The Conquest of the Far West

1. The Conquest of the Far West Chapter 16

2. Societies of the Far West • The Western Tribes • Pacific coast (Chumash, Pomo, Serrano, Maidu, Yurok, Chinook, Ohlone) wiped out by Spanish disease • Pueblos of SW form alliance with Spaniards, but subordinate • Plains, Sioux Indians • strongest, most fierce and brave • strict reverence to nature • dependent on buffalo • lack of unity early but later formed alliance with Arapaho and Cheyenne

3. Hispanic New Mexico • most stayed in American territory after US/Mexico war • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo • Transformed by arrival of Anglo-Americans and capitalist society • Stephen Kearney tries to establish a gov’t in NM with 1,000 whites that excludes the 50,000 Hispanics • “territorial rings” spread Anglo influence, territory and wealth • US Army breaks the power of the Navajo and Apache • Railroad brings more people • Anglo and Mexicans seeking different opportunities • Mexicans restricted to the lowest-paying and least stable jobs

4. Hispanic California and Texas • Missionaries influence • self-sustaining communities • Spanish presence • Oppression of natives • Californios lose land (Benicia, Vallejo) • excluded from Gold Rush • corrupt business deals • corrupt courts • squatters • Rancheros struggle • survive due to booming cattle industry • 1860s drought devastating • by 1880s Hispanic aristocracy ceases to exist in California • Texas follows similar post war pattern to CA despite the fact that they consisted of ¾ the pop. • Anglo treatment of Mexicans v. Natives

5. The Chinese Migration • by 1880 200,000 Chinese in the US, mostly in CA, large numbers in SF • CA gov. in 1852 “one of the most worthy classes of our newly adopted citizens” • Jobs • industrious and hardworking = “threat” to white society • “foreign miners” tax excluded them from the mines during gold rush • transcontinental railroad, Chinese = 90% of workforce (Central Pacific) • work through winter • strike suppressed by force/starvation

6. The Chinese Migration Cont’d • Urban Life “Chinatowns” • railroad completion = increase in Chinese urban population • “Six Companies” • Tongs • 2/3 of laundry workers were Chinese; cheap to start, little language requirement • 50% of Chinese women in California were prostitutes

7. Anti-Chinese Sentiments • Anti-Coolie clubs, Democrat Party, Workingmen’s Party = violence and oppression of Chinese • Chinese Exclusion Acts in US Congress 1882, 1892, 1902

8. Migration from the East • post war migration = much larger than previous decades • Homestead Act of 1862 – permitted settlers to buy plots of 160 acres for a small fee if the occupied the land they purchased for five years and improved it… easier said than done • 10 states join the Union from 1864 – 1896

9. The Changing Western Economy • Labor in the West • unstable and shifting labor market • 10% of population was single… • multi-racial working class…but white workers dominated upper tiers of employment • areas of work: mining, ranching and commercial farming

10. The Arrival of Miners • mining boom was a brief period 1860-1890 (California, 1849) • gold in Pike’s Peak, CO (1858)… Denver established • silver in Nevada (1858)… Comstock Lode • gold in Black Hills of Dakota Territory • Process • Individual surface, placer, mining • Corporate quartz mining • Ranchers establish permanent economy or desertion • “Bonanza Kings” – lucky miners who did become enormously wealthy off a strike • Rise in outlaws or “bad men” = increase in vigilante activity • Dangers of working in mines (1 worker in 30 died)

12. The Cattle Kingdom • railroads gave birth to range cattle industry because it allowed access to larger markets • long before US citizens invaded the SW, Mexican ranchers had developed the techniques and equipment that the cattlemen and cowboys of the great Plains later employed: branding, roundups, roping, leather chaps and spurs… very important to note that Texas “Cowboys” followed the Mexican “Gaucho” or “Ranchero” model • huge price offerings in the East for steers for people who could bring steers to railroad centers

