Early Settlement of the West

• Native Americans were part of bands, a smaller part of a tribe
• Chiefs were chosen for their wisdom and skills as warriors/hunters
• Bands in the same tribe supported each other during crisis
• Warrior Societies were the best warriors from each band and they supervised hunting and short raids
• Tribes did not have to obey the decisions of the council
• Everyone looked after the children of a tribe
• The buffalo provided everything for the Native Americans
• Native Americans were nomadic
• Wealth and Status of the tribes were shown through the amount of horses they had
• Native Americans believed everything had a spirit and that they could contact the spiritual worlds through dances and visions
• The Black Hills were a sacred site for the Lakota Sioux as this is where they believed they came from
• Warriors did not intend to kill, rather landing a blow to an enemy called counting coup
• Pull factors for moving west: Freedom, Fertile Land, Space, Gold
• Push Factors for moving West: Collapse of wheat prices, unemployment and persecution
• Manifest Destiny: The idea that the United States had a divine right to expand westward
• First migrants travelled by the Oregon Trail in 1836
• In 1837, there was a financial crisis in the East, pulling people west
• Gold was discovered in California in 1849
• A famine in China led to 20,000 Chinese migrants to find gold in 1852
• The California Gold Rush resulted in lawlessness in mining camps, Manifest Destiny and genocide of Native Americans
• The Oregon Trail was 3200km long
• Migrants began the trail in the spring to reach their destination before the Winter
• Crossing the Plains was dangerous due to the weather and Native Americans
• The Donner Party, led by Jacob and George Donner left Missouri in May 1846
• At Fort Bridger, the Donner Party took a shortcut and got trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
• The Donner Party resulted in cannibalism
• The Mormon's were persecuted because of polygamy, the abolition of slavery and speaking up for the rights of the Native Americans
• Joseph Smith was murdered in 1844
• Brigham Young became the leader of the Mormons and in 1846, persecution in Illinois led them to move to the Great Salt Lake
• Young split the Mormons into groups and they travelled in staggers
• The Mormons were successful due to their preparation and their strong leader
• The problem with settling on the plains was the lack of water and timber, the climate and prairie fires
• Houses on the plains were built from sod and were nicknamed sod bricks
• Crops did not thrive on the Plains due to the lack of water and soil and insect infestations
• The Indian Removal Act was in 1830 which moved Native Americans west of the Mississippi River
• The Permanent Indian Frontier was established in 1834
• The Indian Appropriations Act was in 1851 and set up the first reservations
• The First Fort Laramie Treaty in 1851 established that white settlers could settle on the plains
• The First Fort Laramie Treaty resulted in territories and resources set out for the Native Americans and the movement of white Americans onto the plains
• Lawlessness in the West increased due to the increased number of outlaws and the lack of law enforcement