The Great West and the Agricultural
Revolution 1865-1896
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Indians numbered 360,000 in
1860
Whites made problems
between the Indians worse,
disease, killed buffalo, took
their lands etc.
The reservation system started
in 1851 with the Fort Laramie
Treaty
It was extremely hard to
govern Indians, most didn’t
recognize any authority
outside of their family unless
they agreed with it
US fought Indians for decades
after the Civil War
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1/5th of cavalry in the West were
Buffalo Soldiers
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Sand Creek Massacre 1864
Colonel Chivington
400+ Indians were murdered
1866 Sioux stopped work and use of the Bozeman Trail—
Fetterman’s Massacre 81 US soldiers were killed
1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie US abandoned Bozeman Trail
1874 gold was discovered in Black Hills led to a gold rush and
Sioux went to war to protect their home, were led by Sitting
Bull and Crazy Horse
Custer and 7th Cavalry were sent in to stop the Sioux
264 men attacked 2500, Custer and his entire command were
killed
1877 Nez Perce under Chief Joseph surrendered and were
exiled to Kansas not Idaho like they were promised
Apache led by Geronimo went South to Mexico and were
eventually exiled to Florida
What allowed the taming of the Indians?
RR brought soldiers, cattle, and settlers
Disease, alcohol, buffalo exterminated
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Millions of bison roamed
the plains and offered
food, clothing and tools
for thousands of Indians
15 million still lived in
US after the Civil War
Buffalo Bill Cody was a
buffalo hunter for the
RR’s across the plains
Killed by the thousands
for their hides, tongues,
and amusement
By 1885 only 1,000 left
alive
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The awakening of America’s
conscience—Helen Hunt Jackson
A Century of Dishonor
Split in how to deal with the
Indians, assimilation or a forced
containment
Either way no room for their
culture, gov’t outlawed Ghost
Dance in 1884
Battle of Wounded Knee 1890
Killed 200 Indians and 29 soldiers
Dawes Severalty Act 1887
Dissolved tribes as legal entities
Wiped out tribal ownership of
land, set up individual families
with 160 acres, if Indians
“behaved” they got title to land
and American citizenship (1924)
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Land not distributed to Indians was sold to the
RR and white settlers
Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania
Designed to teach Indian children how to be
civilized away from their families
School motto: Kill the Indian save the man
Reasons for the Dawes Act
Tried to civilize Indians, get them away from
their tribes and make them rugged
individualists
Indian culture relied on the tribe holding land,
when it was taken the culture would fall
Lasted for the next 50 years until FDR
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RR and destruction of Indians
were boons to mining
In 1858 had Colorado
discoveries, 59ers or Pikes
Peakers
Nevada—Comstock Lode, 340
$ million in silver
Shifted from individual or small
groups to large corporations
Miners helped settle the West,
mines acted like magnets to
attract settlers
The ore helped finance the
Civil War
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Wild cattle on the
southern plains helped
spark the meat packing
industry
Long drives—cowboys drove
herds hundreds of miles
to the railheads to be
shipped to the cities
Barbwire ended the drive,
settlers moved into the
plains and fenced their
property
Over expansion,
overgrazing, winter of
1886-87, all helped to
kill the drive
There was a major shift
from long drives to
fencing ranches to stop
over production in order
to keep prices higher
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Homestead Act of 1862 granted 160 acres for living on it for
5 years, making improvements to the land, and a 30$ fee
Showed the shift in policy from the government making money off
the land to just wanting it settled
 500,000 families used it
 Full of fraud, large land corporations used fake names to
accumulate thousands of acres
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Prairie had very thick sod that once broken revealed
wonderful soil
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John Deere and steel plow
100th Meridian represented the area in the US that had
enough rainfall to produce crops using conventional
methods, once crossed it, West of it, wasn’t enough rain
Pushed dry farming, very shallow cultivation that helped lead to
the dust bowl
 New types of wheat and other crops in place of corn, and dams for
irrigation projects made agriculture possible in the arid west
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The frontier was
officially gone in 1890
Frederick Jackson
Turner, Frontier Thesis
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Safety valve theory
National parks to keep
wild places, Yellowstone
1872, 1890 Yosemite and
Sequoia
American History to 1900
can be seen as a struggle
to civilize the West,
every aspect including the
Civil War
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Farmers shifted from jacks of all
trades to focusing on a single cash
crop and all the problems that
comes with it
Became tied to the business world
around them, banks, RR,
manufacturing, etc.
