The Western Crossroads

Mr. Polomis

US History

Chapter 5

Native American Resistance (Sec 1)

Indian Country By 1850, 360,000 Native Americans lived west of the

Mississippi River Some were confined on reservations in Oklahoma. 1851 – The US gov’t promised the Sioux, Cheyenne, and

other tribes control of the plains with the Treaty of Fort Laramie In return the US got the right to build roads and forts;

Indians could not attack westward settlers The gov’t broke their end of the treaty 1000’s of non Indians went onto Indian territory in

search of mineral wealth and fertile land

Continued…

More Indians were forced to reservations The job of running the reservations fell into a gov’t

agency called the Bureau of Indian Affairs run through the War Dept.

Years of Struggle

Plains tribes fought back against the US army’s 20,000 soldiers 4,000 were African Americans nicknamed “Buffalo

soldiers” Sand Creek Massacre – 1864 Colorado Territory

Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle and his followers surrendered to the US gov’t

Colonel John Chivington attacked the Indian camp when the men were out hunting

The US gov’t killed some 200 Cheyenne women and children

Continued…

1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge and the 2nd Treaty of Fort Laramie made the Sioux and Plains Indians move to reservations

Sioux Resistance

US government wanted the Sioux’s sacred ground the Black Hills because gold was discovered there

Sioux leader sitting Bull urged his tribe to fight Crazy Horse joined the fight with Sitting bull

Made their camp with 2,000 men on the little Bighorn River

June 25, 1876 George Armstrong Custer attacked the Sioux tribe Less than an hour Custer and his battalion were

killed

The Ghost Dance

A Paiute holy man named Wovoka began a Ghost Dance religion on the reservation

Sioux living on the reservations began to wear “ghost shirts” designed to stop bullets

Some Sioux left the reservation and the U.S. Army were sent to capture them

The two sides met at Wounded Knee Creek 300 Native Americans were killed; 30 U.S. soldiers died * Wounded Knee Massacre was the last Indian Wars on

the Plains

Conflict in the Far West

Navajos Indians U.S. government destroyed their homes and

sheep herds were killed Were forced to Bosque Redono, a reservation in

eastern New Mexico This became known as the Long Walk

Nez Perces Indians

Lived in NE Oregon Were forced off their land and they tried to escape

to Canada Their leader was Chief Joseph and they were

captured 30miles from the Canadian border

Apache Indians

Fought reservation life in New Mexico and Arizona Their leader was Geronimo His surrender marked the end of armed resistance

to the reservation system

Rethinking Indian Policy People became outraged at the way Native Americans

were forced off their land and put on reservations Helen Hunt Jackson wrote a book A Century of

Dishonor about the govt broken promises Sarah Winnemucca – A Paiute Indian who wrote a

book Life Among the Piutes Govt officials tried to make Native Americans assimilate,

or adapt to “white” America Set up school and farms for Indians to attend Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania was

one example of a school

continued

Govt wanted Indians to give up tribal ownership of land in favor of private ownership

Congress passed the Dawes General Allotment Act in 1887 that established private ownership of Indian land

Section 2 Western Farmers and Cattle Ranchers

Economic Development of the West People moved west for free or cheap land

Homestead Act – gave 160 acres to any citizen willing to live on the Great Plains for 5 years

Pacific Railway Act – gave land to railroad companies to build a transcontinental railroad

Morrill Act – gave land to states to help finance agricultural colleges which would train young farmers

Continued…

Companies built 4 transcontinental railroads across the U.S.

3 groups of people moved west after the Civil War Easterners African Americans Immigrants from Europe and Asia Black settlers were known as Exodusters

(settled in Kansas)

Western Farms Few trees, built houses out of sod U.S. Dept of Agriculture helped farmers adapt to the

plains environment Their agents also taught dry farming techniques –

planting and harvesting methods that conserve moisture

New farm equipment also helped farming on the Plains Bonanza farms were created out west - Large scale

farms usually owned by a large company and run like a factory These farms were broken up in the 1890’s

because family farms were better at keeping the costs down.

The Cattle Boom New breed of cattle called a Texas Longhorn

Breed of Spanish and English cattle These cattle could survive long drives, treks of

hundreds of miles to a railhead – town along the railroad

Govt allowed ranchers to use common grazing land or open range farming

Cattle Boom ended because of… Overgrazing Invention of barbed wire (patented by Glidden) Bad weather on the Plains

Sec. 3 A Mining Boom

Gold was discovered in Colorado and Nevada Also discovered in Nevada was the Comstock

Lode- a rich silver vein that was the center of frantic prospecting

Miners in Arizona used the patio process- used mercury to extract silver from the ore.

Mining in the far North

Miners began to move to Canada, this made the country of Russia worry because they owned Alaska

1867- Russia offered to sell Alaska to the United States for about 2 cents an acre

Americans thought the purchase worthless and called it “Sewards Folly” – named after the Sec. of State Willard Seward

In 1896 gold was discovered in the Klondike area of Alaska

Mining Camps

Mining camps were dominated by men at first and violent, but with prosperity came families, community life and law and order

Example- Denver, Colorado

Mining as Big Business In order to get ore, miners used one of two methods Hydraulic mining- used water pressure to wash

away mountains of gravel and expose the minerals underneath

Hard rock mining- sinking deep shafts to get ore locked in veins of quartz

These methods were expensive, so big business dominated mining

Workers formed unions to protect working conditions

The environment suffered because miners were concerned with only getting rich.