LESSON 1: Western Settlement
(Watch the Grant video above. Be sure to reset it from the beginning)
Historical Context -Native Americans out West faced two options: agree to settle on a reservation or fight the U.S. Army as “hostiles.” Some chose reservations, others to fight, but all were cleared out.
AP Free Response Essay: Evaluate the means employed by the Federal government and settlers to force the virtual extinction of Native Americans in the West.
Background
The compromise of 1877 Hayes wins the election through bi-partisan commission designated to pick winner. Hayes agrees to pull troops out of the south effectively ending Military Reconstruction and the government role as protector of the blacks. Troops stationed in La and SC are sent out west. Why did it end? – Political Horse trading!!
The compromise of 1877 Hayes wins the election through bi-partisan commission designated to pick winner. Hayes agrees to pull troops out of the south effectively ending Military Reconstruction and the government role as protector of the blacks. Troops stationed in La and SC are sent out west. Why did it end? – Political Horse trading!!
Watch the above Hayes video. Be sure to reset it at the beginning.
#1 WHAT IS THE WEST?
Unorganized territory west of the Mississippi - the term condenses a huge area into one term the “West” Unlike the rich, lush farmland in the eastern part of the United States, the Great Plains stretched for miles upon miles with barely a tree in sight and low annual rainfall that often left the land dry and parched. In the Rockies deposits of silver, copper, gold, lead and other minerals were waiting to be exploited.
Unorganized territory west of the Mississippi - the term condenses a huge area into one term the “West” Unlike the rich, lush farmland in the eastern part of the United States, the Great Plains stretched for miles upon miles with barely a tree in sight and low annual rainfall that often left the land dry and parched. In the Rockies deposits of silver, copper, gold, lead and other minerals were waiting to be exploited.
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/9/9/15997692/1391286253.png)
#2 DIVERSITY of the WEST - Who lives out West? It is a multi-cultural and multi-racial society.
Buffalo Soldiers – 20% of the US Calvary is African American.
Chinese – 10,000 Rail workers imported to work on Trans cont. RR
-Also would impact agricultural development with farming techniques
Mexicans – Regular cross-cultural border flow and conflicts over land acquisition
Women – “Soil doves” More men than women out west; Homesteader families
Indians - Tribes
Buffalo Soldiers – 20% of the US Calvary is African American.
Chinese – 10,000 Rail workers imported to work on Trans cont. RR
-Also would impact agricultural development with farming techniques
Mexicans – Regular cross-cultural border flow and conflicts over land acquisition
Women – “Soil doves” More men than women out west; Homesteader families
Indians - Tribes
#3 NATIVE AMERICANS and THE WEST
The attitude and opinions that structured this relationship (innocence vs. ignorance)
Innocence-Despite destruction, most whites were not motivated by blood thirsty conquest
Ignorance- A misunderstanding of how other cultures (Native Americans) lived and what they valued
Land is unsettled – Americans have become rugged individuals because of our experience settling the west. Remember this is our Manifest Destiny!!! (O’Sullivan!)
The attitude and opinions that structured this relationship (innocence vs. ignorance)
Innocence-Despite destruction, most whites were not motivated by blood thirsty conquest
Ignorance- A misunderstanding of how other cultures (Native Americans) lived and what they valued
Land is unsettled – Americans have become rugged individuals because of our experience settling the west. Remember this is our Manifest Destiny!!! (O’Sullivan!)
AP Focus: This is the land west of the Mississippi river, it contains remarkable geographic extremes: majestic mountains, roaring rivers, searing deserts and dense forests. The great epics of civil war and reconstruction were remote events hardly touching the lives of the Indians, Mexicans, Asians, trappers, miners and Mormons scattered through the plain and mountains. Here the march of settlement and exploitation continued propelled by a lust for land and a passion for profit. The settlement or exploitation consisted of pioneers in search for gold in places like California and settlers overcoming all obstacles to secure their vision of freedom and opportunity amid the regions awesome vastness.
