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The West. Essential Question: How is progress measured?. GUIDED QUESTIONS:. 1. If native peoples already live in your extended home, how will you co-exist? 2. How might western settlers and Native Americans differ regarding use of land? 3. What are the pros and cons of railroad expansion?
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The West Essential Question: How is progress measured?
GUIDED QUESTIONS: 1. If native peoples already live in your extended home, how will you co-exist? 2. How might western settlers and Native Americans differ regarding use of land? 3. What are the pros and cons of railroad expansion? 4. What would you do to improve living and working conditions? 5. Does the U.S. have a duty to fight for freedom in neighboring countries?
Closing the Frontier • Who lived in the West? • Homestead farmers • Miners • Cattle ranchers • Native Americans • Conflict • Transcontinental railroad • Increased numbered of white settlers • Battle to keep ancestral lands • Industry and Technology growth • Result • Buffalo disappear • Death from disease and battle • Survivors moved to reservations
The Massacre at Sand Creek • Causes: • Demand for native lands continued to grow despite treaties and compromises. • Local volunteer militias formed to ensure safe settlement and development. • Native Americans grew tired of being pushed off of their ancestral lands.
The Massacre at Sand Creek • Events: • Sand Creek- village of 800 Cheyenne Indians in Colorado • Black Kettle, the local chief, asked the U.S. Army for protection • He was promised protection, but was attacked the following day, November 29, 1864 • Sand Creek was surrounded by the Colorado Volunteers. • Black Kettle raised an American flag as a sign of friendship, but it was ignored. • The Volunteers' commander, Colonel John Chivington, led his regiment to the village and killed about 400 people
The Massacre at Sand Creek • Effects: • 400 Cheyenne die- mostly women and children • Colorado Volunteer’s brutality- scalping, disembowelments, shot children and infants for sport • Other Indian communities want revenge
Retaliation • 1866 • Sioux warriors under the leadership of Red Cloud attack troops working construction on the Bozeman Trail in Montana. • Commander William Fetterman and 81 soldiers and settlers were all brutally mutilated. • No survivors were found. • 1868 • Red Cloud and the United States agreed to the TREATY OF FORT LARAMIE, whichbrought a temporary end to the hostilities. • Large tracts of land were reaffirmed as Sioux and Cheyenne Territory by the United States Government. • The peace was short-lived.
Another Broken Treaty The Treaty of Fort Laramie was broken when gold was found by General George Custer and his scientific exploration group in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Prospectors came immediately to try to get rich quick. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, two local Indian leaders, decided to defend their land.
Custer’s Last Stand • General Custer was confident his troops could contain the Native American fighters. • New weapons- Gatling Gun (rapid fire) • Custer and his soldiers felt that it was only a matter of time before the Indians would surrender and submit to life on a smaller reservation. • His orders were to locate the Sioux encampment in the BIG HORN MOUNTAINS of Montana and trap them until reinforcements arrived
Little Big Horn On June 25, 1876, Custer discovered a small Indian village on the banks of the LITTLE BIG HORN River. Custer ordered his troops to attack, not realizing that he was confronting the main Sioux and Cheyenne encampment. About three thousand Sioux warriors led by Crazy Horse descended upon Custer's regiment, and within hours the entire SEVENTH CAVALRY and General Custer were massacred.
The End of Sioux Resistance • Results: • Reinforcements arrived and eventually Crazy Horse surrendered. • Sitting Bull and other warriors escaped to Canada, but eventually returned to the U.S. and surrendered due to hunger. • War hawks demanded an immediate increase in federal military spending and swift judgment for the noncompliant Sioux. • Critic HELEN HUNT JACKSON, published A CENTURY OF DISHONOR in 1881. • This chronicled injustices toward Native Americans over the past hundred years.
End of the Buffalo • Travelers on the Great Plains were encouraged to kill them • Fashion statement • Profit • Sport • Buffalo population dropped from 15 million at the end of the Civil War to only a couple of hundred by 1900. • The Sioux lost their chief means of subsistence and mourned the loss of the animal, which was revered as sacred according to tribal religion.
Chief Joseph and the Nez Percé 1877-The year after Custer's infamous defeat, the NEZ PERCÉ Indians of Idaho fell victim to western expansion because gold was discovered on their lands. After a stand-off between tribal warriors and the U. S. Army, their leader Chief Joseph led his followers toward Canada to avoid capture. He hoped to join forces with Sitting Bull. Army officials chased the Nez Percé 1700 miles across Idaho and Western Montana until Chief Joseph was forced to surrender. The entire tribe was relocated to Oklahoma where nearly half of them died from disease.
Geronimo and the Apache Struggle American Southwest- the Apache tribe, under the leadership of Geronimo, attacked settlers in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. Geronimo was relentlessly hunted, even across the Mexican border. Finally, after the army seized female Apaches and deported them to Florida and deprived the warring tribesmen of a food supply, Geronimo was captured. His 1886 defeat marked the end of open resistance by Native Americans in the West.
Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma- last land to be claimed by homesteaders Previously used as an Indian reservation 1889- 2 million acres of land opened up for settlement Thousands rushed to Oklahoma to claim land under the Homestead Act. Those who claimed land before it was officially opened were called “Sooners”
Life on the Reservations • Reservations- federal policy dictated that certain tribes be confined to fixed land plots to continue their traditional ways of life. • Moral issue: • Depriving a people of life on their historic land • Economic issue: • Nomadic tribes lost their entire means of subsistence by being constricted to a defined area. • Farmers found themselves with land unsuitable for agriculture. • Many lacked the know-how to implement complex irrigation systems • Social issue: • Hostile tribes were often forced into the same proximity. • Disease • Alcoholism • Depression
The Dawes Act- 1887 • Each Native American family was offered 160 acres of tribal land to own outright. • The land could not be sold for 25 years • They could farm it for profit like other farmers in the West. • Expectations of Congress • End the dependency of the tribes on the federal government, • Enable Indians to become individually prosperous • Assimilate the Indians into mainstream American life. • After 25 years, participants would become American citizens. • Resistance • Widely resisted by tribal leaders who foretold the end of their ancient folkways and a further loss of communal land. • Individuals who attempted this new way of life were often unsuccessful due to their lack of knowledge about farming • Most Indians were still dependent on the federal government
“Americanizing” the Indians • Education • Most Native American children were required to attend reservation schools to learn reading and writing of English • Forced to dress like the white settlers • Cut their hair • Changed their names to American names • This led to further tribal division • Dawes Act repealed • From 1880-1900, land held by Native Americans was cut in half • By1934, when the Dawes Acts was repealed, alcoholism, poverty, illiteracy, and suicide rates were higher for Native Americans than any other ethnic group
WHAT is the “Ghost Dance” and HOW did it start??? • A religious awakening that started among the tribes of North America. • It began in 1888 with Paiute holy man WOVOKA. • During a total eclipse of the sun, Wovoka received a message from the Creator. • Soon an Indian messiah would come and the world would be free of the white man. • The Indians could return to their lands and the buffalo would once again roam the Great Plains. • Wovoka even knew that all this would happen in the spring of 1891. • He and his followers meditated, had visions, chanted, and performed what became known as the GHOST DANCE
The “Ghost Dance” • Why white men didn’t like the Ghost Dance: • Wovoka preached nonviolence, but whites feared that the movement would spark a great Indian rebellion. • Ghost Dance followers seemed more defiant than other Native Americans • The rituals seemed to work its participants into a frenzy. • Many Sioux who were forced onto the reservations sought spiritual guidance. • Local residents of South Dakota demanded that the Sioux end the ritual of the Ghost Dance. • They were ignored, and the U. S. Army was called for assistance. • A group of 300 Sioux left the reservation because they were afraid • The Army believed them to be a hostile force preparing for attack
The Wounded Knee Massacre • When the two sides came into contact, the Sioux agreed to be transported to Wounded Knee Creek on Pine Ridge Reservation. • December 29, 1890- • The U.S. Army demanded the Sioux give up all weapons. • An accidental shot was fired from the Sioux • The Seventh Calvary opened fire on the Sioux • Almost all 300 men, women, and children were killed • Instead of bringing the answer to their prayers,, the "Ghost Dance" movement resulted in yet another human travesty. • This massacre marked the last showdown between Native Americans and the U.S. Army • The 1890 United States census declared the frontier officially closed.
Western Folkways • What is Manifest Destiny? • How did the typical Westerner make a living? • Mining • Ranching • Farming • Mining: • Colorado Gold Rush-1859 • Motto- “Pikes Peak or Bust!” • Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, and other precious metals were needed for industry in the East
Life in the American West • Ranching: • Demand for beef was high • Cattle ranchers lived mostly in Southern Texas • Cowboys needed to move the steer to market • Farmers: • Most popular job in the West • Wanted a stable job working a homestead of their own • Harsh realities- nature, isolation, politics, and economics
<3 Cowboys <3 • The Cattle Industry was a major money maker. • A calf in Texas that was worth $5 could be sold in Chicago for $60. • How did they get the cattle from Texas to Chicago? • Cowboys!!! • In 1867, JOSEPH MCCOY tracked a path known as the CHISHOLM TRAIL from Texas to Abilene, Kansas. • Long Drive- Thecowboys drove the cattle the distance of 1500 miles. • Along the way, the cattle enjoyed all the grass they wanted, at no cost to the RANCHERS. • At Abilene and other railhead towns such as Dodge City and Ellsworth, the cattle would be sold and the cowboys would return to Texas.
Myth v. Reality • Americans did NOT invent cattle raising • This tradition was learned from the vaquero, a Mexican cowboy • Clothing • Cowboy hat • Worn to keep the hot sun off of their face • Bandana • Worn to keep from breathing in dust kicked up from the cattle • Chaps and Boots • Worn as protection from briars and cactus needles. • Characteristics • Not a skilled shooter • Small in stature • 25% were African Americans • Traveled in groups • Work was difficult- 15 hour work days • Troubles with Indians and thieves
The End of the Open Range • The long drive was short lived • By the1870s, rail lines reached Texas so cattle could be shipped directly to slaughterhouses. • Cattle would graze on the land near the rail lines • The invention of BARBED WIRE by JOSEPH GLIDDEN ruined the OPEN RANGE. • Now farmers could cheaply mark their territory to keep the unwanted steers off their lands. • Overproduction caused prices to fall, leading many ranchers out of business. • The winter of 1886-87 was one of the worst in American history. • Cattle died by the thousands as temperatures reached fifty below zero in some parts of the West.
Life on the Farm • Homestead Act of 1862 • Allowed many eastern families the opportunity to own and farm a plot of land of their own • 160 acres free to any family who lived on the land for five years and made improvements • $1.25 per acre for those not qualified or those that wanted more • Transcontinental railroad made travel easy and possible (4 created) • Railroads became most popular form of travel and created time zones
Economic Problems • Hardships: • Overproduction • Large amount of land available and new farming technology • Prices fell sharply • Great for the consumer, but bad for the producer • Borrowed money • Expensive fertilizer and new farming technology • Had to pay high tariffs for household goods • Railroads charged higher rates for shipping
