Growth in the American West HEALY - BAVPA

1. Growth in the American WestHEALY - BAVPA WHAT YOU WILL LEARN: Miners and railroad builders led to settlement of the West. Native Americans struggled to maintain their way of life. Western farmers faced many challenges.

2. THE FRONTIER • Throughout the nation’s history, there had been a frontier,land that had few settlers. • After the American Revolution, the frontier was the land between the original 13 states and the Mississippi River. • As Americans settled that land and moved west, the Great Plains became the frontier. The U.S. government wanted people to settle the West to increase the wealth of the nation.

3. Section 1 Focus Question: • How did mining and railroads draw people to the West?

4. MINING ON THE LAST FRONTIER • Americans rushed WEST after gold was discovered. • 1849 California gold rush • Railroad companies helped open up the WEST to settlement.

6. THE COMSTOCK LODE • In 1859 miners found small amounts of gold and large amounts of silver in the Sierra Nevada. • The find was known as the Comstock Lode, after Henry Comstock. • Only big companies had the machinery to mine the ore deep underground. • By the 1880s, western mining had become big business.

7. BOOMTOWNS • Mining towns developed near mines. • Miners lived in boomtowns that sprang up overnight. • Most people in mining towns were men. • Half of all miners were foreign-born. • Chinese, Mexican, etc. • These foreign-born miners often faced hostility and discrimination. • Laws restricted Chinese miners claims to abandoned claims by others.

9. Women and boomtowns • Women moved to mining towns and ran restaurants and laundries. • Others ran boarding houses, or places for miners to eat and sleep.

10. Maintaining the Peace • Mining towns sprouted so fast that law and order was hard to find. • People formed groups of vigilantes • Vigilantes are self-appointed law keepers. • Vigilantes hunted down people they considered criminals and punished people as they saw fit. • As towns grew, residents created more lasting forms of government.

11. GHOST TOWNS • Once all the metal (ore) from these mines was removed, people often left. • Busy mining towns turned into empty towns called “ghost towns.” Hey!! Where did everyone go?

12. RAILROADS OPENED THE WEST • In 1860, the railroads stopped at the MississippiRiver. • Building a transcontinental railroad would allow people to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

13. Construction begins • Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act in 1862. • This act allowed the Union Pacific Railroad Company to build a railroad that started in Omaha, Nebraska, and went west. • The Central Pacific Railroad Company would build a railroad that would move east from Sacramento, California.

14. Telegraph lines are being laid next to the tracks. This will increase the speed of communication between the East and West.

16. The Railroad Boom • The federal government offered the railroad companies subsidies. • Subsidies are grants of land and money. • These grants were given to railroad companies to build out their lines. • For every mile of track they laid, railroads got ten square miles of land next to the track.

17. Who are IMMIGRANTS? IMMIGRANT WORK • Thousands of immigrants were hired to build the railroads. • The Central Pacific hired Chinese immigrants, and the Union Pacific hired Irish immigrants. • Immigrants from other European countries, as well as African Americans, also helped to build these railroads.

18. For every mile of track laid by the Railroad companies, what did they get in return? WHAT A CHALLENGE • Both companies worked fast to lay as many miles of railroad tracks as possible. • It was hard work to build railroads across rivers and mountains. • The work was so dangerous that many men died while working on the railroads. WAIT!!!!! How do you build a railroad across rivers and over mountains???? How did the Railroad companies get the money to build these tracks?

20. EAST AND WEST CONNECTED • On May 10th, 1869, the tracks of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads met at a place called Promontory Point in Utah. • Leland Stanford, the owner of the Central Pacific, used a silver hammer to drive a golden spike into the ground. • The spike joined the two railroads together. • The nation’s first transcontinental railroad was finished. • People could travel by train from New York to California in a week. • By covered wagon the trip took six months. • Soon more transcontinental railroad routes were built. Golden spike

21. YAY!! The East and West are now connected. That was NOT easy

22. The Settlement of the West • With the transcontinental railroad in place, the west became a fixed part of the U.S. economy. • Goods flowed between the East and the West. • Railroad stops turned into towns that grew rapidly. • Eight western territories became states in the period from 1864 to 1890.

