WESTWARD MIGRATION

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WESTWARD MIGRATION
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Westward Migration

• Americans began moving west
• More economic opportunities
• Wheat, corn, mining, railroads
• Farm mechanization made it easier
• Steel plow, windmills, mechanical reaper
• Comstock Lode
• First silver ore found
• East was growing quickly, needed food
• Others went west for religious reasons
• Mormon Trail
• First led by Joseph Smith (New York)
• Led into Utah by Brigham Young

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Comstock Lode near Reno, NV
Silver and precious minerals also discovered in
Creede, CO
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Oregon Trail
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Mormon Trail
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Homestead Act 1862

• US govt encouraged westward migration
• Offered 160 acres of land to settlers and had to
  farm for 5 years
• Not enough land due to drought
• Cost 10 registration fee
• Encouraged white settlers to move west
• Most were old immigrants
• Women, ex-slaves were allowed to homestead
• Encourage westward migration

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Morrill Land Grant 1862

• US federal govt gave western lands to states
• States sold land
• Money was used to build agriculture and technical
  colleges
• Examples Virginia Tech and NC State
• Encourage westward migration

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Pacific Railways Act (1862)

• Law that granted government lands to corporations
  mainly railroad companies
• Govt wanted to promote construction of
  transcontinental railroad
• Encourage westward migration

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Difficulties of Living in the West

• Harsh conditions
• Drought, prairie fires, tornadoes, locusts
• Remote, solitary life
• Worked 68 hours week
• Very difficult for women
• Same work as men
• Gained suffrage here first

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Homesteaders Living in a Soddie
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Impact of White Settlers

• Native Americans were displaced
• Conflict began between Native tribes and white
  settlers and, eventually, US Army
• More railroads were built
• New States were added to Union
• Most gave women suffrage
• Last state- Oklahoma Land Rush
• Settlers rushed in to get the last free land in
  US
• Boomers Sooners white settlers who attempted
  to live in Oklahoma before it was open to
  settlement (forced out by US Army)
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vyxaJY8UZxn4

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Railroads

• First transcontinental railroad completed in 1869
• Union Pacific Central Pacific
• Promontory Point, Utah
• Built mainly by Irish and Chinese immigrants
• Further displaced Native Americans
• Could no longer follow the buffalo white
  hunters devastated buffalo population
• 30 million buffalo dead within a 10-year period
• Native American vs. White use of buffalo

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Transcontinental Railroad
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The Indian Wars

• We have been taught to hunt and live on game.
  You tell us that we must learn to farm, live in
  one house, and take on your ways. Suppose the
  people living beyond the great sea should come
  and tell you that you must stop farming, and kill
  your cattle, and take your houses and lands, what
  would you do? Would you not fight them? -quoted
  in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

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Plains Indians

• Sioux- lived on northern plains
• Five Civilized Tribes Cherokee, Choctaw,
  Chickasaw, Seminole, and Creek
• All eventually forced to relocate from ancestral
  lands in the 1830s
• Where were the relocated? Under what act? Which
  president?
• Different lifestyles
• Followed buffalo herds
• Some were sedentary

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Reservation System

• Indians were placed here by federal govt
• Offered annual payments in lieu of land
• Occasionally, federal govt failed to make
  payments or reduced the size of reservation
• Indians resisted, led to war
• Conditions on reservations

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Native American lands- ca. 1819
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Native American lands ca. 1864
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Native American lands ca. 1894
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Conflicts between Whites and Native Americans

• Conflicts result from fed. govt continued
  restriction of Native American lands and rights
• Sand Creek Massacre 1864
• First major conflict
• General S.R. Curtis I want no peace till the
  Indians suffer more.
• Sent Col. John Chivington to attack Natives at
  the Sand Creek reserve in Colorado 200 warriors
  and 500 women and children
• Over 150 Natives killed mostly women and
  children

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Buffalo Soldiers

• African American Troop Regiment
• Created during the Civil War
• Fights in the Indian Wars
• African Americans now fighting for a country that
  recognizes them as people

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Battle of Little Big Horn - 1876

• Native Americans joined forces
• Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse
• Fought against General Custer at Little Big Horn
• Native Americans massacred all American Troops
• Only major Native American victory
• This battle was the exception rather than the
  rule
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee clip

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Little Big Horn
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Sitting Bull
Colonel George A. Custer
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Chief Joseph

• Leader of Nez Perce (Oregon)
• Sent to OK after Little Big Horn
• Wanted to return to Oregon
• Refused permission
• Denied food and water
• Attempted to escape to Canada
• Captured by US Army before making it

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Chief Joseph cont.