WESTERN SETTLEMENT BY THE NUMBERS
MOVEMENT WEST: PART I
(1800- 1860) Migration and settlement
1870-1890 3 million people make the trek west, including 2.2 million immigrants
Once again, Americans became rugged individuals because of their experience settling the west. Remember this is our Manifest Destiny/ Frontier Theory
WESTERN SETTLEMENT BY THE NUMBERS
- 1% of the population lived west of the Mississippi in 1850, by 1900 nearly 30% of the population lived there
- It took 263 years to settle the first 400 million acres; 30 years to settle the second 400 million acres
MOVEMENT WEST: PART I
(1800- 1860) Migration and settlement
- American free holders settling the plains = the image of the Wild Wild West.
- PULL FACTORS- Economic opportunities
1870-1890 3 million people make the trek west, including 2.2 million immigrants
Once again, Americans became rugged individuals because of their experience settling the west. Remember this is our Manifest Destiny/ Frontier Theory
American Progress, John Gast was a Brooklyn based painter and lithographer. He painted this picture in 1872 on commission for George Crofutt, the publisher of a popular series of western travel guides
Question: Interpret the different themes in the individual scenes in this painting. What potential issues do you see?
Question: Interpret the different themes in the individual scenes in this painting. What potential issues do you see?
MOVEMENT WEST: Part II (1890) Consolidation
The role of the federal government in homesteading; the consolidation in mining and the creation of bonanza farms
Farmers on the Frontier
Homestead Act (1862) brought settlers to west from East and Europe (basically free land of 160-acre sections); Tough life for settlers on woodless plains (sod houses) By 1900 b/t 400,000 –600,000 families…By 1880 44% of settlers in Nebraska and 70% on Minnesota and Wisconsin were immigrants
The role of the federal government in homesteading; the consolidation in mining and the creation of bonanza farms
Farmers on the Frontier
Homestead Act (1862) brought settlers to west from East and Europe (basically free land of 160-acre sections); Tough life for settlers on woodless plains (sod houses) By 1900 b/t 400,000 –600,000 families…By 1880 44% of settlers in Nebraska and 70% on Minnesota and Wisconsin were immigrants
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/9/9/15997692/1391340789.jpg)
READ THIS LINK: HOMESTEADER DIARY
Railroads established towns, sold land after huge land grants (170 million acres ) from the government, worth ½ billion
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/9/9/15997692/1391281906.png)
Depicts the terrain that needed to be tackled in order to complete the Transcontinental Railroad
Oklahoma Land Rush
September 16, 1893
September 16, 1893
Although Oklahoma was originally part of Indian territory, in the late 1800’s the government opened some of the land to non-Indian settlers. This photograph shows an actual “run.” This land rush led to dispossession of Native Americans and the increase of white land claims. In less than 24 hours 2 million acres settled
Part 3: WESTERN MINING and RESOURCE EXPLOITATION+Use to your greatest possible advantage
-Use selfishly and unethically
-Use selfishly and unethically
Scandalous Mining Industry: Comstock Lode
The development of mining communities – largely male, with very few families, with very few females—except for prostitutes. Most of the men who made money in these communities did so not from gold and strikes, but from selling supplies to miners.
1. Placer mines – early mines (the traditional picture we have been presented of western miners—the 49ers). Most men drawn west by the promise of gold (or silver) moved from working their own claims to working for wages on someone else’s claim.
2. Mining technology – drove up costs of mining, which drove most who did not make an early strike into wage labor in mines. Much of this technology, like hydraulic mining, was highly destructive of the environment.
3. The gold and silver strikes
1. California (1849)
2. Nevada (1859) – the Comstock Lode, one of the largest deposits of silver in the world
3. Colorado (1859) – Pike’s Peak
4. Western states admitted to the Union – California (1849), Nevada (1864), and Colorado (1876) before the end of Reconstruction; after sweeping Republican victory in election of 1888, the Dakotas, Montana, and Washington were made states in 1889, and Idaho and Wyoming in 1890; Utah in
1896 after the Church of Latter-Day Saints agrees to give up the practice of polygamy; Oklahoma in 1907 following a “sooner” land rush onto more “permanent” Indian territory; Arizona and New Mexico in 1912.
1. Placer mines – early mines (the traditional picture we have been presented of western miners—the 49ers). Most men drawn west by the promise of gold (or silver) moved from working their own claims to working for wages on someone else’s claim.