23. The Incredible Fun Quiz worth 3 billion points! Define: Frontier, Gold rush 1849, Comstock Lode, Sierra Nevada, Boomtowns, discrimination, vigilantes, ghost towns, transcontinental railroad, Pacific Railway Act 1862, telegraph, subsidies, Chinese immigrants, Irish immigrants, Promontory Point. Answer: Name 3 key facts about the transcontinental railroad. Name 4 ways the transcontinental railroad changed America. Who built the transcontinental railroad.

24. Section 2 Focus Question: • What were the consequences of the conflict between the Native Americans and white settlers?

25. Not Looking Good • The gold rush and the railroads meant disaster for Native Americans.

26. BROKEN PROMISES • Before the Civil War, the federal government had said that the West would belong to the Indians “as long as the rivers shall run and the grass shall grow.” • This promise was broken many times when whites tried to take control of Indian lands. 1851 1859 Fort Laramie Treaty: This treaty said the Native American lands would be protected by the U.S. if they stopped following the buffalo. The Fort Laramie Treaty was broken in when miners discovered gold in that region.

27. SERIOUS PROBLEMS • From 1850 to 1890, the United States Army fought against the Plains Indians. • During these wars thousands of Indians were killed. • Why was this war being fought? LAND • As a result of the wars, Indians were forced to move onto reservations • Reservations are land set aside for Native Americans. • These reservations usually had such poor-quality land that settlers did not want to live there.

28. CHIVINGTON MASSACRE • When gold was discovered in Colorado in 1859, white prospectors rushed to settle on land. • This land belonged to the Cheyenne. (according to a treaty) • The Cheyenne protested but to no avail. • In response to the protest, Colonel John Chivingtonand 700 volunteers attacked a peaceful band of Cheyenne under army protection at Sand Creek in eastern Colorado. • This massacre helped ignite an era of war. • The Cheyenne were forced to move to reservations in Oklahoma and in the Black Hills of Dakota.

30. FORCED TO MOVE ONCE AGAIN • In 1868 the federal government signed a treaty with the Sioux Indians. • This treaty gave the Sioux a reservation that included all the land in what is now South Dakota west of the Missouri River. • The Black Hills were part of the land promised to the Indians. • After goldwas found in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1874, the army ordered the Sioux to stay on a reservation. • The Sioux leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse refused.

31. “CUSTER’S LAST STAND” In 1876, General George Custer led about 200 soldiers in an attack against the Sioux at the Battle of Little Bighorn. • Thousands of Sioux led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeated Custer. • Custer and all of his soldiers were killed, and the battle became known as “Custer’s Last Stand.” • It was one of the greatest Indian victories. • Although the Sioux won this battle, they lost other battles to the army. • In 1881 Sitting Bull and his followers surrendered. I made a HUGE blunder!

34. The Apaches, led by Geronimo fought until 1886, when they, too, were sent to a reservation. Other efforts of Resistance Chief Joseph, the leader of the peaceful Nez Perces tribe, wanted to save his people from being forced onto a reservation. • He tried to escape to Canada with tribe members but they were unsuccessful. • The Nez Perce were sent to a reservation in Oklahoma. • Joseph was separated from his people and forced to move to a reservation in the state of Washington. Why did you separate me from my people??

37. DAWES ACT IN 1887 • To improve the government’s treatment of the Indians, Congress passed the Dawes Act in 1887. • For the first time, Indians were allowed to become American citizens. • The Dawes Act encouraged Indians to become farmers. • This law broke up land owned by Indian tribes into small sections. • Indian families could receive 40 to 60 acres of their own land. • But the land was not good for farming, and the Indians did not have the skills or the tools to be farmers. • Many Indians sold their land, but then they had no way to earn a living. • Poverty became a serious problem. • The Dawes Act failedto help Indians. Native Americans wanted to roam around and hunt, not stay put and farm. Why does the Dawes Act fail??