• It is cold, and we have no blankets the little
  children are freezing to death. My people, some
  of them, have run away to the hills, and have no
  blankets, no food. No one knows where they
  areperhaps freezing to death. I want to have
  time to look for my children, and see how many of
  them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among
  the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired my
  heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now
  stands, I will fight no more forever.

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Save the Indians

• Carlisle Indian School
• Assimilation
• Forced Native Americans to integrate (become part
  of) white society
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee clip
• Helen Hunt Jacksons A Century of Dishonor
• dramatized the federal government's mistreatment
  of Native Americans in the west
• Raised awareness of the plight of the Native
  Americans
• Similar to which book before the Civil War?

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Helen Hunt Jackson
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Dawes Act

• 1887
• Result of Jacksons book
• Would create Indian farmers
• Gave each family 160 acres of land
• Dealt with individual Indians, not tribe
• Sold remaining land and purchased farm equipment
• Become citizens in 25 years
• Most Indians lost property within one generation
• Received the poor land

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Ghost Dance

• Led by Wovoka a spiritual leader shaman
• Believed that Native American ancestors would be
  resurrected
• Ancestors would help Natives obtain their
  rightful place and regain land lost to white man
• Scared American soldiers

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Ghost Dance
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Wounded Knee Massacre

• 1891
• Last conflict between Whites and Native Americans
• Indians were fired upon at Wounded Knee by US
  soldiers
• Women, children and elderly were all killed
• Ends Native American resistance

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A mass grave used after the Battle of Wounded Knee
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Summary- results for Natives

• Helen Hunt Jackson-A Century of Dishonor
• Gained support for Native Americans
• Led to the Dawes Act
• Land for Native Americans
• Called for assimilation
• Native Americans should act, dress etc. like
  White Americans

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Cowboys

• New cities caused a need for beef
• Individuals out west began to raise cattle
• First, started to drive cattle to major cities,
  then cattle would be loaded onto trains
• Later, ranches would be built
• Cowboys were hired
• Most owned their own horses
• Open range ended because of barbed wire
• Cows could be fenced in thanks to Joseph
  Gliddens invention

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Cattle Trails, 1870s-1890s
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Ranches and Cowboys
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Farmers

• Faced many problems after they moved West
• Drought
• Insects
• Difficult conditions prairie fires, tornadoes,
  etc.
• New technology helped some
• Steel Plow
• Mechanical Reaper
• Windmill

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Famers continued

• Blamed problems on railroads
• Had to transport goods on trains
• Railroads charged high rates
• Even higher for short haul versus long haul
• Penalized the farmer
• Farmers wanted government to regulate railroads
• Lower freight charges
• Government did not respond

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Money Problems

• Farmers also faced problems with credit
• Stayed in debt
• Borrowed money to plant crops every year
• Could not always repay bank
• If not, bank foreclosed on property
• Farmers wanted more money printed and put into
  circulation
• Money during and after the Civil War
• Spongebob clip
• Demanded the silver standard
• Print money based on silver standard
• Would increase the cost of farm goods

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The Grange

• Farmers organized The Grange
• Led by Oliver Kelley
• Intended to address the social and educational
  needs of isolated farmers
• Officially asked government to address farmers
  needs
• Was not successful

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Populist Party The Peoples Party

• Organized in 1892
• Based on populism giving the people more of a
  voice in govt, helping farmers and other workers
• Met in Omaha, Nebraska
• Omaha Platform
• 8 Hour workday
• Silver Standard
• Direct Election of Senators
• Won elections in state government, sent
  representatives to Congress

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Populists and Democrats Merge

• Populist party merged with Democrats in Election
  of 1896
• Democrats argued the same issues as Populists
• Nominated William Jennings Bryan for president
• Campaigned across America
• Gave Cross of Gold speech
• you cannot crucify man on a cross of gold
• Advocated the silver standard

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William Jennings Bryan
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Election of 1896 and 1900

• Bryan ran against William McKinley (R)
• Bryan campaigned across US on train
• Whistle stop campaign
• Called for bimetallism US money based on both
  gold and silver
• McKinley ran the Front Porch campaign
• Voters came to see him on his front porch
• In favor of the gold standard US money based
  solely on gold
• McKinley wins both elections
• Marks the end of the Populist Party

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Election of 1896
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Election of 1900