Looking to the West

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Looking to the West

• 1860-1900

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Moving West

• Following the CW many Americans (which ones??)
  and Europeans continued the move into the West
  --- What did they hope to find????
• For the settlers there were many factors,
  historians call these push-pull factors events
  and conditions that either force people to move
  or strongly attract them to move

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Push Factors

1. Civil War displaced farmers, freedmen, and
   workers
2. Eastern farmland was becoming more expensive
   (especially for freedmen and poor)
3. Failed entrepreneurs sought a 2nd chance
4. Religious and racial persecutions (Mormons and
   freedmen)

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Pull Factors Govt Incentives

1. Pacific Railway Acts (1862 64) govt gave
   huge tracts of land to RR companies to build RR
   into the West 10 sq. mi. on each side of track
   RR would offer new options for migration sell
   their lands to settlers for big

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Pull Factor Govt Incentives

1. Morrill Land-Grant Act (1862) gave states
   millions of acres of land which states could sell
   to raise money for land grant colleges
   specializing in agriculture and mechanical arts
   states would then sell lands to land speculators
   people who would buy huge areas of land to sell
   later at a profit (UTK, TSU)

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Pull Factor Govt Incentives

• Homestead Act (1862) the most important of govt
  incentives and pull factors 160 acres (1/4 sq.
  mi.) if meet certain requirements
• 21 years old, or head of family
• US citizens or filing for
• Build a certain size home and live for 6 months
• Farm the land for five consecutive years

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Pull Factor Private Property

• People wanted legally enforceable, transferable
  property rights not just a free-for-all
• Land parcels would be measured, registered, and
  deeded
• Cattle branding established ownership
• Enforcement of water rights

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New Immigrants to the West

• New group of settlers from mainly western Europe
  also moved westward though some set up
  communities, most would settle in large urban
  areas (WHY??)
• Also see immigration of Chinese (West Coast
  cities) method of cheap labor
• A-A also moved, often fleeing violence,
  exploitation, and persecution in the South

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Settlers From Far and Wide

• In 1879, Benjamin Pap Singleton led a group of
  A-A settlers on a mass exodus just like Moses
  and they called themselves Exodusters
• Mexicans and Mex-Am also will migrate and help
  contribute to the growth of ranching and the
  cowboy
• By 1890, the frontier was gone with so much
  migration, but the West was already occupied by
  whom???

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Settling the Great Plains

• Settling the Great Plains brought settlers into
  conflict with N-A who were already there
• Most Plains Indians were nomads following the
  ____ for their source of food
• Competition for land caused a clash between
  settlers and the Indians

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Governmental Policies

• Settlers believed they had the right to take land
  because they would produce more food and wealth
  superior to the Indian who only used, but didnt
  produce on, the land
• Initially, the govt tries to restrict their
  movement by treaties some bought their lands
  (little ) others restricted them to
  reservations fed lands set aside for them
  most agreements fail because of the differing
  concepts of land ownership

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Indian Wars

• Acts of violence on both sides set off cycles of
  revenge that occurred with increasingly brutality
• Between 1864 and 1890 the US Army and N-A engaged
  in several battles the N-A were outgunned and
  usually suffered horrendous losses, but they
  continued to fight

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Sand Creek Massacre (1864)

• After some gruesome Cheyenne raids in Colorado
  Terr. the Cheyenne offered peace and camped at
  Sand Creek
• Col. John Chivington, wanting a big military win,
  on Nov. 29, 1864, descended upon the Indians and
  slaughtered b/w 150 and 500 mostly women and
  children
• The next year, the Cheyenne moved to reservations

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Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

• After hostilities on both sides, Lt. Col. George
  A. Custer was sent to Black Hills, SD to
  investigate rumors of gold there was huge
  supplies and whites quickly moved in
• Tensions within Sioux as Sitting Bull and Crazy
  Horse left reservation Custer sent to round
  them up mistaken about size of force

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Custers Last Stand

• At the Battle of Little Bighorn, Custer and his
  200 men met an Indian force of over 2000 and were
  quickly massacred
• Battle stunned Americans flooded area with
  troops and swiftly forced NA back onto
  reservations
• Crazy Horse was killed when he surrendered and
  Sitting Bull fled to Canada but was forced to
  return and surrender

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Battle of Wounded Knee

• NA began to perform a purification ceremony in
  hopes that a return to traditional life would
  follow Ghost Dance
• Sitting Bull and Sioux practiced it Army sent
  troops to quell what they believed was a coming
  riot when they tried to arrest Sitting Bull, he
  hesitated, and they shot him dead

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Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890)

• Followers of Sitting Bull about 120 men and 230
  women and children surrendered and were rounded
  up at a creek called Wounded Knee
• As they were being disarmed, someone fired a shot
  and soldiers opened fire killing more than 200
  Sioux
• Massacre was the last major episode of violence
  in the Indian Wars

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Govt Indian Policies

• Govt policy put the defeated Indian nations on
  reservations lands set aside for them
• Also tried a policy of assimilation trying to
  force Indians to adopt the American culture by
  giving up their religions, traditions, languages,
  and customs

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Dawes Act (1887)

• In 1887 the federal govt passed the Dawes Act
  divided reservation land into plots
• Most land was unsuitable for farming and most
  Indians had no desire to farm or own land so in
  1889 Congress opened up the Indian Territory to
  thousands of settlers, called boomers and sooners
• Thus Indian groups are pushed into smaller areas

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Mining

• Once the Indian wars were over, miners, ranchers,
  and farmers flooded into the West
• From California, mining moved inland when gold
  was discovered in Colorado (Pikes Peak, Comstock
  Lode, NV)
• Mining became big business when gold was too far
  underground individual miners (placer mining)
  left and large corporations took over mining

