Ch. 8 – Changes on the Western Frontier (1860 – 1900)

1. Ch. 8 – Changes on the Western Frontier (1860 – 1900) • Culture of the Plains Indians • Native Americans saw land as belonging to no one. • Viewed white customs of farming & mining as disturbing the harmony between the natural & spirit world. • Buffalo was vital to survival of Plains Indians (food, clothing, shelter).

2. American Indians are Nomadic people, what do they follow? • Gold & Silver • Longhorns • Setting of the Sun • Buffalo

3. Reasons for American Settlement of the West • 1) inexpensive / abundant land 2) hopes of finding gold or silver 3) escape persecution / fresh start (ex: former slaves, Mormons, etc.) • Clash Between Settlers & Indians • Settlers felt they had a right to land b/c Indians hadn’t “improved” it (farming / building). • U.S. govnt changed its Indian policies & restricted Indian land to smaller reservations. • Many Indians ignored govnt. treaties and hunted on old lands anyway, often clashing w/ settlers.

4. All were reasons to move westward except? • Gold & Silver • Free Land • New Indian friends • Lack of persecution

5. Sand Creek Massacre (1864) • Cheyenne Indians were peacefully camped at Sand Creek reservation for winter. • Govnt leaders wanted to see Indians suffer – orderedU.S. soldiers to attack, killing over 150 Cheyenne women & children.

6. The Indians at Sand Creek were of what tribal nation? • Navajo • Cherokee • Alabama-Coushatta • Cheyenne

7. SAND CREEK MASSACRE 1864 Colonel John Chivington

8. 5. Battle of Little Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand - 1876) • Sioux, Arapaho, Cheyenne Indians protested whites in Black Hills • Looking for gold • June 1876- Little Bighorn • Gen. George Custer & 265 troops met by 2,500 Sioux in Montana. • Within an hour, Indians won battle. Custer & all of his men were dead. • Bloody conflicts between whites & Native Americans led to greater disdain (hostility/disgust) toward Indian culture. *

9. Custer’s last stand was located where? • Yellowstone National Park • Great Smokey Mountains • Bighorn Montana • Wounded Knee South Dakota

10. (above)George Armstrong Custer's Camp prior to the Battle of Little Bighorn, photo courtesy Library of Congress. (above) Soldier and non-human remains. Soldier’s bodies were stripped and mutilated. (left) The Battle of the Little Bighorn, painting by Charles Russell, 1903

11. 6. U.S. Government Adopts Indian Assimilation Policy (1880s – 1900) Govt. hoped teaching “white” culture would lead to peace. Assimilation –Native Americans would give up their beliefs & way of life to become part of American “white”culture. • 7. Dawes Act (1887) • Goal to “Americanize” Indians. • Provided $ for Indian schools • (teach English, Christianity, • white culture, etc.) • Divided Reservations into 160 acre farms for each family. • Instead of helping N.A., it nearly destroyed Indian culture

12. What are some of the things that cultures don’t lose during assimilation? • Language • Ethnicity • Appearance • Religion

13. 8. Destruction of Buffalo (1800 – 1900) • Native American -buffalo End of N.A. lifestyle • Tourists & fur traders shot buffalo for sport. • Buffalo population of 65 million in 1800 dropped to only a few hundred by 1900. *

14. What did the Indians use buffalo for within their culture? • Food • Shelter/Clothing • Teams to pull wagons • Fuel • Farm stock • A,C,& E • A,B,& D • B,D,& E

15. Native American boys sent to Indian School(Before)(After) *

16. Battle of Wounded Knee (1890) • Sioux Indians continued to suffer poverty & disease. Thousands of Native Americans turned to a prophet, who promised that if Indians performed a ritual called the Ghost Dance, their lands & way of life would be restored. • Ghost Dance movement spread. Alarmed U.S. Calvary opened fire on over 300 unarmed Native Americans camped at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. • Battle of Wounded Knee brought Indian Wars – and an entire era – to and end.

