Warm-Up: describe this painting
Westward Expansion
Fulfilling Manifest Destiny
Moving West
Push Factors
• Civil War displaced persons:
– farmers, former slaves and
others
• Available farm land
• Religious repression
• Open spaces sheltered
outlaws
Pull Factors
• Private Property
• Morrill Land Grant
– Land to railroads
• Homestead Act 1862
– 160 acres land free if you were 21
years old or heads of families;
built a house, lived on it 6
months; and farm for 5 years in a
row
• Settlers believed that they had a right to the
western land because they produced more
food and wealth than the Native Americans
• Immigrants went west for cheap land and
new jobs
• Exodusters were ex-slaves who moved west
to escape racial violence in the South and to
make a new beginning and farming was the
skill most already knew
The Native Americans
First removal was the Trail of Tears 1832
Came from many diverse cultures but shared
common view toward nature
Native
Americans saw
themselves as
part of nature
and viewed
nature as
sacred
Many white
Americans
viewed the
land as a
resource to
produce wealth
Native Americans and the settlers had very differing
concepts of land ownership
During the 1800s, the government
carried out a policy of moving Indians out
of the way of white settlers, encouraging
attempts to take Native American lands
At first, Indians in the East
were moved west, into the
Indian Territory of the
Plains.
Frontier settlers
continued pushing west,
pressuring the
government to open
Indian Territory.
Indians were
forced into
reservations,
no longer free
to roam the
Plains.
Two other crises also threatened
Native American civilizations.
Disease
Loss of the buffalo
Settlers introduced
diseases to which
Indians had no
immunity.
Settlers slaughtered
buffalo herds.
As more and more settlers moved west, the
Native American tribes were weakened or destroyed.
Some Native Americans fought to defend
their lands.
But attacks and
retaliation led to
distrust—and to
tragedy.
The Sand Creek
Massacre saw an
unarmed camp of
Indians under the
U.S. Army protection
killed
by Colorado militia.
Promises were made and peace
treaties were signed, but they
often were broken.
Frustration turned to violence as the government
moved to crush Indian resistance.
•
The Red River War led
to the defeat of the
Southern Plains
Indians.
•
The Sioux were
victorious at the Battle
of the Little Bighorn.
•
Chief Joseph and the
Nez Percés
surrendered after
attempting to retreat
to Canada.
As their way of life slipped away, some Indians
turned to a religious revival based on the Ghost
Dance.
The ritual preached that white settlers would be
banished and the buffalo would return.
Fearful of insurrection, government officials
tried to ban the practice.
In an effort to end the Ghost Dance, the
government attempted to arrest Sitting Bull.
However, he was killed in a
confrontation with U.S.
troops.
More than 100 Indians who
fled were killed at Wounded
Knee.
The Indian Wars were over.
Some critics attacked government policies and
defended the Indians’ way of life.
Most leaders, however, hoped that Native
Americans would assimilate into American life,
becoming “civilized” and adopting white
culture.
In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes General
Allotment Act to encourage assimilation.
•
Replaced the reservation system
with an allotment system
•
Granted each Indian family its
own plot of land
•
Specified the land could not be
sold for 25 years
The Indian Right’s Movement would grow out of outrage
because of the way the government treated
the Native Americans
Activity:
• In The White Man’s Image video & questions