The Movement West

United States Studies

Here’s What We’ll Learn• The West’s Geography• Why Easterners moved West• Conflict with Native Americans• Attempted “assimilation” of Native

Americans• The Cattle Boom• Living in the West

Statehood

Why Move West?• Pull Factors:

• Railroads—sold left-over land cheap

• Homestead Act (1862)—160 acres• 21 years old or head of

a family• American citizen or

immigrant applying for citizenship

• Live on land for 6 months for 5 years

• Railroads (Transcontinental Railroad)

Why Move West?• Push Factors:

• Eastern farmland costly• Restart (African-

Americans)• Escape religious

repression (Mormons)• Who Settled?

• Germans Immigrants: Texas to Missouri

• African-Americans: Kansas (Exodusters)

• Scandinavians: Iowa & Minnesota (climate)

• Mexicans: Texas & New Mexico

Fighting Native Americans• Whites: “Indian

Problem”• Natives: Life or death—

must do an all-out assault

• Great Plains was their area: nomadic—followed buffalo herds

• Indian Land until the Gold Rush & Homestead Act

• First—made treaties (some kept; others not) to buy land, stop movement of Nomads, or put Natives in Reservations

Result: Battles• 1871: U.S. Government:

won’t sign treaties any more; fight instead

• Battle lines shifted; forts couldn’t be built; desertion common

• Buffalo Soldiers (10th Cavalry)

• Battle of Little Bighorn (1876): Custer’s Last Stand—Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse (Sioux) won

• Battle of Wounded Knee (1890): Last battle between Natives & US Army

New Policies Towards Natives

• They were defeated, so…1. Assimilation: Give up culture, learn English, children go to school2. Dawes Act: Created many new reservations, Natives given 160 acres & granted US citizenship (went against Native ideas of shared land & tribal leadership)3. More land for settlement (squatters)

Homesteaders• Difficult life (~$1000 setup)

• Sod house (leaky roofs; dirt floors)

• Farming: no machines; tough land (backbreaking labor)

• Pests: grasshopper & mosquito infestations; rattlesnakes get into sod homes easily)

• Droughts common in great Plains

• Help was on the way: irrigation; farm machinery (both increased debt)

• “Bonanza Farms” were created too

Making Money• Sutter’s Mill (Ca. Gold Rush)• Comstock Lode (Silver &

Gold in Nevada)• Black Hills (many ores in

Dakotas)• Result: boom towns• Cattle drive (Great Plains):

Texas ranchers’ cattle escaped when they went to fight for the Confederacy

• US: beef binge; ranchers made $

• Cowboys: 18 hour days!• Cattle boom ended as price

dropped and land became fenced