17. The Sioux Indians used the rain dance to wash away the white settlers. • True • False

18. Crushing the Native American Life • Destruction of Buffalo • Assimilation • Dawes Act • Broke up reservations and gave land to individual Native Americans Sitting Bull Custer Chief Joseph

19. 10. Driving Cattle to Market · After the Civil War, growing cities in the East increased their demand for beef. · Texas ranchers began to drive herds of longhorns hundreds of miles north to the railroads, where they were shipped east. –

20. Vaqueros & Cowboys • Between 1866-1885 approx. 55,000 cowboys worked the open range. • Cowboy life stemmed from Spanish ranchers in Mexico. • Early cowboys wereMexican. Vaqueros influenced cowboy clothes, food, vocabulary. • 25% of cowboys were black. Working as a cowboy appealed to former slaves who were judged on ability, not skin color.

21. The most famous African American Cowboy was? • Tony Dorsett • Roy Rogers • Bill Pickett • Emmitt Smith

22. · Cow towns developed near the railroads, offering cowhands hotels, saloons, and restaurants. Abilene, Kansas (late 1800’s)

23. Growing Demand for Beef (1860s) • After Civil War, demand for beef grew as cities became larger.The West had abundance of Texas Longhorns – a herd of over 5 million wild cattle originally brought from Spain. • Cattle Rancherswould buy cattle for $3 - $5 a head & drive cows to railheads in Ellsworth or Abiline, Kansas. Cattle then sold for $30 - $50 a head and shipped to Chicago for butchering.

24. The Long Cattle Drive • Cattle drive consisted of about 3,000 cattle, 18 cowboys, one chuck wagon, and a wrangler. Drive began in spring and lasted 2-3 months until reaching Kansas. • End of the Open Range • Overgrazing the land, bad weather, and invention of barbed wire helped to end the cattle / cowboy era. • Winters of 1885-1886 & 1886-1887 were brutal. Cold temperatures caused cattle to freeze to death. Summer droughts led to grass shortage. By 1887, 80%-90% of cattle dead. • Barbed wire turned open plains into a series of fenced in ranches.

25. Barbed wire ended all of the following except. • Cattle Ranches • Long Drives • Open Ranges

26. Railroads & Western Settlement • U.S. Govnt wanted West settled (manifest destiny). • Offered railroad companies free land as incentive to build a transcontinental line (connect east coast to west coast). Each mile of track = 20sq. miles of land.

27. Building the Transcontinental Line (1862 -1869) • Two major railroad companies competed to lay the most track and receive more government land. • Union Pacific R.R. • Began laying tracks in Nebraska and moved West. Employed Irish-Americans & Civil War veterans. Flat country allowed work to go quickly. • Central Pacific R.R. • Began laying tracks in Sacramento, California and moved East. Employed mostly Chinese – paid less than white workers & endured dangerous conditions blasting through Sierra Nevada mountains.

28. Which groups of immigrants were primary responsible for building the Transcontinental Railroad? • Canadians and Mexicans • Spaniards and Italians • Irish and Chinese • Americans and British

29. Finishing the Transcontinental R.R. (1869) • Crews raced past each other without meeting. May 10th, 1869 Congress forced Union Pacific & Central Pacific to join together at Promontory Point, Utah. • Railroads resulted in growth and new settlement of the West, making travel & transportation easier.

30. Homestead Act (1862 – 1900) • Passed by Congress to settle the West. • Offered 160 acres of free land to any citizen or intended citizen who was head of household. Approx. 600,000 families took advantage of government’s offer.

31. Which was not a requirement to receive land via the Homestead Act? • 5 dollar registration fee • Working the land for 5 years • 160 acre plot of land • Married with 3 children

32. Farming Inventions that Tamed the Prairie • Settlers used inventions to meet the challenges of farming the West’s harsh terrain. • Barbed Wire (1874) – Prevented animals from wandering off or trampling crops. • Reaper (1847) – Invented by Cyrus McCormick. Sped up harvesting crops & saved crops from bad weather. • Steel Plow (1837) – Invented by John Deere. Could slice through heavy soil, made planting more efficient.