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Before Civil War, many had ventured west
California was a popular destination because of the Gold Rush in the late
1840s
Thousands of newcomers had flocked to
California
After Civil War many more moved westward: farmers, land speculators, railroad men, and laborers

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Obstacle for settlers: Native Americans
Americans’ quest for personal property proved disastrous for the Indians
Picture, p.499
Americans
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Stripped the land of trees
Slaughtered buffalo for hides, burrowed into mountains looking for minerals, and dug up the soil in the Plains to build sod houses
They did so with the help of the military, railroad builders, and land laws

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Native Americans’ traditional way of life was doomed
By 1890s, almost every Indian nation of the Great Plains had been relocated to often inferior, inadequate lands
Map, p. 494

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2 Cultural Groups
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Nomadic or semi-nomadic -- depended on hunting and gathering; hunted buffalo for food, hides, & sinew for bows; Shoshone,
Apache, Cheyenne, Dakota,& Crow
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Settled -- depended on farming and gardening; Zuni, Hopi, Navajo, & Pawnee
Almost all had a highly formalized culture and religions that regarded their relationship with nature as sacred

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We have this quote from Chief Seattle of the Suquamish Tribe in Washington
Territory, 1854
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“This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself

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There was usually the sexual division of labor
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Men hunted, fished, fought in wars, and held powerful positions
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Women raised children and crops; oftentimes family descent was traced through the mother
– matrilineal descent
Women could also play important roles in the political, religious, social, & economic affairs of the tribe

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Americans made treaties with Native
Americans but often broke them
Indians were pushed onto smaller and smaller reservations as more Americans got possession of their land
Between 1850 and 1877, a policy of concentrating Indians on reservations accelerated
Map, p. 494

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Indians found their hunting grounds gone and the buffalo herds destroyed
They then were forced to become more dependent on the federal government for the basics of life
However, they didn’t go quietly; they tried to defend their lands that often ended in massacre for them
P. 494,495

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Examples:
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August, 1864 – Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux attacked settlements in Kansas. The army, in turn, raided a sleeping Cheyenne village killing
100+ warriors, 800 horses, and capturing 53 women and children
This was an effort by the U.S. army to convince the Indians to confine themselves to the reservations

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1870a - Kiowa, Comanche, & Cheyenne raided Adobe Walls, a trading post in
Texas, setting off the Red River War; they were put down fiercely by the army
Most were massacres for the Indians with one exception: Battle of Little Big Horn or
Custer’s Last Stand in June, 1876
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Custer and 200 men faced 1500 – 5000
Indians led by Sitting Bull
Custer and his entire force were wiped out

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There were some Americans who felt massacres were not the answer
1879 – Richard H. Pratt founded the
Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania
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It attempted to teach Indians white American ways, so they could succeed in American society
In doing that, they destroyed the Indians culture and traditions
Picture, p. 498

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Helen Hunt Jackson wrote in her book, A
Century of Dishonor (1881), about the
U.S. government’s record of broken treaties
She helped arouse the support of those looking for another answer to the “Indian
Problem”, as it was called
Humanitarians helped change the Indian policy with the passage of The Dawes-
Severalty Act, 1887

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Severalty means to treat Indians as individuals, not as members of a tribe or nation
This Act:
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Reversed the reservation policy
Dissolved community-owned tribal lands
Granted land allotments to individual families
Government would retain ownership of land for
25 years to keep Indians from selling land to speculators
Granted citizenship to all who accepted land

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3 Main Features
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Indians would become “more civilized” by learning how to manage their own property
Indians would lose their “barbaric” habits more quickly if their children were sent away to boarding schools
Bureau of Indian Affairs tried to suppress traditional Indian religious ceremonies and funded white church groups to set up religious schools to help Indians become good
Christians

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These policies were for the Native
Americans, but they had no say in the policy
The policy was ineffective
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Land allotments were rarely carried out
Most native children in boarding schools ran away
Whites continued to use violence against
Native Americans
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Example: Wounded Knee

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In 1880s Sioux were experiencing more government restrictions
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Meat rations were reduced
Cattle were dying
Sioux turned to the popular prophet, Wovoka, who promised to restore them to their original dominance on the plains if they did the Ghost
Dance
They did and it helped reaffirm their own culture

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1890 the Ghost Dance reached the Dakota
Territory
Sioux who practiced it gathered at Chief
Sitting Bull’s cabin
This movement Ghost Dance Movement scared the white policemen who tried to arrest Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull’s bodyguard shot a policeman who ,in turn, shot Sitting Bull

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This led to an outbreak of violence at
Wounded Knee:
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200 Native Americans including 7 babies and many women were killed within minute
As a result, Indians had to once again abandon their traditions
They lived in poverty where alcoholism and unemployment were growing problems

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The West was won at the expense of the
Native Americans
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1900 - 250,000 Native Americans in U.S.
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1800 - 600,000 Native Americans in the U.S.
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1492 - 5 million+ lived in the area that became the U.S.

