Ch. 3, Sec. 1. Settling the West (1877-1900)

1. Ch. 3, Sec. 1. Settling the West (1877-1900)

2. The Birth of a Modern Nation (1877-1900)  Following Reconstruction, many people moved West hoping to make fortunes mining newly discovered gold, silver, and copper needed for industries in the East.  As railroads were built, settlers also moved to the Great Plains to farm and ranch. The increase of settlers negatively effected the Native Americans who had roamed the plains for centuries.  Hunters clearing the way for the railroad depleted the buffalo that Native Americans needed for survival; others forced to relocate or assimilate.

4. What was the main cause of the Native American population decline?

5. A. Henry Comstock – 1859, he struck a lode of silver ore, turning Virginia City, NV, into a boomtown. •  Went from a frontier outpost to having 30K people almost overnight. • Vigilance Committee (Vigilante) – Volunteers to track down & punish wrongdoers.

6. B. The Homestead Act (1862) – U.S. Gov’t supported settlement in the Great Plains region; A homestead (tract of public land for settling) for $10. •  Could claim up to 160 acres; receive title after living there for 5 years. • Good for cattle ranches and farming, but tough conditions with little water, bitter winters, and high temperatures and fire dangers in summer. • 1880’s, settlers planted wheat (drought resistant) w/ new technologies like reapers & threshers to become “Wheat Belt” (Dakotas, western Neb and Kans). •  Helped U.S. become world exporter of wheat.

7. Buffalo Soldiers – Formed in 1866, (9th and 10th Cavalry units; four units total) horseback unit of black men who served on the western frontier.

8. Buffalo Soldier lyric Buffalo Soldier, Dreadlock Rasta: There was a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America, Stolen from Africa, brought to America, Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival. I mean it, when I analyze the stench – To me it makes a lot of sense: How the Dreadlock Rasta was the Buffalo Soldier, And he was taken from Africa, brought to America, Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival. Said he was a Buffalo Soldier, Dreadlock Rasta – Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America. If you know your history, Then you would know where you coming from, Then you wouldn't have to ask me, Who the 'eck do I think I am. I'm just a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America, Stolen from Africa, brought to America, Said he was fighting on arrival, fighting for survival; Said he was a Buffalo Soldier win the war for America. woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy, Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy! Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy, Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy! Buffalo Soldier troddin' through the land, wo-ho-ooh! Said he wanna ran, then you wanna hand, Troddin' through the land, yea-hea, yea-ea. Said he was a Buffalo Soldier win the war for America; Buffalo Soldier, Dreadlock Rasta, Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival; Driven from the mainland to the heart of the Caribbean.

9. C. Indian Peace Commission (1867) – Congress created 2 large reservations on the Great Plains, one for the Sioux and other for Southern tribes. Original range of the Plains Indians. •  Bureau of Indian Affairs ran reservations; Army given authority to deal w/ problems. • Forced into treaties, tribes might not abide by terms; Those on Reservations dealt with poverty, despair, and corrupt American traders. •  By 1870, most left the Reservations in disgust; By 1889, few Buffalo remained.

10. 1. Sitting Bull – Led the Lakota Sioux. Sitting Bull,1878. Sioux Ghost Dance. • Religious rites: the Sun Dance (visions) and Ghost Dance (celebrated a hoped-for day of reckoning). •  After returning to the Reservation from Canada, Sitting Bull defied the gov’t and • continued to perform the Ghost Dance. •  U.S. military tried to force the Native Americans back onto the reservations.

11. The Battle of Little Bighorn — aka Custer's Last Stand — (June 25-26, 1876) was an armed engagement between a Lakota-Northern Cheyenne combined force and the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. Army. • The battle was the most famous action of the Indian Wars and was a remarkable victory for the Cheyenne and devastating loss for Lt. Col. George Custer.

12. Civil War photo of George Custer. Battle of Little Bighorn, 1876.

13. Recent documentaries suggest that there may not have been a "Last Stand," as traditionally portrayed in popular culture. Instead, archaeologists suggest that Custer's troops weren't surrounded but rather overwhelmed by a single charge. • Later on, in an attempt to arrest Sitting Bull, gunfire was exchanged and he was killed (1890).

14. 2. Dawes Act (1887) – Effort to help Native Americans assimilate, or be absorbed, into U.S. society. a) Assimilation policy a failure.  Head of household got 160 acres of reservation land for farming; single adults got 80 acres.  Many had little interest & training in farming; lots too small for profit; many sold.

15.  The Lakota agreed to surrender in SD and return to the reservations. • During disarmament, a deaf tribesman refused to give up his rifle unless he was paid fair value for it. •  This set off a chain reaction of events that led to mayhem with • fighting between both sides in all directions. •  25 troopers and more than 146 Lakota Sioux lay dead, including men, • women, and children. •  Many of the 150 Lakota who fled the chaos died from hypothermia. Battle of Wounded Knee (Dec 29, 1890). 4 Hotchkiss Revolving Cannons (1872), 43 rpm. The Wounded Knee Massacre, aka The Battle at Wounded Knee Creek, was the last major armed conflict between the Lakota Sioux and the U.S., later described as a "massacre" by General Miles in a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

16. Miniconjou Chief Big Foot lies dead in the snow

17. “Big Foot” by Johnny Cash But the land was already claimed by a people when the cowboy came and when the soldiers came.The story of the American Indian is in a lot of ways a story of tragedy,like that day at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.Big Foot was an Indian chiefOf the Minneconjou band,A band of Minneconjou SiouxFrom South Dakota land.Big Foot said to Custer,"Stay away from Crazy Horse."But Custer crossed into Sioux land,And he never came back across.Then Big Foot led his peopleTo a place called Wounded Knee,And they found themselves surroundedBy the 7th Cavalry.Big chief Big Foot,Rise up from your bed,Minneconjou babies cryFor their mothers lying dead.Big Foot was down with a feverWhen he reached Wounded Knee;And his people all were prisonersOf the 7th Cavalry. Two hundred women and childrenAnd another hundred menRaised up a white flag of peace,But peace did not begin.An accidental gunshotAnd Big Foot was first to die;And over the noise of the riflesYou could hear the babies cry.Big chief Big Foot,It's good that you can't seeRevenge is being wroughtBy Custer's 7th Cavalry.Then smoke hung over the canyonOn that cold December day.All was death and dyingAround where Big Foot lay.Farther on up the canyonSome had tried to run and hide;But death showed no favorites,Women, men, and children died.One side called it a "massacre,"The other a "victory,"But the white flag is still wavingToday at Wounded Knee.Big chief Big Foot,Your Minneconjou bandIs mourned and remembered hereIn South Dakota land.

18. 3. Helen Hunt Jackson – A Century of Dishonor (1881) described years of broken promises and assaults on Native Americans. A Century of Dishonor (1881), by Helen Hunt Jackson, chronicles the experiences of Native Americans in the U.S., focusing on examples of injustices. Among the episodes it documents incidents in which Praying Town Indians were eradicated in the colonial period, despite their recent conversion to Christianity, because it was assumed that all Indians were the same. Her book brought to light the moral injustices enacted upon the Native Americans as it chronicled the ruthlessness of white settlers in their greed for land, wealth, and power. By the 1880s, her book had aided in shaking the moral senses of America in regard to the natives of the land.

19. Jesse James (1847–1882) was an American outlaw. He was most famous as a notorious train robber and desperado. Eluding the law was a talent Jesse learned riding with Quantrill's Confederate Guerilla Raiders during the Civil War.