The Conquest of

the Far WestCHAPTER 16

UNIT 1

The Legend of the

West

The “Great Desert” is now replaced with “The Frontier”

An empty land awaiting settlement and civilization

A place of wealth, adventure, opportunity, and individualism

Societies of the Far West and the

Economy of the WestEVEN BEFORE WHITE SETTLERS ARRIVED, THE WEST WAS A POPULATED

AND VIBRANT PLACE

The Western Tribes

Largest group, most

important group before the great white migration

Some Eastern tribes forced

west of Mississippi R.

Coastal Tribes: Fishing, simple

agriculture, Missions

Southwest: Pueblos,

permanent settlements, farmers

The Plains Indians

Multiple tribal/language

groups

Nomadic people

Horse is central to tribal life

Strong rivalries with nearby

tribes

Souix, Arapaho, Cheyenne

Alliance

Northern Great Plains

Disease is still a major threat

Reliance on the Buffalo

Food

Skin used for clothing, shoes,

tepees, blankets

“Buffalo Chips”: Fuel

Bones: arrow tips, knives

Tendons: Bow Strings

Hispanics in the United States

New Mexico

Approx. 50,000 Hispanics when US

takes over

Fear that the Gov. will seize their

land

Little population growth until Rail

Road arrives in 1880s/90s

Farming, Mining, Ranching

California

By 1850 the Mission system has

collapsed

Californios

Many lose land to white settlers

Whites soon outnumber every

other group

Barrios

Transition to poor working class,

unskilled labor

The Chinese Migration

Chinese looking for better life

“Coolies”

Indentured Servants, basically slaves

CA, HA

Also: Australia, Latin America, South Africa, etc

Spurred by the Gold Rush

“Foreign Miners” Tax: Attempt to exclude the Chinese from gold mining

1880: 200,000 Chinese in the US

White Opinion

At First: honest, hard-working people

Later: Hostile, seen as rivals

Chinese Railroad Workers

12,000 worked on Transcontinental RR

90% of Laborers on Central Pacific

Pref to White workers

Worked hard, few demands, ok with low

wages.

5,000 strike in spring 1865: Strike fails

Most lose jobs when T. RR is completed

Chinatowns

San Francisco but many other places too

The “Six Companies”

Organizations that worked together to advance their interests

Employment brokers, unions, arbitrators of disputes, protection from persecution, provided social services, organized festivals and celebrations

“Tongs”

Criminal organizations

Opium Trade/Prostitution

“Tong Wars”

Worked as laborers

Most single women (a small number of total) were sold into prostitution.

1880: Half of all Chinese women in CA were prostitutes

Anti-Chinese Sentiments

Chinese workers accepted low wages, hurt

unions

Democratic Party in California

Workingmen’s Party (1878)

Denis Kearney (Irish Immigrant)

Significant political power in CA

The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Bans Chinese

Immigration into US for 10 Years

Bans Chinese

immigrants from

becoming US citizens

Renewed 1892

Permanent in 1902

Population declines 40%

Migration from the East

Massive post-Civil War migration

2 Million European Immigrants

Scandinavia

Germany

Ireland

Russia

Czechoslovakia

Gold, Silver, Cattle/Sheep, Farming

Transcontinental Railroad (1869)

The Homestead Act (1862)

Buy 160 Acres for cheap

Must have lived on for 5 years

Must have improved it

Create new markets and new out-posts of commercial agriculture

Actually: Too small for western style of ag.

Attempts to Strengthen

Timber Culture Act( 1873)

Grants 160 more acres if trees

are planted on 40 of them

Desert Land Act (1877)

Buy 640 Acres at $1.25 an acre.

Must irrigate part within three

years

“Rain follows the plow”

The

Western

States

Join the

Union

The Dispersal of the TribesAMERICANS IMAGINED THE WEST AS A “GREAT DESERT” WITH NO

CIVILIZATION, JUST WAITING FOR WHITES TO ARRIVE. TRUTH IS THAT NATIVE

AMERICANS HAD BEEN FORCED THERE BY THE WESTWARD ONSLAUGHT

White Tribal Policies

Tribes= Independent Nations and

wards of the President

Gov can negotiate treaties

Pres can exercise paternalistic

authority

Pre-1860 Gov. Attempts to create

permanent frontier

Weak resolve

The “Concentration” Policy

(early 1850s)

Each tribe given own reservation

“Treaty Chiefs”

“representatives” who had negotiated with gov.

without tribal approval

Divided tribes (Why might the Gov. want to do

this? What happened when the tribes were

united?)

Easier to control

Most desirable land went to whites

Indian Peace Commission (1876)

Move all tribes to Indian

Territory and to the Dakotas

Bureau of Indian Affairs is

both corrupt and

incompetent

Why is this a result of the

spoils system?

Fails at administering the

reservations

Slaughter of the Buffalo Herds

Plains Indians relied on it for life

1865: 15 Million buffalo

1875: Less than 1,000 left

The Indian Wars (1850s-1880s)

Characterized by Native

American raids on wagon trains, stagecoaches, and

ranches, and White raids on

Native American villages

US Army becomes involved,

focus shifts to attacking soldiers

Civil War Years: Little Crow

(Sioux): killed 700 whites. Tribe Exiled to the Dakotas

The Sand Creek Massacre

(Nov. 1864) Colorado

Arapaho and Cheyenne in conflict with Miners

Militia called up, friendly Indians asked to stay at army posts for protection

Fort Lyon: Black Kettle

Believed was under US protection

No hostility exhibited

Colonel J. M. Chivington: Volunteer Militia force

Mostly drunken miners

133 people massacred (105 are women and children)

Black Kettle and his warrior go to war with whites in 1868

Caught and killed by General George A. Custer and his troops

“Indian Hunting”

White civilians became

vigilantes

Sometimes in response to raids

on White settlements

Others: goal of “elimination” of

ALL tribes

Indians are sub-humans and will

not/cannot coexist with whites

CA: 5,000 Native Americans

killed between 1850 and 1880

Disease and abject poverty

reduces total CA N/A

population from 150,000-30,000.

Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and

George A. Custer

Whites began flowing into Dakota territory (promised to Native

Tribes)

1875: Sioux leave their reservation, ordered to return

George A. Custer sent to force them back

The Battle of Little Big Horn (1876)

Southern Montana

2,500 tribal warriors overwhelm

Custer’s men

All of Custer’s men are killed

The group disbands because of

lack of supplies

Army eventually forces back to

Dakota

Souix accept defeat

Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce

(1877) Mostly peaceful, from Oregon, forced to move to a

Reservation

Several younger Indians, get drunk, are angry, kill four whites

Chief Joseph persuades followers to flee from the retribution

White Bird Canyon

US troops are driven off

Nez Perce scatter

Joseph brings 200 warriors, 350 women and children. Attempts to reach Canada

Repel multiple attacks

Stopped just short of the Canada border

Give Up: “Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

The Final Resistance: the

Chiricahua Apache

Mangas Colorados

Murdered in Civil War: White soldiers had convinced him to surrender

Cochise

1872- Agrees to peace in exchange for a reservation with some of the tribe’s traditional land

Geronimo (Leads from 1874-1886)

Cochise’s Successor

Establishes bases in Arizona and Mexico

Raids on white outposts

By 1886, has only 30 followers, this includes women and children

Over 10,000 soldiers, and vigilantes searching for him

Surrenders

The Apache Wars were the most violent of all Indian Conflicts

The Final Tragedy: Wounded Knee

“Ghost Dance”

Wovoka, a Paiute

Prophet

Ecstatic, mystical visions.

Whites fearful that it was

a prelude to hostilities

The Battle of Wounded Knee

(December 29, 1890)

7th Cavalry tries to round

up 350 cold and starving Sioux

Fighting begins

40 White soldiers and 200

Indians die

Machine guns used to

mow down Indians

The Dawes Act (1887)

Ended communal land ownership of reservations

All Indians were required to become landowners and farmers

Abandon collective culture and society

Learn white civilization

Indians are a “vanishing race”

160 Acres to head of family, 80 to single adult, 40 to each dependent child

Assimilation Program

Forced enrollment in White-run boarding schools

Forced spread of Christianity

CORRUPT and poorly managed

The Rise and Decline of the

Western FarmerMASSIVE AGRICULTURAL BOOM ON THE GREAT PLAINS IN THE 1870S,

BUT THINGS WOULD NOT IMPROVE FOREVER.

Farming on the Plains

Railroads made the journey easier,

made it easier to transport goods

Railroads granted over 180 Million

acres of land at low to no-cost

Sold at low prices to potential settlers

Why would they do this?

Climate Change

Rainfall in 1870s well above average

Idea of the “Great American Desert”

final rejected

Problems with Farming on the Plains

Fencing: wood and stone unavailable

Joseph H. Glidden and I.L. Ellwood

Barbed Wire Fencing (mid-1870s)

Water: even with rain, it’s scarce

After 1887, dry seasons become longer

Deep wells pumped with steel windmills

“Dryland Farming”

Conserving moisture in the soil by covering it with a dust blanket

Drought-resistant crops

Large-scale irrigation projects: needed gov $$$$

States/Fed Gov did not fund

The Farmer Cycle of Debt: Review

1865: Wheat is $1.60 a bushel

1890s: Wheat is $0.49 a bushel

Commercial Agriculture Attempted to do with the agricultural economy what industrialists did with manufacturing

End of Jeffersonian Myth

Cash Crops sold in National or World markets

Beginnings of a Global Economy!

Did not make own household supplies or grow own food

Dependency on: Bankers, Interest Rates, Railroads, Freight Rates, World Supply and Demand

Unable to regulate total production or influence prices

Global Farm Production Increases

Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Australia, New

Zealand, Russia

World-wide overproduction causes drop

in prices

Over 6 Million farm families in America

Mortgaging the Farm

1890s: 27%

1910: 33%

Growth of Tenant Farmers

1880: 25%

1910: 37%

The Farmer’s Grievances

The Idea of a global economy and overproduction is still out of

reach to most people

Focus on:

Inequitable freight rates

High interest charges

Inadequate currency

Farmers and Corporations

Railroads

Charged higher rates for farm goods than other goods

Higher rates in South and West than North East

Controlled warehouse facilities and charged arbitrary

storage rates

Credit Institutions

Banks, Loan companies, insurance corporations.

Few sources of credit, farmers forced to take whatever terms

they can get

Interest rates from 10%-25%

Forced to pay back in bad years

Farmers and Prices

Plant a lot when prices are high

(everyone is doing it!)

Harvested when prices were low

(everyone is doing it!)

Unpredictable

Convinced that “middlemen”

were conspiring to fix prices and

benefit themselves

Speculators, bankers, etc.

Manufactures in the East, keep

prices of farm goods low and

industrial goods high

The Agrarian Malaise

Social and cultural

resentments

Farm families are isolated,

cut off from the outside world

Lack of adequate education

Few/No proper medical

facilities

“Hayseeds”

Children left for the city

1890s: will lead to a new and

powerful political movement

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