Settling the West

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Settling the West

• 1865 1900

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Miners

• Comstock Lode of gold silver discovered in
  Nevada pure silver ore discovered by Henry
  Comstock
• Thousands of miners come to Virginia City to seek
  their fortune.

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Virginia City becomes a

• Boomtown with opera house, hotels, newspapers.
  Crime Vigilantees too.

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Pikes Peak

• Gold discovery in 1858

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Leadville, Co.

• Lead worth 1 billion worth of silver gold.
• Railroads are built to haul it out.

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Gold, Silver, Copper

• Black Hills Dakotas gold

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1889 Montana, N.S. Dakota

• Admitted into the Union.

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Railroads

• Haul heavy loads out.
• Bring new settlers in.
• Bring in supplies.
• Economic Growth
• More Settlers.

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Farming The Plains

• The Great American Desert
• Rapid settlement of the West
• Relief found through technical advances

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Homestead Act

• With a 10 registration fee, a settler could
  claim up to 160 acres of public land

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Later Acts gave more land.

• Government gave railroads huge tracts of land
  that they later sold to farmers

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Life is very difficult.

• No trees, little water, sod homes

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Hot in the Summer

• Dry, hot summers

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Freezing in the Winter

• Hailstorms

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Dry Farming

• Grasshopper plagues
• Prairie fires

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Sod Busters

• Hard Work

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Wheat is the Crop!!

• Bountiful harvests made the U.S. the exporter of
  wheat by 1880.

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Trouble

• Falling prices
• Drought
• Mortgage the farm

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Many Left.

• Return to Kansas
• But not in a car..

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Small farmers succeed.

• Grow smaller crops.
• Family Farms

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Mechanical Reapers

• Speed the Growing Process

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Innovations increased Supply

• Lowered cost of production, especially Wheat..
• Steel Wind Mills
• Reapers
• Barbed Wire

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1890s

• The farmers frontier is gone. No more free land
  was available.

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Hard Times for Farmers

• Too much supply , lowers the price, and fewer
  farmers can survive.

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Ranchers

• Chisholm trail Cattle Drive Begins
• 1.5 million cattle between 1867 1871 to
  Abilene, Kansas.

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Longhorn Cattle

• Tough survive in harsh environments
• Great Plains

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Cowboys

• Hard work, low pay, short careers
• The Cattle Drive
• Myth of the Cowboy
• Changes in the cattle industry

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Barbed Wire

• Fight between Farmers Ranchers
• Fence off areas of the open range for farming

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Dangers

• Oversupply of Animals low prices
• Blizzards

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Culture of the Plains Indians

• Nomads
• Fighting emphasizing skill and courage
• Efficient Hunters

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Before 1850

• Little conflict, settlers did not want the desert.

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Post Civil War

• Railroads want protection, Army builds forts.
• Reports of good farmland.
• Gold Discoveries.

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Treaty of 1868 promised

• The Sioux that they could live in their sacred
  land, The Black Hills, forever

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Forever, ended

• With the gold discoveries.

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Discovery of Gold in Black Hills

• Doom for the Indians..
• 7th Calvary was called out to remove the Indians.
  
• George Armstrong Custer led them.

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General Custer

• 7th Calvary

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Dakota Sioux Uprising

• Sioux felt cheated by the US government
• Did not want to give up their culture

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Chief Little Crow

• On the Dakota Reservation , the Indians are given
  annuities, or payments yearly. Chief asks for
  food on credit for his people. They are told to
  eat grass

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Uprise and kill settlers

• Hundreds die before the Calvary arrive to restore
  order.

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Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull

• Native American Leaders fight to keep control of
  their hunting grounds.

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Native Americans

• Sand Creek Massacre

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1862Colorado

• Indians fight back- starving
• Peaceful Indians report to Fort Lyon for safety.
• Col. Chivington attacked the Indians in the fort,
  killing 450 Chivington Massacre.

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Reservations

• Give up the Nomad life.

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Battle of Little Bighorn

• Custers Last Stand on June 25, 1876

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Indians led by Sitting Bull Crazy Horse

• Custer 215 of his men are killed.
• This marks the greatest and last of the Plains
  Indians victories.

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Crazy Horse surrenders1877

• Killed.
• Ghost Dance Shirt.

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Sitting Bull

• The Best of all the others.

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Crazy Horse

• A strong warrior with great military tactics.

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Sitting Bull escaped to Canada

• Eventually joined Buffalo Bills Wild West Show.

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Tragedy of Wounded Knee

• Dec.29, 1890, The Sioux began a Ghost Dance,
  which they believed would take them to their
  ancestors.

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Agents feared violence sent

• For the 7th Calvary.
• 350 Sioux- women, children, old men
• 200 Indians are killed.
• 25 Army Die.
• Machine guns used.

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Assimilation

• Blend in, Give up Identity.

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Dawes Act

• Allowed US president to divide Native American
  land

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Another Failed Plan

• Not so good.

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President Hayes

• 1877 - 1881

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President Garfield Assassinated

• 1881

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Chester Arthur

• 1881 - 1885

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Grover Cleveland

• 1885 - 1889

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Dawes Act 1887

• Eliminates communal ownership of Native American
  Reservations.

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President Benjamin Harrison

• 1889-1993

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President Grover Cleveland

• 1893-1897

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William McKinley

• 1897-1901

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