13. The Cattle Kingdom Cont’d • drive from south Texas to Sedalia, Missouri • caused cattle to gain weight • risk factors: outlaws, Indians, farmers, Texas fever • success lead to “cattle kingdom” • Most cowboys in early years were Confederate Army veterans…second largest group was African Americans • ranches = permanent settlements for employers and employees • sheep vs. cows • Corporate Cowboys • harsh seasons wiped out the cattle run, replaced it with trains • 250,000 female ranch owners, Wyoming = first state to grant women suffrage

14. The Romance of the West • The Western Landscape • New, natural painting landscapes lured many west • “Rocky Mountain School” • early tourist industry, “wilderness” hotels

15. The Cowboy Culture • rugged, free-spirited lifestyle romanticized = contrast structured world of the East • promotion of the “natural man” • Owen Wister’s “The Virginian” = a semi-educated man whose natural, decency, courage, and compassion made him a powerful symbol of frontier virtues • Wild West Shows

16. The Idea of the Frontier • Mark Twain – writer • Frederic Remington – painter • Theodore Roosevelt – “Winning the West” writer • Frederick Jackson Turner - • “four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone and with it’s going has closed the first period of American history.” Debatable • Loss of Utopia or “myth of the garden”

18. Dispersal of the Tribes • White Tribal Policy • Bad history • prior to 1860, tribes were considered wards of the President • treaties ratified by Senate • desire to establish permanent frontier between whites and natives • as whites moved west, strength of treaties rarely held from pressure of settlers • “concentration” of Indian tribes in Indian territory w. “treaty chiefs” • divided tribes, thus easier to control • allowed whites to move Indians off desirable lands

19. White Tribal Policy Cont’d • Indian Peace Commission established to come up with a different plan than concentration… move all Indians into one of two reservations: Dakotas or Indian Territory (Oklahoma) • White management of Indian matters was run by Bureau of Indian Affairs – horrible track record • Buffalo was essential to Indian way of life… slaughtered by whites • demand for hides from the East • railroad shootings • killing was condoned and encouraged by Bureau of Indian Affairs • 1865: 15 million buffalo / 1875: less than a thousand

21. The Indian Wars • Retaliation: originally on encroachers, later on soldiers • Little Crow (Sioux) in Minnesota: 700 whites dead / 38 Natives hanged • Miners encroachment in Colorado • governor urged friendly Indians to congregate at army posts for protection • Black Kettle leads Cheyenne and Arapaho to camp • Colonel J.M Chivington orders an attack with drunk militia soldiers • 133 people dead /105 women and children • Black Kettle escapes, slaughtered with his people later in Texas by Colonel George A. Custer

22. The Indian Wars Cont’d • Montana and Bozeman trail • white effort to connect Wyoming to mining centers in Dakotas • Indian harassment prevents trail from being used • California and “Indian Hunters” • bounty for scalps or skulls • goal of “elimination” • disease, poverty and vigilantes reduced CA Indian population from 150,000 before 1860 to 30,000 in 1870 • 1867 Peace, but 1870s tensions rise again • Gold in the Black Hills • Federal gov’t stops negotiations with tribal chiefs two goals • “civilization” through assimilation • annihilation of Native cultures • 1875 bands of warriors left reservations and were ordered to return • gathered in Montana under two great leaders Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull • George Custer and Seventh Calvary sent to round up renegade Indians • Battle of Little Bighorn: 2,500 Natives kill Custer and all 264 men • Native organization weak, group breaks up into bands • Crazy Horse killed on reservation (Sitting Bull?)

