Settling the West

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Chapter 8

• Settling the West

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1. Settlement of the West

• Reasons for settling the west
• Inexpensive / abundant land
• Hopes of finding gold or silver
• Escape persecution / fresh start (ex former
  slaves, Mormons, etc.)

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2. Ranching and Cattle Drives

• Cattle industry grew because of the open range
• Texas Longhorns
• Mexican cowhands developed the tools and
  techniques for rounding up and driving cattle
• Two things changed cattle industry
• Civil War (growing cities)
• Railroads
• The Long Drive
• Began in the spring with roundup
• Stock from different owners made up the herd
• Brand showed who they belonged to (mavericks)
• Cowboys in the early days were former Confederate
  soldiers
• Myth of the Wild West was spread by the
  cowboys stories
• Guns and Indians
• Vaqueros Cowboys
• Cowboy life stemmed from Spanish ranchers in
  Mexico.
• Early cowboys were Mexican. Vaqueros influenced
  cowboy clothes, food, and vocabulary.
• 25 of cowboys were black. Because they were
  judged on ability, not skin color.
• Farming and barbed wire helped start the Range
  wars
• The Open range ended with the invention of barbed
  wire, investors who cause a surplus in the
  market, blizzards, railroads and new breeds

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3. End of the Open Range

• Overgrazing the land, bad weather, and invention
  of barbed wire helped to end the cattle / cowboy
  era.
• Winters of 1885-1886 1886-1887 were brutal.
  Cold temperatures caused cattle to freeze to
  death. Summer droughts led to grass shortage.
  By 1887, 80-90 of cattle dead.
• Barbed wire turned open plains into a series of
  fenced in ranches.

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4. Farming the Plains

• Rain fall around 20 inches a year
• Stephen Long called it the Great American
  Desert
• Railroad companies brought settlers in by selling
  land along the railroads
• Homestead Act-Live on land for 5 years before
  getting the deed
• Many homesteads were lost because of drought,
  wind erosion and overuse of land
• Rapid settlement of the west helped close the
  frontier
• Railroads brought in new building material to the
  west

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5. Farming Inventions

• Settlers used inventions to meet the challenges
  of farming the Wests harsh terrain.
• Steel Plow (1837) Invented by John Deere.
  Could slice through heavy soil, made planting
  more efficient.
• Reaper (1847) Invented by Cyrus McCormick.
  Sped up harvesting crops saved crops from bad
  weather.
• Barbed Wire (1874) Prevented animals from
  wandering off or trampling crops.

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6. Railroads Western Settlement

• U.S. Government wanted West settled (manifest
  destiny).
• Offered railroad companies free land as incentive
  to build a transcontinental line (connect east
  coast to west coast). Each mile of track 20sq.
  miles of land.
• Transcontinental Line (1862 -1869)Two major
  railroad companies competed to lay the most track
  and receive more government land
• Union Pacific R.R. began laying tracks in
  Nebraska and moved West. Employed
  Irish-Americans Civil War veterans. Flat
  country allowed work to go quickly.
• Central Pacific R.R. began laying tracks in
  Sacramento, California and moved East. Employed
  mostly Chinese paid less than white workers
  endured dangerous conditions blasting through
  Sierra Nevada mountains.
• Crews raced past each other without meeting. May
  10th, 1869 Congress forced Union Pacific
  Central Pacific to join together at Promontory
  Point, Utah.
• Railroads resulted in growth and new settlement
  of the West, making travel transportation
  easier.

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7. Native Americans

• Native Americans saw land as belonging to no one
• Viewed white customs of farming mining as
  disturbing the harmony between the natural
  spirit world
• Buffalo was vital to survival of Plains Indians
  (food, clothing, shelter).
• Ranchers, farmers and miners forced the Native
  Americans to relocate to new territory

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8. Clash Between Settlers Indians

• Settlers felt they had a right to land because
  Indians hadnt improved it (farming /
  building).
• U.S. government changed its Indian policies
• Many Indians ignored government . treaties and
  hunted on old lands anyway, often clashing w/
  settlers.

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9. The Last Native American Wars

• Ranchers, farmers and miners forced the Native
  Americans to relocate to new territory
• Indian Peace Commission- two reservations-failure
• Native Americans were leaving the reservation to
  hunt buffalo but the buffalo were starting to
  disappear because others were killing off the
  buffalos
• Tourists fur traders shot buffalo for sport.
  Buffalo population of 65 million in 1800 dropped
  to only a few hundred by 1900.
• Native American
• -buffalo
• End of N.A. lifestyle

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10. Sand Creek Massacre 1864

• Cheyenne Indians peacefully camped at Sand Creek
  for winter.
• Govt. leaders wanted to see Indians suffer
• ordered U.S. soldiers to attack
• killed over 150 Cheyenne women children.

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11. Battle of the Little Bighorn

• Sioux and Cheyenne Indians protested as whites
  searched Black Hills for gold - wanted to protect
  hunting grounds.
• June 1876, General George Custer his troops met
  by the Sioux at Little Bighorn in Montana. Within
  an hour, Indians won battle. Custer all of his
  men were dead.
• Bloody conflicts between whites Native
  Americans led to greater disdain
  (hostility/disgust) toward Indian culture

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12. Tragedy at Wounded Knee

• Native Americans turned to a prophet, who
  promised that if Indians performed the Ghost
  Dance, their lands way of life would be
  restored.
• Ghost Dance movement spread. Alarmed U.S.
  Calvary opened fire on over 300 unarmed Native
  Americans camped at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
• Battle of Wounded Knee brought Indian Wars and
  an entire era to and end.

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13. Assimilation

• Government hoped teaching white culture would
  lead to peace between Native Americans settlers
  in the West.
• Goal to Americanize Indians.
• Dawes Act allotted 160 acres of reservation land
  for farming nearly destroyed the Native American
  culture
• Failed

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14. Crushing the Native American Life

• Assimilation
• Dawes Act
• Broke up reservations and gave land to individual
  Native Americans
• Destruction of Buffalo