Westward Expansion Conflict and Cooperation Among Occupational and Ethnic Groups

1. Westward ExpansionConflict and Cooperation AmongOccupational and Ethnic Groups

2. LEQ 3: What are some examples of conflict and cooperation between occupational and ethnic groups?

3. Vocabulary • Miner- a person who mines for precious minerals (ex: coal, gold, silver, diamonds, etc.) • Rancher- a person who raises animals (livestock) for a profit • Cowboy- a person who guides herd of animals to a desired place • Farmer- a person who plants and harvests crops for profit • Rustler- a person who steals cows from cowboys and ranchers

4. Conflict Cooperation Occupational Group Ethnic Group

5. What doesconflict mean? Conflict means to disagree verbally or physically. What are some examples of conflict?

6. What does cooperation mean? • Cooperation is the act of working together. • What are some examples of cooperation?

7. Occupational Groups Occupational groups are groups of people who are classified by the jobs they have. Examples: Miners Ranchers Cowboys Farmers Rustlers

8. Ethnic Groups • Ethnic groups are people from different cultures and backgrounds. • Examples: • Native Americans • Mexican Americans • European Immigrants • Asian Immigrants

9. Westward Expansion Although the journey west often required groups of people to help one another, settlement also brought conflict among groups that competed for the natural resources of the region.

10. Miners • The discovery of gold and silver brought many men westward seeking their fortunes. • Miners competed with one another to find the precious minerals and often broke the law. • Mining companies that had the equipment to dig deeper into the terrain competed with single miners for claims to the richest digging sites. • Boom Towns grew quickly to serve the needs of the miners and then just as quickly turned into ghost towns when the mines had run out of the precious minerals.

11. Ranchers and Cowboys Ranchers and cowboys cooperated to develop the cattle raising industry. Cowboys drove the herds, owned by the ranchers, across the open plains to the nearest railroad depot and shipped them to processing plants in the east. They competed with rustlers and often came into conflict with the townspeople.

12. Ranchers, Cowboys and Farmers The cowboys and ranchers often argued with farmers over the cattle getting onto the farmers land. Farmers did not like for the animals to ruin their crops and property. When farmers settled and fenced in large parts of the plains, they interfered with the open ranges across which the cowboys drove the herds. The cowboys, who did not like the fences, and the farmers who built the fences, fought over how the land should be used. These conflicts caused the end of most cattle drives in the plains.

13. Mexican Americans Many Mexican Americans were also driven out of the land. Spain and Mexico controlled much of the Southwest of the United States, until the Mexican War in the 1840’s. Mexico lost to the US, and those that were living in the West were discriminated against and forced to move back into the country of Mexico because they lost their land.

14. African Americans Due to discrimination in the South, African Americans were eager to move out West. They wanted to move out West, in hopes to own their own land through the Homestead Act rather than sharecropping in the East. One group of African Americans that were encouraged to move West were the Exodusters who settled in Nicodemus, Kansas.

15. European Immigrants European Immigrants came to seek jobs and start new lives in the West. However, most European immigrants were too poor to move West and stayed and worked in the industrial cities of the East and Midwest. Irish immigrants worked on the building of the Transcontinental Railroad for the Union Pacific, which began in Omaha, Nebraska. Americans who were born in the US (nativism) often did not like people from Europe because they threatened their jobs. European Americans formed communities and worked together to develop a life in the US. They engaged in cooperative activities such as: building houses, finding jobs and helping with barn raisings (when a community comes together to raise the walls of a barn).

16. Asian Immigrants Asian immigrants experienced the worst discrimination. Asian people came to America to search for gold, but later, worked on the transcontinental railroad. They were often paid less than white workers and suffered from discrimination because their culture was so different. Once the railroad was complete, many Chinese immigrants tried to stay in the US and compete with white Americans for jobs, such as opening laundries for washing miners’ clothes in boom towns. This competition made the white Americans very angry and soon, the United States government passed a law that kept Chinese people from entering the United States.

17. Native Americans At first, Native Americans welcomed and cooperated with explorers in the West. As more and more people came to the West, the Native Americans and the settlers did not get along. The railroad destroyed the buffalo, and with it, much of the Native American culture.

18. Native Americans • Farmers and Miners claimed the lands that belonged to the Native Americans. Native Americans were forced to live on reservations. Those who would not move to reservations were hunted down by American soldiers and often massacred. After gold and silver was discovered in the Black Hills, the Native Americans who lived there were driven out by the US.