American West

• Plains Indians live a nomadic lifestyle, moving from place to place to find food and water.
• Plains Indians used horses for travelling, hunting and counting wealth.
• Plains Indians believed that everything in nature had a spirit and humans should work with nature instead of trying to tame it.
• Plains Indians believed that land was sacred and could not be owned .
• The Indian Removal Act , 1830 moved all Indians in the east to the west of the Mississippi.
• The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act 1834 set up the Permanent Indian Frontier .
• The Indians appropriations act paid Indians to move onto reservations.
• Consequences of the Fort Laramie Treaty 1851


  Indians agreed not to attack travellers on the Oregon Trail, Indians were given $50,000 a year and there was no longer a Permanent Frontier.
• White Americans moved west because of Gold, fertile land and space, bank collapsing and unemployment.
• Gold was first discovered in California in 1848
• Consequences of the Gold Rush

  • Migration / Manifest destiny

  • Lawlessness

  • Racial Tension

  • Boosted economy

  • California became a state
• Wagon Trains took the route of the Oregon Trail.
• The Donner Party argued over a shortcut and split up. The group that took the shortcut got lost in the Rocky Mountains and resorted to cannibalism for food until they were rescued.
• Why were Mormons persecuted in the East?

  •Blasphemy

  •Polygamy

  •Wanted to free slaves and befriend Indians
• Joseph Smith established the Mormon Church.
• Brigam Young was the second leader of the Mormons .
• Brigam Young led the Mormons to Salt Lake City in the West.
• Why were the Mormons successful in their journey West?

  •Young‘s leadership

  • Split into groups with leaders and roles

  • Wagon circles at night

  •Planning and supplies

  •Discipline

  •Rest stops