The Western Crossroads Section 1: War in the West

The Western Crossroads

Section 1: War in the West

Indian Country

• Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851) – guaranteed American Indians land rights on the Great Plains.

• Non-Indians moved West in search of gold and farmland.

• Reservations – many Indians agreed to move onto reservations with the guarantee that the reservations would be theirs forever.

Continued

• Bureau of Indian Affairs – was a government agency responsible for managing issues involving American Indians.

Continued

• Those Native Americans who went willingly to the reservation often learned that the U.S. government did not honor its treaties.

Government Policy Toward American Indians

• Regarded Indian tribes both as independent nations and wards

• Negotiated treaties with the Indians

• The government frequently violated treaties that they had made with the Indians.

• Indian reservations allowed the government to force tribes into scattered locations, often with land unfit for agriculture.

• The most desirable lands were retained for white settlement.

Years of Struggle

• Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, and Sioux refused to live on the Reservations.

(A.) Sand Creek Massacre

• Cheyenne & Arapaho agreed to relocate to reservations.

• They clashed with local militia throughout the summer of 1864.

• Cheyenne, led by Black Kettle, were on their way to surrender when they were attacked by Colonel John M. Chivington near Sand Creek.

continued

• 200 of Black Kettle’s group died (mostly women and children).

• Other tribes attacked the white man more often after Sand Creek.

(B.) Battle of Little Big Horn

• 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie – violated by the U.S. government.

• Gold was discovered in Black Hills (Sioux), so the government tried to negotiate a new treaty.

• The Lakota Sioux, led by Sitting Bull, refused to sign another treaty.

continued

• Sitting Bull had a vision.

• Then, several Native Americans inspired by his vision rode off to fight the soldiers at Rosebud.

• They did not achieve an outright victory.

continued

• General George Armstrong Custer and 200 members of the 7th Calvary attacked the Native Americans at Little Big Horn.

• Custer and all of his men were surrounded and killed by the Sioux and Cheyenne (Crazy Horse).

Kicking Bear’s painting of The Battle of Little Big Horn

(C.) The Ghost Dance

• A Religious movement led by Wovoka, a Paiute.

• Many Sioux took to Wovoka’s message.

Continued

• “Ghost Shirts” – they believed that the shirt’s special symbols would stop bullets.

• Sitting Bull was killed in 1890.

• Many of the Sioux joined the Ghost Dancers farther West after Sitting Bull’s death.

(D.) Massacre at Wounded Knee

• The Army searched Big Foot, Sioux leader, and his tribe for guns.

• 300 Sioux and 30 soldiers died.

• Last conflict on the Great Plains.

• Some declared that Custer’s death had been avenged.

Big Foot laying in the snow dead after the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

The End of Resistance

• Nez Perce and Chief Joseph were suppose to relocate to the reservations in Idaho when some Nez Perce killed 11 white men.

• Nez Perce tried to escape to Canada but surrendered 30 miles away.

Continued

• Geronimo led a group of Apache Indians that raided settlements in New Mexico and Arizona.

• The Apache were captured and then escaped.

• Geronimo’s surrender marked the end of armed resistance.

Geronimo leader of the Apache Indian Tribe.

Voices of Protest

• Indian Rights Association and the Women’s National Indian Association – urged the federal government to craft a more humane Indian policy.

• Sarah Winnemucca – a Paiute reformer, brought attention to the problems of Native Americans.

continued

• Helen Hunt Jackson wrote A Century of Dishonor.

• Criticized the government for years of broken promises and mistreatment.

Assimilating American Indians

• The U.S. government wanted to absorb American Indians into “white America.”

• Establish American Indian schools or Native Americans had to attend “boarding schools.”

Dawes General Allotment Act

• Designed to accelerate the assimilation of native Americans into white culture.

• 160 acres was allotted to the head of the family for farming.

• Indians rejected farming

• Within 50 years, the Indians had lost their land to the white man.

