settling the west 1859 boomtown –quick growth silver in nevada 30,000 people –almost...
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Settling the West
1859 Boomtown– Quick growth
Silver in Nevada30,000 people
– Almost overnight in Virginia City, Nevada
1864 Nevada - State$230 million
Gold Rush
1848 Gold discovered in California– Population under 1,000
Treaty with Mexico gives U.S.– California & Oregon– Manifest Destiny Complete
1849 over 100,000 in California
Peaks in 1852
Ranching/Cattle Drives & the Cowboy
Texas long-horns– Roaming the plains
Civil War– Increased demand for
beef
Drive cattle to rail lines in the North
Cowboys…Myth?
Vaqueros, Spanish word for “cowboys,” taught American cowboys their trade and enriched the English language with words of Spanish origin- “lariat,” “lasso,” and “stampede.”
Native American Culture
Spiritual– Revered the Land
• sacred• Common use• No private property
– Lived off the land• Buffalo
– Basic Needs– Central to life
• Rivers - mobile• Horse - mobile
Native American Culture
Pride in Culture– Meaning in items created
• Decorated
• Stories in Pictures
• Tools
– Language highly developed
Civil– Tribal Laws
– Leaders ruled by Counsel/Council
Settlers Culture
Opportunity– Private ownership of land
– Land plowed and fenced (improved)
– 1862 Homestead Act• Tract of public land available
for settlement
• 21 years old
• Free land - plowed
– Manifest Destiny
Access– Railroads
• Quick and efficient
• 1869 Transcontinental
Oklahoma Land Rush 1889
U.S Government– Open land for
settlement in Oklahoma
– Stake claim– Free land
10,000 people– Within hours
Disruption of Native American Culture and way of life
Decrease in hunting grounds
Forced to relocateReservationsRebelled
– Attacked wagon trains/settlements
– Refused to move
U.S. Gov’t v. Native Americans
1864 Sand Creek– Colorado
1876 Black Hills– Lakota Sioux
– Cheyenne
1876 Battle of Little Big Horn– Custer’s Last Stand
– 210 U.S. Calvary killed
“Our chiefs are killed….The little children are freezing to death. My people….have no blankets, no food…. 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 surrendering to General Oliver Howard at Bear Paw Mountain, MT in 1877
Chief Joseph
Ghost Dance
Out of desperation, many Native Americans found hope in the Ghost Dance. They believed the dance would make settlers disappear, buffalo return, and that Native Americans would reunite with their dead ancestors. Fearing violence, federal authorities banned the ceremonial dance in the 1880’s.
Tragedy at Wounded Knee
When a group of Lakota Ghost Dancers fled the reservation to dance in Dec. 1890, the U.S. Government sent troops to Wounded Knee Creek (South Dakota) to round them up. A deadly “battle” ensued where approximately 200 Lakota men, women and children were killed.
Burial Party
Chief Big Foot Frozen to DeathSlaughtered Lakota Sioux
7th Cavalry Hotchiss Gun
The Dawes Act 1887
Dawes Act or General Allotment Act,1887, passed by the U.S. Congress to provide for the granting of landholdings (allotments, usually 160 acres/65 hectares) to individual Native Americans, replacing communal tribal holdings. …Allotments could be sold after a statutory period (25 years), and “surplus” land not allotted was opened to settlers.
The Dawes Act was an attempt to assimilate, or absorb, Native Americans into American society by offering them a chance to be landowners. This meant dividing reservations into individual allotments where families could be self-supporting.
Failure of the Dawes Act
In the end, the assimilation policy proved a dismal failure. The Native Americans were doomed because they were dependent on buffalo for food, clothing, fuel, and shelter. When the herds were wiped out, Native Americans on the Plains had no way to sustain their way of life, and few adopted American settler’s lifestyles in place of their traditional cultures.
Navaho Tom Torlino
Before After