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Westward Expansion: Moving West. Impact on the American Indians. During this period of westward expansion, the settlers repeated wanted Indian land – leading to fights and wars
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Impact on the American Indians • During this period of westward expansion, the settlers repeated wanted Indian land – leading to fights and wars • The American Indians were repeatedly defeated in violent conflicts with settlers and soldiers and removed from their lands. • Many atrocities
Trail of Tears • One of most famous is the Trail of Tears • Cherokees and other tribes were removed from their homes in winter and rorced to march far away from their homes to Oklahoma • Many died – old people, women, children • Came through Missouri • Many of us have Cherokee blood from those abandoned here
By the time Andrew Jackson became President in 1829, the native population east of the Mississippi River had dwindled to 125,000.
In contrast, the non-Indians population had risen to 13 million.
Jackson saw Indian Removal as an opportunity to provide for the needs of the white farmers and businessmen. He also claimed that removal was also in the best interest of the Indians.
Jackson to the Indians: “Where you now are, you and my white children are too near to each other to live in harmony and peace. Your game is gone, and many of your people will not work and till the earth. . . The land beyond the Mississippi belongs to the President and no one else, and he will give it to you forever.”
Many members of the “Five Civilized Tribes” (including the Cherokee, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles) wanted to stay in their lands east of the Mississippi River.
The Five Tribes tried to stop their removal and relocation b adopting the ways of the white men: • 1. Adopted farming life style • 2. Began to receive formal education • 3. Had own written language • 4. Established their own newspaper (Cherokee Phoenix) • 5. Adopted white man’s idea of black slavery & established plantations
Their attempts did not work. The state of Georgia and the Federal government developed a plan to remove the Cherokee and the other members of the Five Civilized tribes
In an agreement with the federal government, the state of Georgia gave up claims to large tracts of western land in exchange for the federal government negotiating treaties for Indianremoval.
Throughout the late 1820s, legal conflict over ownership of Cherokee lands led the issue to the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Marshall ruled the Cherokee could keep their lands because of earlier federal treaties.
Indians fought back… • As Indians lost more and more land, they fought back – losing almost all their battles – and they did lose the war • Sandy Creek Massacre (1864) - Colorado • Battle of Little Big Horn (1876) – Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana • Battle of Wounded Knee (1890) – South Dakota
Furthermore, the court ruled the treaty was an agreement between two nations and couldn’t be overruled by Georgia.
Georgia ignored the court’s ruling. President Jackson refused to enforce the ruling. He remarked, “Well, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it”.
As part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, federal agents misled tribal leaders into signing removal treaties with the government.
In 1838, the Georgia militia was ordered to force the Cherokee out of Georgia.
17,000 Cherokees were brutally rounded up in the middle of the night and marched to Indian territory in Oklahoma through intense winter weather
“… When I past the last detachment of those suffering exiles and thought that my native countrymen had thus expelled them from their native soil and their much loved homes, and that too in this [harsh] season of the year in all their suffering, I turned from the sight with feelings which language cannot express and “wept like childhood then.”
“… I felt that I would not encounter the secret silent prayer of one of these sufferers armed with the energy that faith and hope would give it (if there is a God who avenges the wrongs of the injured) for all the lands of Georgia!” Adopted from “A Native of Maine, traveling in the Western Country” in New York Observer, Jan. 26, 1839 as found in Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians by Grant Foreman (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972).
“I fought through the Civil War and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by the thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew.” Georgia Soldier involved in removal process
The trail came through Missouri • Near Jackson, MO • Now a state park and visitor center
The Black Hills • A treaty was signed between the U.S. government and Lakota leaders. • The treaty gave the Black Hills reservation to the Lakota people forever.
Gold miners illegally rushed onto the reservation when gold was discovered.
The Battle of Little Bighorn • George Custer was to defeat the Lakota and force them onto a new reservation. • To allow gold mining
Crazy Horse helped lead the Lakota to victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn. George Custer and his men were all killed. This battle was known as “Custer’s Last Stand.”
