By Brad Harris,

Grand Prairie HS SE: US 3A, 12A, 15A

Rise of the Iron HorseFollowing the Civil War, many

Americans began moving West.

The growth of railroads quickened

this migration.

Most people who moved

west were ranchers who

raised cattle or farmed

the land, or were miners

looking for gold or silver.

Railroad Pioneers

Leland Stanford Cornelius Vanderbilt

Founded Central

Pacific Railroad,

the largest

railroad company

in the West

Largest railroad

tycoon in the

Eastern United

States during

the late 1800s

Transcontinental Railroad

The railway completed in 1869 between Omaha,

Nebraska and Sacramento, California

It was built in large part by Chinese immigrants

Transcontinental Railroad

It joined the Union Pacific and Central Pacific

Railroads and greatly improved travel from the

eastern United States to the West.

Discoveryeducation.com

The American Revolution

Railroads

Homestead ActThe law passed in 1862 that

encouraged the settlement

of the Great Plains

People got a plot of land

for free as long as they:

1) Filed a application

2) Improved the land

3) Filed for a deed ($10)

Settlement of the West

Four things drew settlers to the Central Plains1) the Homestead Act allowed people to own their own land

2) the land was rich and fertile for farming

3) the development of the steel plow made farming easier

4) the land was flat without any major mountains

Settlement of the West

This flood of people moving westward angered

many Native Americans living in the Plains.

Settlement of the West

To make room for white settlers, herds of

buffalo were killed and Native Americans were

placed on reservations, leading to…

“Indian Wars”The movement west

led to a series of

“Indian wars”

between homesteaders

and Native Americans

The clashes led to numerous massacres,

throughout the late 1800s

Among these were the Sand Creek

Massacre, Fetterman Massacre and

the Massacre at Wounded Knee

Indian Peace CommissionThree years after the Sand Creek Massacre, the

federal government tried to step in and settle

disputes between U.S. settlers and Native Americans

by creating the Indian Peace Commission in 1867

The Indian Peace

Commission tried to

end conflicts by

creating new lands for

Native Americans only.

These lands were

known as reservations.

Indian Reservations

The Dawes ActLaw passed in 1887

attempting to assimilate

Native Americans into

American society

The law led to the creation of “Indian Territory”

in what is today the state of Oklahoma

The Dawes ActNative American

children were forced to

learn English and

became more

“Americanized”

Native American

families were forced

from their homelands

and onto reservations

The U.S. government

had to use force to move

some Native American

The_Dawes_General_Allotment_Act

Flight of the Nez PerceOften, Native Americans were

chased off land that they had

been settled on for centuries

The Nez

Perce tribe –

led by Chief

Joseph –

refused to

move from

their lands to

a reservation

in Idaho

The army chased the

Nez Perce all the way to

Canada before Chief

Joseph surrendered

Famous Indian Chiefs

Sitting Bull Crazy Horse

Red Cloud Geronimo

Custer’s Last StandThe Battle of Little

Big Horn in 1876

was one of the most

famous massacres

in U.S. history

It was in this battle Lt. Colonel George

Custer and the U.S. 7th Army was

ambushed by Native Americans. It

became known as Custer’s Last Stand

Coming Up Next

The Industrial

Revolution