Chapter 17THE WEST:

EXPLOITING AN EMPIRE

America Past and Present

Beyond the Frontier

• 1840: Settlement to Missouri timber country • Eastern Plains have rich soil, good rainfall• For first 2/3 of 19th century, Americans

believed the land west of the Mississippi River to be uninhabitable ~ “Great American Desert”

• High Plains, Rockies semi-arid• Most pre-Civil War settlers head directly for

Pacific Coastp.482-483

Physiographic Map of the U.S.

p.482

Crushing the Native Americans

• 1865: Nearly 250k Indians in western US• Displaced Eastern Indians• Native Plains Indians

• By the 1880s • Most Indians on reservations• California Indians decimated by disease

carried by whites during 1849 Gold Rush

• By the 1890s Indian cultures crumble p.483

Life of the Plains Indians:Political Organization

• Plains Indians nomadic, hunt buffalo• Skilled horsemen (brought by Spanish during the

1500s) ~ Changed their lives ~ After the buffalo, the horse was most important

• Tribes develop warrior class • Wars limited to skirmishes, "counting coups"

• Tribal bands governed by chief & council • Different tribes communicated through the use

of a highly developed sign languagep.483-484

Life of the Plains Indians: Social Organization

• Sexual division of labor• Men hunt, trade, supervise ceremonial

activities, clear ground for planting• Women responsible for child rearing, art,

camp work, gardening, food preparation

• Equal gender status common• Among Sioux, there was little difference in

status. Each respected for his/her skillsp.484-485

“As Long as Waters Run”:Searching for an Indian Policy

• Indian Intercourse Act of 1834 excludes any white from Indian country without a license

• Land regarded as Indian preserve• 1851 ~ Assigned definite boundaries to each

tribe• Sioux ~ Dakota country north of Platte River• Crow ~ Area near Powder River

• Many Native Americans refused to stay in their assigned lands & settlers poured into Indian lands

p.485

Native Americans in the West: Major Battles & Reservations

p.485

“As Long as Waters Run”: Searching for an Indian Policy

• Cheyenne & Arapaho battled w/ gold miners in Colorado. Tired of fighting, they asked for peace & were moved to Sand Creek

• COL John Chivington leading a group of CO militia massacred sleeping men, women, & children ~ The Sand Creek Massacre• Gave orders to “kill & scalp all, big & little”

• Many protested & Congress appointed an investigating committee, but Indians were, nonetheless, moved elsewhere p.485-486

“As Long as Waters Run”: Searching for an Indian Policy

• Sioux War of 1865–1867 ~ Sioux revolted, again over gold miners.• Govt announced it planned to connect the gold camps with the

Bozeman Trail• Chief Red Cloud, was determined to stop the trail

• Dec 1866 ~ When pursed by an army column under CPT Wm Fetterman, Red Cloud lured the group into an ambush & killed all 82 soldiers.

• Debate over Indian policy• Humanitarians want to “civilize” Indians• Others want firm control and swift reprisal

• Humanitarians win with "small reservation" policy• Dakota & Oklahoma Territories p.485-486

Final Battles on the Plains• Small reservation policy fails

• Young warriors refuse restraint• White settlers encroach on Indian lands

• Final series of wars suppress Indians• Nov 1869 ~ Battle of the Washita, Roger Mills County,

OK ~ NW of Elk City near Cheyenne• Indians had been raiding settlers in KS, CO, TX• Chief Black Kettle killed

• 1876 ~ Little Big Horn, Montana: LTC Geo A. Custer & his 265 men killed by 2,500 Sioux warriors (largest Indian force ever assembled) ~ Crazy Horse & Sitting Bull

• Custer’s Last Stand ~ Greatest NA victory over the US Army

p.486-487

The End of Tribal Life• Sioux War ended major Indian warfare in the

West• 1887: Dawes Severalty Act

• Destroys communal ownership of Indian land• Gives small farms to each head of a family• Indians who leave tribes become U.S. citizens

• Extermination of buffalo deals devastating blow to Plains Indians

• 1900 = 250k Native Americans• 1492 = 5M• Once possessors of the entire continent, they had

been pushed into smaller & smaller areas & their way of life destroyed p.490-491

Settlement of the West• Unprecedented settlement 1870–1900

• 430M acres settled • Most move west in an attempt to

improve their lot• Things were good in the West

• Rising population drives demand for Western goods• Migration was heaviest during economic

prosperity

p.492

Men & Women on the Overland Trail

• First great movement west was aimed at California & Oregon• Gold Rush of 1849• Overland Trail ~ Usually a family migration

• Started from various points along the Missouri River in the early spring & hoped to get through Rockies before the first snowfall ~ Donner Party

• Under the best of conditions, the trip took 6 months (16 hrs/day)• Common sight was piles of trash, abandoned

wagons, furniture, clothing, etc.p.492-493

Land for the Taking:Federal Incentives

• 1860–1900: Federal Land Grants • 48 million acres granted under Homestead Act• 100 million acres sold to private individuals,

corporations• 128 million acres granted to railroad companies

• Congress offered incentives to development• Timber Culture Act of 1873 ~ Claim 160 acres if you will plant

trees on ¼ of it in 4 yrs ~ Fairly successful• Desert Land Act of 1877 ~ 640 acres at $1.25/acre if irrigated

within 3 yrs ~ Hired hands bought for ranchers (fraud)• Timber & Stone Act of 1878 ~ Land “unfit for cultivation” offered

for $2.5/acre ~ Lumber company fraud p.493-494

Land for the Taking:Speculators & Railroads

• Most land acquired by wealthy investors• Speculators send agents to stake out

best land for high prices• River bottoms, irrigable areas, control water

• As beneficiaries of govt’s policy of land grants, railroads were largest landowners• Recruited buyers from the East & Europe