2. Mining technology – drove up costs of mining, which drove most who did not make an early strike into wage labor in mines. Much of this technology, like hydraulic mining, was highly destructive of the environment.
3. The gold and silver strikes
1. California (1849)
2. Nevada (1859) – the Comstock Lode, one of the largest deposits of silver in the world
3. Colorado (1859) – Pike’s Peak
4. Western states admitted to the Union – California (1849), Nevada (1864), and Colorado (1876) before the end of Reconstruction; after sweeping Republican victory in election of 1888, the Dakotas, Montana, and Washington were made states in 1889, and Idaho and Wyoming in 1890; Utah in
1896 after the Church of Latter-Day Saints agrees to give up the practice of polygamy; Oklahoma in 1907 following a “sooner” land rush onto more “permanent” Indian territory; Arizona and New Mexico in 1912.
What is being Exploited? Gold, silver and copper!!!
Between 1860 and 1890, $2 billion in gold and silver mined in the west
Western lands and open range proved ideal for cattle ranching :1. Railroads opened up Eastern markets for beef
2. Texas longhorns brought in herds of 3000 cattle from Texas to railhead towns such as Abilene and Dodge City
Between 1860 and 1890, $2 billion in gold and silver mined in the west
Western lands and open range proved ideal for cattle ranching :1. Railroads opened up Eastern markets for beef
2. Texas longhorns brought in herds of 3000 cattle from Texas to railhead towns such as Abilene and Dodge City
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/9/9/15997692/3113812.jpg?1391281962)
Open ranged ended in 1880s
1. Harsh winters of 1885 and 1886 wiped out herds – Natural Disasters
2. Barbed wire (invented by Joseph Glidden) allowed farmers to fence range land to keep cattle from grazing
1. Harsh winters of 1885 and 1886 wiped out herds – Natural Disasters
2. Barbed wire (invented by Joseph Glidden) allowed farmers to fence range land to keep cattle from grazing
Closing of the Frontier?
1872 Federal Government set aside land to create Yellowstone National Park
1890 census declared that the frontier was closed.
Frederick Jackson Turner's thesis ("The Frontier in American History") stated Frontier was critical development of American democracy ….Self-reliance and independent nature of American culture were fostered by the frontier
1872 Federal Government set aside land to create Yellowstone National Park
1890 census declared that the frontier was closed.
Frederick Jackson Turner's thesis ("The Frontier in American History") stated Frontier was critical development of American democracy ….Self-reliance and independent nature of American culture were fostered by the frontier
Lesson 2: Clash of Cultures
AP Free Response Essay: Evaluate the means employed by the Federal government and settlers to force the virtual extinction of Native Americans in the West.
Traditional Views can distort our image of reality and what happened.
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/9/9/15997692/1391287202.png)
1830 The Trail of Tears
Five Civilized tribes are relocated to the plains Indians are not sovereign nations, but domestic dependents.
1830-1860 – An uneasy co-existence
Indians Nation are responsibility of the federal government. However, the presence of white settlers cannot be controlled or managed. This is a problem. Instead of making treaties, the U.S. begins to move Indians to reservations.
Reservation policy is hypocritical. WHY?
To protect Indians from whites we attempt forced assimilation while herding Native American’s off to reservations?
Five Civilized tribes are relocated to the plains Indians are not sovereign nations, but domestic dependents.
1830-1860 – An uneasy co-existence
Indians Nation are responsibility of the federal government. However, the presence of white settlers cannot be controlled or managed. This is a problem. Instead of making treaties, the U.S. begins to move Indians to reservations.
Reservation policy is hypocritical. WHY?
To protect Indians from whites we attempt forced assimilation while herding Native American’s off to reservations?
1850-1860
Strained Relations
Strained Relations
Relations with Indians quickly deteriorate WHY?
1. Resource competition - White settlement of the west, building the transcontinental Railroad, the desire for land as a resource… Native Americans are in the way and the Army is sent to pacify them
2. All Native Americans not on reservations are considered hostile regardless of status. If Indians are not in direct control, they are swept up in the movement.
