The Transformation of the Trans-Mississippi
West
1860-1900
Introduction

1. How and why did Native Americans life on the Great
Plains change between 1850’s and 1900?
2. What roles did the army and the railroads play in the
settlement of the West?
3. How did Anglo-Americans displace Spanish-speaking
people in the Southwest?
4. How did the Wild West image of cowboys and Indians
originate?
5. Why did some Americans wish to conserve the natural
resources and beauty of the West, and how did this
lead to creating the national parks?
Native Americans and the
Trans-Mississippi West

The Plains Indians (mid-1800s)
 Northern Great Plains
 the Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, and other Native
American tribes roamed
 In the central and southern Plains
 The Five Civilized Tribes, Comanches, Kiowas, Pawnees, and others
lived
 Plains Indians
 Lakota Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne
 Hunted and migrated buffalo herds
 They ate the meat and used the hides for tepees and clothing
The Plains Indians (mid-1800’s)

 In the 1860’s, the demand for buffalo hides in the eastern
markets grew so great that white hunters, sometimes
aided by the Indians, became professional buffalo killers
 “Buffalo Bill” Cody
 1867-1868
 Killed over 4,000 animals to feed the crews building the first
transcontinental railroad
 By the 1880s, hunting had reduced the once huge
herds to only a few thousand animals and doomed the
nomadic, buffalo-centered way of life of the Plains
tribes
The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life

By the time of the Civil War, the govt. was
pressuring Plains tribes to surrender their vast
hunting grounds
 Settle as farmers on restricted reservations
Some tribes accepted the change peacefully
 Pueblos, Crows
The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life

From 1860’s and 1890 there was almost constant
warfare
 100,000 Native Americans
 Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche
 Over the possession of the Great Plains and the
Southwest
Many atrocities occurred
 Chivington Sand Creek massacre
 Nov. 29, 1864
 In CO
 About 200 Cheyennes were murdered
The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life

In 1867-1868 the govt. signed peace treaties with
many of these tribes
 Assigned most of them to 2 large reservations
 One in present-day OK (then known as the Indian
Territory)
 The other in present-day South Dakota (the Great
Sioux Reserve)
The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life

Many of the tribes rejected a sedentary
farming way of life
Left the reservations
The army retaliated by attacking any bands
off their reservations
Even if those groups did not happen to be the
ones that had committed hostile acts
The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life

 After the Red River war in the 1870s, the southern Plain
tribes gave up
 By 1886, when Geronimo surrendered, the southwestern
tribes also surrendered
Custer’s Last Stand, 1876

The Sioux refused to report to the govt.-run
agencies on their reservations
They also refused to sell the Black Hills part of
their reserve
 the army made war against them
 The most famous casualties in that campaign were Colonel
George A. Custer and his Seventh Cavalry
 The Sioux annihilated at the battle of the Little Bighorn in
1876
 Custer's Last Stand summary
Custer’s Last Stand, 1876
 Despite their brief
triumph, the Sioux were
subsequently forced to
settle near the govt.
agencies and to surrender
the Black Hills
 In the late 1870’s, the
army crushed brief
resistance by Chief
Joseph’s Nez Perce and
Chief Dull Knife’s northern
Cheyennes
“Saving” the Indians

Humanitarian reformers in the East began to cry
out against govt. mistreatment of the Indians
A Century of Dishonor
 1881
 Helen Hunt Jackson
 Called attention to the sorry record of the govt.
 A Century of Dishonor
“Saving” the Indians

 These reformers thought the best way to end the
injustice was to assimilate Indians quickly into
mainstream white society
 Dawes Severalty Act
 1887
 Ended collective tribal ownership of land
 Split the reservation into 160-acre farms
 Assigned to the head of each Indian family
 Any remaining reservation land was sold to whites
 At the end of 25 years, the Indians were to receive full title to
their farms and U.S. citizenship
“Saving” the Indians

Dawes Act
 Was supported by well-intentioned reformers and
whites that only wanted the Indian land
The govt. also attempted to suppress tribal
languages and culture
The new policies proved disastrous for most
Indians
By 1934, the total acreage owned by Indians had
fallen by 65%
 What was left was too dry or infertile to be farmed
The Ghost Dance and the End of Indian
Resistance on the Great Plains, 1890

Desperate because of their plight, the Sioux and
other tribes turned to the Ghost Dance
movement
Ghost Dance songs
The army’s decision to stop the Ghost Dance
movement led:
 to the death of Sitting Bull
 The last battles between whites and Indians
 The 1890 Wounded Knee massacre of 300 Sioux
The Ghost Dance and the End of Indian
Resistance on the Great Plains, 1890

By 1900, most of the remaining 100,000 Plains
Indians lived in poverty on their reservations
 Dependent on govt. support to survive
The Navajo of the Southwest adjusted more
readily to reservation life
 By 1900 had increased their land and livestock holding
Settling the West

