Westward Expansion

Great Plains

Vast grasslands between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains

Before 1850 it was home to 10 million Native Americans and 60 million buffalo

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Great Plains

Great Plains

During and after the Civil War, the federal government wanted to encourage westward settlement.

How could people be persuaded to move to “the Great American

Desert” ?

Factors

Negative conditions that pushed people to move away from their homeland to a different region

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Examples of Push FactorsWhat would make someone want to leave

the East or the South?

Loss of land and homes in the South during Civil War

Shortage of land in the East (too expensive) Business failure in the East or South Religious persecution (Mormons) Trouble with the law

Pull Factors

Positive conditions that pulled or attracted people to move elsewhere by their own choice

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Examples of Pull Factors What would attract someone to the West?

Free land from the government – Homestead Act

Job opportunities – mining, cattle ranching, farming

Adventure- cowboys, mountain men

Pacific Railway Acts (1862/64)U.S. government gave RR companies land in

exchange for building the western railroads.Law signed by Lincoln during the Civil War175 million acres were given to the RR’s.RR’s sold this land to settlers to pay for the

construction of the rails.RR’s made over $500 million in profit.

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Land Grants to RailroadsLand Grants to Railroads

Railroad and government lands formed a checker-board pattern Railroad and government lands formed a checker-board pattern as the land was given in alternating one-square-mile sections. as the land was given in alternating one-square-mile sections.

Land SpeculatorsMuch of the land was bought by speculators who bought it from the railroads and then sold it to individual settlers at huge profits.

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Morrill Land-Grant Act (1862)

Also signed by Lincoln during the Civil War The federal government gave state

governments millions of acres of western lands to be use for colleges

The colleges were to specialize in agriculture and mechanical arts.

Agriculture and Mechanical College of Texas (now called Texas A & M)

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Homestead Act (1862)The federal government granted 160 acre sections of western land for a $10 fee.In order to receive a permanent deed the applicants had to

farm the land for at least 5 yearsbe 21 years old or the head of a householdbe an America citizen (or applying)build a house on the land (12’ x 14’)live on the land 6 months every year

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So how did westward

migration impact Native Americans of the Great Plains

Indian Removal Policy• 1830 - Indian Removal Act (Andrew

Jackson) moved 5 eastern tribes across Mississippi into “Indian Territory” (Okla.)

• 1860’s - “Removal” would also become the official government policy for the Great Plains tribes

ReservationsFederal land set aside (reserved) for Native Americans

The goal was to “civilize” Native Americans by forcing them to farm the land rather than hunt.

Meanwhile white settlers took Native American ancestral land for farming or mining.

They were forced to remain on these lands by treaties they usually could not read and did not understand.

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Indian Reservations in 1885

B. I. A.Bureau of Indian Affairs

Part of the U. S. Department of the Interior

Managed delivery of food and supplies to the reservations

Usually corrupt workers- stole supplies and sold them for their own profit while Indians starved

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So if YOU were a Native American, forced off your land, and moved onto a reservation, where your

children were dying from disease, cold, and starvation . . .How might you respond

VIOLENCE

So begin the great “Indian Wars” of the

19th Century

The Great Plains Indian Wars

1862 – The Dakota War (Minnesota)1864 – Sand Creek Massacre (Colorado)1876 – Battle of Little Big Horn (Montana)1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre (S. Dakota)

The Cheyenne Tribeand the Sand Creek

Massacre1864

Sand Creek Massacre

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864 In 1851, the Cheyenne and 6 other tribes

had been allotted land in Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas.

1858 – Gold was discovered in Colorado. 1861 -The government wrote a new treaty,

reducing the size of the reservation (1/13th as large).

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864 Many Cheyenne refused to abide by the

new treaty and continued to hunt in the old territory.

The military called these Indians “hostile” and began attacking Cheyenne camps in 1864.

Chief Black Kettle wanted peace and met with the territorial governor John Evans.

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864The governor told Black Kettle to lead

his people to Sand Creek south of Denver where they could hunt and be safe from the military.

