INTRODUCTION

1. INTRODUCTION • Between the end of the Civil War and 1900, more new farms were started in the U.S. than in any other time in our history • The entire western half of the country was taken from the Indians and turned into farms and ranches • Despite the fact that the U.S. was turning into an industrial and urban nation, the “agrarian ideal” remained an extraordinarily powerful force for millions of Americans • But for the three million families who started new farms during this period, their dream often became a nightmare • The result of this sort of suffering was a great surge of agrarian protest known as the Populist Revolt

2. THE WEST IN 1860 In 1860, the westernmost states were Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas These states were thinly settled. Texas, for example, only had 2.4 people per square mile in 1868 Indian population of the West was approx. 300,000. Not a large number but appropriate for a hunting people who ranged over huge tracts of wilderness in search of game

3. Western Indian tribes had been promised in various treaties that they would be left alone As long as this idea held, the Western tribes were safe These promises were made at a time when most Americans saw little reason to settle the West Most Americans, until the Civil War, believed the West could not support “civilization.” Maps called the region “The Great American Desert,” an area believed to be as worthless as the Sahara Desert and incapable of supporting agriculture.

4. FIRST ENCROACHERS • Great California Gold Rush of the late 1840s was followed by similar rushes in Nevada and Colorado (1850s), Idaho and Montana (1860s), and South Dakota (1870s) • All encroached on former Indian territory • Ranchers moved into the Great Plains • Cattlemen who found the endless prairies of the West ideal for cattle grazing • Followed by farmers

5. WHY FARMERS MOVED WEST I • Completion of transcontinental rail line by Union Pacific Railroad • Shortly after Civil War • Linked east and west coasts by rail • Made it possible to deliver crops grown in West to eastern markets at a reasonable cost

6. WHY FARMERS MOVED WEST 2 • Shortage of trees in West made construction of fences and so forth very expensive • Barb wire resolved this problem • Still expensive to build a wooden cabin • But settlers discovered they could build huts out of prairie sod • Never saw “sod houses” as permanent but as temporary shelters

7. WHY FARMERS MOVED WEST 3 • Limited rainfall remained a serious problem • One solution was “dry farming” • Another solution was to dig a well and draw water up for irrigation with a windmill • These options worked well enough to convince potential settlers that they could turn the Great American Desert into a Garden of Eden

8. THE PROCESS • White prospectors and/or farmers would pile up along the boundaries of Indian territory and then begin to filter into it • Difficult for government to enforce these treaty violations • And most federal officials did not even try to • Federal government felt no moral or legal obligation to protect Indian land from white settlers • So, most of the time, it didn’t even try

9. LOUSY DEAL • Government pressured tribes to renegotiate original treaties and confine themselves on reservations • This meant that tribes would no longer be able to support themselves by hunting • But the government promised to give them supplies until they could make the transition to self-supporting farmers

10. WAR • Indians who did not want to accept life on the reservation had no choice but to resort to armed force • U.S. army would not expel whites who trespassed on Indian territory but the full military power of the U.S. was turned on those Indians who tried to take matters into their own hands • The result was the eruption of a series of Indian wars throughout the West in the 1870s and 1880s

11. CUSTER’S LAST STAND • Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho won a few victories in the beginning • The most famous occurred in 1876 when General George Armstrong Custer led a unit of the 7th Cavalry into a trap at Little Big Horn, west of the Black Hills • Set by Sioux and Cheyenne • All 264 of his men were killed

12. WHITE ADVANTAGES • Indians never really stood much of a chance • Railroad gave federal troops superior mobility • Repeating firearms gave Army tremendous advantage in firepower • The buffalo, the principal source of food for most Western tribes, was wiped out by white hunters • In 1865, there were 10 million buffalo in the West; by 1890, there were only 1000 left

13. LIFE ON THE RESERVATION 1 • By 1880, most Western tribes had been forced onto reservations and put under the control of white official charged with the duty of “civilizing” them • Most of these officials lacked any understanding of traditional native culture and were determined to stamp it out completely • Many were selected by eastern Protestant churches and regarded tribal religious beliefs and practices as stupid superstitions • Therefore tried to force Indians to become good little Protestants

