Looking to the West, 1860–1900
The Lure of the West
 What conditions lured people to migrate to the West?
 Where did the western settlers come from?
Push Factors
 What were examples of push factors?
Pull Factors: Government Incentives and
Private Property
 Before the Civil War what issue delayed settlement?
 Under the Pacific Railway Acts who gave large land
grants to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific
Railroads?
 What was the Act that really set the wagons rolling
West? What happened under the act?
The Shifting Frontier
 The West was already occupied by whom?
Section 2: Conflict with the Native
Americans
Life of the Plains Indian’s
 What changes occurred in the culture of Plains Indians
before the arrival of settlers?
Indian Wars with Government
Policy
 Causes of Clashes
 Settlers felt justified in taking Indian Land
because in their view they would
________________________________.
 Native Americans felt the settlers were
simply ________.
Making Treaties
 How did the government try to restrict the movement of
nomadic native Americans? Explain.
 Where did they restrict the Native Americans to?
Key Battles: Battle of Little Big Horn
 What was another name for this battle?
 The Sioux of the northeastern plains—Dakota,
Wyoming, and Montana territories—powerfully resisted
white expansion.
 Who was Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and what
role did he play?
 Outcome?
Key Battles: Battle of Wounded Knee
 Native Americans saw the rise of religious prophets
predicting danger or prosperity.
 A prophet of the plains, Wovoka, promised a return to
traditional life if people performed what?
 Describe the Ghost Dance.
 What was the fear of the U.S. Military? What actions
did they take?
 What was the outcome of the final clash between
federal troops and the Sioux.
Attempts to Change Native American
Culture
 In 1879, Army Captain Richard H. Pratt opened the
United States Indian Training and Industrial School in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
 What was the purpose of this school?
Attempts to Change Native American Culture
 In 1887, a federal law dismantled the Native American
concept of shared land in favor of the principle of private
property highly valued by Americans. What was the
purpose of the Dawes Act? Describe.
 Keep in Mind: It took a half-century, more than a
thousand battles, and the deaths of about 950 United
States soldiers to conquer the Native Americans.
Section 3
 Spread of mining
 After the discovery of gold at _______________, fortune
hunters looked to the West Coast.

Little did they know that on the way to California, their wagon
wheels rolled over mountains even more rich in precious
minerals.
 _______________ Mine, opened in 1877 in the Black
Hills of Dakota, was possibly the richest single mine ever
uncovered in the world, producing a billion dollars'
worth of ore.
 Realm of big business.
Cattle Boom
 _____________ taught Americans cattle ranching in the
early 1800s.

The Americans adopted their ranching equipment and dress.
Learned the advantages of raising the hardy Texas longhorn
cattle that thrived on the dry, grassy plains.
 What is a “Cow Town”? Example.
A Cowboys Life: Cattle Drive on the
Chisholm Trail.
 In the year of Abilene's founding, cowboys drove
some 35,000 cattle up the Chisholm Trail. The
story of the Chisholm Trail symbolizes what?
 Why was this an ideal route for Texas cattle
drives ?
 Describe the geography and the men of the
trail
Farming the Plains
 Prairie life is romanticized in novels and films. But for
most homesteaders—those who farmed claims under
the Homestead Act—life was relentlessly rugged
 What were the hardships for the homesteaders? List
and describe three things.
New Technology Eases Farm Labor
 The dry climate in parts of the West greatly reduced
the land's productivity. How did the farmers respond
to this? What types of techniques?
 Knowledge of farming techniques improved during
this period as well.
 In the 1880s and 1890s, the United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA), which was created under the
1862 Morrill Land-Grant Act, collected statistics on
markets, crops, and plant diseases.
 What did the USDA provide information on?
Farming Becomes Big Business
 New farm machines and techniques increased farm
output enormously. Owners of large farms hoped to
reap a “bonanza” by supplying food to growing eastern
populations.
 What was the result of this idea? Was there problems?
Describe.
Section 4
 American farmers struggled against
 Nature and economy
 Ever since the end of the Civil War, farm production
had risen. So too had debt, as farmers borrowed
heavily to purchase the expensive new equipment that
made possible such increased productivity.
 Indebted farmers found themselves in an increasingly
dangerous, even hopeless, position, as competition
from abroad increased and crop prices went into a
prolonged decline
Farmers and Tariffs
 Tariffs on imported goods discourage people from
buying imports by making them more expensive.
 Tariffs encourage the sale of goods produced at home.
 Describe the division: Businesses.
 How did tariffs help and hurt farmers?
 Tariffs helped farmers by …
 Hurt farmers in two ways:……
The Money Issue
 The value of money is linked to the money supply,
the amount of money in the national economy.
 If the government increases the money supply, the
value of every dollar drops. This drop in value
shows up as inflation, a widespread rise in prices
on goods of all kinds.
 What happened to the nations money supply in the
years following the Civil War? What was the result?.
Gold Bugs and Silverites
 1873—the year of the worst economic panic in U.S.
history to that point—supporters of tight money won a
victory. Until that time, United States currency had
been on a bimetallic standard.
 What did congress do next? What did this move do?
 Who did this move upset and why?
Bland-Allison Act of 1878 and Sherman
Silver Purchase Act
 The Bland-Allison Act of 1878
 What as this act? What affect did it have and why?
 Congress passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
 While not authorizing the free and unlimited coinage of
silver that the silverites wanted, it increased the amount
of silver the government was required to purchase every
month.
 Describe what the law required of the Treasury.
Outcome?
Organizing Farmer Protests: The Grange
 Farmers lived far from one another and usually relied
on their own efforts, they tended not to organize
protests against policies they opposed.
 In the late 1800s, however, farmers took advantage of
improvements in communication and transportation
to form several powerful protest groups.
 How was the Grange founded?
 began helping farmers form cooperatives through which
they bought goods in large quantities at lower prices.
 What did this pressure state legislators to regulate?
Farmers Alliance and Government
Responses
 Although the Grange was popular (and still exists
today), eventually farmers formed other political
groups.
 Farmers Alliance
 Launched attacks on __________, such as those that
controlled the railroads.
 Held important role for _____________, who served as
officers and won support for women's political rights.
 Railroad regulations
 Interstate Commerce Act

What did this act do?
The Populists
 1890, the various small political parties associated with
the Farmers' Alliances began to enjoy success at the
ballot box, especially in the South.
 In 1891, the Alliances founded the People's Party, a new
national party that demanded radical changes in
federal economic and social policies.
 The Populists, as followers of the new party were
known, built their platform around what issues?