The Western Crossroads
Section 1: War in the West
Indian Country
• Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851) – guaranteed
American Indians land rights on the Great Plains.
• Non-Indians moved West in search of gold and
farmland.
• Reservations – many Indians agreed to move onto
reservations with the guarantee that the
reservations would be theirs forever.
Continued
• Bureau of Indian
Affairs – was a
government agency
responsible for
managing issues
involving American
Indians.
Continued
• Those Native Americans who went
willingly to the reservation often learned
that the U.S. government did not honor its
treaties.
Government Policy Toward
American Indians
• Regarded Indian tribes
both as independent
nations and wards
• Negotiated treaties
with the Indians
• The government
frequently violated
treaties that they had
made with the Indians.
• Indian reservations
allowed the
government to force
tribes into scattered
locations, often with
land unfit for
agriculture.
• The most desirable
lands were retained for
white settlement.
Years of Struggle
• Arapaho, Cheyenne,
Comanche, and Sioux
refused to live on the
Reservations.
(A.) Sand Creek Massacre
• Cheyenne & Arapaho agreed to relocate to
reservations.
• They clashed with local militia throughout
the summer of 1864.
• Cheyenne, led by Black Kettle, were on
their way to surrender when they were
attacked by Colonel John M. Chivington
near Sand Creek.
continued
• 200 of Black Kettle’s
group died (mostly
women and children).
• Other tribes attacked
the white man more
often after Sand
Creek.
(B.) Battle of Little Big Horn
• 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie – violated by
the U.S. government.
• Gold was discovered in Black Hills (Sioux),
so the government tried to negotiate a new
treaty.
• The Lakota Sioux, led by Sitting Bull,
refused to sign another treaty.
continued
• Sitting Bull had a
vision.
• Then, several Native
Americans inspired by
his vision rode off to
fight the soldiers at
Rosebud.
• They did not achieve
an outright victory.
continued
• General George
Armstrong Custer and 200
members of the 7th
Calvary attacked the
Native Americans at Little
Big Horn.
• Custer and all of his men
were surrounded and
killed by the Sioux and
Cheyenne (Crazy Horse).
Kicking Bear’s painting of The Battle of Little Big Horn
(C.) The Ghost Dance
• A Religious movement led by Wovoka, a
Paiute.
• Many Sioux took to Wovoka’s message.
Continued
• “Ghost Shirts” – they
believed that the shirt’s
special symbols would
stop bullets.
• Sitting Bull was killed in
1890.
• Many of the Sioux joined
the Ghost Dancers farther
West after Sitting Bull’s
death.
(D.) Massacre at Wounded Knee
• The Army searched Big Foot, Sioux leader,
and his tribe for guns.
• 300 Sioux and 30 soldiers died.
• Last conflict on the Great Plains.
• Some declared that Custer’s death had been
avenged.
Big Foot laying in the snow dead after the
Massacre at Wounded Knee.
The End of Resistance
• Nez Perce and Chief
Joseph were suppose
to relocate to the
reservations in Idaho
when some Nez Perce
killed 11 white men.
• Nez Perce tried to
escape to Canada but
surrendered 30 miles
away.
Continued
• Geronimo led a group of Apache Indians
that raided settlements in New Mexico and
Arizona.
• The Apache were captured and then
escaped.
• Geronimo’s surrender marked the end of
armed resistance.
Geronimo leader of the Apache Indian Tribe.
Voices of Protest
• Indian Rights Association and the Women’s
National Indian Association – urged the
federal government to craft a more humane
Indian policy.
• Sarah Winnemucca – a Paiute reformer,
brought attention to the problems of Native
Americans.
continued
• Helen Hunt Jackson
wrote A Century of
Dishonor.
• Criticized the
government for years
of broken promises
and mistreatment.
Assimilating American Indians
• The U.S. government wanted to absorb
American Indians into “white America.”
• Establish American Indian schools or
Native Americans had to attend “boarding
schools.”
Dawes General Allotment Act
• Designed to accelerate the assimilation of
native Americans into white culture.
• 160 acres was allotted to the head of the
family for farming.
• Indians rejected farming
• Within 50 years, the Indians had lost their
land to the white man.
