The Conquest of
the Far West
Chapter 16
The Conquest of the Far
West
• During the 19th century emigrants found the West
was not the “great American desert” (too arid for
cultivation), but a diverse environment full of
opportunity
• The West had a diverse population of Indians,
Hispanics, French, British Canadians, and Asians
• The West became part of the expansive eastern
capitalist economy
The Societies of the Far
West
• Before the great white American migration
following the Civil War, the West was home
to many tribes
o The Cherokee and Creek were forcibly moved to
present‐day Oklahoma
o The Pueblos of the Southwest were largely agricultural and
lived in permanent villages of adobe houses and irrigated
fields
o Their relationship with Spanish from Mexico included a
hierarchical system
o An Increase of whites upset this society
Plains Indians
• Plains Indians were diverse; some farmed
and others were nomadic hunters
• The powerful Sioux subsisted by hunting
buffalo & dominated Missouri River Valley
• They mounted the strongest opposition to
white settlement, but were unable to
overcame their greatest enemies
o Disease & Guns
Hispanic New Mexico
• American westward integration led to the erosion of
Spanish-speaking communal societies &
economies.
• The arrival of railroads in the Southwest brought new
ranching, farming, mining opportunities as well as
brought Mexican migrants.
• Most were limited by the Anglo-American arrival.
Hispanic California &
Texas
• Most Spanish missions employed Indians as slaves
until 1830s.
• White settlers expelled Hispanic californios from the
land.
• The demand for cattle allowed some rancheros to
continue to own land, but most Mexicans became
working class members.
• In Texas, Mexicans were also unable to compete
with enormous Anglo-American ranching kingdomsmost were relegated to unskilled farm & industrial
labor
Chinese Migration
• The Chinese came to California as the result
of mining opportunities offered by the Gold
Rush.
o The Chinese were industrious & hardworking,
which caused public opinion to turn against
them.
o As a result , a tax on foreign miners restricted their
activity in mining.
o The Chinese therefore took new opportunities
working on the Transcontinental Railroad.
o The Chinese comprised 90% of Central Pacific
Railroad labor
Chinese in California
Chinese in California
• The Transcontinental Railroad was ultimately
completed.
• Economic opportunity increased in the cities
resulting in the Chinese settling in “Chinatowns”
(largest in San Francisco)
o Discrimination forced Chinese into less desirable
occupations such as laundering clothes
o The presence of Chinese and meager economic success
fostered anti‐Chinese reactions
o The most extreme was Chinese Exclusion Act
o Passed by Congress in 1882 and made permanent in 1902
Migration from the East
• A Federal policy encouraged settlement of the
West called the Homestead Act (1862)
o It Provided 160 acres for those who stayed for 5 years and
improved the land
o The land proved too small to be economically viable
• Subsequent legislation provided more land to
homesteaders
o Ultimately an individual could acquire 1,280 acres at little
cost
o Settlement was rapid; By 1900 only 3 territories had not
gained statehood
The Changing Western
Economy
• Commercial enterprise such as mining, timbering,
ranching, and commercial farming forged strong
ties with the East
o Recruiting labor was a challenge and the nature of the
work was difficult
o Workers were mostly single men and faced competition
from Chinese, Filipinos, Mexicans, and Indians
o A Dual labor system developed with white workers
occupying more attractive jobs
Mining
• Mining was at the core of first economic boom
o Gold was discovered in California and Colorado’s Pike’s
Peak while Nevada’s Comstock Lode yielded silver
o Romance lay with gold and silver yet in the long run
resources such aluminum, lead, tin, quartz, and zinc were
more significant to the national economy
o Few miners ever found fortunes; Corporations replaced
individuals
• Lawlessness and disorder characterized western
communities
o Vigilante committees often formed when a lawless
situation became intolerable, but often they became part
of the problem)
Gold Prospectors
Cattle Ranching
• Cattle ranching followed patterns established by
Mexicans and Texans in the Southwest.
o The Open range was part of the vast public domain that
provided lands for unrestricted grazing
o Longhorn cattle, horses for cowboys, and cattle ranching
methods such as branding, roundups, and the long drives
all had Mexican roots.
o Ranchers drove herds over long trails like the Chisholm Trail
to Abilene to get to railroad centers
Texas Longhorns
Cowboys
• Although the image of cowboys is American, his
way of life was adopted directly from Spanish
ranchers in Mexico.
• A cowboy’s clothes, food, & vocabulary were
influenced by Mexican Vaqueros.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Vaqueros were the first to wear spurs
Chaparreras, or leather overalls, became chaps
Charqui, or “jerky” – dried strips of meat – were eaten
Bronco caballo, or rough horse, was a bronco
Mestenos, were mustangs prized by the American Cowboy
Rancho became the American Ranch
Rodeo was a term borrowed from the Spanish
Cattle Ranching Declines
• Increasing settlement & competition for the open
range grew from sheep ranchers and farmers who
fenced in the range (invention of barbed wire by
Joseph Glidden).
• Range wars erupted between these groups.
• The Cattle boom crashed in 1887 after two harsh
• winters and a dry summer
• The industry abandoned the open range and
grazed cattle on fixed ranches.
Women
• The biggest difference with their eastern
counterparts was that western women participated
in politics
o Wyoming was the first state to grant women the vote
• Throughout the West women were a political
presence & were also considered a moral
presence.
• They were also needed to swell the voter
population when applying for statehood.
