Changes on the Western Frontier

1. Changes on the Western Frontier

2. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO FIND SETTLING IN THE WEST? • WHAT MIGHT BE SOME WAYS TO MAKE A LIVING ON THE WESTERN FRONTIER?

3. THEMES • DIVERSITY & NATIONAL IDENTITY • The dreams of NAs, white settlers and immigrants conflicted and violent confrontations often resulted. Much of this conflict dealt with the use of land. Settlers believed in private property rights, but NAs had a different view of land • Cowboys were a melting pot of diverse cultures-whites, AAs, NAs and Mexicans. These diverse groups lived and worked together harmoniously, despite cultural clashes in the society at large.

4. THEMES • ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY • A major lure of the frontier was economic opportunity. The govt contributed to economic development by financing the building of RRs and making land available too settlers at little or no cost. Economic opportunity was influenced by currency issues and economic panic.

5. The Great Plains

6. The Culture of the Plains Indians • The Horse and the Buffalo • Introduced by Spanish • Along with guns = travel farther, hunt efficiently • Would lead to war w/ other tribes (hunting grounds) • Young men • Taking part in war parties • Coup stick

7. The Culture of the Plains Indians • Buffalo • Used all parts • Tepee • Clothing • Shoes • Blankets • Jerky, food

8. The Culture of the Plains Indians

9. Settlers Push Westward

10. Map 13 of 45

12. Pyramid Lake Indian Wars in 1861 *

13. U.S. INDIAN POLICY • Negotiate treaties to sell land to US • Americanization or assimilation • Adopt Christianity • White education • Individual land ownership • Adopt agriculture • Take away food source to force to Reservations = tracks of land

14. Govt Restricts Native Americans

15. Grattan Massacre (Nebraska)

16. Massacre at Sand Creek • 1864: Cheyenne peacefully return to Sand Creek Reserve • Gen. S. R. Curtis: “I want no peace till the Indians suffer more.” • Nov. 29: 150 men, women, children Col. John Chivington

18. Death on Bozeman trail • Runs through Sioux hunting lands in Bighorn Mtns. • Sioux Chief: Red Cloud • Dec. 1866: Crazy Horse ambush Capt. William Fetterman and company • “Fetterman Massacre” • Began Red Cloud’s War

19. Treaty of Fort Laramie 1868 • Ended Red Cloud’s War • Created the Great Sioux Reservation • Protected Sioux hunting grounds and the sacred Black Hills from white settlers • Sitting Bull refuses to sign and would continue to hunt on traditional grounds

21. Bloody Battles Continue • “We have been taught to hunt and live on the game. You tell us that we must learn to farm, live in one house, and take on your ways. Suppose the people living beyond the great sea should come and tell you that you must stop farming, and kill your cattle, and take your houses and lands, what would you do? Would you not fight them?”

22. Red River War General P. Sheridan

23. Gold Rush • 1874: Gold found in the sacred Black Hills • Remember what Treaty of ‘68 said • Land of the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho • Miners raid

26. Battle at Little Bighorn • Montana Territory • June 1876 • Col. George A. Custer and 7th Calvary • Sent to force Arapaho, Sioux and Cheyenne back to reservation • Led by Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and Gall • Swift payback • 1877: Govt seized the Black Hills • Sitting Bull leads ppl to Canada

28. Little Bighorn

29. Little Bighorn

30. Little Bighorn

31. Dawes Act of 1887

32. Destruction of the Buffalo • For Sport • On purpose to weaken resolve of the NAs • By 1900 only 1 herd in Yellowstone Park

33. The Ghost Dance Movement - 1890

34. Ghost Shirt • Indian warriors fighting against the US wore Ghost Shirts which were to stop the penetration of American soldiers bullets……It gave them supernatural powers as was believed………

35. The Ghost Dance Movement - 1890

36. Massacre at Wounded Knee – Dec. 1890 • 7th Calvary rounded up starving and freezing Sioux and took them to Wounded Knee camp. • They attempted to confiscate all weapons.

37. Massacre at Wounded Knee – Dec. 1890 • 300 of 350 Natives killed • The last of the Indian conflicts Chief Big Foot

41. Chief Joseph (Nez Perce), 1877 • I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, "Yes" or "No." He who led the young men [Olikut] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

42. Cattle Becomes Big Business

43. Vaqueros and Cowboys • Whites learn from Mexicans • Cattle originally from Spain

44. A Day in the Life of a Cowboy

46. A Day’s Work

47. The Life of a Cowboy