Western Farmers
Section 2
Economic Development of the
West
Land Acts
1. Homestead Act of 1862 – allowed settlers to buy
160 acres for a small fee if they occupied and
improved it for 5 years.
*land was once inhabited by the Creek and
Seminole in Oklahoma.
* most homesteaders abandoned their land
because of the bleak life on the Great Plains.
continued
2. Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 – provided that
federal land be used to finance land grant
agricultural colleges.
* Scientific and mechanical methods of farming
were taught and were responsible for the
development of the agricultural Midwest.
* granted more than 17 million acres of federal
land to the states.
continued
3. Pacific Railway Act – the purpose was to
promote the building of a railway to link the
East and West Coasts.
Moving West
• African American
settlers rushed into
Kansas during the socalled Kansas Fever
Exodus of 1879.
Western Environments and
Farming
Problems
• Scarce water
• Few trees
• Difficult growing
conditions
Solutions
• Irrigations systems,
wells, windmills, and
dry farming
• Buffalo chips for fuel
and sod houses
• New varieties of
wheat and new
farming equipment.
Sod House
Sod Houses were well-insulated, windproof, and fireproof.
Farm Life on the Plains
• Environmental
problems faced by
settlers on the Great
Plains included
extreme summer and
winter temperatures,
water shortages, fire,
and insects.
Storytellers of the Plains
• Willa Cather was a
writer who recorded
stories of life on the
Great Plains.
• O Pioneers!
• My Antionia
The Cattle Boom
Section 3
Ranching in the West
Texas Longhorn
• Hardy breed
• Travel long distances with
little water
• Survive on grass.
Sheep ranching was also
introduced and was widely
despised by cattle
ranchers. (Ruined the
pastures for cattle by
eating the roots of grass.)
The Cattle Industry
• Most cowboys were
Confederate veterans
of the Civil War.
• African American,
Mexican, and Mexican
American made up 1/3
of all cowboys.
Life on the Trail
• Cowboys would drive the
cattle to the railhead (town
located along the railroad
where cattle were sold and
shipped east).
• Cowboys faced few real
challenges.
• When they reached the
railhead, most spent their
money freely in saloons
and gambling halls.
Frontier Artists
Frederic Remington
• One of the most
influential frontier
artists.
• Painted scenes of the
American West.
Trailing Texas Cattle by Frederic Remington
Ranching
• The government allowed cattle ranchers to
use public land as open range, or free
grazing land.
• During the spring and fall, ranchers would
round-up the cattle to drive them to the
railhead.
Long Drive Trails
End of the Cattle Boom
• The cattle boom ended because there were
too many cattle and the open range declined
due to barbed wire.
• Other factors contributing to the end of the
cattle boom included a series of severe
winters, droughts, and blizzards.
The Mining Boom
Section 4
Western Mining
• Comstock Lode was
one of the world’s
richest silver veins,
located in Nevada’s
Carson River valley.
Northern Ventures
• William H. Seward,
U.S. Secretary of State
negotiated the
purchase of Alaska
from Russia in 1867.
• Gold discovery in the
region launched the
Klondike Gold Rush.
Mining in the Klondike Region
Life in Mining Communities
• The Western mining
camps often practiced
discrimination.
• New technology
changed mining by
creating deep-rock
mining shafts where
the conditions were
dangerous.
Continued
• Hard-rock mining – miners would sink deep shafts
into the earth to obtain ore locked in veins of rock.
• Mining unions encouraged Chinese miners to join.
• The era of the individual miner and prospector did
not last long because accessible mineral deposits
were soon “worked out.”
Mining Towns
Before Mining Families
• Towns were unstable
• Temporary residents
• Violence
• Vigilante communities
After Mining Families
• Towns were more
stable
• Permanent residents
• Law & order
• Established churches,
schools, and
newspapers
Mining Towns
Social Effects
• Ethnic diversity
• Intense economic
competition
• Violence
• New growth of
communities
Political Effects
• Formation of unions
by miners
Mining Towns
Economic Effects
• Establishment of
prosperous businesses
in mining towns
• Domination of large,
well-financed
companies in the
mines
Environmental Effects
• Damage to rivers and
flooding problems