24. The Indian Wars Cont’d • Nez Perce and Chief Joseph 1877 • a few members sign a treaty all are forced onto a reservation • 4 settlers killed • Chief Joseph leads his group in an effort to escape punishment • White Bird Canyon/ Blue Hen River • Leads 200 men and 350 women in an effort to reach Canada: 1,321 miles in 75 days • Some make it across the border, most are caught just before • Chief Joseph “I will fight no more forever” • General Nelson Miles makes a deal with Joseph, but Federal gov. refuses to honor it • Nez Perce shipped from reservation to reservation facing disease and malnutrition

25. Chief Joseph of Nez Perce Geronimo

26. The Indian Wars Cont’d • Apaches and Geronimo • one of the last tribes to resist • Arizona and Mexico • 1871 white atrocities on Apache • women and children killed / sold into slavery • offering peace conference, and then killing them: poisoned food • Geronimo fights efforts to assimilate • Geronimo’s troops and tribe down to 30: Geronimo surrenders

27. The Indian Wars Cont’d • Ghost Dance • many tribes recognized their traditions were fading • turned to spirituality • Wavoka = Paiute who emphasized • coming of a messiah • retreat of white forces • return of the buffalo • ecstatic visions and dances • white agents feared “Ghost Dance” as a preliminary to hostilities • Wounded Knee (December 29, 1890) • effort to round up Sioux and put down the “Ghost Dance” • 350 cold and starving Sioux • machine gun factor: 200 Sioux (women and children) 40 white soldiers dead

29. The Dawes Act (1877) • The Dawes Severalty Act provided for the gradual elimination of tribal ownership of land and the allotment of tracts to individual owners • concept of a “vanishing race” in need of rescue from white society • desire to turn tribes into farming communities • took Indian children away from families and forced them into boarding schools • children were educated to abandon tribal ways and rituals • encouraged spread of Christianity • Harsh change from concept of collective society to capitalist individualism • Plan abandoned due to inept and corrupt leadership What must be understood: The success of white settlement into the American West came at great expense of the region’s indigenous peoples

31. The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer • Farming on the Plains • Significance of the railroad • Irish built from the East, Chinese built from the west • Met at Promontory Point, Utah in the Spring of 1869 • prior to Civil War, only way west was via wagon / railroad made white settlement easier • although operated by private corporations, railroads were essentially public projects because the government gave corporations loans and land for the track and land as incentive • railroad companies wanted settlers to settle the West • customers for railroad • they owned the lands the settlers would buy • railroad fares were cheap

33. Farming on the Plains Cont’d • Problems • Grazing Cattlemen herds (barbed wire) • Falling prices due to decrease in demand • Shortage of water (illusion that water was plentiful in 1870s due to unordinary amount of rainfall) • irrigation projects • dry land farming • drought resistant crops • lack of government infrastructure for funding • land bought at a good rate on credit… but dry years sent tens of thousands of farmers into abandonment of their farms

34. Commercial Agriculture • independent farmer, self sustaining farmer, replaced with commercial farmer similar to what industrialists were doing in the manufacturing economy • dependent upon • bankers and interest rates • railroads and freight rates • national and European markets • significance of communication and transportation • global increase in farm output… but lead to a drop in prices • 1890s 27% of the farms in country were mortgaged; by 1910 33% • In 1880 25% of all farmers were tenets, but 1910 37% • Some people became very rich, most suffered

35. Farmers Grievances (Granger’s  Farmer’s Alliances  Populist Party ) • farmers generally had little understanding of world markets, thus concentrated their anger on immediate areas • inequitable train freight rates: cost more in the South and West than in the NE, some charged arbitrary storage rates • high interest rates: 10 to 25% loans having to be paid during a time when prices were dropping and currency was becoming scarce. Increasing the volume of currency would eventually become an important agrarian demand • prices: a farmer could plant a crop at a moment when prices were high and find that by harvest the price had declined. The most significant reason was the unsteadiness of the world market, however farmers had their own theories that weren’t entirely without reason • “middlemen” (bankers, speculators, etc.) were conspiring to fix prices so as to benefit themselves at the growers expense • Eastern manufacturers were conspiring to keep the prices of farm goods low and the prices of industrial goods high

36. Agrarian Malaise • Isolation of farm life • limited medical facilities • harsh winters • lack of access to education for children • “hayseed” ridicule • West used to be romanticized, now the position of the western farmer declined in relation to urbanized, industrial society of the East • Anger would lead to a powerful political movement in the 1890s… called Populist Movement.