Wild West and The Indian Menace

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Wild West and The Indian Menace

• Eric Churus
• Ch 14 Sec 1, 2, 3

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MOVING WEST
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Development of the West
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Why People Went WestPush-Pull Factors

• Push Factors
• Civil war
• East farmland was costly
• Entrepreneurs seeking second chance
• Ethnic Religious freedom
• Shelter for outlaws

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Why they leftPush-Pull Factors

• Pull Factors (Government)
• Pacific Railway Acts
• 1862 1864
• Gave RR 10 sq miles of track per mile laid
• Morrill Land-Grant Act
• Give state government land in west to sell
• Money raised goes toward formation of AM college
• Most land bought by land speculators
• Homestead Act
• Citizens buy 160 acres for small price

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New Groups Move West

• Germans
• Seeking farmland
• Settled from Texas to upper Missouri River
• Brought Lutheranism and emphasis on hard work and
  education
• Scandinavian
• Lutheran
• Settled northern plains
• Dairy farming
• Some groups settled in west coast cities
• Eventually went to the interior for work
• Mexican
• ranching

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African Americans

• Moved west after Civil War
• Walked and rode
• Exodusters
• Lead by Benjamin Pap Singleton
• Southern blacks making a mass Exodus inspired by
  the bible
• Approximately 50,000 people
• Some black migrants sought "conductors" to make
  travel arrangements for them. These conductors
  would often ask for money in advance and not show
  up at the appointed departure time, leaving
  migrants stranded at docks and train stations1

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Exodusters
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The Shrinking Frontier

• Developments
• Settlements about every 10 miles
• Town to city at rapid pace
• Problems
• Lands already occupied by Native Americans

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CONFLICT
WITH
INDIANS
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Native American Background

• Lived on the Great Plains
• Main source of supplies were buffalo
• With the introduction of horses many sedentary
  groups became nomadic

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Government Policy

• Treaties
• Tried to restrict movement
• Bought land for little money
• Restricted Native Americans to reservations
• Treaties produced misunderstandings and fraud
• Some treaty makers sought bribes or used violence
  until tribes signed
• Signers did not know they were restricted to
  reservation lands
• Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Manage delivery of critical supplies to
  reservations
• Very corrupt

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Indian Lands Ceded
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Frustration Builds

• Causes
• Settlers
• Stole land
• Killed buffalo
• Diverted water
• Attacked Indian camps
• Feel they were tricked by the government
• Government stopped making treaties and recognized
  no more chiefs

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Battle Statistics

• US
• Hit and run tactics
• Pitted Indian groups against each other

• Indian
• Fought on own turf
• Alliances with other groups
• Bought guns from settlers

• Problems faced by US
• Majority of soldiers in south supervising
  reconstruction
• Lack of supplies
• Shifting battle lines as towns developed

• Problems faced by Indians
• Disease
• Lack of food
• Lack of shelter

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The Sand Creek Massacre 1864

• Cause Cheyenne raids on wagon trains and
  settlements
• Events
• Colorados governor took advantage of peace
  campaign by Black Kettle
• Promised protection to chiefs if camp at Sand
  Creek
• Colonel Chivington attacked on Nov. 29
• 150-500 people slaughtered
• Result
• Cheyenne agree to move to reservation

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Battle of Little Bighorn 1876

• Cause
• Sioux resistance to Bozeman trail through
  territory
• Gold found in the Sioux Black Hills
• Events
• Custer sent to round up Indians
• Met 2,000 warriors
• Sioux defeated Custers Army
• Result
• Army came in a forced Sioux to reservation

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Buffalo Bills Rodeo Depicting the Death of
General Custer
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Battle/Massacre of Wounded Knee 1890

• Cause
• Practice of Ghost Dance
• Events
• Arrest of Sitting bull who when hesitated was
  killed
• Followers rounded up at Wounded Knee Creek
• While being disarmed shot was fired
• Soldiers opened fire
• Result
• 200 Sioux dead
• Last episode of violence in Indian Wars

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(No Transcript)
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Ghost Dance Garments
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Scenes from Wounded Knee
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Attempts to Change Indian Culture

• Goal is to make civilized
• Give up traditions, learn English, adopt
  Christianity, adopt white dress, and farm or
  learn a trade
• Assimilation
• United States Indian Training and Industrial
  School
• Children taken from reservation to attend
• Dawes Act
• Separated reservations into plots
• Each family received a plot and granted
  citizenship
• Hoped to make farmers

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End Results

• April 22, 1889 homesteaders line up at territory
  border to stake a claim
• People called boomers or sooners
• Oklahoma territory 1890 created
• Native Americans Conquered
• Over 1,000 battles
• 950 American deaths
• Countless Native American deaths
• Millions of Native Americans on reservations

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MINING
RANCHING
FARMING
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Mining

• Major strikes
• Comstock Lode
• Denver
• Homestake Mine in the Black Hills of Dakota
• Mining Towns
• Small strikes spurred tent cities
• Large strikes led to towns and cities
• Once gold ran out peopled abandoned towns

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Mining

• Early Mining
• Done by small groups or individuals
• Panning for gold in streams
• Placer mining
• Led to development of mining towns

• Later Mining
• Done by corporations
• Went for deep veins of gold
• Large work crews

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Cattle Boom

• Causes
• Millions of cattle roaming land after civil war
• Demand for beef over pork by public
• Development of refrigerated railcars
• Destruction of the buffalo
• Cow Towns
• Abilene, Kansas first
• Sprang up along railroads
• Settled by farmers to produce law and order

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Cowboys

• Used Chisholm Trail
• Moved cows from farmland in southern Texas to the
  Cow Towns of Kansas
• Dangers
• Raids by Native Americans
• Crossing the Red River
• Stampede
• Life
• Up at 330 moving by 400
• 25 - 60 per month
• 18 hours in the saddle

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Cattle Barons and the End of the Boom

• Barons
• Wealthy ranchers who ran huge operations
• Owned 100,000 cattle
• Often cowboys who struck it out on their own
• End of the Boom
• Mid 1880s
• over expansion, price declines, cold winter, dry
  summers, and cattle fever

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End of a Cattle Drive
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Role of Glaciers
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Farming

• Most got land through Homestead Act
• Hardships
• No trees for home
• Plowing the land
• Bug attacks on crops
• Falling crop prices
• Families
• Mens work
• Plowing
• Planting
• Havervesting

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Frontier Homes
Dugout
Soddy
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Farming

• Families cont
• Womens work
• Raise and educate children
• Cook and clean
• Make and wash clothes
• Technology
• Dry farming
• Machines
• Development of the Department of Agriculture
• Collected statistics on markets, crops, and plant
  diseases
• Inform about crop rotation, hybridization, and
  soild and water conservation

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Farming

• Big Business
• Owners of large farms wanted to supply food for
  east
• Applied industrial ideas to farming
• Created bonanza farms
• Problems
• Technology and bonanza farming created an
  overabundance of food
• Caused a drop in price

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Summing Up

• Manifest Destiny Achieved
• Sea to Sea
• Indians
• Relocated and restricted to reservations
• Forced to assimilate into American culture
• The West
• No longer the wild frontier
• Ranching and farming dominate