Chapter 5: Cultures Clash on the Prairie

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Chapter 5 Cultures Clash on the Prairie
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Remember Indian Removal Act

• The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was a law passed
  in order to facilitate the relocation of American
  Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi
  River in the United States to lands further west.
  
• The Removal Act, part of a U.S. government policy
  known as Indian Removal, was signed into law by
  President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830.1

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Remember Indian Removal Act

• The Removal Act did not actually order the
  removal of any Native Americans.
• Rather, it authorized the President to negotiate
  land-exchange treaties with tribes living within
  the boundaries of existing U.S. states.

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Remember Louisiana Purchase

• In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United
  States had acquired a claim to a vast amount of
  land west of the Mississippi River.

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The Culture of the Plains Indians

• Great Plains
• East Osage Iowa Tribes
• Small villages, hunted, planted crops
• West Sioux and Cheyenne Tribes
• Hunted buffalo gathered wild food
• The Horse and Buffalo
• Horses increased mobilityled to war between
  tribes
• Buffalo provided many basic needs and was central
  to life on the Plains

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Plains Indians Culture

• Family Life
• Small extended family groups
• Men trained to become hunters warriors
• Killing enemies brought prestige honor
• Believed powerful spirits controlled natural
  events
• No individual was allowed to dominate group in
  leadership role leaders of a tribe ruled by
  counsel rather than force

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Settlers Push Westward

• Native Americans did not believe people should
  own land
• Settlers believed that owning land, making a
  mining claim, or starting a business would give
  them stake in the country

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Lure of Silver Gold

• Discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858
• Mining camps
• Brought Irish, German, Polish, Chinese, and
  African American men

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Please take out

• Chapter 5 Study Guide
• Lecture Notes from last class

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The Government Restricts Native Americans

• 1834 fed govt passed an act ENTIRE Great
  Plains 1 enormous reservation or land set aside
  for Native American tribes.
• 1850s policy changed and created treaties that
  defined specific boundaries for every tribe.
• Result Many tribes continued to hunt on their
  traditional lands, clashing with settlers and
  miners-with tragic result

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Govt Restricts Native Americans Cont.

• Massacre at Sand Creek
• 1864 Turn to page 204 in your book and read
  about the Massacre at Sand Creek
• Death on the Bozeman Trail
• Bozeman Trail ran through Sioux hunting grounds
  in the Bighorn Mountains.
• 1866 Crazy Horse ambushed Captain William J.
  Fetterman and his company.
• 80 soldiers killed

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Results of the Deaths on the Bozeman Trail

• Treaty of Fort Laramie
• Sioux agreed to live on a reservation along the
  Missouri River (forced on Sioux)
• Sitting Bull
• Leader of the Hunkpapa Siouxnever signed treaty
• Treaty of Fort Laramie provided only temporary
  halt to warfare

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Bloody Battles Continue

• Red River War
• 1874-1875
• U.S. Army herded the people of friendly tribes
  onto reservations while opening fire on all
  others
• Gold Rush begins
• Custers Last Stand
• Conflict with Sioux CheyenneCuster coming to
  attack
• Reached Little Bighorn River, Native Amer.
  Warriors ready for them
• Within an hour, Custer all his men-dead

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The Govt Supports Assimilation

• Assimilation a plan under which Native
  Americans would give up their beliefs their way
  of life to become part of the white culture
• Dawes Act
• 1887 aimed to Americanize Native Americans
• Broke up reservations gave pieces of land to
  individual Native Americans

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The Govt Supports Assimilation

• By 1932, whites had taken about 2/3 of territory
  that had previously been set aside for Native
  Americans

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Cattle Become Big Business

• After the Civil War, demand for beef rose sharply
  in the growing Eastern cities.
• Cowboys led thousands of animals on the
  long drive to Kansas, which took about three
  months. 

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• Herds grew too large, and overgrazing and
  bad weather struck the Plains in the late 1880s.
• Ranchers began to use barbed wire to fence in
  their land.
• The era of the open range and cattle drives
  ended.  

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Chapter 5/Section 2Settling on the Great Plains  

• Key Idea
• The promise of
• cheap, fertile land
• draws settlers
• westward seeking
• Their fortunes as
• farmers.  
•   

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• Building the transcontinental railroadstretching 
  from East to Westhelped promote settlement on
  the Plains.
• Irish and Chinese immigrants plus African
  Americans and Mexican Americans did much of the
  back-breaking work.
• In 1869, the two routes met in Utah,
  completing the first transcontinental track.

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• The railroads sold some of their land at
  low prices to farmers.
• Homestead Act
• 160 acres to head of household
• On one day in 1889, 2 million acres were claimed
  in Oklahoma.
• The government also wanted to preserve some
  wilderness.
• Yellowstone National Park.

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• The new settlers had to endure many hardships. 
• people built homes as dugouts in the sides of
  hills or out of sod. 
• Homesteaders
• isolated and had to produce everything they
  needed.
• Women 
• worked in the fields alongside men
• Taught children before schools
• Made clothes
• Doctored family and animals
• Dug wells and hauled water  

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Farmers Unite to Address Common Problems

• The farmers were plagued by weather and debt. 
• Machines cost money, which they had to borrow. 
• When grain prices fell, they could not repay
  their loans.
• They also resented how much they had to pay
  railroads to ship their crops.  

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Possible Answers to B. Extended Response

• Inventions increased farm productivity by
  decreasing the amount of time and effort needed
  to produce farm goods.
• In order to purchase new machinery, farmers went
  into debt, borrowing against the value of their
  land
• The new machinery encouraged farmers to buy more
  land to cultivate.
• The bigger farms grew, the more farmers debts
  increased.

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• Answers to the quiz
• B. People regarded paper money as worthless if it
  could not be turned in for gold or silver.
  Because gold was more valuable than silver, the
  gold standard would provide a more stable
  currency backed by both metals would be cheaper
  and more available. Farmers faced large debts
  and low crop prices. The gold standard would
  make it more expensive for them to repay their
  debts and would keep prices low. Bimetallism
  would make it cheaper for them to repay their
  debs and would help to raise prices on goods.