Western Farmers

Section 2

Economic Development of the West

Land Acts

1. Homestead Act of 1862 – allowed settlers to buy 160 acres for a small fee if they occupied and improved it for 5 years.

*land was once inhabited by the Creek and Seminole in Oklahoma.

* most homesteaders abandoned their land because of the bleak life on the Great Plains.

continued

2. Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 – provided that federal land be used to finance land grant agricultural colleges.

* Scientific and mechanical methods of farming were taught and were responsible for the development of the agricultural Midwest.

* granted more than 17 million acres of federal land to the states.

continued

3. Pacific Railway Act – the purpose was to promote the building of a railway to link the East and West Coasts.

Moving West

• African American settlers rushed into Kansas during the so-called Kansas Fever Exodus of 1879.

Western Environments and Farming

Problems• Scarce water• Few trees• Difficult growing

conditions

Solutions• Irrigations systems,

wells, windmills, and dry farming

• Buffalo chips for fuel and sod houses

• New varieties of wheat and new farming equipment.

Sod House

Sod Houses were well-insulated, windproof, and fireproof.

Farm Life on the Plains

• Environmental problems faced by settlers on the Great Plains included extreme summer and winter temperatures, water shortages, fire, and insects.

Storytellers of the Plains

• Willa Cather was a writer who recorded stories of life on the Great Plains.

• O Pioneers!• My Antionia

The Cattle Boom

Section 3

Ranching in the WestTexas Longhorn• Hardy breed• Travel long distances with

little water• Survive on grass.

Sheep ranching was also introduced and was widely despised by cattle ranchers. (Ruined the pastures for cattle by eating the roots of grass.)

The Cattle Industry

• Most cowboys were Confederate veterans of the Civil War.

• African American, Mexican, and Mexican American made up 1/3 of all cowboys.

Life on the Trail

• Cowboys would drive the cattle to the railhead (town located along the railroad where cattle were sold and shipped east).

• Cowboys faced few real challenges.

• When they reached the railhead, most spent their money freely in saloons and gambling halls.

Frontier Artists

Frederic Remington• One of the most

influential frontier artists.

• Painted scenes of the American West.

Trailing Texas Cattle by Frederic Remington

Ranching

• The government allowed cattle ranchers to use public land as open range, or free grazing land.

• During the spring and fall, ranchers would round-up the cattle to drive them to the railhead.

Long Drive Trails

End of the Cattle Boom

• The cattle boom ended because there were too many cattle and the open range declined due to barbed wire.

• Other factors contributing to the end of the cattle boom included a series of severe winters, droughts, and blizzards.

The Mining Boom

Section 4

Western Mining

• Comstock Lode was one of the world’s richest silver veins, located in Nevada’s Carson River valley.

Northern Ventures

• William H. Seward, U.S. Secretary of State negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.

• Gold discovery in the region launched the Klondike Gold Rush.

Mining in the Klondike Region

Life in Mining Communities

• The Western mining camps often practiced discrimination.

• New technology changed mining by creating deep-rock mining shafts where the conditions were dangerous.

Continued

• Hard-rock mining – miners would sink deep shafts into the earth to obtain ore locked in veins of rock.

• Mining unions encouraged Chinese miners to join.• The era of the individual miner and prospector did

not last long because accessible mineral deposits were soon “worked out.”

Mining Towns

Before Mining Families• Towns were unstable• Temporary residents• Violence• Vigilante communities

After Mining Families• Towns were more

stable• Permanent residents• Law & order• Established churches,

schools, and newspapers

Mining Towns

Social Effects• Ethnic diversity• Intense economic

competition• Violence• New growth of

communities

Political Effects• Formation of unions

by miners

Mining Towns

Economic Effects• Establishment of

prosperous businesses in mining towns

• Domination of large, well-financed companies in the mines

Environmental Effects• Damage to rivers and

flooding problems