Chapter 26
The West and the
Agricultural
Revolution
Frontier Moving West

Very few people in
middle of west

Except Mormon,
trading camps,
gold mines and
Spanish Mexican
settlements
The Great West




Spanned 1,000 miles
Variety in landscape
Indian, buffalo,
desert, mountains
Carved into states by
1890

Pioneers carve up land
and subdue the Indians
Indians in Great West


360,000 lived in
Great West in
1860
March of whites
and progress lead
to confrontation

Destroy the
hunting ground of
Native Americans
Plains Indians


Become superb
rider and hunters
of buffalo
Turned into
nomadic hunters

Tried to separate
tribes by
boundaries
Whites set off
environmental cycle
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Spread disease
Kill off buffalo
-Tribes fought
over the scarce
hunting grounds
-Sioux displace
the Chippewas
-Crows being
moved by the
Sioux
-Pawnees
seek refuge on
Indian Territory
Fort Laramie and Fort
Atkinson (1851 & 1853)


Sign treaty with
chief of different
tribes
Beginning of
reservation system
Whites misunderstood
Indian organization


Indians did not
recognize any
outside their
families or elders
Did not
understand
nomadic Plains
Indians
Reservations



Sioux in Dakotas
Indian Territory of
Oklahoma
Indians promised
to be left alone and
given provisions


Often corrupt agents
Gave defective
provisions or sold
provisions on black
market
White Guilt



Disregarded treaty
promises
Seize Indian lands
Slaughter Indian
game

Sioux killed
Americans during
Civil Was only to be
caught and hung
1868-1890 Continuous War
between Whites and
Indians


Hundreds of
engagements
Many Civil War
veterans


•
•
4 black units
1/5 are black
Generals Sherman
and Custer in the
West
Indians usually
better horsemen and
better armed
Receding Native
Populations
Sand Creek Massacre


Col. Chivington
Massacres
unarmed Indians
1864 in Colorado
Indians react with cruelty

Sioux ambush
Captain William J.
Fetterman
-All killed and
mutilated
Treaty of Fort
Laramie (1868)

Great Sioux
reservation
guaranteed to
Sioux
Gold in Dakotas


Custer and his
army discover gold
Gold seekers rush
into Dakotas


Sioux retaliate
Sitting Bull
creates plan to
defeat Americans
Little Big Horn 1876



Colonel Custer
attacked at little
big horn
254 killed
Shocks the East
Nez Perce
Federal
government
wanted to take
90% of there land
when gold was
found in Idaho
 Chief Joseph finally
surrenders after a
1,700 mile trek
from army
 Sent to Kansas
“I will fight no more
forever”
Eventually allowed

Apaches



Led by Geronimo
Pursued into
Mexico by US
troops
Move women from
his reservation to
Florida from
Oklahoma
Indian subdued and moved
to reservations



•
•
•
Cheaper to feed
them the fight
them
Ignored for years
Factors that
tamed Indians
Railroad
Diseases
Extermination of
buffalo
Bellowing Herds of Bison
Buffalo in the Great West



Indians count on
Buffalo fir survival
15 million at close
of Civil War
Killed off by
railroad

Buffalo Bill kills
over 4,000 in 18
months for
railroad
Buffalo killed by the railroad




Hides were
valuable and
fashionable
Tongues or choice
cuts of meat
Many left to rot
1885 fewer than
1,000 buffalo
remain
End of the Trail
A Century of Dishonor 1881
-Helen Hunt Jackson



•
•
Records the
governments
dealings with the
Indians
Stirred American
moral sense
What should be
done?
Make them live
like the white race
Forced
containment and
Ghost Dance Movement



Secret Indian
movement that
promised revival of
the Indian
traditions and
revenge on the
white man
Outlawed
Ended with that
Battle of Wounded
Knee
Dawes Severalty Act 1887



Dissolve tribes and
Indian traditions
Give each Indian
family 160 acres
Get title to land
and citizenship if
stayed on land for
25 years



Land not used by
Indians would be
sold to railroad and
settlers
Proceeds go to
education of
Indians
Carlisle Indian
School (1879)


Teach the ways of
whites
“Kill the Indian and
save the man”
Effects of Dawes Act




Tried to make
farmers out of
Indians
Ignored Indian
culture
By 1900 Indians
had lost 90% of
their land
Remains until
Indian
Reorganization Act
of 1934
Mining:From Dishpan to Ore
Breaker
Miners swarm to West



