THE GREAT WEST

CLASHES ON THE PLAINS

Treaty of Fort Laramie

Beginning of reservations for Plains Indians

THE HORSE AND THE BISON

Horses brought by the Spanish allowed the Plains Indians increased mobility in war and hunting.

1834 U.S. Government considered the

entire Great Plains an Indian

reservation

1850s U.S. Government began to make

treaties specific boundaries

CAUSES OF MIGRATION TO AMERICAN INDIAN LANDS

Discovery of Gold

European migration to U.S.

Cheap / free land

Overcrowding

A new life after the Civil War

Massacre at Sand Creek (1864)

Cheyenne/Arapaho – 150 mostly women and children were killed

Second Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

Bozeman Trail closed

Agree to settlement on reservation

2 of 3 Sioux tribes signed - Sitting Bull refuses

FORT LARAMIE TREATY

SITTING BULL

CUSTER’S LAST STAND (1876)

Gold is found in S. Dakota on Sioux Land

Whites flood land

Sioux Attack

7th Cavalry was wiped out at the Little Big Horn River

Chief Sitting Bull

Gen. GeorgeArmstr

ong Custer

DAWES ACT OF 1887

“Americanization” of American Indians

Broke up reservations, no more communal land

160 Acres – head of household

80 acres – unmarried adult

All other land was sold to settlers – no $ from the sale was given to the Native Americans

1932 – 2/3 of Indian lands were gone

AMERICANIZATION OF NATIVE AMERICANS

The Ghost Dance was created by a group of Native Americans to restore the old way of life.

Army feared it.

Wounded Knee (1890)

300 starving Sioux were massacred by the military in response to the Ghost Dance

FACTORS LEADING TO THE SETTLEMENT OF WEST

1. Railroads

Transcontinental Railroad – connected East with West

Union Pacific was built from the West

Central Pacific was built from the East

Meet – Promontory, Utah

Built by immigrants – Chinese & Irish

2. Land Grants

Homestead Act of 1862

160 Acres – not all good land – most failed

“Exodusters” – African Americans who moved

west after the Civil War

Oklahoma Land Rush 1889

Massive land giveaway in Indian Territory

(2M acres) … the Sooners

West goes from 1% to 30% of nation’s population.

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“END OF THE FRONTIER” FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER – HISTORIAN

“American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American

life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the

simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character.”

What will be the next frontier, the next challenge?

TECHNOLOGY & FARMING IN THE 1800S

John Deere - steel bladed plow 1837http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/agriculture/htmls/technology/horse-drawn/tech_horse-drawn_deere_plow.html

Before the reaper there was the scythe – Hand-held, slow Clip 522

TECHNOLOGY & FARMING IN THE 1800S

Cyrus McCormick – reaper 1847 – Cuts grain

Pulled by horse or other draft animal

TECHNOLOGY & FARMING IN THE 1800S

Different Reaper – Same effect - Clip 536

TECHNOLOGY & FARMING IN THE 1800S

Reaper and Binder

Clip 541 & 542

TECHNOLOGY & FARMING IN THE 1800S

Harrow (smoothes soil)– 1869

THRESHER

Clip 57

Clip 62 http://

www.tillersinternational.org/farming/images/slideshow_threshing/Threshing%202009/img_3417.jpg

The end of the open range brought an end to the cattle

drives as well

Joseph F. Glidden’s invention…

Barbed Wire 1874

TECHNOLOGY & FARMING IN THE 1800S

ee

FARMERS & THE POPULIST MOVEMENT

FARMERS UNITE TO ADDRESS PROBLEMS

Late 1800 Economic Problems

Falling prices

Mortgaged farms / equipment buying on credit

Increase in bank foreclosures

Increase in railroad shipping charges

EFFECTS OF RETIRING THE GREENBACKS

Greenbacks retired - $ left in circulation worth more

Farmers had to pay back loans w/ crop prices down less profit

Farmers wanted more $ (silver) in circulation – didn’t solve problems

THE GRANGE 1867 (THE PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY)

Oliver Hudson Kelly

Social outlet for farmers

Educational forum

Fight Railroads (high pricing / legislation)

Established coops (cooperatives)

FARMERS ALLIANCE

Education of farmers (business & agriculture)

Spellbinding speakers – Mary Lease “Raise more hell and less corn”

Southern Alliance – white farmers

Colored Farmers’ National Alliance – African American farmers

PEOPLE’S PARTY (1892) - POPULISM

Increase in $ supply increasing prices

Graduated income tax

Federal loan program

Popular vote of U.S. Senators

Term limits – President / Vice President

Secret Ballot

8 hour work day

Restrictions on immigration

Appealed to farmers & laborers

10% vote in elections for Governors, Senators,

Congressmen, Legislators

Adopted by Democratic Party – strong in South

ThePopulist

Party

ELECTION OF 1896

Republicans

Industrial East

Gold Standard

“Gold Bugs”

William McKinley

Democrats / Populists

South + West

Bimetalism - “Silverites”

William Jennings Bryan

CROSS OF GOLD SPEECH

“You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon

a cross of gold.”

ELECTION OF 1896

Election Results

McKinley wins

Industrial Midwest feared inflation McKinley

EFFECTS OF POPULISM

“Little guy” can organize and be effective in elections

Begins reform movement that will move into 20th Century

DECLINE OF POPULISM

McKinley victory – Populism collapses

Democratic Party took on their ideas

Lack of support in cities – fear inflation

Regional support only – South / West