Inventions helped and hurt them,
combine, mechanical reaper, steel
plow, steam engine tractors, etc.
Mechanization was too expensive
and forced some farmers off the
land
America became the bread basket
and butchers of the world
Bonanza farms—giant farms run
like corporations
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One crop leads to problems,
price fluctuations hurt farmers
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Why do farmers love inflation?
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Fall in prices in the 1880’s led to
deflation
Look at it as to how much they
have to pay back in farm
goods, how many bushels of
whatever did they borrow and
how many do they have to pay
back
New machines increased the
output, lowered prices more,
took out loans to buy the
machines which threw them in
debt even farther
Forced farmers into becoming
tenant farmers by 1880 1/4th
were tenant farmers
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Nature also hurt
farmers: drought,
severe winters, bugs,
etc
Doubly hurt by high
protective tariffs
Were at the mercy of
the trusts: RR,
barbwire, fertilizer,
etc.
Not easily organized
like the trusts were
too rugged
individualist—nature
of farmers
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Grange 1867 Oliver Kelley
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Started as a social movement
¾ of a million members by 1875
Goals included improving the farmers’ plight, escaping
the hold of the trusts, coops, etc
Also got involved in politics mostly on the local levels
Influence faded by 1880s when courts overruled their
laws, Wabash
Greenback Labor Party
Wanted inflation for farmers and other goals for labor
 1 million votes for president and 14 congressmen in
1870’s
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Farmers Alliance late 1870’s
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Populist goals
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Break grip of trusts
Excluded landless tenants and sharecroppers, blacks, and
farm hands
Led to the Populists
Nationalizing RR, telephone, and telegraph
Graduated income tax, direct election of senators,
unlimited coinage of silver, etc.
1892 Populists won several congressional seats and
had one million votes for their presidential
candidate—Weaver
Downfall of the Populists in the South was racism
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Depression of 1893 made the
Populists believe them and labor
could join together
Jacob S. Coxey marched in
protest of the plight of workers,
was the leader of thousands,
marched to Washington from
Ohio only to have his protest end
when he was arrested for walking
on the grass
Pullman Strike of 1894
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Eugene Debs organized the
American Railway Union and its
150,000 members against the
Pullman Car Company who cut
wages by 1/3
Federal troops broke up the strike
1st time injunctions were used, courts
could find the strikers in contempt of
court and arrest them without a trial
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Farmers and workers brought its issues to the election of
1896—ended the Gilded Age in American History
Republicans put up William McKinley with a platform that
straddled the fence on the money issue
Democrats turned to William Jennings Bryan and his Cross
of Gold speech with a platform for the unlimited coinage of
silver, and Bryan pushed silver as the main issue of the
election
McKinley bought the election with the largest election fun in
history (to date) 16 million dollars compared to 1 million for
Bryan
McKinley won 271-176 7.1 to 6.4 million popular votes
Split the country North vs. South and West
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Showed the split between city and urban dwellers
Last time a candidate tried to win using agrarian votes only
Ushered in another era dominated by Republicans and big
business, fewer voters from then on, weakened party organization
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McKinley gave business free reign and
trusts got stronger
Dingley Tariff Bill 1897 passed under Czar
Reed
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850 amendments before it passed
46.5% on most goods, much higher than the
Democrats Wilson Gorman Tariff of 1894
1897-1st year in office the depression
ended, not his fault but he got the credit
for it of course this made the money issues
moot
Gold Standard Act of 1900 people could
freely trade paper money for gold
Gold discoveries in Klondike, Alaska,
South Africa, and Australia brought gold
onto the world market along with cyanide
techniques to extract it more easily from
the ore