Chapter 18: Conquest and Survival: The Trans-Mississippi West
Summary:
The trans-Mississippi West was rapidly changing. There were major settlements that were
beginning in the west in the 1800s. Mines, cities, farms, ranches, and communities were forming and
replacing the original ones due to these settlements. In 1890, an announcement from the Census
Bureau was made that established the point that due to the increase in settlement there is no frontier
line.
Industry and Agricultural products were expanding soon to be met by the mineral resources.
The West was captured to be a place where your dreams of being rich would come true. People soon
found out that the jobs of the West had some negatives to the positives. The Civil War took a toll on the
West providing drawbacks to the western life through violence.
Not only was culture brought to the West but politics, social, commercial capitalism, and legal
systems were carried over by many Americans. However, local representatives were not white settlers.
White settlers remained as distant representatives, which upset them. Whether it was the government
or isolation, these settlers were enraged. They felt used for their labor and in return were given nothing
or little to nothing in their eyes. This was just one of the conflicts that arose in the West. Many acts and
treaties were established to try to make a compromise mainly with the Native American tribes. Conflict
with the Indians did not end well in their case.
Important People:
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Mormons- members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Native Americans/Indians occupied in the West (Hopis, Zunis, Sioux, Commanches, Pawnees,
Cherokees, Suquamish, Apaches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Shoshones, Bannocks)
President Andrew Jackson
Isaac Stevens- governor of Washington Territory
Quakers- radical religious group
President Ulysses S. Grant
John Evans- territorial governor
Colorado Volunteers- went into the Cheyenne campgrounds and destroyed them
Chief Black Kettle- chief of the Cheyenne tribe
Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong- organized a surveying expedition
Colonel Custer- was defeated by Indians
Nez Perce- indian tribe named by the French speaking fur traders
Chief Joseph- chief of the Nez Perce
Henry Comstock- Founder of The Comstock Lode of silver
Foreign immigrants- came for jobs and gold
Juan Nepomuceno Cortina- Red Robber of the Rio Grande
Las Gorras Blancas- band of agrarian rebels
Porfirio Diaz- president of Mexico ; 1876- 1911
President Grover Cleveland- established forest reserves
President Benjamin Harrison- added 21 million acres and more
Theodore Roosevelt- promoted the western view
Key Terms & Words..
 Sand Creek Massacre- The near annihilation in 1864 of Black Kettle’s Cheyenne band by
Colorado troops under Colonel John Chivington’s orders to “kill and scalp all, big and little.”
 Treaty of Fort Laramie- The treaty acknowledging U.S. defeat in the Great Sioux War in 1868
and supposedly guaranteeing the Sioux perpetual land and hunting rights in South Dakota,
Wyoming, and Montana
 Caminetti Act- 1893 act giving the state the power to regulate the mines
 Edmunds Act- 1882 act that effectively disfranchised those who believed in or practiced
polygamy and threatened them with fines and imprisonment
 Edmunds-Tucker Act- 1887 act which destroyed the temporal power of the Mormon Church by
confiscating all assets over $50,000 and establishing a federal commission to oversee all
elections in the Utah territory
 Hispanic-American Alliance- Organization formed to protect and fight for the rights of Spanish
Americans
 Lynching- Execution, usually by a mob, without trial
 Homestead Act of 1862- 1862 act which granted a quarter section (160 acres) of the public
domain free to any settler who lived on the land for at least five years and improved it
 Morrill Act of 1862- Act by which “land-grant” colleges acquired space for campuses in return
for promising to institute agricultural programs
 Timber Culture Act- 1873 act which allotted homesteaders an additional 160 acres of land in
return for planting and cultivating 40 acres of trees
 National Reclamation Act- 1902 act which added 1 million acres of irrigated land to the United
States
 General Land Revision Act- Act which gave the president the power to establish forest reserves
to protect watersheds against the threats posed by lumbering, overgrazing, and forest fires
 Forest Management Act- 1897 act which, along with the National Reclamation Act, set the
federal government on the path of large-scale regulatory activities
 Omaha Act of 1882- Act which allowed the establishment of individual title to tribal lands
 Dawes Severalty Act- An 1887 law terminating tribal ownership of land and allotting some
parcels of land to individual Indians with the remainder opened for white settlement
Key Places & Countries: All Western states, Britian, and Europe played key roles in this chapter with the
settlements and expansion due to job opportunities:
 Utah
 Washington
 New Mexico
 Dakota
 Colorado
 Nevada
 Arizona
 Idaho
 Montana
 Wyoming
 California
 Oregon
 Europe
 Britain
Timeline:
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1803- Lewis and Clark expedition saved from starvation
1830- U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act that removed Eastern tribes
1848- Gold was found in CA beginning the Gold Rush
1850- CA became a state
1853- The Gadsden Purchase; gave the U.S. land with copper deposits
1854- Northern half of the Indian Territory was abolished to expand white settlement
1859- OR became a state
1859- Henry Comstock discovered The Comstock Lode of silver in Nevada
1859- Cortina’s War in South Texas
1863- Nez Perce ceded 6 million acres at less than 10 cent per acre
1864-Congress passed the Yosemite Act; cliffs and sequoias under the management of CA
1865-67- Great Sioux War
1866- Texas cattle drive begins
1867-Alaska was purchased which expanded the nation
1867- Medicine Lodge Treaty reservations for specific groups of Indians were assigned
1870s- “range of wars” that resulted in violent consequences
1872- Yellowstone named as the first national park
1873- U.S. Congress passed the Timber Culture Act; 160 acres allotted to homesteaders
1874- Apache bands returned to their old ways
1874-surveying expedition was organized for the Black Hills
1874-75- Kiowas and the Commanches joined forces with the Apaches
1876- Warriors were moved into war camps
1876- Custer and his troops were defeated
1877- Sioux leadership ended
1885-87- summer droughts and winter blizzards
1887- Hatch Act provided stations for research such as agriculture
1887- Dawes Severalty Act; removed tribal ownership of land
1891- General Land Revision Act; president was able to create forest reserves
1892- western Federation of Miners was formed
1897- Forest Management Act; gov’t on the path of large-scale regulatory activities
1902- National Reclamation Act; 1 million acres added to the U.S.