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1870 -1900 - Whites, Africans,
Hispanics, and Asians settled 430 million acres west of the Mississippi
They went for adventure, religious freedom (Mormons), opportunities in farming, mining, ranching, and other jobs
Individuals, whole families, and sometimes an entire town would pick up and move west

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Beginning in 1849 many wished to go to
California or Oregon for the gold
1849 – 1880, a half a million made their way west
They walked, rode a horse, or were part of a wagon train
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Wagon trains left the Missouri River area in the spring hoping to reach their destinations before snow fell

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It was a hard journey, and many died along the way
You could find your way along the Oregon
Trail by following the grave markers
As railroads pushed further west, they began to replace wagon trains
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10 May 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad from the west connected with the Union Pacific
Railroad from the east to form the nation’s 1 st transcontinental railroad

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The 2 systems met at Promontory Point in
Utah and a golden spike was hammered into the ground
Many moved west to get government land
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1862 – 1890, the government tried to attract settlers to the midwest and west with the passage of the Homestead Act

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The government gave away 48 million acres under this act
Government sold 100 million acres to private citizens and corporations
It granted 128 million acres to the railroads

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160 acres were given to anyone who:
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Paid the $10 registration fee
Promised to live on the land for 5 years
Promised to cultivate and improve the land
Europeans from England, Ireland, Germany,
Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and
Czechoslovakia came to America looking for land
Americans in nearby states also claimed land under the Homestead Act

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By 1900, 600,000 families claimed land under this act
However, only 1 acre in 9 went to settlers
The rest went to land speculators
Not all settlers stayed because life proved too difficult for them

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Timber Culture Act of 1873 – allowed settlers to claim an additional 160 acres if they planted trees on a quarter of it
Timber and Stone Act of 1878 – applied to lands unfit for cultivation; valuable only for its timber and stone
Anyone in California, Nevada, Oregon, and
Washington could buy 160 acres for $2.50 per acre

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Speculators always found loopholes, so they could get more land for less money
Water could be hard to come by; however, using irrigation, dams, and canals often solved the problem
Railroads benefited the most from government land policies, and they became the largest landholders

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To attract settlers to land near railroads, railroad companies
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Offered long-term loans and free transportation to new territories
Advertised in the U.S. and in foreign countries
Millions of Americans and 2.2 million immigrants moved westward
Picture, p. 503

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Scarcities of essentials
Little lumber for housing and for fuel
Water was scarce
Climate was unpredictable
Insects were plentiful
Social isolation
New farm equipment helped increase crop yields: grain binders, threshers, seeders, combines, mowers, and rotary plows

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As per railroad advice, farmers grew a cash crop and then shipped it to market on the train
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Farmers could make lots of money if demand was high
They could also lose if there was a glut of a certain crop

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1889 – 1906: Oklahoma land , not already settled, was sold in lotteries or auctions
Reservation land was being broken up by the Dawes Act
This was known as the Oklahoma Land
Rush

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It was a tough, dirty, lonely, and boring life
Some only did it for 2 years and moved on to something else
They were of different races and nationalities: 1/5 were black or Mexican who found freedom on the trail
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Nat Love was the son of Tennessee slaves who became a chief brander
Cowboys were also glorified in Buffalo Bill Cody’s
Wild West Show

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Indian removal and railroad construction cleared the way for Cattle Ranching
They practiced open-range ranching
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Ranchers would buy a few acres bordering a water source
Then they would turn their herds loose on adjacent public lands that no one wanted to own because of lack of water
Ranchers could then control thousands of acres while only owning a hundred or so

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Demand for beef grew so herds grew
Ranchers felt prairie grasses would run out if fencing did not occur
This closed off the open range
Farmers began using barbed wire fences to keep cattle away from their crops; this started range wars
Farmers won

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Grover Cleveland in 1885 tried to observe the law by removing cattle from the
Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation
This pushed 200,000 more cattle on already overgrazed land
Bad winters and drought killed almost
90% of the cattle in some areas

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Many went west for the California Gold
Rush of 1849
There were hopes of getting rich quick in gold, silver, or quartz
Others went west to provide services: food, clothing, laundry
Mining towns were established and labor was unionized
Foreign miners were not welcome in
California

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A foreign miners’ tax was passed; they had to pay a $20 licensing fee
There were riots against Chinese laborers in different places in the west
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Some felt the Chinese were taking jobs away from white Americans during recession times
Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in
1882 that closed off Chinese immigration for
10 years

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The mining boom was over by the 1890s
It was miners that helped populate
Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, and
Oregon and bring them into the Union
These miners also poured billions of dollars into the American economy
The Frontier was declared closed by 1900