the great west beckons land west of the mississippi river inhabited by: –native americans...
TRANSCRIPT
The Great West Beckons• Land west of the Mississippi
River• Inhabited by:
– Native Americans (360,000)
– Buffalo, wild horses, coyotes
• By 1890, the “frontier” was closed– Carved into states or territories
• Clashes between the Americans and Natives resulted over the land
Reservation System
• Indian Appropriations Act (1851): authorized the establishment of reservations
• Reservation treaties signed with tribes
– Promised food, clothing, supplies, & that they would be left alone
• Boundaries were established for each tribe– Mainly in the Dakota territory &
Oklahoma• Movement did not go well
Resistance• Known collectively as the “Indian Wars”
• Sand Creek (1864): 400 Native Americans massacred under a flag of peace
• Little Big Horn [Custer’s Last Stand] (1876): Sioux wiped out Custer’s army
• Nez Perce resisted from Oregon
• Apache led by Geronimo (AZ & NM)
• Wounded Knee (1890): Sioux Ghost Dancers massacred by the army
• Hurt more by the destruction of the buffalo
American Sympathy• Helen Hunt Jackson A Century of Dishonor (1881)
– Chronicled the government’s record of dealing with the Indians
– Awoke some sympathy
• Dawes Severalty Act (1887): ended reservation system in favor of individual plots of land– Each family head given 160 acres– Had to become like the whites to fully own– Tried to undo the idea of the “tribe” that was sacred to
N.A. culture
• Reversed by Indian Reorganization Act (1934)
Prospecting• Mineral rich areas first to be
settled
• Discovery of a mineral deposit spurred migration
• Began after CA Gold Rush
• Prospectors: people
searching for minerals– Zinc, tin, silver, lead,
copper
Mining Centers• Corporate Mining became
the norm• Needed large amounts of
capital to get beyond the surface
• Explosives, Compressed Air, or Diamond headed rotary drills
• Anaconda Copper Mining Company the largest– Telegraph Wires
– Telephone Wires
– Electric Wires
Boom to Ghost Towns• Towns would grow overnight around a mineral
deposit
• Would disappear overnight when the mine went dry
• Mining did not create permanent settlements in the West
Calico, CACalico, CACalico, CACalico, CA St. Elmo, COSt. Elmo, COSt. Elmo, COSt. Elmo, CO
The Open Range• Slaughter of the buffalo made way for the cattle
industry
• Over 5 million longhorns
at the end of the Civil War
• Potential plentiful beef
supply for the east
• Spread of the RR (& refrigerated
car) made this possible
• Late 1860’s cattle became big money
Texas Longhorn
The Cattle Trails• Long Drive:
– Driving herds through the Plains to a railroad terminal
• Cowboys– The Drivers (1/300-500
cattle)– Lifestyle was romanticized– Paid low wages, harsh
conditions– Very diverse group
Cow Towns• Cow towns were where the long drives ended
• Full of gambling halls, saloons, dance halls, and brothels
• Prostitution & drinking
were common
• Discouraged stable
communities
• Crime was high– Wild Bill Hickok & Wyatt Earp famous sheriffs– Most serious was horse theft & cattle rustling
Challenges to the Long Drive• Range Wars
– 1870’s fight between sheepherders
& cattlemen over the land
• Barbed wire– Invented by Joseph Glidden
in 1874– Farmers used to enclose land
• Droughts & Blizzards– 1885-1887 combo killed 90%
of herds
The Results• End of the long drive by the 1890’s
• Relatively short lived phenomenon
• Corporate ranching developed– Ranchers enclosed land to control the herds and keep
them healthy
Homestead Act (1862)• Settlers given 160 acres
of land – Live there for 5 years &
improve it and it is free– Pay $1.25/acre after 6
months
• Only 10% of all farmers got their land this way
• Most bought their land to be close to transportation & markets
Settlement• Increased migration
during 1870’s & 1880’s
• Not just Americans, but also Europeans
• Will rapidly settle the “Great American Desert”– From the Great Plains
to the CA deserts
• By 1890, only 4 territories left
Railroad Construction• Key to opening the West
– Promoted
Settlement– Brought people
to new homes– Carried crops to
the East
Railroad Construction
Frontier Settlements 1870-1890
Land Rushes• Open land was opened for homesteading in the late
1880’s and early 1890’s
• Bought a claim from the government and then lined up and rushed to claim their land
The Dream• Promoted with descriptions like “carpeted with soft
grass – a sylvan paradise”
The Reality• Harsh climate and arid
soil• Isolated farms
• Nearly half of all homesteaders failed and left
The Grange Movement• Fraternal organization that encouraged families to
work together began to form in 1867
• Organized in the Midwest, the south, and Texas
• Set up cooperative associations with social and educational components
• Succeeded in lobbying for “Granger Laws”– Regulate prices of the RRs– Munn v. Illinois (1877)
• SC gave states the power to regulate privately owned business (grain elevators)
Farm Machinery• Agricultural productivity and the survival of the
farmers on the Plains depended on new technology– (remember the 2nd IR is occurring in the East)
Harvester
Thresher
New AgriculturalTechnology
New AgriculturalTechnology
““Prairie Fan”Prairie Fan”Water PumpWater Pump
Steel Plow Steel Plow [“Sod Buster”][“Sod Buster”]
Barbed Barbed WireWire
Results of Machinery• 1875: 1 farmer could grow a max of 8 acres of wheat• 1890: 1 farmer could grow 135 acres of wheat
Wheat 61 hours 3 hours $3.55 $0.66
Corn 39 hours 15 hours 3.62 1.51
Oats 66 hours 7 hours 3.73 1.07
Hay 21 hours 4 hours 1.75 0.42
Crop Machine
Hand Machine
Hand
Time Worked
Labor Cost
Global Farming• Farmers from 1870’s on farming to trade on a global
market
• On the Plains, production of wheat prospered– became the “World’s Breadbasket”
• Not all were prosperous– Start up costs very high– Crop yields not guaranteed– Many remained in debt for decades
• Small farms gave way to corporate farms by turn of the century
Price Indexes for Price Indexes for Consumer & Farm Consumer & Farm
Products: 1865-1913Products: 1865-1913
Price Indexes for Price Indexes for Consumer & Farm Consumer & Farm
Products: 1865-1913Products: 1865-1913
End of the Frontier• By 1890, the Census Bureau declared the end
of the frontier lineHomesteads from Public Lands
Toll on the Land
• Inland water sources became hotly contested
• Destroyed the natural flora– Forests depleted– Natural grasslands that held the soil down disappeared
• Major problem in the 1930’s!!!
• Destroyed animal life– Buffalo hunted to extinction– Grizzly Bears vastly reduced in number– Wolves reduced to near extinction
Conservation Movement
• Those that wanted to preserve nature
• Will push for the creation of national parks to protect land from businesses/industrialists
• John Muir was a leading conservationist
Muir with Muir with President President Theodore Theodore RooseveltRoosevelt
National Parks• A reserve of land owned by the national
government
• 1st park established at Yellowstone in 1872