Western Expanison

War in the West

Eyewitness to History

➲ Cochise, Apache leader, mourned the lost of the land. Cochise tribe resisted. In the 1850's Cochise tribe had permitted settlers traveling to California to pass through Apache lands in Arizona.

Eyewitness to History

➲ In 1861 a rancher accused the Apache tribe of stealing a child and cattle from his ranch. U.S. Army officials attempted to hold Cochise and his relatives hostage until the child and cattle were returned. This led to years of deadly warfare between the tribe and the United States.

Indian Country

➲ In 1850: 360,000 west of the Mississippi River➲ 1851: Treaty of Fort Laramie: guaranteed

American Indian land rights on the Great Plains.➲ Non Indians move west in search of farm land and

gold, government officials sought to acquire additional American Indian lands.

➲ They negotiated new treaties in which American Indians agreed to move to reservations.

➲ In return Indians received some money and guarantees that the reservation lands would be their's forever and promised yearly supplies for 30 years.

Indian Country

➲ Wanted to keep Indians on reservations and force them to be farmers.

➲ Forced the Indians to abandon their traditional ways of life.

➲ Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA): was the government agency responsible for managing American Indian issues.

➲ BIA chief Luke Lea supported the reservation system. Believed that American Indians should “be placed in positions where they can be controlled, and finally compelled by stern necessity to resort to agricultural labor or starve.”

Indian Country

➲ Thomas Fitzpatrick was an Indian agent who helped to negotiate several treaties.

➲ 1853 Fitzpatrick condemned the notion of a reservation system as “expensive, vicious, and inhumane.”

➲ U.S. Government failed to honor it's treaties: Reduced the size of reservations, promised supplies never arrived.

➲ These disagreements led to violence.➲ Government agencies refused to give food supplies to

starving Sioux Indians: The Sioux rebelled and attacked. ➲ The U.S. Army ended the uproar killing 30 Sioux Indians. ➲ Tribe is relocated.

Reading Check #1

➲ Why did the U.S. Government create the American Indian Reservation system?

Years of Struggle

➲ Many Indians refused to live on reservations.

➲ (Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, and Sioux)

➲ The importance of the buffalo was the reason.

➲ 20,000 veterans were assigned to confine the tribes to reservations.

➲ This would lead to violence.

Sand Creek Massacre

➲ Colorado Territory➲ John Evans was eager to open more land

up in the West. He pressured the Cheyenne and Arapaho to sell their hunting grounds and move to reservations.

➲ 1861: some Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders agreed to move their groups to a reservation south of the Arkansas River. Others refused to leave.

Sand Creek Massacre

➲ Cheyenne and Arapaho forces clashed with the local militia throughout the summer of 1864.

➲ Cheyenne chief Black Kettle was tired of fighting. On his way to Fort Lyon to surrender his tribe camped along Sand Creek.

➲ Cheyenne men went off to hunt, Colonel John Chivington and some 700 Colorado volunteers arrived at the camp.

➲ They opened fire on the Cheyenne.➲ 200 of Black Kettle's group, most of them women and

children died.➲ Chivington said, “It is right and honorable to use any

means under God's heaven to kill Indians.”➲ Slaughtered horrified most Americans➲ Congress met and wants to reform Indian Policy

Sand Creek Massacre

➲ News swept across the Plains➲ Raids begin by the Arapaho and Cheyenne➲ Sioux stepped up their attacks➲ U.S. Government created a peace commission to

negotiate new treaties. ➲ In 1867, Senator John B. Henderson told them that the

Buffalo would soon be gone.➲ Tribe leaders sign the Treaty of Medicine Lodge.➲ Southern Plains Indians agreed to give up much of their

lands in exchange for reservations in Indian Territory.➲ The following year, a second Treaty of Fort Laramie, the

Sioux agreed to move to a reservation in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Government vs. Sioux

➲ 1874: Government violates the terms of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie by sending the army into the Black Hills in search of Gold.

➲ Gold was discovered by General George A. Custer.

➲ Government wants to negotiate another agreement.

➲ Sioux refused. ➲ War is on the way.

Sioux Indians

➲ Tatanka Iyotake: Sitting Bull, chief of the Sioux Indians.

