Transforming the West

1860-1900

Native Americans and the West Plains Indians – many tribes that live on the

Great Plains Diversity:

Some were settled farmers Others used horses to hunt buffalo

Similar culture: Life revolves around extended families, cooperation,

consensus Religious and harvest celebrations

Native Americans and the West

Threats to their way of life:Miners and settlers start moving to the plains

in the 1850s Exhausted the grassland that buffalo needed Railroads hire people to kill buffalo

9 million killed!

Ruins the Native way of life

Native Americans and the West

Conflicts with the military: After the Civil War, military troops sent West to

protect new settlers Misunderstandings brutality

Sand Creek – Gold rush brings 100,000 settlers, who take all the Indians’ resources

Natives are starving, government won’t fulfill its treaties Leave their reservations to hunt buffalo, steal livestock Military massacres a peaceful band of Indians at Sand Creek

Native Americans and the West

New government policies: Government sets up new reservations, ‘persuades’

Natives to move there Fort Laramie Treaty – Sioux agree to move to South

Dakota for $ and provisions Treaties are deceptive, unfair But still lots of skirmishes in the Plains

Government stops signing treaties and just makes executive orders

Native Americans and the West Custer’s Last Stand

Sioux who refuse to sign the Fort Laramie Treaty and move - led by Sitting Bull

Colonel Custer is sent to drive them out of the Black Hills to the reservation

Custer is outnumbered, reckless Troops are wiped out

Now people want to crush the Indian rebellion

Native Americans and the West “Saving” the Indians:

Some Americans are outraged at the government’s actions Helen Hunt Jackson - A Century of Dishonor

Want to ‘save’ them Create schools, make them give up their customs

Backfires Break up reservations and tribes, make them citizens and

independent farmers Dawes Severalty Act – gives individual Indians 160 acres, taught

to farm Outcome – speculators buy up all the best Indian land Leaves Native Americans worse off

Native Americans and the West

The End of Resistance:Sioux are starving in the 1880s

Turn to a prophet – Wovoka – who sees the apocalypse coming

Tells Indians to return to traditional ways The Ghost Dance

Military is afraid of this movement Sitting Bull is killed Massacre at Wounded Knee

Settling the West

The Railroads

Pacific Railroad Act 1862 Transcontinental railroad is built Chinese, Irish workers build it

Benefits of the railroads: Can fight Indians more easily Railroad companies sell their land

Settlers from the East, immigrants Encourage them to grow cash crops – wheat, corn, cotton

Homesteads

Homestead Act of 1862 160 free acres if you farm the land for 5 years 400,000 people move But railroads, speculators take the best land In dry plains, you need more than 160 acres to survive

Timber Culture Act – 160 more acres if you plant trees Desert Land Act – 640 acres if you irrigate it

Difficult psychological adjustment

New Farms, New Markets Improvements in farming:

New strains of wheat and corn Steel plows, better planters, other tools Barbed wire

Cash crop farming: Increased demand for crops Dangerous – if you only sell one crop, you are

dependent on the railroads, the market Unpredictable weather

New States & Societies New states: Kansas, Nevada, Nebraska, Colorado, etc.

Socially conservative, but allow women to vote Mormonism spreads:

Communities in conflict with non-Mormons Mormons try to be independent, but…

U.S. v. Reynolds Government forces them to integrate into society

Mexican Americans in the Southwest Discrimination, exclusion Most are left in poverty

Exploiting the Land

Mining

Gold discovered throughout the WestComstock Lode in NevadaStarts with individuals trying to get rich

Need expensive equipment, huge investments to mine itBoom-and-bust townsEnvironmental costs

Cowboys and the cattle frontier Open-range cattle boom – 1860s and 70s

Ranchers can make fortunes raising cattle in Texas, driving them north to ship to the east

Cities grow where the railroads are Early periods of violence Not as violent as movies like to show

Cowboys don’t see the $$ Short-lived

Railroads end long-range drives Cattle prices decline Barbed wire

The Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889

Settlers are pushing for land in Indian Territory (now called Oklahoma) Government makes 2 million acres available

People rush in to claim homesteads Curtis Act – 1898 – dissolves the Indian territory

The myth of land Americans want it! But later they will pay…

The Myth of the West

The ‘Myth’ of the West

The Turner ThesisFrederick Jackson Turner’s lectureSays that the frontier is closed Idealized view of the West

Popular culture spreads this imageWriters – the ‘frontier’ is a place of adventure,

romance, escapeWild West Shows

The National Parks Movement

People are awed by the beauty of the West Some call for saving the land Regulation of water, public lands Doesn’t happen

Yellowstone National Park – 1872 – to preserve it from settlement Starts the conservation movement – led by John Muir

and the Sierra Club