Turn of the Century: Western Expansion and Environmental Factors

Warm Up: Draw the information into your timeline as we discuss.

What does “turn of the century” refer to?

Practice Century/Years 5th AD = ___________ _______ = 1000 BC 17th BC = ___________ _______ = 1856 AD 1st AD = _________ _______= 637 AD Century/Years 27th AD = ________ _______ = 1776 AD 21st AD = __________ _______= 25 BC 10th AD = ___________ ________= 1941

The West part 2

Political Factors and Issues: What political factors encouraged western expansion? • Indian Policies • Indian removal /reservation system: Forced Native Americans to leave lands given to white settlers and to move to reservation lands in Oklahoma. Those that resisted were arrested or killed. (Indian Wars) • Destruction of the buffalo also led to the destruction and removal of the Plains Indians and culture.

Dances With Wolves • A clip from a movie… • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkDqzpNsg6U • Also watch the movie “Avatar” It is a parallel to Native American removal for land and resources. • John Dunbar: Who would do such a thing? The field was proof enough that it was a people without value and without soul, with no regard for Sioux rights. The wagon tracks leading away left little doubt and my heart sank as I knew it could only be white hunters. Voices that had been joyous all morning were now as silent as the dead buffalo left to rot in this valley, killed only for their tongues and the price of their hides.

Indian Policies continued • Dawes Severalty Act - Tried to Americanize/assimilate the Indians. It broke up the reservations and encouraged Indians to live separate from their tribes. Those that accepted the deal, received land to farm and given citizenship, but they had to adopt American culture. What was left over the government sold to settlers….the Oklahoma Sooners! • American Indian children were taken away from their homes (traditional Native American culture) and raised in boarding schools to become “Americanized.” Assimilation

Physical & Human Geographic Factors: What environmental factors affected living and expanding in the west? • Settling the Great Plains: • Human factors – the Plains Indians were the earliest settlers; innovations such as the steel plow made it easier to break the dense, rich soil and farm the land (increased settlement); The Homestead Act encouraged settlement.

Indians – hunted, planted crops, and settled small villages on the plains. Also, defended land from settlers. • Horses helped increase their mobility and a lot of them left their villages and began hunting buffalo. The hides were used to build their tepees, clothes, food, shoes, and blankets. The buffalo provided the Indians with a lot of their basic needs.

Discussion question #1: With your shoulder partner(s) discuss and answer the following question: 1. How did the horse influence Native American life on the Great Plains? How did the buffalo? Write your answers in complete sentences! Example: “The horse was important influence on Native American culture because ________________.” “The buffalo ___________________.” (You may copy the sentence stem but you have to fill in the blank)

Physical factors – located between the South and Midwest regions to the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west; experience the greatest extremes in temperature and climatic conditions of any region in the U.S. Winters are cold, with frequent snowy blizzards, while summers bring hot and dry winds. The land was ideal for farming because it is flat. (But not all of the Great Plains was good for farming…)

Discussion question #3: With your shoulder partner(s) discuss and answer the following question: 3. What were the challenges the settlers moving to the Great Plains faced? How was life for them on the land? Write your answers in complete sentences! Example: “Settlers moving west faced challenges like, ________________________.” “ Life on the plains and prairie was ________ because ________.” (You may copy the sentence stem but you have to fill in the blank)

Klondike Gold Rush – late 1800s, in Northern Washington and Alaska • Human factors – thousands, hoping to ease the woes of economic depression, sold farms, dropped businesses, and boarded ships to follow their dreams north. • Physical factors – Alaska was seen as a large and distant source of raw materials.

Discussion question #2: With your shoulder partner(s) discuss and answer the following question: 2. How did the environment in the Klondike region (human and physical geography) encouraged the settlement of the West? Write your answers in complete sentences! Example: “The environment in the Klondike Region encouraged people to move west and settle because ______________ but _________________.” (You may copy the sentence stem but you have to fill in the blank)

Fact or Fib • Directions: Get out two pieces of paper or sticky notes or note cards and write Fact on one and Fib on the other. • I will present you a statement and then I’ll say 1…2…3…and I want you to slap down either your “Fact” piece of paper, or “Fib. Then I want you to explain to the people on your row your answer.

Fact or Fib • #1 Fact or Fib? • Railroads grew because there was a high demand for western expansion and industrialization. • FACT!

Fact or Fib • #2 Fact or Fib? • Most people did not take advantage of the Homestead Act and moved west. • FIB!

Fact or Fib • #3 Fact or Fib? • Overproduction for farmers was a big issue in the west. • FACT!

Fact or Fib • #4 Fact or Fib? • The decline of the Plains Indians in the west, helped lead to the cattle boom. • FACT!

Fact or Fib • #5 Fact or Fib? • Farmers relied on old tried and true methods to increase agriculture that led to a population boom. • FIB!

Fact or Fib • #6 Fact or Fib? • Native Americans were encouraged to become “Americanized” because of the Homestead Act. • FIB!

Fact or Fib • #7 Fact or Fib? • The buffalo were destroyed so that land could be made available for settlers from the United Stares. • FACT!

Fact or Fib • #8 Fact or Fib? • The Klondike Gold Rush and Homestead Act banished from their land and made way for immigrants of European descent. • FACT!

Turn of the Century: Western Expansion and Environmental Factors