The Conquest of the West • 1. Manifest Des-ny and Westward Expansion • 2. The Plains Indians Wars • 3. “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” John Gast, “American Progress” (1872) Manifest DesKny • Widely held belief throughout 19th century • It is the “manifest desKny” of the United States to expand to the West unKl it fills the conKnent • Religion connotaKon – this expansion is thought to be divinely mandated Causes of MigraKon • 1862 – Homestead Act – Congress allots 160 acres of federal land to qualified seXlers who agree to farm the land for five years • 1869 – compleKon of the transconKnental railroad eases movement to the West. A trip that had take 6-­‐8 weeks by wagon took 7 days by train. A gold prospector Comstock Lode (Nevada) “The Long Drive” (from Texas to Kansas) Barbed Wire • Invented 1874 • RevoluKonizes caXle business; allows large caXle ranches to enclose their land, driving small ranches out of business • Ends age of “Long Drive” The Conquest of the West • 1. Manifest DesKny and Westward Expansion • 2. The Plains Indians Wars • 3. “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” Images of plains Indians. Taken 1869-­‐1874, W.S. Soule DestrucKon of the Buffalo PLAINS INDIANS WARS • Circa 1865-­‐1880 • White American seXlement in Great Plains encroaches on Indian lands • White seXlers regularly break treaKes and invade reservaKon lands • Extended baXle for control of land and resources Sand Creek Massacre • November 1864 • Colorado miliKamen led by John Chivington open fire on peaceful encampment of Cheyenne Indians • Approximately 270 Indians are killed, many of them women and children LiXle Big Horn • June 1876 – George Armstrong Custer aXacks main encampment of Sioux warriors led by Sieng Bull and Crazy Horse • Custer’s men are soundly defeated • U.S. army retaliates and quickly shaXer Sioux residence Chief Joseph and the Nez Percé • 1877 – Chief Joseph leads followers on 1400 march to Canada rather than accept reservaKon land in Oklahoma • Fight several baXles along the way • US troops catch Nez Percé near border, relocate them The Ghost Dance Massacre at Wounded Knee • December 29, 1890 • US troops open fire on Lakota Sioux Ghost Dancers near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. • 250 Indians, many of them women and children, are killed The Conquest of the West • 1. Manifest DesKny and Westward Expansion • 2. The Plains Indians Wars • 3. “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” CivilizaKon and AssimilaKon • Reformers disgusted with violence of Plains Wars seek a new approach to Indian Affairs • Goal is to assimilate Indians to white paXerns of living (ojen called “civilizaKon”) • Hope to “kill the Indian” in order to “save the man” End of the treaty system • 1871, federal government changes its relaKon to Indian tribes. • Before 1871, tribes are considered sovereign naKons within the US and are governed by treaty • Ajer 1871, Indian policies will be determined by Congress and the President • Indians become wards of the naKon EducaKon • 1891, 1893 – Indian EducaKon Acts make boarding school aXendance compulsory for NaKve children • Carlisle School, Carlisle, PA • Goal is complete assimilaKon – eradicate tradiKonal naKve culture in favor of white “civilizaKon” Dawes Act (1887) • Named ajer MA Senator Henry Dawes (lej) • Dissolves tribal land into 160 acre plots distributed to family heads • White seXlers may purchase “excess” land • “CivilizaKon” and assimilaKon – force Indians to embrace white paXerns of landownership • 1881 – 155 million acres of land; 1900 – 77 million