14. LIFE ON THE RESERVATION 2 • White reservation teachers disdained Indian culture and customs • Tried to alienate Indian children from their parents by teaching them that their entire history and belief system was ignorant and wrong • When parents fought back and kept their kids out of school than had their government supplied cut off

15. BACKGROUND TO DAWES SEVERALTY ACT • Before 1887, reservation land was owned in common by the entire tribe • Individual tribal members could not sell portions off • Individual land ownership was completely alien to Indian tradition • White reformers argued that the reason why Indians were not making progress on reservations was because tribal land ownership stifled the incentive for individual self-improvement • Also sustained “uncivilized” beliefs and traditions

16. DAWES SEVERALTY ACT OF 1887 • Did away with tribal ownership of land • Each reservation family received 160 acres of land which became their private property • Goal was to turn Indians into individualistic small property owners who would then be able to assimilate into white society more easily

17. FAILURE OF THE DAWES ACT • It was abused by white businessmen who tricked many Indians out of their allotments • Rested on false assumption that Indians wanted to be American-style businessmen farmers • Most did not • Attempt to impose individualistic competitive behavior on a people with powerful tribal loyalties and a long tradition of common property ownership doomed the act to failure

18. DISASTER • Within 50 years of the passage of the Dawes Act, 63% of the land Indians had received as individual allotments had slipped out of their hands • And into the possession of white farmers, ranchers, and speculators • Most of the land that remained in Indian hands was useless for farming • Most Indians sunk into hopeless poverty • Some did assimilate but most were caught in a hopeless no-man’s land • Result was poverty, disease, alcoholism, and apathy

19. NEW STATES Idaho and Wyoming 1890 North and South Dakota, Washington, and Montana 1889 Utah 1896 Between 1865 and 1890, 8 new states from the West joined the Union Colorado 1876

20. HOMESTEAD ACT • Many settlers attracted to the West because of the Homestead ActPromised 160 acres of free land to those who were willing to clear and then work it • Getting suitable land with Homestead Act was not easy • Available land was limited and often in undesirable locations • Much of the best land was grabbed up by speculators All they wanted to do was hang on to it for a while and then sell it for as much as they could • Fraud was widespread • Government did not have agents to make sure people who obtained land actually lived and worked on it

21. RAILROADS • Much land was already owned by the railroads • Federal and state authorities had offered the railroads huge tracts of land free in order to convince them to build lines through areas of light traffic • Huge strips of land, sometimes extending 40 miles on each side of the line • Railroads sold as much of this land as they could • And because it was often advantageous to be located as close to a railroad as possible, farmers thought it was better to pay a higher price for this land than take free Homestead land

22. LAND IN THE WEST • Six out of seven new farms in the West were obtained by purchase from either the railroads or private land speculators • The Homestead Act helped some families who were too poor to make a start at farming without it, but its overall impact was diminished by the manipulation of speculators and the lavishness by which western land was given to the railroads

23. CONDITIONS IN THE WEST • Harsh and bleak environment • Winters were long and bitter and summers were blazing hot • Frequent droughts devastated crops • Plagues of grasshoppers destroyed every green thing for miles in every direction • Tornadoes tore up everything in their path • Corn and wheat were not well adapted to these conditions • Previous experience in the Old Midwest and South did not prepare farmers for conditions in the West

24. BUSTED DREAMS • Prosperity was not easy to obtain for the Western farmer • Farm incomes fluctuated wildly from year to year • In bad years, farmers were buried under a mountain of debt • Many lost their farms to creditors and were forced to return east or become tenant farmers

25. VILLAINS • Western farmers claimed they victims of ruthless railroads who overcharged them for shipping their products • Claimed they were exploited by middlemen who handled their sales • Paid them low prices and then sold their produce a hugely marked up products • Claimed they were victimized by bankers who charged unfair interest for farm loans • Claimed they were screwed by giant corporations in the east who demanded unfair high prices for manufactured products

