chapter 17: the trans-mississippi west 1. how and why did native americans life on the great plains...

Chapter 17: The Trans-Mississippi West

1. How and why did Native Americans life on the Great Plains change after the Civil War?2. What roles did railroads play in the settlement of the West?3. How did mining and homesteading change

Western societies?4. Describe the environmental movement in the

West.5. Differentiate between the Western myth and the reality of Western life?


• The Plains Indians

Northern Great Plains • the Sioux, Blackfoot, Northern Cheyenne, Arapaho,

Crow, and Assiniboins

In the central and southern Plains• The Five Civilized Tribes pursued agriculture in Indian

Territory, Comanches, Kiowas, Pawnees, Southern Arapaho, and Kiowa Apache


• The Lakota Sioux- Roamed the plains following the buffalo- Decisions were reached by consensus- Chiefs gave out food and supplies to gain

support- Believed in plant and animal spirits and

used self-torture to gain access to spiritual power


• The Plains tribes (Sioux, Blackfeet, Crows, and Cheyennes)

- Followed buffalo migration – an estimated 32 million bison in huge herds

- Used the buffalo for many things: meat; hides for tepees, boats, shields, shirts, and robes; sinews for bowstrings; bones for hoes, knives, fish-hooks; fat for grease, hooves for glue, buffalo dung for fuel

- In 1870s, buffalo robes became popular and businesses used hides for industrial belting

- Buffalo were slaughtered by the millions to meet demand


• William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody a famous scout, Indian fighter, and organizer of Wild West Shows

• Killed around 4,300 bison in eight months to feed crews building the Union Pacific Railroad

• Eastern sports hunters hired trains to take them west to shoot for sport

• Army commanders encouraged the slaughter because it destroyed the Native American’s way of life


• By 1880s the buffalo herds had been reduced to a few thousand animals

• Native Americans way of life had been destroyed• Americans settled on Indian land

• In a series of treaties, Native Americans were forced to give up land and move to reservation with the promise of government support and yearly payments

• Driven by hunger and broken promises, many tribes resisted reservation life

facing the U.S. Army in a series of battles for the west

- Both sides committed atrocities in the fight


• Sand Creek Massacre - Cheyenne and Arapahos sued for peace and camped by Sand Creek - The Colorado militia attacked the camp, clubbing and scalping women and children even after the Indians surrendered

Fetterman Massacre - To stop the Bozeman Trail to the Virginia City, Montana gold fields the Teton Sioux tricked Captain William J. Fetterman into attacking and killed 80 soldiers, mutilating their bodies

Chapter 17: The Trans-Mississippi West• To reform Indian life the government

established The Board of Indian Commissioners• Protestant denominations were assigned to run

reservations• Under the benevolent policy, Native Americans

would be Christianized, taught to farm their own plots of land, and given government assistance

• By the 1880s, the Federal Government replaced the denominations with their own agents to try to save a failed policy


• Native Americans resisted settlement.• They left the reservations to raid trading

posts, clashed with the army, and set up guerilla wars– The Apaches under Geronimo fought a guerilla

war until 1886

The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life

• After the Red River War in the 1870’s, the southern Plain tribes gave up

• By 1886, when Geronimo surrendered, the southwestern tribes also capitulated

Custer’s Last Stand, 1876

• The Sioux refused to report to the govt.-run agencies on their reservations

• They also refused to sell the Black Hills part of their reserve– the army made war against them• The most famous casualties in that campaign were

Colonel George A. Custer and his Seventh Cavalry• The Sioux annihilated the 7th Cavalry at the battle of the

Little Bighorn in 1876

Custer’s Last Stand, 1876 (cont.)

• Despite their brief triumph, the Sioux were subsequently forced to settle near the govt. agencies and to surrender the Black Hills

• In the late 1870’s, the army crushed brief resistance by Chief Joseph’s Nez Perce and Chief Dull Knife’s northern Cheyennes

“Saving” the Indians

• Humanitarian reformers in the East began to cry out against govt. mistreatment of the Indians

• A Century of Dishonor– 1881– Helen Hunt Jackson– Called attention to the sorry record of the govt.

– Humanitarians wanted to break up the reservations and propel Native Americans into main stream society.

• Richard A. Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School on Pennsylvania

• Students were uprooted from families and tribes

• Students could only speak English and had to wear European dress

• Purpose was to reeducate Indian youth to a white outlook

“Saving” the Indians (cont.)

• These reformers thought the best way to end the injustice was to assimilate Indians quickly into mainstream white society

• Dawes Severalty Act– 1887– Ended collective tribal ownership of land

• Split the reservation into 160-acre farms– Assigned to the head of each Indian family

– Any remaining reservation land was sold to whites– At the end of 25 years, the Indians were to receive full title

to their farms and U.S. citizenship

“Saving” the Indians (cont.)

• The Dawes Act– Was supported by well-intentioned reformers and

whites that only wanted the Indian land• The govt. also attempted to suppress tribal

languages and culture• The new policies proved disastrous for most Indians• By 1934, the total acreage owned by Indians had

fallen by 65%– What was left was too dry or infertile to be farmed

The Ghost Dance and the End of Indian Resistance on the Great Plains, 1890

• Desperate because of their plight, the Sioux and other tribes turned to the Ghost Dance movement

• The army’s decision to stop the Ghost Dance movement led:– to the death of Sitting Bull– The last battles between whites and Indians– The 1890 Wounded Knee massacre of 300 Sioux

• Sitting Bull’s cabin on the reservation became a meeting point for the Ghost Dance Movement

• Sitting Bull and his son are killed when Indian policemen try to arrest him.