The First Transcontinental Railroad
 May 1869
 Promontory Point, UT
 The meeting of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific
 Construction had been authorized by the Pacific
Railroad Act of 1862
 Much of the labor was performed by Chinese and Irish
immigrants along with Mexican-Americans and
African-Americans
 Summary of transcontinental railroad
Settling the West

The railroads emerged as the biggest landlords in
the West
 Because the govt. granted land to the companies for
every mile of track laid
By the end of the 1800’s, 9 major railroads linked
the country
Made westward travel and shipping much faster
and easier
Settlers and the Railroad

To encourage railroad companies to lay track
across the country, state and federal govts.
granted them millions of acres of land
Eager both to sell these lands and create future
customers for rail service
 The companies made all-out efforts to attract settlers




They opened land bureaus
Sent agents to the East Coast and Europe
Offered easy credit
Offered free transportation out west to potential purchasers
Settlers and the Railroad

1870-1900
Railroads helped to recruit whole families,
single women, over 2 million European
immigrants to farm the Trans-Mississippi West
The railroads wielded great economic and
social influence over western development
Settlers and the Railroad

Their pressure for quick payment from land
buyers pushed western farmers into
concentrating on producing a single cash
crop
Wheat or corn
Made them very vulnerable to price
fluctuations on the world market
Homesteading on the
Great Plains

Homestead Act
 1862
 Helped to drawn settlers to the Great Plains
 Provided free 160-acre farm to anyone who would live
on and improve it over a 5-year period
 Especially attractive to immigrants from western and
northern Europe
 Distributed 80 million acres of land to 400,000 families
by 1900
Homesteading on the
Great Plains (cont.)

The most valuable western land ended up in the
hands of railroads, land speculators, lumber
companies, and big ranchers
Homesteading pioneers on the Great Plains had
to cope with major trials:
 Isolation
 Backbreaking work
 Extreme weather conditions
 Living in sod houses due to the lack of trees for lumber
Homesteading on the Great Plains
Many gave up and left their farms
Those who persisted for 10 years or more,
generally lived comfortable lives
New Farms, New Markets

Railroads, improved farm machinery, and
mounting eastern demand for food, all led to the
development of millions of new farms
Also there was a soaring American agricultural
production between 1870-1900
Starting a new farm on the Great Plains was a
risky business
 Most settlers had to go into debt to acquire horses,
machinery, and seed
New Farms, New Markets

To meet debt payments to railroads and banks,
farmers specialized in growing cash crops
 Made them vulnerable to world market conditions
 Also dependent on the railroads to reach the markets
Uncertain rainfall and severe weather conditions
added to the farmers’ problems
Building a Society and
Achieving Statehood

 Out of crude frontier settlements, “civilized”
communities began to develop
 Churches and Sunday schools were usually the earliest
institutions to emerge
 Residents drew up state constitutions
 In 1860’s and 1870’s the following states entered the
Union:
 KS, NV, NE, CO
 Most of the northern portions of the Great Plains
achieved statehood in the late 1880’s and 1890’s
Building a Society and
Achieving Statehood

Early 20th-century OK, AZ, and NM entered the
Union
 The trans-Mississippi West completed its transition
from frontier territories to states
Most western govts. were conservative
But they did grant women’s suffrage
 By 1910, ID, WY, UT, and CO had given women full
voting rights
The Spread of Mormonism

 Persecuted in the East, the Mormons migrated to the
Great Salt Lake Valley
 Led by Brigham Young
 Began in 1847
 They declared their territory the independent
country of Deseret
 Attracted many converts from the East and Europe
 Created church-directed govt.
 Practice polygyny
The Spread of Mormonism

In the 1860’s, the federal govt. began outlawing their
practices
In the 1870’s, the federal govt. won backing for
repressive and coercive measures from the federal
courts
Under pressure, in 1890, the Mormons renounced
polygyny and church involvement in govt.
 Applied for statehood
UT as admitted to the Union in 1896
Southwestern Borderlands

After the Mexican War, American ranchers and
settlers in the Southwest took over the territorial
govts.
 Forced most of the Spanish-speaking population off
the land
The Mexican minority tended to become lowpaid day laborers
 Faced discrimination and periodic violent attacks
Southwestern Borderlands

Mexican-Americans fought back by organizing
groups such as Las Gorras Blancas (the White
Caps)
 They had little success
The Hispanic struggle for justice and equality
would continue throughout the 20th century
Exploiting the Western
Landscape

The Mining Frontier
Mining booms in the West
1849=CA Gold Rush
Gold Rush summary
1850’s=Sierra, NV and British Columbia
New gold and silver strikes followed in NV, CO,
ID, MT, WY, SD, AK
The Mining Frontier (cont.)
The Mining Frontier

Each new discovery brought a rush of eager
prospectors who believed in the get-rich-quick
myth of the West
Infamous boomtowns such as Virginia City, NV
sprang up
Virginia City, NV pictures
Most quickly declined into ghost towns when the
mines were depleted
 Legends of American--Ghost towns
The Mining Frontier

A few individual prospectors with picks, shovels,
and strainers made a fortune
 Most barely earned a living though
The real profits went to large mining companies
backed by European and eastern capital
 Had the expensive equipment necessary to mine the
gold and silver deposits deep underground
The Mining Frontier (cont.)