➲ Nicknamed Slow as a child.➲ At age 14 fought his first battle with a Crow

indian. As a result he earned the right to wear an eagle feather, symbol for bravery, and was given the name Sitting Bull.

➲ Courage, wisdom, generosity, and ability to endure pain without complaint.

➲ Spiritual leader and medicine man.

Sitting Bull

• Strongly opposed the intrusion of non-Indians onto Sioux land.

• Mocked American Indians who moved• “You fools; to make yourselves slaves to a piece

of fat bacon, some hard-tack biscuits, and a little sugar and coffee.”

• 1876: Sitting Bull had a vision where he saw soldiers attacking an American Indian village. Inspired by his vision several hundred American Indians rode off to fight U.S. Troops.

Sitting Bull

• Battle of the Rosebud: 1876 Indians battle an army twice their size. Indians did not win but it boosted their confidence.

• After the battle, the Indians proceeded west to camp near Little Bighorn River.

• June 25, 1876 General George A. Custer and 600 members of the U.S. Army 7th Cavalry reached the American Indian camp.

• Custer orders immediate attack.

Custer and Sitting Bull

Custer vs. Sitting Bull

• Custer divided his men in 3 different sides.• After final attack which lasted less than 1 hour

Custer and every U.S. Soldier lay dead.• Battle of the Little Bighorn was the last victory for the

Sioux.• Custer's defeat prompted an increase to move

Indians on reservations. • Over next several months the American Indian

forces broke into smaller groups to evade army troops.

• Group by group the tribes surrendered.• Sitting Bull fled to Canada.

The Ghost Dance

• Wovoka: gave the message of the Ghost Dance.• Began a religious movement known as the Ghost Dance.• Claimed the Ghost Dance could cause white settlers to

vanish, dead Indian ancestors to return to life, the buffalo to return and traditional Indian ways of life to revive.

• Brought hope to discouraged Indians• Some government officials feared the religious movement

would inspire rebellion.• When it got to Standing Rock Reservation the military

ordered the arrest of Sitting Bull.• Police arrived and surrounded Sitting Bull's cabin, a

skirmish broke out and 14 Indians including Sitting Bull were killed.

Wounded Knee

• Sioux joined the Ghost Dancers farther west.• Some traveled with Big Foot, a Sioux leader who had initially

supported the Ghost Dance but had gradually turned away from it.

• Government wanted to arrest Big Foot but was afraid he would cause trouble.

• Big Foot leads his troops to Pine Ridge (350 members) • Set up camp at Wounded Knee Creek• Sioux was ordered to give up all guns• They only gave up a few guns forcing the soldiers to search

their tepees.• Tensions were high and nerves snapped and people began

shooting• 300 Sioux and 30 US soldiers had been killed.• This marked the end of the bloody conflict between the Indians

and soldiers.

Reading Check #2

• What were the sources of conflict between the Plains Indians and the U.S. government?

The End of Resistance

• Chief Joseph: leader of the Nez Perce• He surrendered to the U.S. Army just 30 miles from the

Canadian border.• Was sent to Washington State to live.• 1881: Apache leader Geronimo fled the reservation with

75 followers. Raided settlements through Arizona and Mexico.

• 1884: The women and children captured. Geronimo surrendered and briefly accepted reservation life.

• 1885: Geronimo and 134 followers escaped reservation• 1886: Geronimo's final surrender: went to Florida as a

POW• His final surrender marked the end of Resistance

Voices of Protest

• Indian Rights Association• Women's National Indian Association• These groups urged the federal government to

craft a more humane Indian policy• Helen Hunt Jackson of Massachusetts supported

this cause. • 1881: she wrote an influential book, “A Century

of Dishonor,” that criticized the government for its years of broken promises and mistreatment of American Indians.

Thoc-me-tony

• A Paiute reformer also known as Sarah Winnemucca, called attention to the problems of American Indians. Told of false promises to the Indians.

• 1880: she asked President Hayes to allow the Paiute to return to their home lands. Hayes agreed but the BIA did not carry out his order.

Reading Check #3

• How did Chief Joseph, Geronimo and Sarah Winnemucca respond to white treatment of American Indians?