• This is followed by the massacre of 300 Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

Consequences of Reservations

• Plains Indians abandoned the nomadic way of life and their culture crushed.

• Plains Indians became dependent on government for survival.

• By 1900 the Plains Indian population had shrunk from 250,000 to about 100,000.

• Population since has grown.

Transcontinental Railroad

• Transcontinental Railroad built by two companies.

• Central Pacific began in California and was built mainly by Chinese immigrants.

• The Union Pacific started in Missouri and was built by Irish immigrants.

• Other Americans joined in including African-Americans and Mexican-Americans.

Transcontinental Railroads

• The U.S. government granted land and money for each mile built. States also ceded land to the railroads.

• The railroads recruited settlers by advertising the West as a garden of Eden and offering free transportation west.

• “Go west young man.” The west offered an opportunity for the young to own land.

• Millions of Americans moved west as did individuals from Eastern Europe, Germany, and the Ukraine.

• Immigrants were encouraged to grow cash crops such as wheat and corn.

Homesteading on the Great Plains

• Homestead Act– 1862– Helped to drawn settlers to the Great Plains– Provided free 160-acre farm to anyone who would

live on and improve it over a 5-year period. Had to build a 12 X 12 house.

– Especially attractive to immigrants from western and northern Europe

– Distributed 80 million acres of land to 400,000 families by 1900

Homesteading on the Great Plains (cont.)

• The most valuable western land ended up in the hands of railroads, land speculators, lumber companies, and big ranchers. Only 1 acre in 9 went to pioneers.

• In the dry West, 160 acres was not enough to grow crops.

• Homesteading pioneers on the Great Plains had to cope with major trials:– Isolation– Backbreaking work– Extreme weather conditions – less than 20” of rain per year– Living in sod houses due to the lack of trees for lumber

New States

• As more people moved West, communities grew.

• Once enough people were in a territory, the territory petitioned Congress for statehood, drew up a Constitution and applied for admittance to the Union. Between 1861 and 1912, 14 states joined the Union.

• New states did support women’s suffrage. Wyoming was first to allow women to vote in local elections. Idaho, Utah, and Colorado followed.

The Grange

• To help each other in times of need, under the leadership of Oliver Kelley, farmers formed the “Patrons of Husbandry” or the Grange.

• This organization offered education, emotional support, and fellowship to farmers.

• The Grange arranged social gatherings.• The Grange negotiated special discounts for members on

supplies, equipment, and grain storage (a Co-operative).• The Grange lobbied state lawmakers to fight the railroads

who overcharged farmers.

The Grange• The railroads went to the Supreme Court• In Munn v. Illinois, the court ruled against the railroad

allowing Illinois to fix a maximum price for grain storage.

• In Wabash V. Illinois the court prohibited states from setting interstate railroad rates.

• Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act and set up the Interstate Commerce Commission to set rates.

• The Grange lost economic and political power as farmers quit supporting it. Does set the stage for agrarian protests in the 1880s and 1890s.

Southwestern Borderlands

• After the Mexican War, American ranchers and settlers in the Southwest took over the territorial governments. – Forced most of the Spanish-speaking population

off the land• The Mexican minority tended to become low-

paid day laborers– Faced discrimination and periodic violent attacks

Exploiting the Western Landscape

• The Mining Frontier– Mining booms in the West• 1849=CA Gold Rush

– 1850’s=Sierra, NV – New gold and silver strikes followed in several

states

The Mining Frontier (cont.)

• Each new discovery brought a rush of eager prospectors who believed in the get-rich-quick myth of the West

• Infamous boomtowns such as Virginia City, NV sprang up. It quickly grew almost overnight as people flocked to Comstock Lode.

• Hotels, mansions, saloons etc. were built. • Most quickly declined into ghost towns when

the mines were depleted

The Mining Frontier (cont.)

• A few individual prospectors got rich but not many.

• The people who supplied the equipment and supplies became rich.

• The real profits went to large mining companies backed by European and eastern capital.• Had the expensive equipment necessary to mine

the gold and silver deposits deep underground

Cowboys and the Cattle Frontier

• Open range cattle industry was successful:– Confinement of the Plains Indians on reservations– Construction of new stockyards at railheads

• Abilene, KS

• Railroad promoters enticed thousands of people to enter the business by predicting great profit and for a period of time open range ranchers became rich.– Ordinary cowboys did not make a profit

• Tended the cattle on the long drives to the railheads

Cowboys and the Cattle Frontier (cont.)

• Most cowboys were poorly paid young men• About 1/5 were black or Mexican• The industry declined rapidly after the winter

of 1885 – 1886 which destroyed many of the herds.

• Fencing in of the open range changed the cattle industry.

The Cattle Towns and Prostitutes

• The open-range cattle industry produced legendary trails like the Chisholm Trail which ended in cattle towns– Abilene, KS– Dodge City, KS

• These towns were generally less lawless and violent than they have been portrayed in novels, films, and TV

The End of the Frontier• The last major land grab was the Oklahoma

Land Rush in 1889.

• Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis said the closing of the frontier was the end of the first period in American history.

• Not so – more land would be settled in the 20th century than the 19th century.

Saving the environment• John Muir campaigned for preservation of

the west.• His actions led to the establishment of

Yellowstone National Park and the Sierra Club.

Bonanza Farms

• Speculators Believed that enormous profits could be made in large-scale wheat growing– the late 1870’s and the 1880’s– established ten-thousand-acre farms– invested heavily in the latest equipment

chapter 17: the trans-mississippi west 1. how and why did native americans life on the great plains...

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