Chapter 17 – The Last West and the New South, 1865-1900

1. Chapter 17 – The Last West and the New South, 1865-1900

2. 1889 – Oklahoma Territory [once set aside for Native Americans] was thrown open for settlement • 100s of homesteaders took part in the last great land rush in the West • 1890 census declared the entire frontier had been settled End of the Frontier

3. The quest for gold and silver would help to settle much of the West • 1848 – gold is discovered in California • 1859 – gold is discovered near Pike’s Peak • Brought nearly 100,000 miners to Colorado • 1859 – discovery of Comstock Lode [Nevada] • Produced over $340 million in gold and silver by 1890 The Mining Frontier

4. At first, prospectors would look for traces of gold in mountain streams using shovels and washing pans • Eventually deep-shaft mining was used • This required expensive equipment and wealthy investors Pattern of Mining

5. Towns create almost overnight from rich strikes • Infamous for their saloons, dance-halls girls, and vigilante justice • Many mining towns became ghost towns within a few years after the gold/silver ran out BoomTowns

6. More like industrial cities than frontier towns depicted in Western movies • Mining co. employed miners from Europe, Latin America, and China • Not unusual for half of the population of a mining town to be foreign-born • 1/3 of western miners in 1860s were Chinese Mining Towns

8. Native-born Americans resented the job competition • California passed a Miner’s Tax • $20 a month on all foreign-born miners • 1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act • Prohibited further immigration to the US by Chinese laborers • First major act of Congress to restrict immigration on the basis of race/nationality Foreign Miners

10. Cattlemen and ranchers used the vast open grasslands from Texas to Canada • During the Civil War about 5 million cattle roamed freely in Texas • Cattle business was easy after the Civil War; both grass and cattle were free The Cattle Frontier

11. The construction of railroads into Kansas opened up eastern markets for Texas cattle • Huge profits could be made at the end of the line [Chicago] where cattle were sold $30-$50 a head • Abilene, Kansas built stockyards to ship cattle to Chicago The Cattle Trails

13. Other cow towns [Dodge City] were soon built along railroads to handle the millions of cattle driven up the trails [Chisholm, Goodnight-Loving]out of Texas • Many cowboys were black or Mexican • Earned $1/day for the dangerous work The Cattle Trails

14. 1880s – overgrazing destroyed the grass • A winter blizzard combined with a drought of 1885-1886 killed off 90% of the cattle • Homesteaders used barbed wire fencing to cut off access to the open range End of the Cattle Frontier

15. Land in the Great Plains was dry and treeless • The first “sodbusters” built their homes out of sod bricks • Extremes of hot and cold weather • Water was scarce • Wood for fences was almost non-existent • Plagues of grasshoppers • Lonesome life on the plains Problems and Solutions for Homesteaders

17. Many homesteaders discovered 160 acres was not adequate for farming the Great Plains • 2/3 of the homesteaders’ farms failed by 1900 • Long spells of severe weather • Falling crop prices • Cost of new machinery • Western Kansas lost ½ of its population between 1888 and 1892 Problems and Solutions for Homesteaders

18. For some African Americans, the plains represented a promised land of freedom • In 1879, a group of 6,000 black communities left Mississippi and Louisiana in a quest to escape poverty and white violence, most carrying little but the clothes on their backs • They called themselves Exodusters, people on a great “exodus” to Kansas • The 1880 census reported 40,000 blacks there; the largest African American concentration in the West aside from Texas Exodusters

19. Miners and cowboys were overwhelmingly male, but homesteading was a family affair • The success of a farm depended on the work of wives and children who tended the garden and animals, preserved food, and helped out at harvest time • Single women filed homestead claims as well, usually working land adjacent to other family members [sisters, brothers, parents] Women in the WEst

20. Many western territories granted women more rights than they would experience living in another region of the country • 1869 – Wyoming grants women the right to vote • 1870 – Utah grants women the right to vote • Women also won seats in state legislatures and, eventually, state senates Women in the West

21. 1893 – The Significance of the Frontier in American History • Argued that frontier experience had shaped the unique American culture • Promoted independence and individualism • Acted as a powerful social leveler • Fostered social and political democracy • Challenges caused Americans to be inventive Turner’s Frontier Thesis

22. As thousands of miners, cattlemen and homesteaders began to settle on Native American lands, warfare became inevitable • The federal government tried to assign the plains tribes large tracts of land [reservations] • Most plains tribes refused to restrict their movements and continued to follow the migrating buffalo Indian Wars

23. The open grasslands of the plains supported an estimated 15 million buffalo • Buffalo provided food, clothing, shelter, and tools for many of the 250,000 Native Americans living in the West in 1865 The Buffalo

24. As the frontier was taken over by white settlers, Native Americans lost both their land and their freedom to live according to tradition • 1865 – dozens of different cultural and tribal groups occupied the West The Removal of Native Americans

