the United States government

encourage westward expansion? What were the consequences of this westward

migration, especially on the Native Americans? What was the significance of the Populist Party

of the late 1800s?

The U.S. in 1860

Northwest Ordinance1787

Created the Northwest territory Established a precedent by which the

Federal gov’t would be sovereign and expand westward

Determined qualifications for statehood Population must reach 60,000 Delegates would vote to write a state

government and constitution Elected representatives for government

Texas’ History Settled by Spanish missionaries War of Mexican Independence and Rev. War

Responsible for populating Texas Annexation of Texas (1845)

Leads to Mexican War Ends with Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) Gadsden Purchase (1854)

Connected parts of the east to California Military bases Cattle Farming

Railroads in 1860

Transcontinental Railroad Pre-Civil War, railroad stopped at Missouri River

1,775 miles of track from Omaha to Sacramento

Cut paths through mountains and deserts 1862 Congress gives charters to two companies

Central Pacific Railway Union Pacific Railway

Race to lay the most tracks

May 10, 1869 CPR and UPR met at Promontory Summit, Utah Impact

Time zones Economic boom Advanced technology Quick travel from coast to coast New jobs

How could railroad companies be encouraged by the government to build a railroad to service part of the country where there were as yet no significant numbers of United States citizens?

Conversely, why should settlers come when there was no railroad?

Ken Burns – “The West” Questions

How did the building of the railway change the life of the plains Indians in ways that would prove to be unalterable?

Were the Chinese at first considered to be suitable workers on the railway? Why were they eventually chosen in such large numbers? What credit is due them for building the railway?

In what way was the joining of the rails at Promontory, Utah a national, rather than a local, event?

How did technology itself play a role in transmitting the event to the nation?

Envision yourself as a citizen of the U.S. in 1869. How would this event make you feel about your country? About technology? About the future?

The Completion of the Railroad

May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah Transcontinental Railroad is completed

The Lure of the West Scholars study the reasons for migration and call it push-

pull factors Events and conditions that either force (push) people to move

elsewhere Events and conditions that strongly attract (pull) them to move

elsewhere Push Factors

Civil War displaced farmers, former slaves, and other workers Eastern farmland costly Failed entrepreneurs Ethnic and religious repression Outlaws

Pull Factors Government incentives

Pacific Railway Act Morrill Land Grant Act Homestead Act

Private Property

Homestead Act Read “The Homestead Act” – with a partner, answer the

following questions:1. What is the purpose of this act?2. What is meant by the term “public domain”?3. Who is entitled to secure a grant of land from the Federal

Government? Can women secure such a grant in their own names, and if so, how?

4. What is the largest amount of land a person can secure from the Federal government through this act?

5. How would one go about applying for land under the act (filing the affidavit)?

6. How long would one have to wait in between filing an affidavit and securing final title to the land one settled? What did a settler need to do in the meantime?

7. How much per acre did land under the Homestead Act cost?8. The Homestead Act was meant to insure that US citizens who

actually wanted to farm land were the recipients of the government’s largess. Who else might have wanted to profit from this deal, and how? How is the law trying to prevent various abuses?

Pacific Railway Act Read the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 – with a partner

answer the following questions1. What is the purpose of this act?2. What is the Union Pacific Railroad Company empowered

by this act to do?3. What difficulties do you foresee in terms of crews of

men living and working in a variety of environments as they lay tracks?

4. Why do you think the government is providing for the building of telegraph poles along the length of the railroad?

5. The act is giving the railroad the right of way on public lands. What does the government promise to do if American Indian tribes claim title to this land?

6. In Section 3 the act provides the railroad with more land than what is needed to give it a right of way. Why will this land fronting the railroad tracks be even more valuable than land given to homesteaders at a distance from the railway?

7. What method of financing the railway does the bill propose in Section 5?

Make a Plan Railway Owners

As railway owners you will want to maximize your profits. Your lawyers are ready to look over both acts to see how your company can make the most money. As a group plan whatever strategies you can to do so. (In your thinking, be sure to include use of the land you will acquire.)

Land Speculators You are neither settlers nor railway owners, but people

who want to buy land as cheaply as possible and then re-sell it at a much higher rate. Your lawyers will look at both these acts to find as many loopholes as possible for ways in which you can purchase land for re-sale.

Each group will present their strategies to the class. What conflicts are evident? What problems do students foresee, if any?

