The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution

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Chapter 27

• The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution

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Indians Embattled in the West

• After the Civil War the west was untamed with few
  white people other than the Mormons.
• It was the habitat of the Indian, the buffalo,
  the wild horse, the prairie dog and the coyote.
• As the White settlers began to populate the Great
  West, the Indians, caught in the middle, were
  increasingly turned against each other, infected
  with White mans diseases, and stuck battling to
  hunt the few remaining bison that were still
  around

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Great Plains
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Sioux Warrior
Pawnee Warrior
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Sioux

• The Sioux also called the Dakota Indians came to
  North America from Asia 30,000 years ago. The
  name Sioux means "Little Snake." This name was
  given to them by an enemy tribe, the Chippewa.
  Their straight black hair and other features
  seemed to relate them to the Chinese and
  Japanese. The Sioux first lived west of the Great
  Lakes in Minnesota. Most were pushed west into
  South Dakota by other tribes

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Black Hills Reservation

• In 1874 General George A. Custer led an
  expedition to the Black Hills of Dakota. He
  reported that he discovered gold in the area. The
  following year the United States government
  attempted to buy the Black Hills for six million
  dollars. The area was considered sacred by the
  Sioux and they refused to sell. Custer's story
  attracted gold hunters and in April 1876 the
  mining town of Deadwood was established in the
  area. This provoked the Sioux and resulted in the
  war that led to the battle of Little Bighorn

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Black Hills South Dakota
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Dances With Wolves
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Mount Rushmore
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Mt. Rushmore Facts

• The carving of Mt. Rushmore actually began on
  August 10, 1927, and spanned a length of 14
  years.
• Gutzon Borglum chose this mountain due to its
  height (5700' above sea level), the soft grainy
  consistency of the granite, and the fact that it
  catches the sun for the greatest part of the day.
  
• Work continued on the project until the death of
  Gutzon Borglum in 1941. No carving has been done
  on the mountain since that time and none is
  planned in the future.
• The presidents were selected on the basis of what
  each symbolized.
• George Washington represents the struggle for
  independence
• Thomas Jefferson the idea of government by the
  people
• Abraham Lincoln for his ideas on equality and the
  permanent union of the states
• Theodore Roosevelt for the 20th century role of
  the United States in world affairs.

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Air Force 1 Over Mt. Rushmore
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THE ART OF HOWARD TERPNING
Gold Prospectors in Black Hills
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Sand Creek Massacre

• In one of the most sordid affairs between whites
  and American Indians, more than 200 Cheyennes,
  mainly women and children, lay dead following
  Col. John M. Chivingtons destruction of Black
  Kettles Southern Cheyenne village nestled along
  Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado, on November
  29, 1864. The Chivington massacre included the
  mutilation of Indians, including severed
  genitals. Black Kettles village had camped near
  Fort Lyon with the understanding that they were
  friendly, an American flag flew from the village.
  The site is located on private land

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Battle of Little Big Horn

• Here on June 25, 1876, a large force made up
  mostly of Sioux and Southern Cheyenne warriors
  under Sitting Bull, Gall, and Crazy Horse
  overwhelmed Lt. Col. George A. Custers 7th
  Cavalry in one of the most complete defeats in
  American military history. Custer and
  approximately 210 men were slain in the famous
  "Custers Last Stand." Four miles away, up the
  Little Bighorn, along the bluffs overlooking the
  river, Maj. Marcus A. Reno and the rest of the
  regiment remained for two days until help
  arrived. Reno lost about 70 soldiers and Crow
  guides. The Indian victory was of short duration.
  By the spring of 1877, most of the Sioux and
  Cheyenne, including Crazy Horse, facing
  starvation and constant military pressure,
  finally surrendered and accepted reservation
  confinement.

Fort Davis National Park MT
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Great Plains Buffalo

• The Indians were so easily tamed due to the
  railroad, which shot through the heart of the
  West, the White mans diseases, and the
  extermination of the buffalo
• In the early days, tens of millions of Bison
  dotted the American prairie, and by the end of
  the Civil War, there were still 15 million
  buffalo grazing, but it was the eruption of the
  railroad that really started the buffalo
  massacre.

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"Wanton Destruction of Buffalo"

• By 1885, fewer than 1000 buffalo were left, and
  the species was in danger of extinction, mostly
  in Yellowstone National Park

W. E. Webb, Buffalo Land, 1872
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Words of Nez Perce Chief Joseph

• Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he
  told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired
  of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed Looking Glass
  is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute is dead. The old men
  are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or
  no. He who led on the young men is dead. 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 of them 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.
• Chief Joseph - 1877

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Improvements in Indian Affairs

• A Century of Dishonor - Book written by Helen
  Hunt Jackson chronicling the wrongs done to
  Native Americans
• Dawes Severalty Act wiped out tribal ownership
  of land and gave Indian families 160 acres of
  land on a reservation as long as they agreed to
  farm it.
• Forced assimilation

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Carlisle Indian School

• Founded to teach Native American children how to
  behave like the White man, completely erasing
  their culture.

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Carlisle School
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Mining the West

• Gold was discovered in California in the late
  1840s, and in 1858, and at Pikes Peak in
  Colorado, but within a month all the gold was
  gone.
• The Comstock Lode in Nevada was discovered in
  1859, and huge amounts of gold and silver worth
  more than 340 million was mined.

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Comstock Lode

• Virginia City, Nevada, the historic mining center
  where the Comstock Lode bought a bonanza in
  silver.

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Cattle Herding

• People moved west to take advantage of the free
  government owned grazing land for cattle
• Huge demand for beef in the east
• Railroad brought the cattle to the east
• Had to find a way to get cattle in the Great
  Plains to the cow towns along the
  transcontinental Railroad
• Answer was the Long Drive
• Dodge City, Abilene, Ogallala, and Cheyenne
  became favorite cowtowns

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Cattle Drive on the Chisholm Trail
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Cowtowns
Ogallala Nebraska
Dodge City Kansas
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End of the Long Drive

• Barbed Wire Made travel to cowtows more
  difficult and time consuming which also led to
  skinnier cattle and hence less profit
• Railroad - Made the cattle herding business
  prosper, but it also destroyed it, for the
  railroads also brought sheepherders and
  homesteaders who built barbed-wire fences that
  were too numerous to be cut through by the
  cowboys.
• Sheepherders Hooves cut the grass
• Homestead Act Brought more settlers

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Ansel Adams Photo of Barbed Wire Fence
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Homestead Act

• The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed settlers to get
  as much as 160 acres of land in return for living
  on it for five years, improving it, and paying a
  nominal fee of about 30.00.
• This act led half a million families to buy land
  and settle out West, but it often turned out to
  be a cruel hoax because in the dry Great Plains,
  160 acres was rarely enough for a family to earn
  a living and survive, and often, families were
  forced to give up their homesteads before the
  five years were up, since droughts, bad land, and
  lack of necessities forced them out

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Difficulties of Farming the Great Plains

• No trees
• Lack of rainfall
• Locusts
• Extreme weather

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Farming the Great Frontier

• Mechanization made farming easier
• McCormick Reaper, Twine binder and steel plow
• Dry farming - Using shallow cultivation methods
  to plant and farm, but over time, this method
  created a finely pulverized surface soil that
  contributed to the notorious Dust Bowl several
  decades later.
• Huge federally financed irrigation projects soon
  caused the Great American Desert to bloom, and
  dams that tamed the Missouri and Columbia Rivers
  helped water the land

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John Deer 1st Steel Plow
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McCormick Reaper
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Oklahoma Land Rush

• In Oklahoma, the U.S. government made available
  land that had formerly belonged to the Native
  Americans, and thousands of sooners jumped the
  boundary line and illegally went into Oklahoma,
  often forcing U.S. troops to evict them.
• On April 22, 1889, Oklahoma was legally opened,
  and 18 years later, in 1907, Oklahoma became the
  Sooner State.

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Land Rush Map
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Oklahoma Settlers
The starting line for the first Oklahoma Land
Rush, April 22, 1889 Library of Congress
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Frederick Jackson Turners Essay on The
Significance of the Frontier in American History

• Historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented this
  paper to a special meeting of the American
  Historical Association at the 1893 World's
  Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. His
  assessment of the frontier's significance was the
  first of its kind and revolutionized American
  intellectual and historical thinking
• Safety Valve Theory - Stated that the frontier
  was like a safety valve for folks who, when it
  became too crowded in their area, could simply
  pack up and leave, moving West.

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Frontier Farmers

• Cash crops
• Montgomery Ward catalogs brought modern goods to
  farmers
• Less jobs due to mechanization
• Blamed banks and railroads but real issue was
  lack of leadership and understanding of business
• Mechanization led to huge farms that produced an
  abundance of crops

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Mail Order Catalogs
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Deflation Dooms the Debtor

• Overproduction by farmers caused deflation
• Paying back debts was especially hard in this
  deflation-filled time during which there was
  simply not enough money to go around for everyone
  
• Farmers operated year after year on losses and
  thousands of homesteads fell to mortgages and
  foreclosures during this time.

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Unhappy Farmers

• In the late 1880s and early 1890s, droughts,
  grasshopper plagues, and searing heat waves hurt
  the farmer
• City, state, and federal governments added to
  this by gouging the farmers, ripping them off by
  making them pay painful taxes when they could
  least afford to do so.
• The railroads, the middlemen, and the various
  harvester, barbed wire, and fertilizer trusts all
  harassed farmers.
• In 1890, one half of the U.S. population still
  consisted of farmers, but they were hopelessly
  disorganized.

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National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry

• Founded by Oliver H. Kelley to improve the lives
  of isolated farmers through social, educational,
  and fraternal activities
• Informal organization
• Attempted to form cooperative stories, grain
  elevators and warehouses to combat unfair trusts
• Not formal enough to make a difference but it was
  a start

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Farmers Alliances

• More formal than Grange
• Coalition of farmers seeking the banks and
  railroads that took advantage of them.
• Its programs only aimed at those who owned their
  own land, thereby ignoring the tenant farmers,
  and it purposefully excluded Blacks
• Prelude to the Populist Party of the future

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