3. Western Settlement was disrupting the patterns of Native American life – eating away at their livelihood
The Buffalo become a HUGE part huge of this story WHY?
1. Resource competition - White settlement of the west, building the transcontinental Railroad, the desire for land as a resource… Native Americans are in the way and the Army is sent to pacify them
2. All Native Americans not on reservations are considered hostile regardless of status. If Indians are not in direct control, they are swept up in the movement.
3. Western Settlement was disrupting the patterns of Native American life – eating away at their livelihood
The Buffalo become a HUGE part huge of this story WHY?
Three Kinds of Indian Conflict
1) Expansion-Expanding Native American tribes vs. Expanding United States government
2) Retaliation-US Government attempts to stop Indian raiding of white settlements. Why are Indians raiding settlers’ livestock?
3) Independence-Smaller Indian tribes attempt to preserve their independence
1) Expansion-Expanding Native American tribes vs. Expanding United States government
2) Retaliation-US Government attempts to stop Indian raiding of white settlements. Why are Indians raiding settlers’ livestock?
3) Independence-Smaller Indian tribes attempt to preserve their independence
NATIVE CONFLICT TIME-LINE
1864- John Chivington led the Colorado Volunteers in a dawn attack on Black Kettle and his band, who had been told they would be safe on this desolate reservation. 200 friendly Cheyenne men, women and children were slaughtered, and their corpses often grotesquely mutilated, in a massacre that shocked the nation. It became known as the Sand Creek Massacre.
1866- A Lakota war party led by Chief Red Cloud attacks a wagon train bringing supplies to newly-constructed Fort Phil Kearny on the Powder River in northern Wyoming. The Lakota see the fort, situated to protect travel to Montana mining country along the Bozeman Trail, as a threat to their territory. When a patrol led by Captain William J. Fetterman rides out to drive off the war party, it is lured far from the fort and destroyed to the last man.
1867- Civil War General and future Democratic presidential hopeful Winfield Scott Hancock leads an expedition in which a large Cheyenne and Shawnee village at Pawnee Fork was destroyed.
-News of Indian wars reaches the east. This news becomes a political hot button. Policy – discourages warfare and sign treaties (pacification)
1867-68- Grant establishes an Indian Peace Commission- They determine that the events at Pawnee Fork had been ill conceived setting a more peaceful tone in dealing with the Native Americans.
1867- Civil War veteran William T. Sherman, architect of total war rights a letter to the Secretary of War in response to the Indian Peace Commissions findings. The letter included his statement that, “if fifty Indians are allowed to remain between the Arkansas and Platte we will have to guard every stage station, every train, and all railroad working parties. In other words, fifty hostile Indians will checkmate three-thousand soldiers.” Making sure the secretary of war understood him, he went further and wrote, “it makes little difference whether they be coaxed out by Indian commissioners or killed,” but the government needed to get them out of there as soon as possible.
1868- Medicine Lodge Treaty- The Indian Peace Commission recognizes that the Indian conflicts up until this point could have been prevented. They recognized that had the U.S. fulfilled their obligations to previous treaties with the western tribes, tension would be significantly less. Red Cloud representing multiple Southern Plains Tribes agrees to keep peace with the US
1874- General Custer finds gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota Immediately attacked by the Sioux whose land was protected by a treaty with the whites
1875- THE LAKOTA WAR- A Senate commission meeting was set up with Red Cloud and other Lakota chiefs to negotiate legal access for the miners rushing to the Black Hills offers to buy the region for $6 million. But the Lakota refuse to alter the terms of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, and declare they will protect their lands from intruders if the government won't.
1866- A Lakota war party led by Chief Red Cloud attacks a wagon train bringing supplies to newly-constructed Fort Phil Kearny on the Powder River in northern Wyoming. The Lakota see the fort, situated to protect travel to Montana mining country along the Bozeman Trail, as a threat to their territory. When a patrol led by Captain William J. Fetterman rides out to drive off the war party, it is lured far from the fort and destroyed to the last man.
1867- Civil War General and future Democratic presidential hopeful Winfield Scott Hancock leads an expedition in which a large Cheyenne and Shawnee village at Pawnee Fork was destroyed.