These mining companies did stimulate the
U.S. economy
They also ravaged the landscape and filled
the surrounding area with smoke and
chemicals
Cowboys and the Cattle Frontier

Open range cattle industry was successful:
 Confinement of the Plains Indians on reservations
 Extension of the railroad into KS
 Construction of new stockyards at railheads
 Abilene, KS
Railroad promoters enticed thousands of people
to enter the business by predicting great profits
 For a time open-range ranchers did make fortunes
 Ordinary cowboys did not make a profit
 Tended the cattle on the long drives to the railheads
Cowboys and the Cattle Frontier

Most cowboys were poorly paid young men
About 1/5 were black or Mexican
Peak between 1880-1885
The industry declined rapidly
 Overgrazing
 Fencing of the open range by farmers
 Freezing winters of 1885 and 1886
 Killed 90% of the steers in some regions
Cowboys and the Cattle Frontier
 The open range and great cattle drives disappeared
 Cattle ranching still continues today
The Cattle Towns and Prostitutes

 The open-range cattle industry produced legendary
cattle towns
 Abilene, KS
 Dodge City, KS
 Cozad, NE
 These towns were generally less lawless and violent
than they have been portrayed in novels, films, and
TV
 Did have many saloons and prostitutes
 Prostitutes came from many different class and ethnic
backgrounds
Bonanza Farms

Speculators Believed that enormous profits
could be made in large-scale wheat
growing
the late 1870’s and the 1880’s
established ten-thousand-acre farms
invested heavily in the latest equipment
Bonanza Farm in ND

Bonanza Farms

 For a while these bonanza farms did reap handsome profits
 In 1890 many enterprises went into bankruptcy:
 Overproduction
 Poor weather conditions
 Falling wheat prices
 Large-scale farming did best in CA
 Big growers irrigated their land
 Cooperatively marketed their citrus fruit under the “Sunkist”
trademark
The Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889

The federal govt. initially set aside OK as a
reservation for various Native American tribes
Pressure form land-hungry farmers mounted
The govt. reconsidered
In 1889, Congress opened some 2 million acres in
the hear of the Indian Territory to white settlers
 Within weeks, OK pioneers filed 6,000 homestead
claims
The Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889

In the following years, under the provisions
of the Dawes Act, more and more OK land
passed into the hands of whites
Curtis Act
Congress passed in 1889
Proclaimed the end of the Indian Territory
Curtis Act--OK Historical Society
The West of Life and Legend
The American Adam and
the Dime-Novel Hero
 Writers in the middle of the
19th century often
presented the West as a
place to escape from the
corruptions of civilization
 Huckleberry Finn by Mark
Twain
 1885
 Description of life along the
Mississippi River
The American Adam and the
Dime-Novel Hero

In the 1860’s and 1870’s, eastern dime-novel
writers created the western novel
Frontiersman hero who fights Indians and “bad
guys” for right and justice
“Buffalo Bill”
 Character made famous by Ned Buntline
 Modeled after William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody
 Cashed in on the fame by founding a Wild West touring show that
became extremely popular
“Buffalo Bill” Cody

Revitalizing the Frontier Legend

The dime novels and Wild West shows caught the
fancy of 3 young members of the eastern elite:
Theodore Roosevelt
Frederic Remington
Owen Wister
They visited the West and made it the subject of
their histories, art, and novels
Revitalizing the Frontier Legend

They fostered the frontier legend of the West:
as a testing ground in which the fittest and best
survived
As the home of the cowboy
 who embodied the essence of manly virtue
Beginning a National Parks
Movement
The frontier legend provoked some public
interest in protecting the West’s natural beauty
and wonders
John Wesley Powell, Henry D. Washburn, George
Perkins Marsh, John Muir
The nation created its first national parks
Yellowstone and Yosemite
Beginning a National Parks
Movement
Sierra Club
First organization
dedicated to
conservation
Muir was first
president
Sierra Club website
Conclusion

As Americans struggled to adjust to the disruptive
changes brought by industrialization and
urbanization
They embraced the myth of the West as a
paradise
 Life was simple, moral right and wrong were clear-cut,
and opportunity abounded
That myth was created by popular writers,
journalists, artists, railroad publicists, and
politicians
Conclusion

The myth ignored the darker elements of westward
expansion:
 The use of the army to destroy the way of life of the Native
Americans and force them onto reservations
 The heedless exploitation of the environment
 The fact that the individual prospectors, ranchers, and
homesteaders were increasingly overtaken by big easternfinanced companies in mining, ranching, and agribusiness
Conclusion

It was also true that the creation of new western
settlements:
 enhanced the image of the United States as a land of
opportunities
 Fostered certain democratic ideas
 Extending the vote to women
 Gave birth to the conservation movement
The development of the vast western resources made
the nation one of the world’s richest powers by 1900