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Ranching

• Americans learn about ranching from Mexicans in
  the SW and when the Indians were removed and the
  buffalo killed, cattle ranching boomed on the
  Great Plains
• Buffalo became near-extinct for a few reasons
  buffalo hides were popular, belts to drive
  machinery, hunting became a sport, and the govt
  wanted them slaughtered to force NA to grow their
  food and make room for settlers

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Ranching

• Cow towns towns built exclusively for the
  cattle business and RRs spring up all along RR
  lines (Abeline, Kansas) very rough towns, but
  quickly settled
• Thousands of cattle were herded each year and
  made the long drive to these RR towns (Chisholm
  Trail)
• As demand for beef grew, some ranchers became
  cattle barons operating spreads of millions of
  acres

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Farming

• For homesteaders people who farmed claims under
  the Homestead Act, life was NOT easy
• Most began by living in a soddie a sod house
• Plowing through the tough prairie soil was
  backbreaking work, insects were everywhere, and
  falling crop prices created a cycle of debt most
  couldnt leave

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Farming

• Once farmers invested into costly machinery they
  were locked into growing the one crop the
  machines were designed for led to that debt
  along with falling prices and inabilities to pay
  back loans
• Many families headed back east, but most pulled
  together (with others) to make a living

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Technology Eases Farm Labor

• New farming techniques dry farming planting
  crops that didnt require much water, keeping the
  fields free of weeds, and digging deep furrows so
  water could reach the plant roots
• Farmers also welcomed new technologies corn
  huskers, wheat threshers, mechanical reapers,
  etc which helped to increase output

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USDA

• Knowledge of farming improvements were also a
  result of the US Department of Agriculture
  created under the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Act
• USDA collected info on markets, crops, and
  diseases and helped provide info on crop
  rotation, hybridization, and soil and water
  conservation

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Farming

• Just as mining, farming in the West quickly
  become big business once technological
  innovations increase output dramatically
• Bonanza Farms farms controlled by large
  businesses, managed by professionals, and raising
  massive amounts of single cash crops
• These huge outputs of crops actually hurt the
  farmers lowered prices

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Frontier Myths and Truths

• Myths included that cowboys were all white (20
  were A-A), and that the West was a land of
  outlaws and vigilante govts these were NOT
  correct
• Frederick Jackson Turner historian began to
  claim that the frontier had played a key role in
  forming the American character had created
  Americans who were mobile, ready for adventure,
  bent on self-improvement and democratic (Turners
  thesis)

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Frontier Stereotypes

• Writers who painted an illusionary picture of the
  West only further cemented those frontier
  stereotypes exaggerated or oversimplified
  descriptions of reality
• Buffulo Bill Cody and his Wild West shows
  helped further those exaggerations and
  simplifications
• Dime-store novels of the West songs about the
  West Home on the Range

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Problems for Farmers

• Western farmers faced major economic difficulties
  in the late 1800s
• When businesses suffered economic downturns, crop
  prices dropped (effect?)
• Tariffs, passed by Congress, helped protect
  businesses from foreign competition but hurt
  farmers by raising prices on manufactured goods
  and farm machinery even those made in US

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The Grange

• Farmers began to form alliances and organized
  protest groups to pressure lawmakers to regulate
  businesses that farmers depended on (such as
  what??)
• The most important of these was the Grange
  (Patrons of Husbandry) 1867 which helped form
  cooperatives thru which goods could be bought in
  large quantities for cheaper (bulk rate)

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Farmers Problems

• A major political issue for farmers was the
  nations money supply the amount of in the
  economy and deflation which had cheapened the
  value of money
• In 1873, to prevent inflation, the govt changed
  its monetary policy plan for the makeup and
  quantity of the nations money
• Changed from a bimetallic standard (both gold and
  ??) to a gold standard

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Monetary Policy

• With only a gold standard, the amount of cash in
  circulation was dependent upon the amount of gold
  the fed govt had
• Silver miners and western farmers called for
  free silver, the unlimited coining of silver to
  increase the money supply

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Free Silver Acts

• Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act (1878)
  which required the govt to purchase and coin more
  silver to help cause inflation, but Congress only
  did the minimum and the Treasury refused to
  circulate the coins

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Sherman Silver Purchase Act

• So in 1890, Congress passes the Sherman Silver
  Purchase Act increased the amount of silver the
  govt was required to purchase every month the
  plan backfired when people turned in silver notes
  for gold and depleted the gold supply

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Interstate Commerce Act

• In response to Farmers Alliances, govt passes
  the Interstate Commerce Act
• Regulated the prices that railroads charged to
  move freight between states, requiring rates to
  be set according to distance
• Set up the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission)
  and set a precedent that govt might regulate big
  business if the public good required it

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Populist Party

• In 1891 alliances of farmers formed the Peoples
  Party (a third party)
• The platform ideas supported by the Populist
  party included the increase circulation of money,
  unlimited coining of silver, a progressive tax,
  govt ownership of communications and
  transportation, and an eight-hour work day

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Populists

• Populist party is important because they helped
  reach the public with their problems and demanded
  things that the major political parties would
  later adopt
• In the 1896 presidential election, Populist,
  William Jennings Bryan, runs (as a Democrat) he
  loses, but gave one of the most famous of
  speeches
• The Populist party doesnt survive long, but its
  ideas do will influence for decades

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Cross of Gold Speech

• Using images from the Bible, and his own personal
  energies and reflections, Bryan spoke against the
  gold standard and for the silver standard
• You shall not press down upon the brow of labor
  this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify
  mankind upon a cross of gold!

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