110 likes | 757 Views
The Conquest of the Far West. Chapter 26. In the late 19 th century ‘the west’ would have been land west of the Mississippi River Anglo-migration would encounter Eastern Indian tribes (moved during Jacksonian Period) forcibly resettled in ‘ Oklahoma Territory ’ such as Cherokee & Creek
E N D
The Conquest of the Far West Chapter 26
In the late 19th century ‘the west’ would have been land west of the Mississippi River • Anglo-migration would encounter • Eastern Indian tribes (moved during Jacksonian Period) forcibly resettled in ‘Oklahoma Territory’ such as Cherokee & Creek • Midwestern Plains Indians; diverse group of tribes including the Sioux Nation & the Cheyenne • Primarily nomadic buffalo hunting peoples • Far Western tribes like the Pueblos had lived amongst Spanish settlers since the 1600s • US government’s treatment of the Indian was criticized by Helen Hunt Jackson in A Century of Dishonor (1881) Societies of the Far West
Understanding of the 19th century west is often mythical due to” • Late 19th Century ‘Rocky Mountain School’ of artists inspired by the untouched west • Albert Bierstadt • Mark Twain’s early literary efforts were about his youth on the Mississippi River or young adulthood in Nevada • Cowboy Myth • Cowboys were often poor young men (sometimes former slaves) who worked on western ranches & cattle drives • Popular in western novels like ‘The Virginian’ • Wild West Shows –’Buffalo Bill’ & Annie Oakley; gunslingers The Romance of the West
Whites saw the west as ‘virgin land’ waiting for them to tame • Presence of the Indians did not fit this ideal • Us gov’t Indian Peace Commission in 1867 decided to move all of the Plains Indians into two reservations, one in the Oklahoma Territory and another in the ‘Dakotas’ • No more individual tribal treaties; Indians expected to form permanent settlements • Railroad building, fad for hides & settlers were decimating the buffalo –main Indian food source • Nearly all of the 15 million killed b/w 1865 - 1885 The Dispersal of the Tribes
Starting in the 1850s, Indians in small parties of 30 – 40 began attacking wagon trains & ranches; eventually soldiers • Sand Creek Massacre (1864) –US army retaliated in CO against Cheyenne & Arapaho attacks more than 130 ‘friendly’ Indians ‘Indian Hunting’
Battle of the Little Big Horn, MT (1876) -Sioux left their Dakota reservation in 1875 under the leadership of Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse • Gen. George A. Custer & the 264 men of the 7th Cavalry attacked –no US soldiers survived • Within two years the Sioux were forced back to their reservations • Wounded Knee, SD (1890) –Last major fight b/w US army & the Sioux. More than 300 Indians killed
Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 • Provided for the gradual elimination of tribal ownership • 160 acres to a family or 80 acres to an individual • Could not gain full title to the land for 25yrs • Applied to all tribes but the Pueblo • Assimilation with Anglo ways was a major goal • Prevented Indian rituals like the Ghost Dance; and mandated Christian Church attendance • Children often removed and sent to boarding schools The Dawes Act