The West
Moving West
I. Geography of the West
-Great Plains-#
II. Reasons people moved west
A. Mining
B. Ranching
C. Farming
1. Railroad
2. Morrill Act-#
3. Homestead Act (1862)-#
III. Settlers
Immigrants-Chinese, Mexican Americans, former slaves, Germans, Irish, & Italians
Conflict with Native Americans
I. Indians of the Great Plains
1. Nomads-#
2. Depended on the horse and buffalo
II. Indian Wars and Government Policy
A. Causes
-Warfare
-Soldiers
B. Treaties
1. Fort Laramie Treaty-(1851) 1st major treaty with the plains tribes allowed soldiers and settlers to move across the Great Plains and build forts
2. Gold
C. Reservations-#
III. Indian Wars Key battles
A. Sand Creek Massacre (1864)-Black Kettle vs Chivington-#
IV. Indians in the Southwest and Far West
1. Navajo (Arizona) in 1863 the government ordered them to settle on a reservation, they refused.
-Long Walk- when the Navajo ran out of food they surrendered and were forced on a 300-mile march to the reservation, as a result hundreds of Navajo died.
2. The Nez Pearce-#
-Chief Joseph-#
3. Apache-One of the last groups to hold out of the reservations raided across border between U.S. and Mexico
-Geronimo-leader of a band of Apache that eluded capture for many years. 1886-Geronimo was captured and sent to Florida as a prisoner of war.
IV. The Indians of the Great Plains
1. The Comanche-Southern plains tribe that held out of the reservations
a. Treaty of Medicine Lodge 1867-#
b. Battle of Washita- 1867-Custer Surrounds and kills Black Kettles band on the Washita river
2. The Bozeman Trail-#
3. Red Clouds War-#
-Fetterman Massacre (1866)#
4. The Sioux and the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
a. Custer’s expedition into the Black Hills in 1874
b. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse- (Sioux leaders) decided to fight and began gathering support from other Indian tribes they gathered in the Little Big Horn river valley.
5. The Sioux War of 1876
a. Battle of the Rosebud-Crook was attack by the Indians and forced to withdraw
b. Battle of Little Big Horn-#
6. The end of the Sioux
a. Crazy Horse was captured in 1877 and killed
b. Sitting Bull fled to Canada and later returned in 1881.
V. The end of the Indian Wars
1. The Ghost Dance-#
2. Massacre at Wounded Knee-#
VI. Indian policy 1870-1890
1. A Century of Dishonor, by Helen Jackson-#
2. Dawes General Allotment Act-# (Dawes Act)
Mining, Ranching, and Farming
VII. Miners
A. Mining Booms-There were many booms starting with the Gold strike in CA in 1849.
1. Comstock Lode- (1859) Virginia City-#
2. Mining companies-it usually took big companies with heavy equipment to remove silver and gold trapped under quartz.
B. Miner’s life
1. Miners faced dangerous conditions in the 1800’s; from explosions to high temperatures and dangerous gases they risked their life day by day immigrants faced worse conditions
2. Panning-(placer mining) process used to get gold from a stream
C. Boomtowns-#
D. vigilante committees-#
VIII. The Cattle Kingdom
A. Texas Longhorn
B. Open range and the cattle boom
1. Joseph McCoy-established a market in Abilene, KS (1867) to ship the cattle directly to St. Louis for processing.
2. Cattle Kingdom-the area from TX to Montana that utilized (3)
3. open range-#
C. The Cowboys –workers who took care of the ranchers herd; they became the symbol for the west for many people
1. Vaqueros-#
2. Roundup- every spring the cowboys would gather up the cattle to brand or take to market
D. Cattle drives and Cattle towns
1. Cattle drives(long Drive)-#
2. Chisholm trail-ran from San Antonio, TX to Abilene, KS one of the earliest and most popular
3. Cattle towns
E. End of the Open range and cattle boom
1. The refrigerated cattle cars (1870)
2. barb wire
3. Range wars
4. Cattle Barons
5. Overgrazing(blizzards 1886-87)
IX. Farming the Great plains
A. The Homesteaders-those who farmed
B. Farming on the Plains
1. The Environment-farmers had to adjust from the east
a. Soddie-house made of sod or dugout of a hill
2. New farming methods
a. Sodbusters-#
b. dry farming-#
c. New machines- pg 168
d. Wheat Belt-#
3. Life on the Plains-Many settlers built small communities with one room school houses and churches for local support
4. bonanza Farms-#
C. Opening Oklahoma
1. Boomers vs. Sooners (April 22 1889)
2. Railroads
Outlaws, Shootist, Cowboys, & Indians
I. Wild West
A. Shoot-outs
-Wild Bill Hickok, OK Corral, Dodge City
B. marshals-Bat Masterson & Wyatt Earp
C. Outlaws
-Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Younger’s
II. End of the Frontier
A. Yellowstone
B. Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis
C. Wild West Shows, Dime novels, & stereotypes
D. Nat Love-famous AA cowboy