American West [ARCHIVED]

• Plains Indians


  Native Americans who lived in the Great Plains region of central North America
• Tribes of the Plains Indians


  • Sioux
  • Comanche
  • Apache
• Plains Indians


  • Not a single group with a single culture, there were many different tribes
  • Many tribes were nomadic, hunting buffalo
  • Other tribes were more settled and farmed the land
• Tribal warfare was common among the Plains Indians, but the aim wasn't necessarily to kill or seize land, but to perform acts of bravery such as stealing horses and counting coup (getting close enough to an enemy to touch him)
• Tribes


  • Usually split into bands, each band had a chief and a council of elders
  • The chief didn't have complete control, but had earned loyalty over the years by demonstrating courage and generosity
• Land ownership

  Native Americans didn't see land as something that could be bought and sold - land belonged to everyone
• Spiritual beliefs

  • Medicine men and medicine women were spiritual leaders
  • Native American religion was closely linked with nature, believing humans were part of nature, not masters over it
  • Most tribes believed in a Great Spirit which created the world, and that everything in nature contained spirits which they needed to keep on their side
• Gender roles


  • Women did most of the work in the village or camp, while the men hunted and fought
  • Although men were head of the family, women owned the tipi (the family tent) and its contents, which gave them status
• Buffalo


  Vital for the Plains Indians, they used almost every part of the animal - meat for food, skin for clothing and tents, and bones for weapons and tools
• Hunting buffalo became a challenge when the Plains Indians began to use horses, which were brought over by the Europeans in the 16th century
• Settlers failed to understand the way of life of the Plains Indians because it was so different to their own, which led to tension and conflict
• The US government and its citizens wanted to settle the North American continent, which meant the Native Americans living on the land would need to be moved elsewhere
• Permanent Indian Frontier


  1. Some of the land that settlers wanted to farm was occupied by Native American tribes

  2. Many US citizens saw the Native American way of life as inferior and wanted them to be moved off the land so that it could be farmed and settled

  3. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed under President Andrew Jackson, authorising the president to grant tribes land on the Great Plains in exchange for their land in the East

  4. By 1840, most of the eastern tribes had been moved onto the Plains - around 70,000-100,000 people in total

  5. The intention was that Native Americans would live on the Great Plains, while settlers farmed land in the East - the Plains would be like one large Indian reservation
• At this point, white Americans viewed the Plains as 'The Great American Desert' and believed its harsh climate and lack of wood and water made it unsuitable for settling
• Settlers began to move across the Plains towards the west coast


  This created conflict between settlers and the Plains Indians, as the Plains Indians didn't like settlers moving across their land and the two groups couldn't live together - the nomadic culture of the Plains Indians clashed with the desire of settlers to fence off and settle the land
• Settlers made the journey across the Great Plains
• People went to the west coast in large numbers from the 1840s
• Mountain men

  • Explored the West in the 1820s and 1830s
  • Hunted animals to sell their skins
  • Didn't settle in the West
  • Established westward trails that settlers would later use
• Missionaries


  • Among the earliest settlers on the west coast in the 1830s
  • Aim was to convert the Native Americans to Christianity
• Larger groups of people went to the west coast


  1. Wanted to make new lives for themselves

  2. First was the Peoria Party in 1839

  3. Others followed in the 1840s

  4. Their routes became known as the Oregon and California Trails
• Reasons for heading west

  • Economic problems in the East
  • Overpopulation in the East
  • Disease in the East
  • New start in the West
  • Government encouragement
  • Gold in California
• The Great Migration of 1843 saw a sudden increase in settlers-a party of around 1000 people moved to the west coast
• Life in the East was hard, and there was promise of better things in the West
• Only about 8% of early migrants to California during the Gold Rush were women, more followed later as their husbands and families settled in California
• Manifest Destiny


  The belief that the US was destined to occupy and govern all of North America, and that they were superior to Native Americans and should civilise the continent
• The term 'Manifest Destiny' was coined by John L. O'Sullivan in 1845
• Beef grew in popularity in the 1850s as there was a large demand in northern markets
• Cattle drives began in Texas in the late 1860s when cattle ranchers drove herds northwards to sell them at higher prices
• In 1872, Congress passed the Timber Culture Act which gave people free trees to plant on their lands, encouraging settlement further west
• During the Civil War, many Union soldiers took over ranches and farms in the west, leading to resentment from Confederate sympathisers who formed vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan