HIS 132 _ Lesson Two

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Lesson 2.

• The Trans-Mississippi West, 1860-1900.

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Indians of the Great Plains

• Whites moved west.
• Native lives transformed.
• Great Plains
• Flat.
• Treeless.
• Rangeland of buffalo.
• Indians of the Plains
• Sedentary farmers.
• Nomadic tribes.
• Introduction of guns and horses.

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Indians of the Great Plains

• The horse
• Increased hunting.
• Increased mobility.
• Some farmers turned to
• hunting.
• Cheyenne.
• The Horse Culture.
• Nomadic culture.
• Devastated buffalo population.
• Placed many Plains Indians in danger of
  starvation.

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The Indian Wars

• The problem of land.
• Indians had the land.
• Whites wanted the land.
• Indian understanding of
• of land was different than
• white understanding.
• Whites considered land a commodity.
• Indians believed land was to be used not owned.
• Differences would bring about war.

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The Indian Wars

• Prior to 1851
• Federal law considered the area west of Arkansas,
  Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota, and east of the
  Rockies to be Indian Country.
• Farmers, gold seekers, railroad companies cut
  path through area.
• 1851
• Federal lawmakers designed policy to open the
  central plains (route to Pacific).

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The Indian Wars

• Tribes would be given definite territory in which
  they would live.
• Government to supply their needs.
• Reservation.
• Designed to keep the Indians and settlers apart.
• Conflict broke out.
• 1864 Large-scale war erupted.
• Cheyenne and Lakota raids.
• November Sand Creek, Colorado.
• John Evans massacred innocent Cheyenne.
• Bands of Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapahoe retaliated
  (burning villages, killing families, etc)
  reprisals.

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The Indian Wars

• Gold discovered in Montana.
• Construction of forts to protect Bozeman Trail.
• Red Cloud (Lakota Chief)
• Prevented army from keeping the forts.
• 1868
• Treaty of Fort Laramie.
• U.S. accepted defeat.
• Promised Sioux perpetual land and hunting rights.
• Sioux given rights to occupy the Black Hills
  (Paha Sap)

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The Indian Wars

• Some southern Plains tribes refused to accept the
  Treaty.
• Refused to be moved onto reservations.
• Continued to live on traditional lands.
• Attack stage coach stations, ranches, travelers,
  and military units.
• 1874
• Gold discovered on the Great Sioux Reservation.
• U.S. Govt. could not purchase land.
• Warriors moved to war camps.
• American forces ordered to move in.

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The Indian Wars

• 1874 cont
• Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer rushed
  ahead.
• The little big horn or Greasy Grass.
• June 25, 1876, Custer and his troops were killed
  by a force of several thousand.
• Many later surrendered to U.S. Army.
• U.S. Army pursued Apaches.
• Surrendered in 1886.
• Men (including Geronimo) were sent to prison in
  Florida.
• End of Indian Wars.

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Transformation of Indian Societies

• By 1880, many tribes forced onto reservations but
  few had adopted white ways.
• The majority on reservations lived in poverty.
• Reformers (Protestants)
• Lobbied the Congress for a program of salvation
  through assimilation.
• Unmoved by poverty of Indians.
• Some conceded reservation system not working.

1891 Sioux Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
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Reformers

• Some reformers outraged by
• The governments violation of treaties with the
  Indians.
• Military enforcement of reservations.
• Helen Hunt Jackson
• Reformer.
• Major role in
• The Indian Rights Association.
• Womens National Indian Association.
• Organizations placed Protestant missionaries in
  the west to work to end tribal customs and
  convert Indians to Christianity.

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Reformers

• 1882
• The Womens National Indian Association.
• Petitioned Congress
• To end reservation system.
• To establish education for Indian children.
• To award Title to 160 acres of land to Indians
  who was willing to work the land.
• 1887
• Dawes Severalty Act.
• Similar to WNIAs suggestions.
• Established federal Indian policy for years to
  come.
• Allowed the President to distribute land to
  individuals (severed from their tribes).
• These individuals could petition for citizenship.
• Native Americans generally did not support the
  Act because it had a negative impact on the
  tribes.
• Examples (next slide)

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Dawes Severalty Act

• The Dawes Act
• Undermined Tribal sovereignty and land without
  compensation.
• Banned Native religions and sacred ceremonies.
• Banned oral traditions.
• Made shamans/medicine men criminals.
• Indian schools banned Indian hair and clothing
  styles.

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Dawes Severalty Act

• Land promised to Indians was poor.
• Not provided with adequate tools.
• Many Indians were unprepared for agricultural
  life.
• Children left white schools.
• Very few Indians left their traditional religions
  for Christianity.
• Dawes Act reversed in 1934 Indian
  Reorganization Act.
• Affirmed the integrity of Indian cultural
  institutions and returned some land.

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The Vanishing Americans

• Some tribes occupied land rejected by whites.
• The Hopis, Navajos, etc.
• Tribes found it difficult to survive near white
  settlers.
• Intermarriage.
• Northwestern tribes remained isolated from white
  settlers (until 20th century).
• Maintained cultural integrity.
• The Vanishing Americans.

Hopis lived near the Navajo
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Mining Towns

• Americans went west to find their fortunes.
• Largest migration, greatest commercial expansion
  in American History.
• Became subject of a huge internal empire.
• Only a small number found their fortune.
• Older populations struggled to find their place
  in the growing West.

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Mining Towns

• 1848 California Gold!
• Prospectors soon overran the territories and
  mining camps.
• Boomtowns.
• Mining
• Brought the West a global market for capital,
  commodities, and labor.
• Grew to large corporate enterprise.
• Buy outs.
• Purchased best technology.
• Gained access to timber.
• Built smelters.
• Financed railroads.

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Mining Towns

• Mining laid the foundation for a new economy and
  interim government.
• Mining was dangerous and unhealthy.
• 1860s
• Miners organized.
• Demanded better pay.
• Focused in boomtowns.
• Strongest unions by late 19th century.

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Mining Towns

• Western labor unions for whites only.
• Bust Late 1800s
• Prices and ore production fell.
• Bust left environmental disaster.
• Caminettie Act gave the federal government the
  responsibility of regulating the mines.

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Mormon Settlements

• Mormons
• Brigham Young.
• Migrated in 1846-1847.
• Midwest to Great Salt Lake Basin.
• Formed independent theocratic state Deseret.
• Legitimized polygamy.
• Built dams for irrigation.
• Harvested crops.
• Utah Territory established in 1850.
• Supreme Court (1879 U.S. v. Reynolds) ruled
  against polygamy.

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Mormon Settlements

• 1882
• Edmunds Act Threatened those found guilty of
  polygamy with fines and prison.
• Utah applied for statehood and turned down over
  the issue of Mormon polygamy.
• Church leaders disavowed polygamy.
• Utah became a state 1896.

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Mexican Borderland Communities

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Ended the Mexican-American War.
• Allowed Hispanics north of the Rio Grande to
  immigrate to Mexico or stay in the United States.
• Economically and socially interdependent zone
  emerged.
• Mexico would remain underdeveloped.
• Often cited.
• Citizenship not offered until 1930s.
• Considered foreigners by settlers.
• Poorly paid migratory workers.

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Mexican Borderland Communities

• Some Mexicans took jobs on the railroads or in
  the mines.
• Wives/daughters moved to cities to make ends meet
  by selling produce, working as seamstresses, or
  laundresses.
• Las Gorras Blancas (1880s)
• The White Caps.
• Agrarian rebels in New Mexico.
• Destroyed railroads and farm equipment.
• Posted demands for justice.
• Formed El Partido del Pueblo Unido (The Peoples
  Party) in 1890.
• Provided aid for Mexican families.
• Mexicanos preserved much of their cultural
  heritage.

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The Cattle Kingdom on the PlainsCowboys

• Cattle Industry.
• Most profitable business in the West.
• Texas Longhorn.
• Mexican ranchers developed an open range system.
• Cattle grazed on unfenced plains.
• Cowboys herded the longhorns from horseback.

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The Cattle Kingdom on the PlainsCowboys

• Cowboys
• Young.
• Unschooled.
• African-American or Mexican.
• Former Confederates.
• Worked long hours.
• Faced dangers (stampedes).
• Slept on the ground.
• Ate biscuits and beans.
• Earned 1.00 per day.
• Spent most of their time alone.

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The Cattle Kingdom on the PlainsCowboys

• Practices developed in South Texas transferred to
  the range-cattle industry.
• Roundups.
• Branding.
• Cattle drivers drove cattle from south Texas,
  through Oklahoma, to the railroads being built
  going west.
• Cattle towns Sprung up along railroads.
• Foreman (trail boss) sold herd paid cowboys.
• Cowboys spent money in town.

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The Cattle Kingdom on the PlainsCowboys

• Combination of vices discouraged the formation of
  stable communities (cattle towns).
• Vice widespread.
• Violence common.
• The range wars (1870s) produced violent
  conflicts.
• Texas cattle eventually loaded on eastbound
  trains some continued north to northern ranges.
• Long drives resulted in the spread of open-range
  cattle raising.
• Investors swarmed in.
• Introduced new breeds of cattle.
• Bred with Longhorns.
• Produced hardy range cattle that yielded more
  meat.

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The Cattle Kingdom on the PlainsCowboys

• Early 1880s
• Too many ranchers.
• Prices began to fall.
• Brutal winter of 86-87.
• Many investors went bankrupt.
• Surviving ranchers
• Fenced in their ranges.
• Made sure they could feed their herds in winter.
• Sheep raising on the rise.
• Chew grass to roots.
• Impossible to raise cattle on sheep grazed land.

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Farming Communities on the Plains

• The Great Desert
• How were the Plains populated?
• Homestead Act of 1862
• Granted a quarter section of the public domain
  free to any settler who lived on the land for at
  least five years and made improvements.
• Or a settler could purchase the land for 1.25
  per acre after living on the land for six months.
• Homesteaders were most successful in central and
  upper mid-west (rich soil, moderate climate).

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Farming Communities on the Plains

• Most settlers did not take advantage of the
  Homestead Act.
• Unmarried women filed many claims.
• Many purchased land outright.
• State governments and land companies held the
  best land (located near transportation routes and
  markets).
• Many farmers willing to pay top dollar for good
  land.
• Railroads were key to the growth of the West.
• Railroads were the vehicle promoting the
  settlement of the West (not the Homestead Act).

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Farming Communities on the Plains

• Farming the Plains was tough.
• Some made good profits.
• Mens work was seasonal
• In the fields.
• Most demanding during planting and harvest
  seasons.
• On the off season, most farmers built/repaired
  buildings and took care of livestock.
• Some young men would pick up temporary work with
  railroad companies.
• Women took care of the children, cooked, and
  cleaned.

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Farming Communities on the Plains

• The harsh climate caused settlers to seek out
  friends and neighbors.
• Work together.
• Bartered goods.
• Some lost all their land.
• Swift growth of the rural population soon ended.
• The hard reality of the Plains climate and big
  business took its toll on many settlers.

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The Worlds Breadbasket

• New technologies allowed farmers to be efficient
  in the planting and harvesting of crops.
• Farming became closely tied to international
  trade.
• Modern capitalism ruled Western agriculture, the
  mining industry, and the cattle industry.
• New Production Technologies
• 1837, John Deeres Singing Plow easily turned
  prairie grasses under and turned up highly
  compacted soils.
• Cyrus McCormicks reaper used to cut grain.
• Mechanized corner planters, mowing, and raking
  machines for hay.
• Life still tough on the plains.

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The Worlds Breadbasket

• Increased productivity meant that farmers could
  make more money putting their crops on the
  market.
• Family remained primary source of labor.
• Farmers put more emphasis on production for
  exchange rather than sustenance.
• Wheat farmers did very well.
• International demand for wheat was enormous.
• New technologies and scientific expertise favored
  the large, well-capitalized farmer.
• Agribusiness surpassed farming in California.
• Rich and powerful dominated California
  agribusiness.

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Environmental Impact

• Large-scale farming changed the landscape and the
  environment.
• The National Reclamation Act of 1902
• Added 1 million acres of irrigated land.
• State irrigation districts added 10 million
  acres.
• Rarely considered the impact of water policies on
  the environment.
• The need to maintain the water supply led to the
  creation of national forests and the Forest
  Service.
• General Land Revision Act of 1891
• Gave the President power to establish forest
  reserves.
• Federal government would play an increasing role
  in economic development of the West.
• They dealt mainly with corporate farmers and
  ranchers who were eager for improvements.

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Reading

• If you have not already done so...
• Read chapter 19.