Black Kettle flew an American flag over his teepee.

Black

Kettle

Cheyenne Chief

Wanted peace

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864 Then the governor told Col. John Chivington

where he could find Black Kettle’s band. He led 700 soldiers to attack the camp early

in the morning while they slept. About 150 (mostly women and children)

were slaughtered and mutilated. Their scalps and body parts (including

unborn fetuses) were displayed in Denver theaters and saloons as trophies of war.

Colonel John ChivingtonMethodist Minister

Abolitionist

Indian Killer

“Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! . . .

I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians.”

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864The aftermath: Most of the chiefs who had advocated peace with

the whites died in the massacre. Younger war-like chiefs took control and led 1000

“Dog Soldiers” on a campaign of revenge in 1865. The clan structure of the Cheyenne was destroyed

and they eventually moved to reservations in the Black Hills of Dakota.

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864The aftermath: The event was investigated by the military and a

Congressional committee. No charges were ever brought against Chivington

and his men.

Sand Creek Massacre Memorial

Sand Creek Phantoms

Video: The Cheyenne and the Sand Creek Massacre

12:00

Did the Native Americans ever win any battles in the

“Indian Wars”

The Lakota Tribe and the Massacre at

Wounded Knee1890

The Ghost DancePurification ritual performed by

many plains tribesBelieved the ritual would restore

their traditional way of life

The Ghost DanceDancers joined hands and

danced in a circle.Sometimes they danced for days

until they fell “dead” and saw visions of their dead ancestors.

continued

The Ghost Dance Dancers wore a “Ghost Shirt” - a

sacred costume made of white cotton painted with symbols.

Lakota believed the shirt protected them from the white man’s bullets.

A Ghost Shirt

The Ghost Dance as described by a Lakota Sioux witness

“ They danced without rest, on and on . . . Occasionally someone thoroughly exhausted and dizzy fell unconscious into the center and lay there “dead” . . . After a while, many lay about in that condition. They were now “dead” and seeing their dear ones . . . The visions . . . ended the same way, like a chorus describing a great encampment of all the Dakotas who had ever died,

The Ghost Dance as described by a Lakota Sioux witness

where . . . there was no sorrow but only joy, where relatives thronged out with happy laughter. . . The people went on and on and could not stop, day or night, hoping . . . to get a vision of their own dead. . . And so I suppose the authorities did think they were crazy – but they were not. They were only terribly unhappy.”

The Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance

Wounded Knee Massacre 1890

Sitting Bull now back on the South Dakota Reservation encouraged the Lakota Sioux to practice the Ghost Dance ritual.

The ritual frightened whites who thought the Indians were preparing for war.

Wounded Knee Massacre The 7th Cavalry was sent to arrest Sitting

Bull. They shot and killed him. His followers - 120 men and 230 women

and children - were rounded up at a creek called Wounded Knee.

As the Indians were being disarmed, a gun went off. Soldiers began firing and killed over 200 Lakota.

Encampment at Wounded Knee

The Dead of Wounded Knee

Chief Big Foot

dead at Wounded

Knee

Medicine Man Dead at Wounded Knee

Collecting the Frozen Dead at Wounded Knee

Mass Burial at Wounded Knee

Gate to Wounded Knee Memorial

Video: The Ghost Dance and the Massacre at Wounded Knee

9:30

The story of Wounded Knee has been told in a 1970 book by

historian, Dee Brown and a 2007 HBO movie. Both are called

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

What was the ultimate goal of the U.S. government concerning any

Native Americans that survived the Indian Wars

Assimilation

The process of making one society part of another. Usually the dominant society forces its culture and values on the subordinate culture.

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The Dawes Act - 1887 Divided reservation land into individual plots. Each Indian family was given 160 acres to farm. Any left over reservation land was given to

whites. The goal was to make Indians self-supporting and

make them believe in private property like Americans do.

The idea was offensive to most Indians and many sold their land to whites or were cheated out of it.

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