-News of Indian wars reaches the east. This news becomes a political hot button. Policy – discourages warfare and sign treaties (pacification)
1867-68- Grant establishes an Indian Peace Commission- They determine that the events at Pawnee Fork had been ill conceived setting a more peaceful tone in dealing with the Native Americans.
1867- Civil War veteran William T. Sherman, architect of total war rights a letter to the Secretary of War in response to the Indian Peace Commissions findings. The letter included his statement that, “if fifty Indians are allowed to remain between the Arkansas and Platte we will have to guard every stage station, every train, and all railroad working parties. In other words, fifty hostile Indians will checkmate three-thousand soldiers.” Making sure the secretary of war understood him, he went further and wrote, “it makes little difference whether they be coaxed out by Indian commissioners or killed,” but the government needed to get them out of there as soon as possible.
1868- Medicine Lodge Treaty- The Indian Peace Commission recognizes that the Indian conflicts up until this point could have been prevented. They recognized that had the U.S. fulfilled their obligations to previous treaties with the western tribes, tension would be significantly less. Red Cloud representing multiple Southern Plains Tribes agrees to keep peace with the US
1874- General Custer finds gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota Immediately attacked by the Sioux whose land was protected by a treaty with the whites
1875- THE LAKOTA WAR- A Senate commission meeting was set up with Red Cloud and other Lakota chiefs to negotiate legal access for the miners rushing to the Black Hills offers to buy the region for $6 million. But the Lakota refuse to alter the terms of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, and declare they will protect their lands from intruders if the government won't.
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/9/9/15997692/6347315.jpg?1391306878)
Lakotah Region
1876- Custer’s Last Stand at Little Big Horn, 12,000 Sioux and Cheyenne under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wipe out 600 of Custer’s men in 20 minutes.
Custer's Last Stand VIDEO: History Detectives Movie (OPTIONAL/ ENRICHMENT)
1887- Congress passes the Dawes Severalty Act, imposing a system of private land ownership on Native American tribes for whom communal land ownership has been a centuries-old tradition. Individual Indians become eligible to receive land allotments of up to 160 acres, together with full U.S. citizenship
1890- Congress establishes the Oklahoma Territory on unoccupied lands in the Indian Territory, breaking a 60-year-old pledge to preserve this area exclusively for Native Americans forced from their lands in the east.
1890- Wounded Knee Creek and Ghost Dance Movement – Indian Resistance and Hostility
This worries and frightens white people. (Similar to early slave revolts)
Federal troops massacre the Lakota Chief Big Foot (Sitting Bull’s half-brother) and his 350 followers (Men, women and children) at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in a confrontation fueled by the government’s determination to stop the spread of the Ghost Dance among the tribes. The incident stands in U.S. military history as the last armed engagement of the Indian Wars.
Fourteen days prior, Sitting Bull had been killed with his son Crow Foot at Standing Rock Agency in a gun battle with a group of Indian police that had been sent by the American government to arrest him
1890- Congress establishes the Oklahoma Territory on unoccupied lands in the Indian Territory, breaking a 60-year-old pledge to preserve this area exclusively for Native Americans forced from their lands in the east.
1890- Wounded Knee Creek and Ghost Dance Movement – Indian Resistance and Hostility
This worries and frightens white people. (Similar to early slave revolts)
Federal troops massacre the Lakota Chief Big Foot (Sitting Bull’s half-brother) and his 350 followers (Men, women and children) at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in a confrontation fueled by the government’s determination to stop the spread of the Ghost Dance among the tribes. The incident stands in U.S. military history as the last armed engagement of the Indian Wars.
Fourteen days prior, Sitting Bull had been killed with his son Crow Foot at Standing Rock Agency in a gun battle with a group of Indian police that had been sent by the American government to arrest him
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/9/9/15997692/7602620.jpg)
Check out briefly the page/ link below and read the blog excerpts. It links the faces of Presidents with tragedies in Native American history. (Note: this a blog and obviously extremely biased. Nonetheless, it offers insight to some alternate historical perspective)
http://friedgreenonions.blogspot.com/2009/04/faces-on-mount-rushmore-founding-indian.html
http://friedgreenonions.blogspot.com/2009/04/faces-on-mount-rushmore-founding-indian.html
POLICY AND REFORM
· White Perspective “ Kill the Indian to save the man” (Captain Richard Pratt)
· Inability to see other people as fully developed members of the human race
· Saw Native Americans as heathens that need to be Christianized!!
