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.”

Clash of Cultures

Native Americans – Savages??? Settlers – Greedy Conquers???

                           

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

Wheat Belt

Steel Tools/Machinery

1880’s U.S. largest wheat exporter

MortgagesDroughts$$$$$$

Oklahoma Land Rush 1889

U.S Government– Open land for

settlement in Oklahoma

– Stake claim– Free land

10,000 people– Within hours

“The Last Frontier”Oklahoma Map – open land

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