Review Western Expansion
Study Guide
•What are the physical features and climate of the Great
Plains? (same information as last slide)
a.
b.
c.
d.
Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west.
Little rainfall
Erosion of land by wind and water
Dust storms
WHAT WERE THE REASONS FOR
WESTWARD EXPANSION
(WHY DID PEOPLE MOVE WEST)
Land ownership
• Desire for Adventure.
• Railroad and other Technological
advances
GOLD AND SILVER
• Possibility
of obtaining
wealth
END OF SLAVERY
• Desire for a
new beginning
for former
enslaved
African
Americans.
1876
The Speese family homestead
Cherry County, Nebraska (1915)
Did your reasons for westward expansion spell
L
(Land ownership)
A
(Adventure)
R
(Railroads and other technological
advancements)
G
(Gold and silver)
E
(End of slavery)
The “Great
American Desert”
 During
the nineteenth century,
people’s perceptions and use of
the Great Plains changed.
 Technological
advances allowed
people to live in more
challenging environments.
Barbed Wire
Kept cattle in and other animals out.
Steel plows:
Used in hard
soil.
1837
John Deere, an Illinois
blacksmith and manufacturer
designed the first cast steel plow
that greatly assisted the Great
Plains farmers in cutting the
tough prairie ground & sticky soil
without clogging (Nicknamed
"grasshopper plows“).
Dry Farming:
Growing crops without irrigation
1863 Dry Farming: A type of farming practiced in arid
areas without irrigation by planting drought-resistant crops (that mature in
late spring or fall like “winter” wheat) and maintaining a fine surface tilth or
mulch that protects the natural moisture of the soil from evaporation.
Sod Houses:
Houses made of Soil.
BEEF CATTLE RAISING
Major source of income
and food in the west.
The open range was perfect for raising cattle for
beef. The practice of the “cowboy” driving cattle
to market became an iconic symbol of the West.
WHEAT
FARMING:
CROP
EASILY
GROWN IN
DRY
AREAS.
WINDMILLS:
USED TO
PUMP
WATER.
1854
•Windmills have been
around since around
500-900 BC for
grinding grain.
•A windmill for
pumping water was
perfected in the United
States in 1854 (the
Halladay Windmill).
A steel-bladed water pumping windmill in
the American Midwest (late 1800's)
RAILROADS:
TRANSPORTED GOODS AND PEOPLE,
CONNECTED EAST TO WEST.
FROM WAGON
TRAINS TO THE
TRANSCONTINENTAL
RAILROAD
A “Boom Town”
BECAUSE OF NEW
TECHNOLOGIES, PEOPLE SAW
THE GREAT PLAINS NOT AS A
“TREELESS WASTELAND” BUT
AS A VAST AREA TO BE
SETTLED.
Native American opposition to
Westward Expansion
Americans Indians opposed westward
settlement.
For about 10 years, in the 1870s, there
were many battles
between
the United
States armed
forces and the
American Indians
(Native Americans)
The Battle of Little Bighorn was a
temporary victory for American Indians
They were defending the land (that had
been granted to them in a treaty) on the
Great Plains. Once gold was discovered,
the treaty was broken.
This battle was nicknamed
“Custer's Last Stand”.
Sitting Bull, a spiritual leader, did not
want to be forced from his lands on
the Great Plains. The Great Plains
Indians set out for a battle and won
decisively against a much smaller
United States army force.
Add to notes:
Lakota Sioux
Geronimo, a leader of American Indians in the
southwest, refused to go to a reservation and sought
justice from settlers in the southwest.
Although he was eventually captured, stories of his
bravery made him a famous figure.
(Last Native American to formally surrender to U.S.)
Add to notes:
Apache
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians
in the Pacific region, and his people
escaped toward Canada rather than be
forced onto a reservation, but it was
only a temporary victory.
He eventually surrendered rather
than see innocents die from cold and
starvation.
Chief Joseph quote upon surrendering to
the U.S. army
“It is cold and we have no blankets. The little
children are freezing to death. My people, some
of them, have run away to the hills and have no
blankets, no food. No one knows where they are-perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to
look for my children and see how many I can
find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead.
Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired. My heart is sick
and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will
fight no more forever. “
How was the American Indian
population changed?
o The Native American population
was reduced through warfare and
disease.
o
The Battle of Wounded Knee was
the final attack on American Indians.
After Sitting Bull was killed on the Pine Ridge Reservation, some
Lakota members went to Wounded Knee Creek. Although it is
unclear why a gunshot was fired and by whom, the U.S. army opened
fire on the Lakota killing between 150-300 Native Americans.
oThere were assimilation attempts and
lifestyle changes because of the
reduction of the buffalo population.
o American Indians' homeland was
reduced through broken treaties.
Assimilation of NativeAmericans
Dawes Act –
• It was designed to encourage the breakup of
the tribes and promote the assimilation of
Indians into American Society.
• Wanted to create independent farmers out of
Indians
Carlisle School – set up to teach Native –American
children to live in white society
An army captain (Pratt) started Carlisle Indian School in 1879. He
thought that Indian children would learn white ways better if they
were away from their homes. The boarding school was in
Pennsylvania.
• It was far away from the Indian reservations.
• When children came to the school, the teachers cut their long hair.
• The students wore “American style” clothing
• No one would let them speak their own language.
• Many children became very homesick.
• Their teachers showed them how to read and write in English.
• They also taught them trades like farming, sewing, and baking.
• The Indian children were sent to church and Sunday School.
• Their teachers wanted them to know how to live in white society
when they left the school.
Native Americans
became citizens in 1924
This Act, also known as the Snyder Act, was
named in honor of Representative Homer P.
Snyder of New York. It granted Indians full
U.S. citizenship. While the 14th Amendment
in 1868 had defined citizens as any person
born in the U.S., it included the clause
“subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Some
people thought that excluded tribal members.
President Calvin Coolidge signed this Act into
law on June 24, 1924. It was enacted partly in
recognition of the more than 12,000 Indians
who fought in World War I, including the
many from the Chickasaw area who primarily
fought in France with the 142nd infantry.