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Still untamed after Civil War (few Mormons & Mexicans)
As whites emerged: Indians fought with each other, died of white man diseases, hunted the few remaining buffalo left
Indians had become great; riders, hunters, fighters
The Fed. Government tried to pacify the Indians t/h treaties:
– FT. Laramie 1851
– FT. Atkinson 1853
– In the 1860’s U.S. Gov. tried to further its efforts by herding Indians into smaller reservations (Dakota
Territory)
– Indians were treated horrible, lied to, pawned off sometimes by their own, given poor aid by Fed. Gov.

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In frustration many tribes fought back this period which is know as the (Indian Wars
(1864-1890)
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After Civil War white soldiers needed a job
= went cleared Indians out of the west to make room for white people
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Indians proved very resourceful b/c arrows could fire more rapidly than a gun
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BUT . . . The colt .45 revolver (6 shooter)
& Winchester changed this
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Generals Sherman, Sheridan, & Custer
Battled Indians

NATIVE POPULATION DECLINES
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Violence Reigned Supreme in Indian White Relations
– Sand Creek, CO 1864 – Colonel J.M. Chivington’s militia massacred 400 Indians cold blood (Idiot)
– 1866 – Sioux war party ambushed Captain William J.
Fetterman’s command of 81 left no survivors
– One of few Native victories
– Custer finds Gold in Black Hills Mts.(sacred Sioux Land) =
Lots of people come and the Sioux retaliate by crushing
Custer in the Battle of Little Big Horn
– Reinforcements arrive and hunt down all the natives, but
Sitting Bull escapes
– Most difficult of Natives to subdue were the Apache tribes of Arizona & New Mexico led by Geronimo = were pushed to Mexico and became successful farmers

INDIANS WERE CONQUERED THROUGH
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

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At the start tens of millions existed
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After Civil War still 15 million existed
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Railroad is what really started killing them off
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Men killed them for their skin, meat, tongues, most WHITE man would just take one part and leave the rest to rot
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By 1885 fewer than 1,000 buffalo remained
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Mainly left in Yellowstone National Park

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1880’s sympathy for Indians emerged w/ help from Helen
Hunt Jackson’s book A Century of Dishonor, & novel
Ramona
Humanitarians wanted to help them, but no one cared about helping them keep their culture of heritage
Missionaries often forced Indians to convert
1884 urged the Govt. to outlaw the sacred Sun Dance
Battle of Wounded Knee the “Ghost Dance” white soldiers brutally murdered and killed women & children to stop this dance
That battle marked the end to the Indian Wars
By this time most Indians were on reservations or DEAD

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Dawes legal Severalty Act of 1887
– dissolved the legal entities of all tribes
– Became farmers on reservations
– Full U.S. citizenship in 25 yrs (full citizenship was reached in 1924) = Foreigners could become citizens much faster (?)
– Reservation land not allotted for Indians sold to railroads
 1879 Carlisle Indian School – Opened in PA, helped children become white by COMPLETELY erasing their culture
 By 1900 Indians had lost half the land they had held on to for the last 20 yrs
 1934 Indian Reorganization Act – helped Indian population grow again

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As Eastern Cities boomed = need for food increased
Cattle could be shipped to the stockyards by trains “Beef Barons” Examples; Swifts & Amours
Meat packing Industry sprang up
– DODGE CITY = Wyatt Earp
Maintained Order
– ABILENE = Marshal James Hickok
Railroads made cattle herding prosper
Barbed Wire invented = Samuel Gilden
Legends of the cowboys were made here at this time

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Homestead Act 1862 = Families received up to 160 acres of land in return for
– living on it for 5 yrs, improving it, paying a fee of $30.00
– Led ½ a million families to settle out west
BUT . . . . Most families had to give up that land before the 5 yrs was up do to:
 Droughts
 Bad land
 Lack of necessities
 Fraud also happened (land grabbing promoters)

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Northern Pacific railroad helped dev. the agricultural west
Due to higher wheat prices (due to crop failure) abound the world more people pushed further West
Past the 100 th meridian (20inch per yr rainfall line) made it hard to grow crops
So, to counteract the lack of water (& 6yr drought in the
1880’s) = Dry Farming which means using shallow cultivation methods to plant & farm BUT sadly this method is going to contribute to the “DUST Bowl” several decades later
A Russian species of wheat was brought in
Huge financed irrigation projects caused the American
Dessert to bloom and the Damning of the Columbia &
Missouri Rivers helped water the land as well

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New states; Colorado, N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Montana,
Washington, Idaho, Wyoming were admitted
Utah 1896 = b/c they had to get rid of polygamy
(Bummer)
By the 20 th century only OK, NM, AZ were (territories)
U.S. Gov made land available in Ok & many “Sooners” jumped illegally over the border & had to be removed
1889 Ok legally opened up and 18 yrs later in 1907 becomes the Sooner State
Fredrick Jackson Turner was inspired to write his Thesis about the closing of the frontier which stated (America needed a Frontier)
Concern arose that land was not infinite and inspired
– Yellowstone 1872
– Yosemite & Sequoia 1890

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In the 1880’s world markets rebounded, produced more crops, & forced prices down = American
Farmers were the ones that suffered
Paying back debt was difficult (not enough money to go around) Less money in circulation was called
“Contraction”
Farmers operated yr after yr on losses but many of homesteads fell to mortgages & foreclosures
Farmers fall in the 1880’s was similar to the South 7 its “King Cotton” during the Civil War
Also during this time droughts, grasshopper plagues, and heat waves made working farmers miserable
City, State, & Fed. Gov. ripped them off by making them pay painful taxes (which they could not afford)

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The Railroads (by fixing freight prices) the middlemen (by taking huge cuts in profits) various harvesters, barbed wire, & fertilizer trusts all harassed farmers
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By 1890 ½ of the U.S. population consisted of farmers but were unorganized

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Wanted to help improve:

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Farmers Alliance – Founded in 1870’s formed to overthrow chains from Banks & Railroads
– BUT . . . Didn’t work so well for some WHY. . . . .
 Only people who owned their own land
 Ignored Tenant farmers
 Excluded blacks
Its: goals were to:
 Nationalization of railroads
 Abolition of national banks
 Graduated income tax
 New federal sub treasury for farmers

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The populists were led by: Ignatius
Donnelly from Minnesota & Mary Elizabeth
Lease helped fight against banks / railroads
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The coming decade these individuals along with their followers would help form a political party called the
………………………..

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Panic 1893 – Fueled the Populists party many fled to WA
D.C. to protest change
They wanted:
– Relieving Unemployment
– 500 million dollars in legal tender notes
*** Well this didn’t work out so well and they were arrested for walking on the grass …………… really!!
Pullman strike – Location Chicago / led by Eugene
Debs
– Organized strike a/g Pullman Palace Car Company
– Due to depression they had cut wages by 1/3 (very unhappy workers
– U.S. Attorney general broke up the strike (interfered with
U.S. mail and (Debs spent 6 months in jail) Debs turned into the leading Socialist in America

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1896 McKinley was leading Republic candidate, former Civil
War Major
Platform was for the Gold/silver standard he personally was not for it
William Jennings Bryan – Democrat nominee :Cross of Gold
Speech” Favored free silver
– Platform called for: unlimited coinage of silver with the ratio of 16 silver ounces worth 1 ounce of GOLD
– This caused the democrats to split so who won ……………
MCKINLEY by a good amount of votes
– This election pitted the privilege a/g the underprivileged
& resulted in a victory for big business and big cities
– SO 1896 elections can basically be called the Gold vs
Silver election America was clearly going with GOLD