Remember: Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was
a law passed in order to facilitate the
relocation of American Indian tribes
living east of the Mississippi River in
the United States to lands further
west.
 The Removal Act, part of a U.S.
government policy known as Indian
Removal, was signed into law by
President Andrew Jackson on May 28,
1830.

Remember: Indian Removal Act
 The
Removal Act did not actually
order the removal of any Native
Americans.
 Rather, it authorized the
President to negotiate landexchange treaties with tribes
living within the boundaries of
existing U.S. states.
The Culture of the Plains Indians

Great Plains
– East: Osage & Iowa Tribes
 Small
villages, hunted, planted crops
– West: Sioux and Cheyenne Tribes
 Hunted

buffalo & gathered wild food
The Horse and Buffalo
– Horses increased mobility…led to war between
tribes
– Buffalo provided many basic needs and was
central to life on the Plains
Plains Indians: Culture

Family Life
–
–
–
–
Small extended family groups
Men trained to become hunters & warriors
Killing enemies brought prestige & honor
Believed powerful spirits controlled natural
events
– No individual was allowed to dominate
group in leadership role; leaders of a tribe
ruled by counsel rather than force
Settlers Push Westward


Native Americans did not believe people should
own land
Settlers believed that owning land, making a
mining claim, or starting a business would give
them stake in the country
Lure of Silver & Gold
Discovery of gold
in Colorado in 1858
 Mining camps
 Brought Irish,
German, Polish,
Chinese, and
African American
men

The Government Restricts
Native Americans
1834: fed gov’t passed an act = ENTIRE
Great Plains = 1 enormous reservation or
land set aside for Native American tribes.
 1850’s: policy changed and created
treaties that defined specific boundaries
for every tribe.
 Result: Many tribes continued to hunt on
their traditional lands, clashing with
settlers and miners-with tragic result

Gov’t Restricts Native
Americans Cont.

Death on the Bozeman Trail
– Bozeman Trail ran through Sioux hunting
grounds in the Bighorn Mountains.
– 1866: Crazy Horse ambushed Captain William
J. Fetterman and his company.
– 80+ soldiers killed
Results of the Deaths on the
Bozeman Trail
 Treaty
of Fort Laramie
– Sioux agreed to live on a reservation
along the Missouri River (forced on
Sioux)
 Sitting
Bull
– Leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux…never
signed treaty
– Treaty of Fort Laramie provided only
temporary halt to warfare
Bloody Battles Continue

Red River War
– 1874-1875
 U.S.
Army herded the people of friendly tribes onto
reservations while opening fire on all others

Custer’s Last Stand
– Conflict with Sioux & Cheyenne…Custer coming
to attack
– http://youtu.be/60yLVrhksWk
– Reached Little Bighorn River, Native Amer.
Warriors ready for them
– Within an hour, Custer & all his men-dead
The Gov’t Supports Assimilation
 Assimilation
= a plan under which
Native Americans would give up their
beliefs & their way of life to become
part of the white culture
 Dawes Act
– 1887; aimed to “Americanize” Native
Americans
– Broke up reservations & gave pieces of
land to individual Native Americans
The Gov’t Supports Assimilation
 By
1932, whites had taken about 2/3
of territory that had previously been
set aside for Native Americans
Cattle Become Big Business
 After
the Civil War, demand for beef
rose sharply in the growing
Eastern cities.
 Cowboys led thousands of animals
on the long drive to Kansas, which
took about three months.
End of the Open Range
 Herds
grew too large, and
overgrazing and bad weather struck
the Plains in the late 1880s.
 Ranchers began to use
barbed wire to fence in their land.
 The era of the open range and cattle
drives ended.
Chapter 5/Section 2
Settling on the Great Plains
Key Idea
The promise of
cheap, fertile land
draws settlers
westward seeking
Their fortunes as
farmers.
The Country gets smaller
Building the transcontinental railroad—
stretching from East to West—helped
promote settlement on the Plains.
 Irish and Chinese immigrants plus African
Americans and Mexican Americans did
much of the back-breaking work.
 In 1869, the two routes met in Utah,
completing the first transcontinental track.

Sooners
 The
railroads sold some of their land
at low prices to farmers.
 Homestead Act:
– 160 acres to head of household
 On
one day in 1889, 2 million acres
were claimed in Oklahoma.
 The government also wanted to
preserve some wilderness.
– Yellowstone National Park.



The new settlers had to endure many hardships.
– people built homes as dugouts in the sides of
hills or out of sod.
Homesteaders
– isolated and had to produce everything they
needed.
Women
– worked in the fields alongside men
– Taught children before schools
– Made clothes
– Doctored family and animals
– Dug wells and hauled water
Farmers Unite to Address Common
Problems:
 The
farmers were plagued by
weather and debt.
 Machines cost money, which they
had to borrow.
 When grain prices fell, they could
not repay their loans.
 They also resented how much
they had to pay railroads to ship
their crops.