· Close to Christianity = Good (Even if it is painful, unpleasant, and cruel)
· White Perspective “ Kill the Indian to save the man” (Captain Richard Pratt)
· Inability to see other people as fully developed members of the human race
· Saw Native Americans as heathens that need to be Christianized!!
· Close to Christianity = Good (Even if it is painful, unpleasant, and cruel)
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/9/9/15997692/4184995.jpg)
Helen Hunt Jackson A Century of Dishonor (1881)
"The history of the Government connections with the Indians is a shameful record of broken treaties and unfulfilled promises. The history of the border white man's connection with the Indians is a sickening record of murder, outrage, robbery, and wrongs committed by the former, as the rule, and occasional savage outbreaks and unspeakably
barbarous deeds of retaliation by the latter, as the exception."
Helen Hunt Jackson
-Jackson researched led to opposition to government treatment of Native Americans. The solution was to make the Indians white. This policy destroyed Indians as a distinct nation.
"The history of the Government connections with the Indians is a shameful record of broken treaties and unfulfilled promises. The history of the border white man's connection with the Indians is a sickening record of murder, outrage, robbery, and wrongs committed by the former, as the rule, and occasional savage outbreaks and unspeakably
barbarous deeds of retaliation by the latter, as the exception."
Helen Hunt Jackson
-Jackson researched led to opposition to government treatment of Native Americans. The solution was to make the Indians white. This policy destroyed Indians as a distinct nation.
Cleveland signs the Dawes Severalty Act (1887) February 8th
Cultural absorption of American Indians in white America by forcing Native American to abandon their traditional appearance and dress like “Americans”
Cultural absorption of American Indians in white America by forcing Native American to abandon their traditional appearance and dress like “Americans”
Extreme Makeover: American Indian Edition
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/9/9/15997692/6727302.jpg)
BEFORE
![Picture](/uploads/1/5/9/9/15997692/7514714.jpg)
AFTER
KEY COMPONENTS OF THE DAWES ACT:
160 acres given to family heads (on reservations). Conform to European land use patterns, using private property as a cornerstone
Irony? Indians really don’t get much land
1881 - 155,000 acres
1890 – 104, 000 acres
1900 – 77,000 acres
Loosely held land holdings swindled by whites – Cultural?
160 acres given to family heads (on reservations). Conform to European land use patterns, using private property as a cornerstone
Irony? Indians really don’t get much land
1881 - 155,000 acres
1890 – 104, 000 acres
1900 – 77,000 acres
Loosely held land holdings swindled by whites – Cultural?
Loss of the Tribal Estate as a Result of the Dawes Act
In 1881 the tribal estate is approx. 156 million acres; if each of 300,000 native Americans are given acreage under terms of Dawes Act [160 acres for head of families; 80 for single adult males, 40 per child], there would be 105 million acre surplus to be sold to fund civilization/educational programs.
Land Loss, 1887-1932: is 2/3 of the Indian landed estate, or reduction to approximately 50 million acres resulting from
In 1881 the tribal estate is approx. 156 million acres; if each of 300,000 native Americans are given acreage under terms of Dawes Act [160 acres for head of families; 80 for single adult males, 40 per child], there would be 105 million acre surplus to be sold to fund civilization/educational programs.
Land Loss, 1887-1932: is 2/3 of the Indian landed estate, or reduction to approximately 50 million acres resulting from
- sale of "surplus lands" (the remainder after each tribal member given an allotment)
- sale of allotted lands by "competent" Indians, i.e. those who had land patents in fee simple title (up to 90 % on many reservations)
Forced Assimilation: The Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1879–1918)
Carlisle Indian School
- The goal was to eliminate customs, rituals, and way of life of Native Americans
- Young children taught the white man’s way
- Outright Bans
- 1884 Banned the Sun Dance
- 1890 Banned “bundles” practice for mourning the dead