Native Americans: Conflict and Conquest in the American West

1. The West

2. Conflict with Native Americans • American expansion into the west led to the weakening and destruction of Native American nations. • Millions of Americans poured into the West in late 1800’s – gold silver – land – new cities along transcontinental railroad – incentive was legally owning your own private land. • The “Indian Problem” – what could and should be done with western Indians so their lands could be used for mining, ranching, and farming?

3. Conflict with Native Americans • Most Native Americans lived on the Great Plains – grassland between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. • 1800’s millions of buffalo roamed the Great Plains. They were used for meat, shelter, and clothing. • Plains Indians were introduced to guns and horses by the Europeans– became nomads following buffalo.

4. Conflict with Native Americans • Settlers and Indians began to clash because they had different views on the natural resources of the land. • Settlers felt they could take Indian land because they would produce more food and wealth with it than Indians. • Indians saw the settlers as invaders trying to take away their sacred property.

5. Conflict with Native Americans • The United States government encouraged attempts to take Native American land from them. • Federal government first tried treaties. • Restricting their movements to reservations – land set aside for them to live on.

6. Conflict with Native Americans • Many treaties were corrupt – written in a way to deceive the Indians – violently forced them into signing. • Many agreements between Native Americans and the federal government fell apart because they had different concepts of land ownership. • Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs created to manage delivery of supplies to reservations – corruption led to supplies being stolen, or never delivered at all.

7. Conflict with Native Americans • Some aggressive settlers stole Indian land, killed buffalo for money, diverted water sources, and even attacked Indian camps. • These acts increased hostilities and violence between both groups. • Americans had more guns and Indians suffered more deaths, but Indians naturally fought off more disease and adapted to lack of food and shelter better.

8. Conflict with Native Americans • Because American military was focused on the South during Reconstruction, their presence in the west to battle Indians was limited. • Many white reformers felt the Indians had to be “civilized”. • Give up their traditions, become Christians, learn English, adopt white dress and customs, support themselves by farming and learning a trade.

9. Conflict with Native Americans • Christians volunteered and setup schools on reservations. • An Indian Rights group even formed because of the outrage over the government’s treatment of Native Americans. • In 1879 the United States Indian Training and Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania was opened. Indian children as young as five were forced off of reservations and sent there to learn how to become Americans. • This practice was called assimilation – making one society a part of another by adopting its culture.

10. Conflict with Native Americans • In 1887 The Dawes Act divided up reservation land into individual plots. • Each Native American family received 160 acres and granted U.S. Citizenship. • Goal was to require them to farm individual land plots to encourage them to be self-supporting and change their lifestyles.

11. Conflict with Native Americans • However, many Native Americans did not want to farm. • Were not skilled as farmers; and reservation land was not suitable for farming. • Some sold their land for a quick profit; by 1930s over 130 million acres of this land ended up owned by whites.

12. Conflict with Native Americans • In 1889 Federal Government bought out over 2 million acres of Indian Territory because of pressure from settlers. • They wanted the land – they took it from Indians and opened the area up for settlers. • It took nearly half a century for the U.S. to conquer Native Americans – millions of men, women, and children died in fighting or on bad living conditions on reservations.

13. Conflict with Native Americans • Summary

14. Mining, Ranching, Farming • Mining, ranching, and farming started out as individual family businesses and turned into major industries which changed the west. • Settlers came with one common goal in mind; take advantage of the wealth of the land by using the natural resources.

15. Mining, Ranching, Farming • Mining: • Gold rushes in California, Colorado, and Nevada caused a stampede of settlers out west based on the lure of quick wealth. • Large gold strikes led to large towns and even cities to be developed. • Merchants opened stores to sell supplies to miners - when all precious metal was gone, miners left, merchants left, leaving ghost towns.

16. Mining, Ranching, Farming • The promise of ore attracted larger mining corporations. • Diverted streams and used huge drills to dig into the left over beds. • Workers tunneled into mountains and plunged into mines often losing their lives - dynamite was sometimes used to blast the ore out of mountain sides.

17. Mining, Ranching, Farming • Ranching: • In early 1800s Mexicans taught Americans cattle ranching. • Prior to Civil War, pork was Americans meat of choice - afterwards, nation went on a beef binge. • The price of cattle skyrocketed with the switch in appetite.

18. Mining, Ranching, Farming • The expansion of the railroads contributed to the cattle ranching boom. • Shipping cattle east by railroad was expensive, so in 1870s refrigerated railcars were established – cattle were slaughtered before shipping – cool cars kept meat from spoiling. • Cow towns were developed – ranchers conducted cattle drives to move cows to railroad pickup stations.