38. THE BUFFALO • Indians of the Great Plains depended on buffalo to survive. • Before 1860 there were about 12 million buffalo on the Great Plains. • The Plains Indians ate buffalo meat and made clothes and homes from buffalo skins. • They moved from place to place to follow the herds of buffalo. What rituals did Plains Indians (Sioux) follow in setting up their camps? Why was the buffalo important to the Plains Indians? WHY?

39. WHERE DID THE BUFFALO GO????? • It was almost impossible for white settlers and Indians to live together on the Great Plains. • Indians wanted to move from place to place as they hunted buffalo. • White settlers wanted the land to be free of buffalo so it could be used for farming and ranching. • Settlers killed millions of buffalo------------- as sport and hired by the railroads. • By 1903 there were only 34 buffalo left in the entire country. • As the buffalo disappeared, Indians often starved and died. The gold rush and the railroads meant disaster for Native Americans of the WEST.

40. What are we looking at? FOCUS Q’S 1. How does this picture show the greed of the U.S. government and its people? 2. Why did this eventually lead to the peace talks between the Plains Indians and the U.S. government? 3. Could the actions by the U.S. government towards the Plains Indians be considered genocide? Genocide is deliberate attempt to kill or destroy an entire nation or group of people.

41. The Battle of Wounded Knee ended the conflict between Native Americans and the U.S. Army WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE • The last battle between the Indians and the United States Army happened in 1890 at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. • Indians there were doing religious dances called GHOST DANCE. • The dance gave them visions of returning to their old ways. • The U.S. Government banned this dance. • Soldiers killed more than 300 Sioux men, women, and children. • After the Wounded Knee Massacre, most Indians agreed to live on reservations.

44. The “I Miss Mr. Healy” Quiz. How did the gold rush and railroads mean disaster for Native Americans? What was the Fort Laramie Treaty and what was its long-term effect for Native Americans? Pretend you are a reporter and covering Custer’s Last Stand. Please write an article that covered key facts and your opinion of the Massacre. (7 Fact minimum) Please explain the challenges of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce. You may use the internet to describe the who, what, where, when and why. What is the Dawes Act? Why were the Buffalo important to Native Americans? What happen to the Buffalo? Tell the story of the Wounded Knee from the perspective of the Native Americans. Please include 10 important concepts and your opinion. You may use www.google.com.

45. Section 3 Focus Question: • What factors led to boom and bust in the cattle industry ?

46. RAISING CATTLE ON THE GREAT PLAINS • Early Spanish settlers were the first to raise cattle in the American Southwest. • The Spanish taught the Mexicans how to raise cattle. • After the United States won control of the Mexican Cession, American cowboys, or cowhands, learned their skills from Mexican cowboys called vaqueros.

48. THE OPEN RANGE • The longhorn cattle raised by the Spanish now lived in large herds in Mexico and Texas. • Texas became the cattle-raising center of the United States. • Much of the land in Texas and other parts of the Great Plains was called the open range. • The open range was grassy land that belonged to the federal government. • Cattle were allowed to graze, or feed, freely on this land. TEXAS= Cattle Kingdom

49. CATTLE DRIVES • Each spring the cowhands would begin the long drive, or trip, to move their cattle to cow towns. • It would take several months of hard work for the cowhands, riding horses, to move thousands of cattle to the railroad so they could be shipped off to the EAST.. • Cattle were shipped to Chicago to be slaughtered. • Chicago became known as the meat-packing center of the United States. What about the “Wild West?”

50. Wild West • William “Buffalo Bill” Cody promoted the Wild West with his traveling show. • Starting in 1883, it had gun slinging cowboys, Native Americans on horsebacks, and reenactments of battles from the Indian Wars. The Wild West shows were outdated. The West was being transformed and Buffalo Bill’s shows were a thing of the past.