Assimilating American Indians

• Indians had to convert to “white America” to survive.

• US government established a system of American Indian schools.

• Students were forced to leave their families to attend boarding schools.

• At school students were forced to speak English, wear proper clothes, change their names to “American” names

Assimilating American Indians

• 1887: Congress passed the Dawes General Allotment Act, which required that Indian lands be surveyed and that American Indian families receive an allotment of 160 acres of reservation land for farming. Any left over land would be sold.

• In less than 50 years the Indians lost 2/3 of their land.

• Some land sold to settlers and developers• Indians were cheated out of their allotment.• Many American Indians rejected farming

Section 2

• Western Farmers– Economic Development of the West

• Land Acts– 3 government land acts increased non-Indian

settlement of the Great Plains.– Homestead Act: permitted “any citizen or

intended citizen to select any surveyed land up to 160 acres and to gain title to it after five years residence, if the person cultivated the land.

– 400,000 families took advantage of the Homestead Act.

The Pacific Railway Act

• Gave lands to railroad companies to develop a railroad line linking the East and West.

Morrill Act

• Granted more than 17 million acres of federal land to the states. Ordered the sale of this land to finance the construction of agricultural and engineering colleges. Founded more than 70 state universities.

Land

• Competition for land was fierce• Land opens up in Oklahoma• President Harrison had announced that he

land would be available to the first takers beginning at noon on April 22.

• 50,000 people had gathered to race one another for the land.

• Indians lost 12 million acres in Oklahoma to non-Indians

The Railroads

• Lured people to the west• After the Pacific Railway Act 125 million acres

was given to the railroad companies.• Railroad grants limited the amount of land for

settlers in the Homestead Act.• Railroad companies sold any surplus land to the

homesteaders in hopes of paying for the high cost of laying the tracks.

• Railroad companies wanted to advertise land to Europeans

• Sell land on credit, give free trips to newspaper reporters.

Reading Check #1

• How did the U.S. Government promote the economic development of the West?

Moving West

• 3 main groups travel west:– White Americans from the East– African Americans from the South

(Exodusters)– Immigrants

Moving West

• Middle class farmers and business men could afford to move west others couldn't afford it.

• West offered a new start• Kansas Fever Exodus of 1879: Many

African Americans rushed to settle Kansas. 20,000 – 40,000 African Americans fled to the South to escape violence. Known as Exodusters these African American settlers trekked west.

“American Fever”

• Immigrants flood the West• Irish, Germans, Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes• Russian Mennonites, Protestant Sect, migrated to the

Great Plains. American railroad companies encouraged them to come to America. They knew how to farm wheat, which thrived in the Plains.

• Russians brought with them Russian thistle which became known as tumbleweed.

• Chinese immigrants came during the Gold Rush but turned to farming.

• California alone had 3, 200 chinese farmers. • Some chinese owned large farms: $9,500.00

Reading Check # 3

• Why did various groups of people migrate to the West?

Western Environments and Farming

Scarce Resources

• Water in short supply• Effective irrigation systems were used

such as canals, dams, and sloping fields to control water flow.

• Windmills to draw water from their wells • Trees are scarce• They burned buffalo manure for fire, built sod

houses: buildings made from chunks cut from the heavy topsoil that were stacked like bricks. A layer of soil covered the roof.

USDA

• U.S. Department of Agriculture (1862): helped farmers adapt to their new environment. Made new wheat crops, taught farmers dry farming---new farming techniques

New Farming Equipment

• James Oliver: had a plow factory in Indiana that produced 1,000s of plows with sharp durable blades that could slice through the tough sod.

• “self-binding”: harvesters cut wheat and tied it into bundles.

• Small farmers went in debt (expensive)• New farm machinery, abundant land,

enabled some companies to create a new kind of large scale operation known

• As Bonanza Farms.

Bonanza Farms

• Owned by large companies and operated like factories.

• 500-1,000 workers• Soon faded away• Weather conditions played a factor • Bonanza owners bought seed and

equipment in bulk: get special deals• By 1890's most bonanza farms had been

broken up.

Reading Check #3

• How did the environment influence farming practices and daily life in the west?