26. REALITY CHECK • Western farmers had dreamed and worked hard to become independent and self-sufficient farmers and has instead ended up bankrupt and evicted from the homesteads they had sacrificed to create • Yet, while we should be sympathetic to their plight, we should also find the real reasons for their hardship and suffering and not be satisfied with their own simplistic explanations for their problems

27. GREED • Farmers themselves were a big part of their problems • Simply were not prepared for farming under the extreme environmental conditions of the West • Others were greedy • Had bought more land than they planned to farm, hoping to sell this extra land later at higher prices • They were land speculators too

28. DECLINING WHEAT PRICES • Wheat prices fluctuated wildly from year to year and, overall, declined from 1865 to 1900 • Reason was because output outstripped demand • Introduction of farm machinery after 1870 multiplied productivity of average farm worker • Increase in productivity was not accompanied by decrease in farmers producing wheat • Too many people entered wheat farming for the overall economic well-being of wheat farming

29. CHRONIC OVERPRODUCTION • Western farmers had no control over how much wheat would be produced in the country during any given year and thus had no control over the price for their crop • All an individual farmer could do was try to harvest as much as he could, in the hope that an increase in his output would compensate for any drop in price per bushel • But when every farmer followed this strategy, it result in such a huge annual crop that prices dropped even further

30. INTERNATIONAL MARKET • Vast new tracts of foreign land opened up to farming after the end of the Civil War • In Argentina, Australia, Canada, Russia, and New Zealand • New international markets for American wheat also were created • Creation of an international market for agricultural products gave American farmers new outlets for their crops • But it also exposed them to worldwide competition and made them more dependent than ever on forces beyond their control

31. EXPLANATION • When American farmers had produced only for the American market, a poor harvest would at least be partially compensated for by a rise in prices • But once the American farmer entered the international market, this compensating mechanism no longer operated • Since a year of poor crops in South Dakota became disastrous if it coincided with bumper crops in Argentina or Australia • Because this meant the international price for wheat would remain low even though South Dakotan farmers did not produce much that year

32. REAL REASONS • Speculative over-extension, overproduction, and the dangers of the international market were the root causes for the economic difficulties of western farmers during the late 19th century • In comparison, the reasons that they gave for their plight were not all that important

33. RAILROAD RATES • Farmer’s complaint that railroads charged them exorbitant rates to carry their crops to market was an exaggeration • Although there were some abuses, railroad rates for agricultural products actually declined throughout the late 19th century

34. COMPLICATED PROBLEM • Western farmers claimed that Eastern banks depressed crop prices through the manipulation of the money supply • Late 19th century was a period of severe deflation • Average price for everything dropped 50% between 1865 and 1890 • Cause was that the production of products (both agricultural and industrial) was growing faster than the money supply • As supply of products grew faster than the supply of money needed to buy them, prices fell

35. FEDERAL DECISIONS • Money supply remained stagnant because of 3 decisions made by the federal government • Removal of paper money printed during Civil War from circulation • Limited amount of silver coins minted in any given year • Put country on gold standard • Every paper dollar had to have a dollar’s worth of gold in Fort Knox to back it up

36. FARMER POINT-OF-VIEW • Federal government made these decisions to stabilize U.S. currency after the unstable and inflationary period of the Civil War and to make American products competitive in the world market • But many farmers saw these decisions as the work of corrupt politicians in the pay of Wall Street • Argued that the deflation that resulted from these decisions hurt agriculture by depressing the price of agricultural products and only benefitted Wall Street

37. A BETTER EXPLANATION • Deflation affected all prices, not just agricultural prices • Deflation did bring less cash for farmers’ crops but it also meant that they needed correspondingly less money to by manufactured products • Price of wheat fell more sharply than prices in general • But this was the result of unique conditions governing the supply and demand of wheat • Not from monetary decisions that depressed overall price levels

38. THE BIG PROBLEM • Grievances of farmers would be embodied in the program of Populist Movement of the 1890s • A vast rural movement that tried to rectify the farmers’ plight • But it is doubtful that farmers would have been helped that much even if the entire Populist program had been adopted • Their analysis of the sources of their problems was incorrect and too superficial to yield effective remedies