The Closing of the Western Frontier

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The Closing of the Western Frontier

• Out of Many
• Chapter 18

A lot of slides within this powerpoint were
created by Pamela Montague.
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Key Tensions
Buffalo HuntersRailroadsU. S. Government
Native Americans
Cattlemen
Sheep Herders
Farmers
Ranchers
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Key Tensions
EthnicMinorities
Nativists
Big Business InterestsLocal Govt.
OfficialsFarmersBuffalo Hunters
Environmentalists
Lawlessness of the Frontier
Civilizing Forces
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Plains Indians

• Nomads followed their food source
• buffalo, 12 to 15 million
• Horses made them better hunters and warriors
• Plains Wars, 1860-1890
• Fight to protect land and stop waste (buffalo)

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THE BUFFALO

• The buffalo or bison was an extremely important
  part of the plains peoples lives.
• They used virtually every part of the buffalo
  from the hide for clothing, to the stomach for
  holding water.
• At one time, an estimated 60 million buffalo
  roamed the plains of the present day United
  States and Canada.

A buffalo can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and live
as long as 30 years.
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U.S. Government Indian Policy

• Dept. of Interior in charge gross corruption
• Initial policy of CONCENTRATION
• Deal with each tribe individually to define
  territories
• Allegedly to stop intertribal warfare but
  actually to divide conquer
• By the 1860s, policy is one of confining all to
  reservations in Black Hills of SD, or OK
  Indians to become farmers on the reservations
• Indians received food, supplies in return for
  removal to reservations promise to be left
  alone
• INDIANS WAGED WAR!!
• Plains Wars last from 1860-1890
• Plains Indians are excellent warriors
• Sherman a mere 50 Indians could often
  checkmate 3000 U.S. soldiers.

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The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great Plains
1/5 of soldiers on frontier
The nickname was given to the "Negro Cavalry" by
the Native American tribes they fought the term
eventually became synonymous with all of the
African-American regiments formed in 1866
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SAND CREEK MASSACRE
Colonel John Chivington

• Colorado, Nov. 1864
• Cheyenne, under Chief Black Kettle, came to U.S.
  fort to negotiate
• Col. Chivington arrives at fort ignores
  attempts to negotiate
• Executes them all men, women children
• Much mutilation

Kill scalp all, big little!
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Battle of Little Bighorn

• Treaty of Fort Laramie granted Sioux the right
  to occupy Black Hills
• Gold found in Black Hills, DK, 1874
• Col. George A. Custer, 7th Calvary leads
  expedition of 264 soldiers
• Suppose to say that there wasnt much gold to be
  found
• Instead, said the opposite
• Sioux Cheyenne force of 2,500

• Custers Last Stand
• 1st major victory for Indians after a long series
  of defeats
• But, short-lived victory

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Chief Joseph I will fight no more forever!

• Reservation reduced by 90 after gold discovered
• 6 million acres at less than 10 cents/acre
• Flee towards Canadian border
• Surrender after 3 months 1700 miles..only 30
  miles from the Canadian border
• Told theyll be returned to ID, instead are sent
  to OK and 40 die of disease

Nez Percé tribal retreat (1877)
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Dawes Severalty Act (1887)Assimilation Policy

• Tribal lands split into allotments - each family
  160 acres
• Land cant be disposed of for 25 years
• After 25 yrs., would get citizenship ownership
  of land

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ASSIMILATION

• Attempt to have Indians become white and become
  part of white mans culture
• Boarding schools, like Carlisle School, PA
• Kill the Indian Save the Man!
• U.S. government tries to give them land and turn
  them into farmers
• Failed Indian culture was nomadic dont make
  good farmers

Apache children on arrival at the Carlisle Indian
School (Pennsylvania)
Apache children at the Carlisle School 4 months
later.
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Arapahoe Ghost Dance, 1890

• Prophet had vision
• If the Indian peoples learned to love each other,
  theyd have a special place in the afterlife
• The Sioux came to believe that when the day of
  judgment came, all Indian peoples who had ever
  lived would return to their lost world
• White people would vanish from the Earth
• White settlers saw this as a threat

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Battle of Wounded Knee

• Sioux fleeing reservation after Sitting Bull shot
• Rounded up by Army surrendered herded into
  Wounded Knee Army Camp
• Ghost Dance
• Army ordered to disarm Indians
• 190 unarmed Indians massacred in the process
• End of Plains Wars

Chief Big Foots Lifeless Body
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Factors which brought an end to Plains Indians
way of life

• RAILROADS!!
• Destroy Buffalo
• Bring out settlers, miners, etc.
• Discovery of gold/silver on Indian lands
• Disease Firewater
• Indian Wars
• Either killed them OR
• Survivors forced to move to reservations (Dakota
  and Oklahoma)

Lakota Sioux Chief Crazy Horse, Black Hills, SD
"Crazy Horse is being carved not so much as a
lineal likeness but more as a memorial to the
spirit of Crazy Horse -- to his people."
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MINING IN THE OLD WEST

• MAJOR SILVER STRIKE
• The Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada
• Over 300 million of silver extracted over 18 yrs
• COPPER MT
• Only those who could afford to invest in the
  large machinery were making huge profits

