Bellwork
4/16/2012
Write 2 things you see in the picture.
What do you think this is a picture of?
Pupils at Carlisle Indian school, Pennsylvania. Established in 1879 by
Richard Pratt, the school attempted to assimilate Indian children into the
"white man's world" through education and financial support. Among its
students were four of Comanche chief Quanah Parker's children and those
of others involved in the Red River Wars
Rath & Wright's buffalo hide yard, showing 40,000 buffalo hides baled for
shipment. Dodge City, Kansas, 1878.
Land Runs of
oklahoma
WHY MOVE WESTWARD?
Country—growth and pride
Land—fresh, cheap; a refuge
Wealth—mining and agriculture
Adventure—new challenges; leave
the past behind
Religious freedom
B. The Government Passes
Legislation to grant land
1. Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 & 1864 gave railroad
companies 10 square miles
of land on each side of the
track for every mile of track laid >> they resold the
land to settlers
2. Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)
distributed millions of acres of land to state governments>> they could sell
the land to
found “land-grant” colleges
3. Homestead Act (1862)
offered 160 acres of land to
settlers who
www.nps.gov/home/images/wagon.gif
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act/images/homesteading-family.gif
memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/images/0520sodd.gif
b.
were citizens or
citizenship
c.
paid a $10 registration
immigrants who had
applied for
fee
d. built a house within six months
e.
farmed the land for 5
ownership
years before claiming
4. Oklahoma Act of 1889
opened the last of the frontier to new settlers; the
“Sooners” sneaked into the territory before the
official start and claimed
the best land
The starting line for the first Oklahoma Land
Rush, April 22, 1889.
Base camp before the 1889 land run. Boomers at Arkansas City, Kansas, 1889.
Photographer: William S. Prettyman.
http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/research/images/r_a_cunn_imag_lr89_1913_lg.jpg
Boomers on Kansas state line, April 19th, 1889.
Photographer: William S. Prettyman.
Waiting for land run at Purcell, Oklahoma Territory, 1889.
Photographer: William S. Prettyman.
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/4e7ae/cf968/
Oklahoma City - April 29, 1889
Seven Days After the Land Run of 1889
©2002 Oklahoma State Senate Historical Preservation Fund, Inc. and Wayne Cooper
C. People Who Moved West
1. Speculators: people who
bought large areas of
land in hopes of reselling it for a profit
2. Homesteaders: people who
offers of
free land
rushed to accept
3. Exodusters: AfricanAmerican settlers who moved
west; took their
name from the biblical
account
of the Jews escaping slavery in Egypt
4. Solid Folk: people who
settled down if they
liked it
or returned east if they didn’t
This poster urges Exodusters to move from Kentucky to Kansas.
Kansas State Historical Society
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/030203/our_ot.hist6.shtml
Exodusters waiting for a steamboat to carry them westward in the late 1870's.
5. Boomers: people who kept relocating from town to
town looking for a quick fortune, but seldom staying
long enough to make a living
D. Problems Facing Settlers
1. The extremely poor couldn’t
afford the “free” land
2. Land companies claimed
individuals
most of the land, not
3. Resettlement of the Native
Americans
4. The “Anglos” (white easterners) overwhelmed the
Mexicanos (Spanish-speaking westerners) who lived in the area
5. Scarce resources (water, trees, etc.)
6. Harsh climate (blizzards in
prairie fires, insects)
winter, heat in summer,
7. Squatters moved onto land that did not belong to
them
FARMING THE WEST
A. Overcoming Problems
1. Irrigation systems used
water flow
dams, canals and sloping fields to control
2. Windmills drew water from
below ground
3. Settlers burned dried buffalo
sod
manure and built houses of
4. The government created the
to help the farmer
Department of Agriculture
B. New Farming Techniques
1. New equipment: “self-binding”
chilled- iron plow (James Oliver),
2. Barbed wire
harvester, combine,
seed-drill
3. Bonanza farms: farms owned
operated like factories with
managers and specialized
by large companies and
machinery, professional
laborers
4. Dry farming: planting crops that require less
water and keeping fields free of weeds
Aerial view of bonanza farm in the late 1800’s to early 1900s.
C. Complaints of the Farmers
1. Low agricultural prices – increased output, competition
2. Insufficient and expensive credit – high interest rates,
defaults on loans
3. High rates charged by
middlemen
4. High industrial prices –
machinery, etc.
5. Tariffs favored industry and
hurt agriculture
6. Demonetizing of silver (no more minted coins made from
silver)
2. Farmers’ Alliance: organized
to unify concerns of
farmers
with miners and factory
workers
3. The Populist Party
a. farmers and labor
political party
unions formed a new
1) free and unlimited coinage of silver
RAILROADS & MINING
A. A Rush for Gold.
1. People had been looking for
in
California
gold since the ’49 rush
2. Discovery of silver in Nevada
led to more strikes
(the Comstock Lode)
3. By the late 1800s people flocked to the West, Canada,
and Alaska
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h270/kule1/479px-California_Gold_Rush_handbill.jpg
C. “Boom to Bust”
GOLD OR SILVER STRIKE
Miners arrive to build a tent city
Merchants arrive to supply miners
Wood-frame structures replace tents
BOOM TOWN
Mining production falls
Miners move on
Stores close and merchants leave
Town is abandoned
GHOST TOWN
E. Railroaders
1. The federal government helped the railroad companies because it
would benefit the
entire nation; a subsidy is financial aid from
the
government
2. Two railroad companies
railroad
started a transcontinental
Transcontinental Railroad
Central Pacific
Promontory Point, UT 1869
Union Pacific
3. the completion of the railroad
in
sparked a spirit of unity
the country
4. The railroads allowed for rapid
people and supplies
transport of
5. New states admitted (NV, CO,
WA)
ND, MT,
F. Problems with the railroad
1. labor was scarce >> dangerous, low pay, hard work
2. high rates because of no
competition
3. discrimination regarding rates >> rebates to large shippers,
rural service high
4. corruption >> bribery, free
passes to government
officials
RANCHERS & COWHANDS
A. Ranching in the West
1. Spaniards raised Texas
longhorns in the Southwest
2. Sheepherding also profitable,
but conflicted with cattle
3. The government allowed cattle
as open range (free grazing
ranchers to use public lands
land)
B. The Cattle Industry
1. Ranchers employed cowhands to tend cattle and drive
herds to market
2. A cowboy’s skills and dress
Mexican vaqueros
came from Spanish and
3. The cattle drives followed specific routes
leading to
railheads, where the cattle were
loaded onto railroad cars
4. The railheads became cow towns -- cities
that concentrated on the cattle industry
C. End of the Cattle Kingdom
1. Surplus of cattle
2. Fencing limited availability of open land
3. Severe weather
INDIANS IN THE WEST
A. The Plains Indians
1. A wide variety of tribes
inhabited the Great Plains
2. Many tribes followed the
land as they moved
migration of the buffalo, living
3. Societies were highly
to men and women
structured with specific jobs
off the
assigned
4. The US government acquired
land from the Indians through
numerous
treaties—the Indians
were to receive money and supplies; the Bureau of Indian
Affairs managed Indian issues
5. Treaties were periodically broken, new ones made, and then
broken again