25. 2/3 of the western tribal groups lived on the Plains • Nomadic tribes had given up on farming with the introduction of the horse by the Spanish • Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, Comanche • 1700s – became skillful horsemen • Way of life centered on hunting buffalo • Belonged to tribes of several thousands, but lived in smaller bands of 300-500 The Great Plains

27. 1864 – Sandy Creek Massacre • The Colorado militia massacred an encampment of Cheyenne women, children, and men • 1866 – Fetterman Massacre • 1,500 Sioux warriors executed a perfect ambush • An army column [80 men] under Captain Fetterman was wiped out by Sioux warriors Indian Wars

28. Helen Hunt Jackson – A Century of Dishonor [1881] • Chronicled the injustices done to Native Americans • Although the book created sympathy, most motivated to help proposed assimilation as the solution • Emphasized formal education and training, as well as conversion to Christianity • Carlisle School in Pennsylvania • Boarding school designed to segregate Native American children from their people and teach them white culture, farming and industrial skills Assimilationists

30. Divided tribal lands into plots of 160 acres or less, depending on family size • US citizenship was granted to those who stayed on the land for 25 years and adopted the “habits of civilized life” • 47 million acres were distributed to Native Americans Dawes Severalty Act [1887]

31. Resulted in 90 million acres of former reservation land [good land] sold over the years • Was a failure • By 1900, disease and poverty reduced the Native American population to just 200,000 Dawes Severalty Act [1887]

32. Second Sioux War led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse • 1876 - Before the Sioux were defeated, they ambushed and destroyed Colonel Custer’s command at Little Big Horn End of Armed Resistance

33. 1877 – Chief Joseph tried to lead a band of Nez Percéinto Canada • Ended in defeat and were forced to surrender End of Armed Resistance

34. A religious movement by Native Americans to resist US domination and drive whites from the ancestral lands • In the government’s campaign to suppress the movement, Sitting Bull [Sioux medicine man] was killed during his arrest • December 1890 – over 200 Native American men, women and children were gunned down by the US Army in the “battle” of Wounded Knee in the Dakotas • This final tragedy marked the end of the Indian Wars Ghost Dance Movement

36. By 1900, the great buffalo herds had been wiped out in a frenzied rush for the West’s natural resources • Open western lands were: • fenced in by homesteads and ranches • crisscrossed by railroads • modernized by new towns • The Native Americans paid a high human and cultural price for being in the way of development Settlement of the Last Frontier

38. Some Americans began to fear rampant overdevelopment in the West • Congress began to preserve sites of unusual natural splendor • In 1872, it set aside 2 million acres of Wyoming’s Yellowstone Valley as the world’s first national park • A public holding that would serve as a “public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people” First National Park

39. Homer Plessy [who was 1/8 black] was ordered to leave a first-class car and move to the “colored” car of a Louisiana train • Plessy refused and was arrested • The Supreme Court ruled that such segregation did not violate the 14th amendment as long as blacks had access to accommodations that were “separate, but equal” to those of whites Plessy v. Ferguson [1896]

40. Jim Crow segregation laws clearly discriminated against blacks, but the Court allowed them to stand • These laws applied to public schools, parks, hotels, restaurants, streetcars, trains, sports stadiums, and movie theaters *“Separate, but equal” will remain in place until 1954 Jim Crow Laws

41. Farmers grew increasingly disillusioned with the two major parties • Food prices fell by 33% from 1865 to 1898 • Farmers blamed their hardships on the gold standard [which both major parties supported] • They saw no political will to confront the power of the railroads and bankers • This growing resentment gave rise to many movements/groups Farmers in the late 19th Century

42. A political movement during the 1870s depression • Protested the collapse of Reconstruction and urged that every man’s vote be protected • Advocated laws to regulate corporations • Advocated for an 8-hour work day • Called for the federal government to print more greenback dollars to stimulate the economy Greenback-Labor Party

43. A farmers’ organization and movement that started as a social/educational association • Encouraged families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture • The Grange later organized politically to pass a series of laws to regulate railroads and grain elevators in various states • Granger Laws The Granger Movement [1870s]

45. An agrarian economic movement among American farmers • National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union [white farmers of the South] • National Farmers’ Alliance [whiteand black farmers of the Midwest] • Colored Farmers’ National Alliance and Cooperative Union [black farmers of the South] • Wanted to end the adverse effects of sharecropping [crop-lien system] • Generally supported the government regulation of the transportation industry and the establishment of the income tax • Moved into politics as the Populists The Farmers’ Alliance [1880s]

46. Passed by the government in 1887 to counteract the decision in the Wabash v. Illinois case [1886] • The act created the Interstate Commerce Commission [ICC] • They were to be in charge of… • investigating interstate shipping • forcing railroads to make their rates public • suing in court when necessary to make companies reduce “unjust or unreasonable” rates Interstate Commerce Act