19. Mining, Ranching, Farming • Cowboys – or men who drove cattle – mainly used the Chisholm Trail – from southern Texas to Kansas where the railroads were. • Had to pass through Indian Territory and raids were common. • But the biggest fear of the cowboy was a stampede – something to spook the cattle into a dangerous thunderous herd.

20. Mining, Ranching, Farming • As the cattle business grew a new breed of wealthy ranchers created huge cattle operations. • Some owned more than 100,000 cattle and millions of acres.

21. Mining, Ranching, Farming • Farming: • Homesteaders often had to struggle even for the necessities. • Had to build a home – with trees rare on the plains homes were dugout in the ground, or a “soddie” – made from sod. • After home built, plowing the field for planting was a grim task.

22. Mining, Ranching, Farming • Hard work could also be ruined from floods, prairie fires, dust storms, and drought. • Bugs were also a concern – grasshoppers and locusts ravaged the fields of crops. Mosquitoes and flies carried diseases. • Goal was to farm the land for five years and it’s yours – but some settlers lacked farming skills and could not financially hang on.

23. Mining, Ranching, Farming • The challenges and hardships of settling the Great Plains led settlers to depend on help from each other – families and neighbors were your source of aid. • Men did farm labor and lent themselves out to make more money. • Women cooked, cleaned, washed clothes, raised the children, and helped raise food crops. • Children as young as four also helped with labor, or had to seek jobs to help make money for the family.

24. Mining, Ranching, Farming • Farmers welcomed any machines that would save time and effort. • Developments included devices to help them plow more land at once, and automatic drills to help spread grain. • Farm mechanization resulted in an increase in farm production.

25. Mining, Ranching, Farming • Summary

26. Populism • Economic crisis led to organized protests by farmers seeking government assistance for relief. • The economic reform that followed became an issue and led to the development of Populism. • Farmers have always struggled with two forces – nature and the economy.

27. Populism • Economic dangers can be just as devastating as a drought or a swarm of locusts. • With the introduction of machines, farmers’ debt increased as they purchased them to help them produce more crops. • Plus, farm production around the globe increased competition which caused the prices of their crops to decline.

28. Populism • Lower crop prices means lower income. • Lower income plus increased debt equals an economic crisis for farmers. • Two different economic recessions hit the U.S. (like 2008) in 1873 and 1893. • Same characteristics unemployment levels soared, banks, businesses and farmers lost money from high debt.

29. Populism • Farmers in distress began demanding the U.S. Government to help them. • The first issue that farmers wanted the U.S. Government to take care of was to lower tariffs (taxes on imported goods). • High tariffs hurt farmers because it raises the prices of imported farm machinery, and it prevents foreign countries from making money which they can use to buy more crops.

30. Populism • The second issue that western farmers wanted the U.S. Government to take care of was to provide free silver – the unlimited coining of silver dollars – to increase crop prices. • The federal government needs to keep our currency in balance to avoid inflation and deflation. • Inflation is where there is too much money in circulation which causes prices on goods to increase. • Deflation is where there is too little money in circulation which causes prices of goods to decrease.

31. Populism • In 1873 during an economic recession the U.S. Government to prevent inflation and stabilize the economy put the nation’s economy on the gold standard. • This hurt miners and farmers in the west because it reduced prices of their goods. • This caused them to form powerful protest groups.

32. Populism • The Farmers’ Alliance formed in 1870s and called for federal control on railroad shipping prices, and more money in circulation. • Private railroad companies controlled most land near prime transportation routes. • Pressure from the group produced the Interstate Commerce Act – a law that regulated prices that railroads could charge to move freight between states. • The Farmers’ Alliance led to a new political party called the People’s Party.

33. Populism • Members called themselves Populists. • Populists hoped to gain more power in government by winning elections. • Their stances included: • an increased circulation of money • the unlimited mining of silver – free silver • a progressive income tax – higher taxes for higher wealth • government ownership of communication and transportation systems.

34. Populism • Populists had the support of western farmers and miners, and they tried earning support from eastern workers by supporting an eight hour work day. • They also sought a united front of white and black workers to pull blacks away from the Republican Party. • In 1896 they nominated William Jennings Bryan – a fantastic speaker – for president.

35. Populism • Bryan gave a powerful speech called the Cross of Gold Speech in which he used biblical references to protest the gold standard. • The Populists reached the peak of their popularity at this time. • However, Bryan lost the1896 election to Republican William McKinley.

36. Populism • McKinley raised the tariffs to new levels hurting farmers even more. • Gold discoveries in South Africa, Canada, and Alaska cemented the U.S. stance on the gold standard. • To the surprise of farmers crop prices eventually began to increase. • Populism died, but the idea of trying to reform society lived on.