Pikes Peak in 1858
59ers move to
Colorado
Comstock Load
Nevada 1859 $340
million mined
between 1860 and
1890
Montana, Idaho
and other western
states
Boomtowns



Saloons
Frontier justice
Cities vacated as
fast as they were
set up
Gold becomes big business


Takes expensive
machines to mine
for gold
Corporations
replace single
miner
Mines help subjugate West
•
•
Attracted
population and
wealth
Women moved
into the West
•
Some gained
voting rights
Mines help





Finance war
Build railroad
Inject silver issue to
politics
Wealth gives west
influence in
government
Added to American
folklore and literature
Beef Bonanza and the Long
Drive
The Long Drive



Heard of cattle driven
north to railroads
Herds graved on free
government land
Herds moved Abilene,
Dodge City, Ogallala,
and Cheyenne where
the railroads were
Wild Bill Hickock

Killed in 1876Marshall of Abilene
Profitable business




Had to avoid
Indian raids
Grazing was cheap
4 million cattle
moved between
1866 and 1888
Profits of 40%
Railroad hurts cattle
industry




Brought the
sheepherder and
homesteader
Barbed wire fences
close cattle routes
Bad weather
effects cattle
industry
Over expansions
and overgrazing
Cattle becomes big
business




Breeders learn to
fence there ranches
Better feeding and
stock
Bigger and meatier
animals
Organized and
influenced or
controlled state
legislator
Hey day of the cowboy


Many blacks found
freedom on the
range
Contributed to
American folklore
Free Land For Free Families
Homestead Act of 1862


Settles could get
up to 160 acres for
living on and
improving land for
5 years for $30
After 6 months for
$1.25 an acre




Encourages rapid
settlement of the
west
Provide stimulus
for family farm
“ The Backbone of
democracy”
Half a million
families took
advantage
5 times as many
purchased there
land from the
railroad
Homestead Act was a bust
for many


Poor farm land in
some areas
Many starved or
left
Fraud in Homestead Act



Promoters buy
land
Fake improving
the land
Deceit cost
government and
needy families
much of the land
Taming Western Deserts
Railroad and western
development


Profitable
marketing for
crops
Encourage
immigrant to buy
cheap government
land
Great American Desert

Myth of the desert

Land was tree
less and couldn’t
support heavy
crops
Iron plow
breaks sod
 Sodbusters
pour into
plains

100th Meridian


John Wesley
Powell said
agriculture beyond
this point was
impossible without
massive irraigation
Drought bust
farmers in Kansas,
Colorado and
Montana in 1880s
Dry farming



Help cultivate arid
west
Destroyed soil and
led to Dust Bowl
Wheat strands
from Russia and
other drought
resistant crops
grow easily
John F. Glidden

Perfected the barb
wire to fence the
plains
Irrigation



Federally financed
dams on Missouri,
Colorado and
Columbia Rivers
45 million acres
irrigated over 17
states
Helped more to
settle west than
many other things
The Far West Comes of Age
New states join The Union




Colorado in 1876
6 new states
1899-90
Utah in 1889
Population of West
growing rapidly
Oklahoma Territory



Opened in 1889
Land Rush on April
22, 1889
Sooners jump gun
to get good land
early
1890 the frontier was gone

Fredrick Jackson
Turner “The
Significance of the
Frontier on
American History”
1893
Many still moving west


Government still
owns land in West
that can be
homesteaded
Irrigation keeps
homesteading
alive
Protecting Natural
Resources

Yellowstone in
1872 and Yosemite
and Sequoia in
1890
The Folding Frontier
Safety Valve Theory


When hard times
hit the city you
could move west
and farm
Very few take
advantage

Didn’t know how to
farm or didn’t have
money to get
started



Free land does
move people West
Industry raised
wages to stop
labor from moving
West
City becomes real
safety valve for
failed farmers
West is Unique





Native Americans
made their fought
for the West
Anglo and
Southwest culture
clashed
Asian Americans
come to west coast
Environment
controls social and
political life
Federal
West become Part of the
American Myth


Writers
romanticize the
West
Painters capture
its growth
American experience tied to
West

Since Columbus
landed people
have been pushing
West across the
hemisphere