AP U.S. History Chapter 26 "The
Great West and the Agricultural
Revolution
By: Shelbey Patterson
Indians Battle the West
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After the seize of the Civil War, very few Mormons
and Mexicans resided in the west
The Sioux became displaced by the Chippewas from
their ancestral lands at the Mississippi headwaters
in the late 1700s which led to the expansion at the
expenses of the Crows, Kiowas, and Pawnees
The Indians had became skilled riders and fighters
after the Spanish had introduced them to the horse.
American Indian Tribes
Indians Battle the West Cont.
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The federal government tried to please the Indians
by inscribing a series of treaties at Fort Laramie in
1851 and Fort Atkinson in 1853.
The United States had failed to comprehend that
“tribes” and “chiefs” didn't exist in Indian culture,
and in many instances Native Americans had failed
to recognize any authority outside of their individual
families.
Indians Battle the West Part 3
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The period of 1868-1890 was known as the Indian
Wars.
The majority of the time, the Indians were better
equipped than the federal troops.
General Custer, Sheridan, and Sherman all
participated in battles with the Indians.
Diminishing Native Population
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Colonel J.M. Chivington's militia gruesomely kills 400 hundred
Indians in cold blood in Sand Creek, CO. These Indians
thought they had been promised peace and would not be
harmed.
In 1866, Captain William J. Fetterman and his 81 soldiers and
civilians were ambushed by a Sioux War party. ( Fetterman
and his men were constructing the Bozeman Trail to the
Montana goldfields at the time of the ambush which resulted
in no survivors.
This massacre was one of the few victories for the Indians
leading to another inscribing of a treaty at Fort Laramie two
years into the future.
Diminishing Indian Population
Cont.
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In 1874, Colonel Custer finds gold in the Black Hills of South
Dakota which lead to the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn.
The arriving reinforcements harshly hunted the Indians who
had attacked including their leader, Sitting Bull who had
escaped.
After the shrinking of Indian reservations by 90%, the Nez
Perce Indians revolt against gold seekers.
Following a long anguish battle, Chief Joseph surrenders after a
long walk across the Continental Divide towards Canada.
Diminishing Native Population
Part 3
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The most difficult Indian tribe to capture was the Apache
tribes of Arizona and New Mexico who was led by
Geronimo.
The Apache finally surrendered after being pushed into
Mexico later becoming successful farmers.
The Indians were easily tamed due to the railroad, which
had shot through the West like a speeding bullet, the
white man's diseases, and the slaying of buffalo.
Herd of Bison
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Many slayed buffalo for their meat, skins, and tongues leaving the
rest to deteriorate
By 1885, less than 1,000 buffalo were left leaving the species in
danger of becoming distinct, mostly in Yellowstone National Part,
and Canada.
End of the Trail
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In the 1880's sympathy for Indians began to materialize which was
helped a long by novels written by Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of
Dishonor and Ramona.
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Humanitarian longed to help Indians “walk the White Mans Road”
while others want to kill the Indians. The Indian traditional heritage
and culture was completely ignored.
White missionaries would often force Indians to convert then in 1884
they helped urge the government to outlaw the sacred Sun Dance.
During the Battle of Wounded Knee, the “Ghost Dance” was brutally
charged out by U.S. Troops, who murdered children and women as
well.
End of the Trail Cont.
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The 1887 Dawes Severalty Act dissolved the legal entities of all
tribes.
If Indians behaved according to white standards would receive full
United States citizenship in 25 years. (1924 full citizenship was given
to all Indians)
Reservation land that was not allotted to Indians under the act was
sole to the railroads.
Mining:From Dishpan to Ore
Breaker
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In the late 1840s gold was discovered in California, and in 1858 gold was
founded in Pike's Peak in CO.
In 1859, the Comstock Lode in NV was founded and an impressive amount
of gold and silver was mined and worth more than $340 million.
The minute “lucky strikes” also attracted money-hungry people to Montana,
Idaho, and other western states, and the anarchy seemed to have power but
in end what was left was usually a ghost town .
After the surface of gold was discovered, ore-breaking machinery was
introduced to break the gold-bearing quartz which was an expensive
process.
In the new lands women found new rights and began to gain suffrage in
Wyoming(1869), Utah ( 1870),Colorado(1893), and Idaho(1896).
Mining Visual
Beef Bonanzas and Long Drive
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The new transcontinental railroads should the problem of marketing meat to the
public market; cattle could now be shipped to the stockyards, and under “beef
barons” like the Swifts and Armours.
The meat-packaging industry skyrocketed.
The Long Drive became a spectacular feeder for the slaughterhouses as Texas
cowboys herded cattle across empty land to railroad terminals.
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Dodge City, Abilene, Ogallala, and Cheyenne became the popular stops.
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Marshal James B. Hickock gave order in Abilene.
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The new railroads made the cattle herding business boom but also destroyed it, the
railroads also transported sheepherders and homesteaders who built fences that
were too numerous to cut through by cowboys.
The 1886-1887 winter blizzard left cattle starved and frozen
Breeders learned how to fence and and maintain their ranches ( Wyoming StockGrowers' Association.)
The legend of cowboys were made here at this time but were soon easily forgotten.
Long Drive & Beef Bonanza
Free Land for Free Family
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The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed people to obtain as much as
160 acres of land in return for living on the land for 5 years,
improving it, and paying the nominal fee of $30.00 or allowing the
person to obtain the land after only 6 months of residency and
paying $1.25/acre.