Settlement of the Last Frontier Western frontier

Great Plains Rocky Mountains Western Plateau

Great American Desert = land between the Mississippi River and Pacific Coast Few trees Less than 15’ of rainfall per year

Not enough to support farming Not ideal for settlement

15 million bison Settlement of the frontier was achieved by 3 groups

of pioneers: Miners Cowboys Farmers

The Mining Frontier California Gold Rush (1848) Gold strikes in other parts of west brought miners

Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, South Dakota Most gain statehood because of mining boom

Large gold strikes led to overnight boomtowns Most miners were foreigners

European, Latin American, or Chinese Leads to taxes on foreigners and Chinese Exclusion

Act (1882) First act passed by Congress that restricts immigration

based on race and nationality Impact of mining

Increase in silver leads to debate over the value of gold and silver backed currency

Environmental scars Loss of land for Natives

Gold Veins in Rock – known as “lode”

Comstock Lode

Comstock Lode Frenzy

Cowboy Frontier Cowboys came looking for jobs Cattle/herding techniques came from Texas

Vaqueros = Spanish cowboys Railroads allowed cattle to be shipped

eastward Cattle drives came to an end in the 1880s

Overgrazing Blizzard/drought of 1885 – 1886 Barbed wire fencing

New sciences led to ranch-raised cattle

The Farming Frontier Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged farming on

the Great Plains 160 acres of free land to those who settle on it for 5+

years

In 30 years 500,000 Americans took advantage of the Homestead Act

Many challenges for Homesteaders Sod houses, insects, lack of lumber,

severe weather, lack of water

Many find that 160 acres is not enough land 2/3 of the people turn back east

Farming techniques and irrigation fueled the survival

Farming on the Great Plains

The Removal of Native Americans

Dozens of Native American tribes occupied the West in 1865 Lost both their land and freedom to live according

to their traditions Variety of tribes lived in many different settlements

Farmers, ranchers, hunters, gatherers, fishermen 2/3 of western tribal groups lived on the Great Plains

Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, Comanche Became skilled horsemen Hunted buffalo Lived in smaller bands of 300-500

Indian Policies of Some Famous Americans

Read Indian Policies of Some Famous Americans in partners or small groups

Answer the following questions:1. What do these quotes tell you about White

Americans’ views on Native Americans?2. What do these quotes tell you about White

Americans’ views on land?3. Which one of these quotes makes the

greatest impact? Why?

Reservations Andrew Jackson’s policy of Indian Removal

(1830) Trail of Tears Lands west of Mississippi River would

permanently remain “Indian Country” In 1851 federal government assigned the

Plains Tribes land – reservations – with definite boundaries Fort Laramie (1868)

Many Native American tribes refused to comply and continued to follow buffalo

Indian Wars Warfare between settlers and Native Americans became

inevitable Sand Creek Massacre

Colorado militia massacred an encampment of Cheyenne woman, children, and men

Attempted treaties Failed due to gold mining and desire for fertile land Led to Native Americans returning to ancestral lands

Sioux War @ Little Big Horn (1876) Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse vs. Custer

Nez Perce War (1877) Pressure from US Army forced tribes to comply with

Washington’s terms Slaughter of buffalo also destroys Native American

Culture

Sand Creek Massacre

Overview: Major Indian Treaties

1863

Nez Perce Treaty

Signed illegally on behalf of the entire tribe; Nez Perce abandoned 6 million acres of land in return for small reservation in Northern Oregon. Led to Nez Perce Wars, ended in 1877 with surrender of Chief Joseph

1867

Medicine Lodge Treaty

Assigned reservations in existing Indian Territory to blend many different tribes

1868

Treaty of Fort

Laramie

Ends Red Cloud’s war; evacuates federal troops from Sioux Territory along the Bozeman Trail; additionally gives Sioux ownership of Western half of South Dakota and rights to use Powder River country in Wyoming and Montana

1871

Congress declares end of treaty system

1887

Dawes Severalty

Act

Divided communal tribal land, granting right to petition for citizenship to those Indians who accepted the individual land allotment of 160 acres.

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)

Designed to break up tribal organizations Believed to prevent Native Americans from

becoming “civilized” Divided the tribal lands into plots of 160 acres or

less US citizenship = stay on land for 25 years

“adopted the habits of civilized life” 47 million acres distributed to Native Americans

90 million acres of former reservations land was sold to white settlers

Plan turns out to be a failure Disease and poverty decreases population

Only 200,000 Native Americans in the west by 1900

Ghost Dance Movement

Native American religious movement Effort to resist settlers from taking their

land Government arrested Sitting Bull to

suppress the movement Killed during his arrest

Battle of Wounded Knee (1890) Marks the end of American Indian Wars

on the prairie

Assimilation Part of the US policy on Native Americans

was assimilation Assimilate = to take in and incorporate as

one’s own Idea was to “civilize” the Native Americans

by adopting American culture Used education as primary tool

Carlisle, PA boarding school “Kill the Indian, save the man”

Outlawed tribal practices

Aftermath: US Policy in 20th Century

Native Americans were granted US citizenship in 1924 Government reorganized the failure of assimilation

Indian Reorganization Act (1934) Promoted the reestablishment of tribal

organization and culture Passed by FDR as part of the New Deal

Native Americans today 1.8 million Native Americans Belong to 116 tribes consisting of 1,000 or more

members