Westward Expansion
(1865 – 1900)
The Indian Wars
1830’s – President Andrew Jackson’s First Great
Removal (The Trail of Tears) forced Indians in East to
land west of the Mississippi.
 By the end of the Civil War, all surviving Native
Americans were living on the Plains and in the West.
 By 1900, virtually all were forced onto reservations –
poor tracts of federal lands – scattered throughout the
West.
 Many would only go there after they were convinced
they could not win the war against the U.S.

Sitting Bull and the Fall of the Sioux



1864 - Sand Creek, CO
Massacre (unarmed
Cheyenne & Arapaho
killed by Colorado militia
Fetterman Massacre – Dec.
1866 – Dakota Territory –
1st Sioux War
1876- General Custer and
Battle of Little Bighorn –
200+ soldiers killed
Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce




Pacific N.W. tribe of
Wallowa Valley
1876-77 Joseph was forced
to retreat on a 1100 mile
march for Canada
He was stopped Sept. 1877
only 40 miles from Canada
at Big Hole Basin, MT
Tribe was banished to
reservation in Indian
Territory in OK
Massacre at Wounded Knee, SD
After death of Sitting
Bull, 200 Sioux killed
at Massacre of
Wounded Knee, SD
(1890)
 The tragic end of the
Ghost Dance War
sealed the fate of the
Indians.

Native American Culture Destroyed
1860 – 13 million buffalo to 1000 est. in 1900!
 1881 – Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of
Dishonor spawned the “Indian Rights” movement
 Criminal Code of 1884 – Indians prohibited from
practicing tribal religions (Ghost Dance –
Wounded Knee (1890)
 Dawes Severalty Act (1887) gave plots of land to
Native American families headed by a male, but
Indians did not want to farm (assimilation).

Exit Slip – The Indian Wars
1.
2.
3.
4.
Poor tracts of land set aside for Native Americans are called
_________.
a. Reservations b. Bad Lands c. Plantations
The last major victory for the Plains Indians against U.S.
military forces was won at __________, Montana in June
1876.
a. Butte b. Little Round Top c. Little Big Horn
The goal of the Dawes Act of 1887 regarding Native
Americans was __________.
a. Assessment b. Accommodation c. Assimilation
The last major conflict between Native Americans and U.S.
forces occurred at _________, South Dakota in 1890.
a. Lake Oahe b. Wounded Knee c. Sand Creek
The Transcontinental Railroad (1869)






Pacific Railway Act (1862)
Sacramento to Omaha
2-5 miles of track per day
Eur. Immigrants, Chinese,
Af. Americans helped
May 10, 1869 –
Promontory Point, UT
Opened the West!
The Mining Industry
CA Gold Rush of 1849 &
Comstock , NV 1859
 Miners panning for Gold
 1870s – commercial
mining = big business
 “Boomtowns” and
“Ghost Towns”
 Vigilante Justice

Cowboys and Ranching
Texas Longhorns
multiplied on the open
range
 Indian removal and
killing of buffalo opened
land for cattle
 Long Drives – N TX
Plains to railheads and
cow towns (Abilene, KN,
etc.)

Frederic Remington
“Stampede” - 1908
Cow Towns and Railheads
The Homestead Act of 1862

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Offered 160 acres of
public land if:
21 years-old and head
of family
Any U.S. citizen or
immigrant that filed
$10.00 fee
Build house/ 6 Mo./Yr.
a resident
Farm plot for 5 years
The Exodusters
50,000-plus African
Americans went West
 Led by Benjamin “Pap”
Singleton
 Life was hard, but many
adapted and escaped the
racial hatred and
violence of the South

Farming on the Plains




Not a farmers paradise
due to the elements
New farm machinery
(John Deere’s steel plows,
steam tractors, reapers,
and combines)
Dry weather crops = Dry
farming (wheat, oats, etc.)
Small farmers faced debt
Was the West Really Wild?
1890 Census = Frontier
Settled and Closed
 Joseph Glidden (1874)
invented “barbed wire”
 Settlers and cowboys
were only white males?
 Outlaw Myths?
 Who is this???

Exit Slip – Railroads, Miners,
Ranchers, and Farmers
1.
2.
3.
4.
T or F: Successful mining towns were often called ghost
towns.
T or F: Prior to the 1860s, longhorn cattle roamed wild on
the Western plains.
T or F: Homesteaders often built homes of sod because
wood was scarce and too expensive to transport.
T or F: Since fewer than 1,000 African-Americans
migrated west after the Civil War it is safe to say that the
settlers who did were predominantly white.