• MAJOR GOLD STRIKES
• California, 1848
• Colorado, 1858 (Pikes Peak or Bust!)
• Black Hills of the Dakotas, 1877

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THESE STRIKES CAUSED MINING TOWNS TO SPRING UP

• Helldorados
• 1 in 3 buildings is a saloon
• Gambling, prostitutes, etc.
• Vigilante and lynch law justice
• Deadwood, OK
• Home of many famous Wild West legends

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Colt .45 Revolver
God didnt make men equal.Colonel Colt did!
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Legendary Gunslingers Train Robbers
Jesse James
Billy the Kid
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Mining (Boom) Towns--Now Ghost Towns
Calico, CA
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Role of Mining in Subduing the Frontier

• Eventually becomes big business
• Small miners cant get to deep ores need big
• Attracts people wealth to West
• Helped fund the Civil War building of railroads
• Brought more conflict with the Plains Indians
• Another effect
• Discovery of gold/silver leads to increased
  interest in the West. enter the Wild West Shows!

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William Buffalo Bill Codys Wild West Show
Wild West vaudeville shows traveled worldwide
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Buffalo Bill Cody Sitting Bull
Calamity Jane
Annie Oakley
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Theres gold from the grass roots down, but
theres more gold from the grass roots up.

• Open range ranching began in Spanish Texas
• Spanish gave us techniques of roping, herding,
  etc. as well as style of dress equipment
• Between 1836 1860 mavericks multiplied on the
  open range to 3-4 million (along with the 12-15
  million buffalo)
• Distinguished only by branding owners didnt
  have to own much land
• RR refrigerated cars solve problem of getting
  meat to markets in NE
• So, to get cattle to the railroad centers.

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THE LONG DRIVE WAS ESTABLISHED BY 66 where
herds were driven to rail centers in Kansas and
Missouri.
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The Cattle Trails
Routes were known as trails. The most famous
was the Chisholm Trail (San Antonio to Abilene).
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• 8 to 10 cowboys could work 2,500 steer
• Several thousand were black, also many Mexican
• Dime novels (tall tales) were created about
  such legends as Billy the Kid, Jesse James, etc.

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MANY DIFFICULTIES ONTHE LONG DRIVE

• Overgrazing
• Disease
• Floods
• Droughts
• Stampedes
• Rustlers
• Homesteaders
• Cold Winters/Blizzards

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The Fall of the CowboyFrederick Remington

• Closed range ranching takes over
• Cow hands became ranch hands
• Required actual ownership of land so ranching
  also becomes big business.

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The Homestead Act

• 160 acres for 10 to head of household
• must improve it cultivate it for 5 years
• Did NOT work out as planned
• 160 acres not enough on Great Plains
• Factory workers cant farm
• Fraud by speculators
• RAILROADS!!
• Selling better land cheap

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BlackExodusterHomesteaders
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PROBLEMS OF PLAINS FARMERS

• NATURAL DISASTERS
• DROUGHT
• SEVERE CLIMATE
• PRAIRIE FIRES
• GRASSHOPPER PLAGUES

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Changes inAmericanfarming

• High crop prices for wheat/corn encouraged cash
  crop farming
• Large scale farming becomes a business
• Need mega to buy new combines, etc.
• Emergence of bonanza farms
• Pushes small farmers off the land
• Hired hands (Mexicans, Chinese) to work the farms
• ¼ of American farms operated by tenants

How did 1800s Plains farming techniques help lead
to the Dust Bowl in the 1930s?
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ECONOMIC PROBLEMS FOR PLAINS FARMERS

• CASH CROPS made farmers dependent on high prices
• Foreign competition drove it down
• DEFLATION farmers caught in debt cycle
• have to produce more to pay back fixed debts
• Overproduction drives prices down
• MORTGAGES high interest foreclosures
• DEPENDENT ON RR for shipping high rates

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Government and Business Policies also hurt Farmers

• Govt favored industrial classes urban areas
• Local property taxes high Westerners cant hide
  land like Easterners could hide stocks bonds
• Protective tariffs for industry nothing for
  farmers
• Farmers were at mercy of corporations, trusts,
  agents
• Machinery, fertilizer, barbed wire all controlled
  by major trusts
• Middlemen take cut of sales kept prices high
• Storage rates for grain in warehouse elevators
  high RR freight rates also high

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RAILROADS
Single greatest factor in settling the West.

• Sold land from land grants cheaply
• Bureaus of Immigration in East Europe to
  encourage settlement in the West
• Advertised myths to encourage settlement
• Climate would cure all diseases
• Women would find husbands men get rich quick
• Rain follows the plow

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The Reality
PLAINS WOMEN

• Born and scrubbed suffered and died.
• Morrill Act Federal to help states establish
  universities (land grant colleges) which were
  open to women
• Western women will ultimately get the vote first

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The Chinese Question

• Exclusion Act (1882) - Oriental Exclusion
  Act - Chinese Exclusion Act

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LONG TERM EFFECTS OF THE WESTWARD EXPERIENCE?
Destruction of the Buffalo Herds
The near extinction of the buffalo.
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Yellowstone National Park
First national park established in 1872.