Vocabulary, Pgs. 434-442
Topic/Key Terms
The Societies of the Far West
 Caste System (Pg. 434)
Significance

Plains Indians (Pg. 434)
Most widespread Indian groups in West,
very diverse in cultures, conflicted with
themselves as well as settlers, with some
similarities in cultures, size, and social
structure. Later weaknesses of groups
(disunited, disease, inferior technology,
etc.) led to their decimation by whites.

Stephen Kearney (Pg. 435-436)
General who commanded American troops
in West during Mexican War, tried to
establish territorial government excluding
established Mexican ruling class,
widespread fears among Hispanics and
Indians that they would confiscate lands
led to the Taos Rebellion in 1847, killed
new governor and other whites.

Dispossession in Texas (Pg. 437)
Mexican landowners lost their land after
joining U.S. due to fraud, coercion, and
inability of Mexican ranchers to compete
with white ranching kingdoms, resulted in
armed raid on Brownsville jail (freed all
Mexican prisoners), but Mexicans status
still continued to decline.

“Coolies” (Pg. 437)
Indentured servants whose condition was
close to that of slavery, treated harshly by
higher power, included the many Chinese
immigrants who had crossed Pacific into
North American lands in hopes of bettering
their lives.
An system produced between Pueblos and
Spanish, top- Spanish or Mexicans (owned
largest estates, controlled trading centers),
middle- Pueblos (subordinate but largely
free), bottom- Indians (Apaches, Navajos,
etc.) captured in war and enslaved or left
tribes voluntarily (also known as
genizaros).

Completion of the Transcontinental
Railroad (Pg. 438)
Completed in 1869, led to the
unemployment of thousands o Chinese who
had worked on it as early as 1865, forced
them to find new jobs as well as moving to
cities and establishing new populations
there (“Chinatowns”).

“Tongs” (Pg. 439)
Organized secret Chinese societies,
sometimes violent organizations involved
in opium trade and prostitution, not that
well known by those outside of Chinese
communities, sometimes engaged in
violent conflict (“tong wars”), much like
later groups such as “mobs” and “gangs?”

Anti-Coolie Clubs (Pg. 439)
Groups of whites that had emerged in the
1860s and 1870s, greatly opposed Chinese
immigration, sought a ban on employing
Chinese, organized boycotts of Chinese
products, even attacked Chinese workers
and factories that accepted their labor.

Workingmen’s Party of California
(Pg. 439)
Created in 1878 by Denis Kearney (Irish
immigrant), gained political power through
hostility towards Chinese.

Henry George (Pg. 440)
Reformer and critic of capitalism and
champion of rights of labor, described
Chinese as products of a civilization that
had failed to progress, remained mired in
barbarism and savagery, and therefore
“unassimilable” and should be excluded,
influenced passing of Chinese Exclusion
Act (banned Chinese immigrants for 10
years, could not become naturalized
citizens)

Homestead Act (Pg. 440)
Passed in 1862, permitted settlers to buy
plots of 160 acres for small fee if they
occupied land they purchased for 5 years
and improved it, intended to be progressive
and encouraged Western settlement.

Government Assistance for
Westerners (Pg. 441)
Resulted from flaws of Homestead Act,
included:
-Timber Culture Act (1873)
permitted homesteaders to receive grants of
160 additional acres if they planted 40
acres of trees on them
-Desert Land Act (1877)
claimants could buy 640 acres at $1.25/acre
if they irrigated part of it for 3 years
-Timber and Stone Act (1878)
presumably applied to nonarable land, put
them up for sale at $2.50/acre
New laws allowed settlers to acquire much
land (up to 1,280 acres) for little cost, fraud
by some companies (Lumber, mining,
cattle, used fake applicants) allowed the
seizure of millions of acres
Comments/Connections/Questions:
 Pg. 434, Plains Indians’ Buffalo
This shows how many of these peoples used their resources very effectively, not wasting
it and trying to find a use for most of the products given. I am curious though; how did
they use “Buffalo chips” for fuel when cars hadn’t really been around yet
 Pg. 437, Chinese Migration
I remember a term I heard of referring to the Old West at this time (from show on History
Channel), called “Shanghai-ing”, in which an individual (often a white settler) would be
drugged and then kidnapped across the Pacific to Asia, where they would be put to work
like slaves
 Pg. 439, “Chinatowns”
I wonder if the “Chinatowns” back then in the West would be somewhat similar to those
we have all across the U.S. today? They both seem to be very similar, as large Chinese
communities within cities, and even have some cultural aspects like the festivals and
celebrations (Chinese New Year?)
 Pg. 440, Chinese Exclusion Act
This reminds me of a film, C.S.A.- The Confederate States of America (which details an
alternate history with the South winning the war through a Union defeat at Gettysburg),
and in it was a part that had Congress passing an act in response to the large surge of
Chinese immigration (in which all Chinese who had been working under companies in the
West were now enslaved),… relating to that, I wonder if this act parallels that, seeing as
how both somewhat involve the large amount of anti-Chinese sentiment that prevailed in
America at the time.