• Arranged transportation, credit, farming lessonsp.494

Land for the Taking:Water & Development

• Water scarcity limits Western growth• Much of the West receives less than 20

inches of rainfall annually• People speculate in water as in gold

• 1902 ~ Newlands Act: Set aside proceeds from the sale of public lands in 16 western states to finance irrigation in arid (dry) states• Canals, dams, irrigation systems developed

p.494-495

Territorial Government

• New areas were organized into territories under Congress & President• Pres appointed governors & judges, Cong

detailed their duties & set budgets ~ These were very powerful positions

• Good source of jobs for deserving politicians

• Territorial experience produces unique Western political culture

p.495

The Spanish-Speaking Southwest

• Pushing north from Mexico, the Spanish gradually established the present day economic structure of the Southwest• Cattle raising, mining, irrigated farming

• 1880s ~ ¼ of LA County was Spanish speaking & Spanish remained the majority ethnic group in NM until 1940

• Strong Roman Catholic influencep.495-496

Chapter 17THE WEST:

EXPLOITING AN EMPIRE

America Past and Present

2/3 Point

The Bonanza West• Quest to “get rich quick” produces

• Uneven growth• Boom-and-bust economic cycles• Wasted resources• ”Instant cities" like San Francisco, Salt

Lake City, & Denver most spectacular examples

• Took Boston 200 yrs to get 1M people, SF did it in 20.

p.496

The Mining Bonanza

• Mining first attraction to the west• Mining frontier moves from west to east

• Individual prospectors remove surface gold• Big corporations move in with the heavy,

expensive mining equipment

• VA City, Nevada ~ Comstock Lode• Produced $306M

• 1874–1876: Black Hills rush overruns Sioux hunting grounds p.496-497

Mining Regions of the West

p.498

Mining Bonanza: Camp Life

• Camps sprout up with each strike• Camps governed by simple democracy • Men outnumber women two to one• Most men, some women work claims• Most women earn wages as cooks,

housekeepers, & seamstressesp.498

Mining Bonanza:Ethnic Hostility

• 25–50% of camp citizens were foreign-born

• French, Latin Americans, Chinese hated• 1850: California Foreign Miner's Tax

drives foreigners out• $20/month license fee

• 1882: Federal Chinese Exclusion Act suspends Chinese immigration for 10 years p.498

Mining Bonanza: Effects of the Mining Boom

• Contributed millions to economy• Helped finance Civil War, industrialization• Relative value of silver & gold change• Early statehood for Nevada, Idaho,

Montana• Left scars

• Invaded Indian reservations• Pitted hills• Ghost towns p.498-499

Gold from the Roots Up:The Cattle Bonanza

• The far was West ideal for cattle grazing• Cattle drives take herds from Texas to

rail heads in Kansas ~ “Trail Drive”• Conceived by Joseph G. McCoy “The Real”

• Trains take herds to Chicago for processing ~ Longhorns hardy breed

• Profits enormous for large ranchers• Cowboys work long hours for little pay

• Approx 50% were Af Ams & Mexican p.499-500

Cattle Trails

p.501

Gold from the Roots Up:The Cattle Bonanza

• By 1880 wheat farmers begin fencing range

• Mechanical improvements in slaughtering, refrigerated transportation,& cold storage modernize the industry

• 1886 ~ Thousands of cattle die in harsh winter trapped by barbed wire

• Some ranchers switched to sheep p.500-501

Sodbusters on the Plains:The Farming Bonanza

• 1870–1890 farm population triples on plains

• African American “Exoduster” farmers migrate from the South to escape racism• Experienced prejudice, but not as bad

• Water, building materials scarce & expensive

• Sod houses common first dwelling p.502-503

New Farming Methods

• Barbed wire allows fencing without wood• Invented by Joseph F. Glidden, an Illinois

farmer ~ 1883: produced 600 mi/day• Dry farming: Deeper tilling, use of mulch• New strains of wheat resistant to frost• 1885–1890: Droughts ruin farms• Farm technology improved production

• Smooth surface plow (1877), spring tooth harrow (1869), grain drill (1874)

• Small-scale farming adopted p.503-504

Farm Discontent• Sources of discontent

• Weather problems (droughts)• Declining crop prices• Rising rail rates• Heavy mortgages

• The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was founded as a social, cultural & educational organization• Although banned, evolved into a quasi-political

organization ~ Other organizations followed• Trans-Mississippi farmers become more

commercial, scientific, productivep.504-505

Agricultural Land Use ~ 1880s

p.505

The Final Fling

• 22 April 1889: Oklahoma opened for final settlement on the frontier• Nearly 100k people lined up• One day ~ 12k homesteads, 1.92M acres

• OKC ~ 10k• Guthrie ~ 15k

p.506

The Meaning of the West• Historians differ in their interpretation of

the American frontier experience • Frederick Jackson Turner ~ U of Wisconsin

historian (1893) wrote that westward movement shaped customs & character; gave rise to independence, self confidence & individualism.

• Later historians have added that family & community loomed as large as individualism on the frontier

• A multicultural event p.506-507

Chapter 17THE WEST:

EXPLOITING AN EMPIRE

America Past and Present

End