The Romance of the West
• The West, free from the unnatural influence of
civilization has been highly romanticized in
American culture
• The Rocky Mountain School of painting followed in
the steps of the earlier Hudson River School by
portraying the majesty and awesome nature of the
landscape.
• This inspired tourism once the Native American
population had been contained on reservations
and the Transcontinental Railroad made travel
possible.
The Cowboy
• An example of individualism, morality, and
ingenuity, the Cowboy struck a positive vein in
American culture.
• This ideal differed from the low‐paid and rough life
cowboys actually lived, but popular Wild West
shows and novels made cowboys American heroes.
Literature
• Literature heralded the frontier as the last place one
could seek refuge from organized society.
• The 1893 census declared the frontier closed
• Historian Frederick Jackson Turner argued that the
frontier was the most important aspect of American
development.
• His “frontier thesis” claimed an era of American History
was over with the disappearance of the frontier
• Although generally accepted as valid, Turner’s
contentions were generally inaccurate (but did capture
the light in which Americans saw themselves)
The Dispersal of Tribes
• The federal government had searched since its
beginning for a policy to minimize conflict between
Indians and whites
• At the same time, they allowed whites access to
Indian land when it suited them (gold).
• Settlers increasingly encroached on tribal lands,
which led to conflict
• The concentration policy of 1851 attempted to
define lands for tribes in treaties
• This divided Indians and made them easier to
control, but eventually encouraged even more
conflict.
Troubled Relations with
Natives
• Cultural Preservation vs. Prosperity
• Manifest Destiny – the belief that the U.S.
Government & its people had the God
given right to own North America from coast
to coast.
• Self – Preservation – the Natives fought to
maintain their way of life as settlers poured
into their lands.
Reservation Policy
• In 1867, a new reservation policy was
adopted that created two large
reservations in Oklahoma and the Dakotas.
• Management of the reservations was left to
incompetent and dishonest agents from the
Bureau of Indian Affairs.
• Many tribes were tricked into accepting the
new policy
Reasons for Conflict
• Pioneer Settlement on the Great Plains
• Native resistance to the destruction of
their culture
• Broken treaties & promises
• Revenge on both sides
• Slaughter of the Buffalo
Slaughter of the Buffalo
• Devastating to Indian life and culture was the
slaughter of the buffalo herds
o Eastern demand for hides as souvenirs and symbols of the
West
o Migrants used buffalo for food, and factories used the
hides for machine belts
o Railroads slowed by herds on their tracks, encouraged
killing the buffalo
• The Bureau of Indian affairs saw this as a way to
weaken and control Indian tribes by eliminating
their main source of food and supplies
• From 1865 to 1875 the herd declined from 15 mil to
less than 1,000.
Conflict
• Elimination of the buffalo increasingly led to conflict,
especially when the US government committed more
troops to the West after theCivil War
o Colonel J.M. Chivington massacred Arapaho and
Cheyenne Indians at Sand Creek in Colorado
• Fighting continued throughout the 1870s where most
encounters eventually resulted in white victories
• In 1876, George A. Custer and his troops were
annihilated by 2,500 Indians at the Battle of Little Big
Horn.
• The Indians did not remain united for long, which was
one of their major weaknesses in the face of U.S. forces.
Conflict
• White settlers and troops were more vicious than
Indians
• Predicting the coming of a messiah, in 1890 a
Native American prophet led a spiritual revival
centered on a Ghost Dance
• When fighting broke out between Indians and
troops at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, troops
turned machine guns on the Indians and ended
Native American resistance.
Assimilation
• Just before Wounded Knee, a final blow came to
Indians with the passage of the Dawes Act of 1887.
• It provided for the elimination of tribal lands and
the transfer of 160‐acre lots to individual Indians,
with smaller allotments for each family member.
• A system of boarding schools was developed to
eradicate all evidence of Native American culture
and speed the acceptance by Native American
children
Carlisle Native American
School
The Western Farmer
• After mining and ranching, farming became the
dominant economic activity in the West, but after a time
farming also declined
• Railroads made western farming possible by bringing
settlers and taking their produce back to the east
• The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869
and the construction of branch lines improved access to
markets
• Railroads received government subsidies and loans
• In the 1870s above‐average rainfall encouraged
• farming
• The invention of barbed wire and methods of irrigation
spurred agricultural development.
The Western Farmer
• In the late 1880s, the weather shifted to long periods
of drought that destroyed crops and farm prices
began a long period of decline.
• Many debt‐ridden farmers abandoned their farms
• and moved back east
• Commercial farming began to rise in place of the
independent farmer who Specialized in cash crops
for national and international markets
• The boom in agricultural production was matched
around the world.
The Western Farmer
• Farmers had to rely on bank loans, railroad
companies, and prices set elsewhere
• In the 1880s, worldwide overproduction led
to lower prices and increased indebtedness
• Some commercial farms prospered, but the
agricultural economy on the whole
declined.
The Western Farmer
• There was a sense that eastern manufacturers
exploited farmers
• Farmers saw their social and economic position
decline relative to city dwellers
• Rural isolation and loneliness, inadequate
education for children, lack of cultural activities,
and the migration of farm children to the city all
combined to create agrarian malaise.
Legacy of the West
• The forces transforming the American West
after the Civil War were significantly different
than the romantic image of the West most
Americans embraced.
• The growth of the West was influenced by
same capitalistic forces that were driving
industrialization.