What then… • The United States sent more soldiers to the Black Hills and forced the Lakota to a new reservation. • The Black Hills were open to gold miners and settlers from the United States.
Why was the battle important? • It was the biggest victory Native Americans ever won over United States forces. • It led to the end of freedom for Native Americans of the Great Plains.
The Battle at Wounded Knee • The last major conflict between the United States and Native Americans occurred at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. • Lakota families decided to leave their reservation. • After being surrounded by U.S. soldiers, the Lakota decided to surrender.
Battlefield at Wounded Knee • When the Lakota surrendered, someone fired a shot. • About 300 Lakota were killed.
Reservations • Many forced to reservations – land supposed to be set aside for Indians • Generally poor land, no hunting, not good for crops • Indians often starved and died of disease
Gold and Silver Strikes The CA Gold Rush began in 1849, attracting thousands of gold hunters known as forty-niners.
Major "Strikes" in the California Gold Rush In 1852 the take for the year was $80 million ($1.9 billion in 2005 dollars). Sutter's Mill/Coloma - Jan. 24, 1848James Marshall kicked off the California gold rush when he spotted some pea-sized bits of gold in a mill raceway. The news brought thousands of prospectors to the area, but neither Marshall nor his employer John Sutter prospered from the find.
Gold and silver mines were discovered throughout the West. Thousands of miners from the U.S., Europe, Mexico, and China flocked to the West. White and Chinese miners hoping to strike it rich during the California Gold Rush at Auburn Ravine in 1852.
The Homestead Act of 1862 • The Homestead Act gave public lands (lands owned by the national government) to American citizens
Homestead Act • Law signed by Lincoln in 1862 • For a small fee a person could obtain 160 acres for free • But not really free – were some rules • At least 21 years old or head of a family • American citizen or immigrant filing for citizenship • Build house a minimum size (12 feet by 14 feet) • Live in house 6 months out of year • Farm land 5 yrs in a row before ownership set 372,000 new farms - 600,000land claims – 80 million acres
Effects: • The Homestead Act helped poor families who could not afford land in the eastern states. • It gave unemployed workers a chance to find work on land of their own. Daniel Freeman Standing, Holding Gun, with Hatchet Tucked in Belt,The "first homesteader" to settle in Beatrice, Nebraska, 1863.
Thousands of African-Americans moved west in 1879 in an effort to find a better life. • This was known as the “Exodus of 1879”, and the participants were called “Exodusters”.
End of the Buffalo • Buffalo were in the way of railroads and settlers so had to be removed • Indians depended on buffalo – had to exterminate buffalo to help rid land of Indians • Hides worth lots of money back east • 25 million buffalo killed (1840-1889) • Replaced with cattle – and rise of the cowboy
Cowboys • Cattle replaced the buffalo • Cowboys collected cattle in Texas and moved them north where they could be shipped to the East
Cattle Drives and Rise of the Cattle Industry • After the Civil War, growing cities in the East increased their demand for beef. • Some cattle had gotten lose in Texas and during the war had been forgotten – so large herds developed and were available for the taking • Railroads had reached Kansas, where cattle could be shipped east • Texas ranchers began to drive herds of longhorns hundreds of miles north to the railroads, where they were shipped east.
· Cow towns developed near the railroads, offering cowhands hotels, saloons, and restaurants. Abilene, Kansas (late 1800’s)
End of the Cattle Drives • The spread of farming, as well as harsh weather, destroyed the cattle boom by 1887. • Cowboys moved to ranches, made possible by the invention of barbed wire
Barbed Wire Hundreds of miles of barbed wire were strung across the state in the 1880s, forever changing the character of the frontier and bringing a measure of management to the cattle industry.
Transcontinental Railroad • Transcontinental Railroad – To connect eastern states with the west • Opened up the west • Allowed cattle to be shipped west • One of most important technological advances • Lincoln signed law before Civil War • Only after war was it built • Government had no money, so paid in land