Previously the U.S. Government was selling land for revenue but now
the chain had turned and the government was giving the land away.
160 acres of land was often not enough space in the west
Fraud was frequent because much of the landed ended up being
owned by land promoters.
Free Land for Free Families
Taming the Western Desert
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The railroads such as the Northern Pacific helped develop the
agricultural West a place by which was extremely fertile.
Due to an increase in wheat prices resulting from crop failure, many
pushed west passed the 100th meridian to grow wheat.
John Wesley Powell warned that due to little rain fall successful
farming could only be attained by massive irrigation.
To overcome the lack of water resources farmers turned to dry
farming which used shallow cultivation methods to plant and farm.
Over time this method created fine surface soil that contributed to
the “Dust Bowl” several decades later.
Western Deserts
Far West Comes of Age
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The Great West experienced a population boom , as many moved onto the frontier.
New states such as CO, ND, SD, Montana, WA, and Wyoming were admitted into the
Union.
In 1896 Utah was allowed into Union and by the 20th century only OK, NM, and Arizona
remained as territories.
In Oklahoma, the U.S. Government made available land that had formerly belonged to
Indians, and thousands of “sooners” hopped the boundary line illegally went to OK
often forcing troops to remove them.
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April 22, 1889 OK was legally open and 18 years later became a sooner state.
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In 1890 the U.S. Census announced that a frontier was no longer discernible.
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The shut down of the frontier inspired the Turner Thesis, which had stated that
American needed a frontier.
Folding Frontier
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The frontier became a state of mind and symbol of opportunity.
The “Safety Valve Theory” stated the frontier was like a safety valve for
people who, when it became too crowded in their area, could just pack up
and leave to move West.
Very few city-dwellers left the cities for the west, since they were unaware
of how to farm.
Still, free acreage did intrigue a majority of immigrant farmers to the West.
It appeared that the cities, not the West, had been the safety valve, as
busted farmers and fortune seekers mad Chicago and San Francisco into
large cities.
Over hundreds of years, Americans had expanded west, and it was in the
trans-Mississippi west that the Indians made their last stand,where Anglo
culture joined Hispanic culture, and also where America faced Asia.
Folding Frontier
The Farm Becomes A Factory
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Farmers began to increasingly produce single “cash” crops, since they
could now focus their efforts , make profits, and buy manufactured goods
via mail order, such as the Aaron Montgomery Ward catalog (first sent in
1872)
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Large-scale farmers tried banking, railroading, and manufacturing, but new
inventions in farming such as the steam engine, seeder, harrow, twine
binder, and combined reaper-thresher sped up harvesting and lowered the
number of individuals needed to farm.
Farmers were inclined to blame the banks and railroads for their losses
rather than their own shortcomings.
The mechanization of agriculture led to enormous farms such as the farms
in Minnesota-North Dakota area and the Central Valley of California.
California vegetables and fruits were raised by non profit Mexican workers
made wholesome profits when sold to the East.
Deflation Dooms Debtor
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In the 1880s, when the world markets flourished, produced more
crops, and forced a decrease in prices, the farmers in America
suffered.
The one crop agriculture had the same effect that cotton had earlier
in the century.
The Unsatisfied Farmers
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In the late 1880s and early 1890s, droughts, grasshopper
plagues, and heat waves made the toiling farmers miserable
and poor.
The city, state, and federal governments added to this by
gouging the farmers, snookering them by forcing them to pay
high taxes when their profits were running dry.
The railroad, middlemen, and the various harvester, barbed
wire, and fertilizer trusts all intimidated the farmers.
In 1890, ½ of the U.S. population had still consisted of farmers
but they were extremely disorganized.
Farmers Take Stand
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In the Greenback Movement after the Civil War, agrarian unrest flared forth
as well.
In 1867, the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, also referred to
as The Grange, was founded by Oliver H. Kelley to improve the lives of the
farmers who were isolated through social, educational, and fraternal
activities.
Eventually, it spread to gather over 800,000 members in 1875, and the
Grange changed its goals to include the improvement upon the collective
plight of the farmer.
The Grangers found the most success in the upper Mississippi Valley, and
eventually managed to get Congress to pass a set of regulations known as
the Granger Laws, but thereafter, their influences began to fade.
The Greenback Labor Party had also attracted farmers and in 1878, the
Greenback Laborites polled over one million votes and elected 14 members
of Congress.
In 1880, the Greenbackers ran General James B. Weaver, a Civil War
general, but he had only polled 3% of the popular vote.
Greenback Visual
Prelude to Populism
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Ignatius Donnelly led the populists from
Minnesota and Mary Elizabeth Lease, both
of whom spoke kindly and attacked those
that harmed the farmers.
The Alliance was still not to be pushed to
the side, and in the upcoming decade, they
would combine into a new People's Party
to launch a new attack on the northeastern
citadels of power.
Prelude to Populism Visual
You Tell Me....
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What did the U.S. fail to understand when signing the
treaties at Fort Laramie(1852) and Fort Atkinson(1853)?
Which three Generals battled the Indians during the
Indian Wars?
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What was one of the few Indian victories?
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What group of Indians revolted? Why?
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Where did the land go that was not allotted to Indians?
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What did the Turner Thesis state?
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Why was the Grange founded?