american west

• ways of life for plains indians

  tribes were made up of bands

  polygamy - multiple wives

  each band had a chief
• plains indians attitudes to war and property

  WAR:

  raided other tribes for food

  young men were valuable - tribe hunters, protectors

  fought to minimise the number of men killed

  counting coup - hit or touch enemy and run away

  PROPERTY:

  land was sacred

  land could not be bought or sold

  farming and mining was seen as disrespectful

  sioux members were prepared to die over the land
• reasons for migration

  gold

  manifest destiny

  promise of free farming land

  $30,000 spent on an expedition map by the US government
• dangers of migration

  took 5 months to complete

  must be completed before winter

  2,000 mile journey

  10% of people died on the way

  • rivers + mountains to cross
  • food + water shortages
  • diseases - typhoid, cholera
• donner party

  used the oregon trail

  they were well equipped

  more elderly, women & children went than usual

  80 people tried a new shortcut - cut 550km off the journey

  route was not marked out well - arguments arose

  reached the Sierra Nevada mountains in october

  snowstorms trapped them

  first migrant died of starvation on December 15th

  only 40 survived, ate those who had died
• mormon migration

  Brigham Young left illonois in february 1846 due to hostility

  stayed over in omaha from june 1846 - april 1847

  150 mormons set off to salt late valley

  well supplied - had enough food for a year

  used the trail left by the donnor party

  planted crops, marked the trail and made sure there were clean water sources

  reached salt lake valley in 1847

  second group arrived at salt lake valley in august of 1847
• permanent indian frontier

  1834

  kept the plains indians and white americans apart

  guarded by a chain of US army forts

  very few white americans crossed the frontier

  plains indians were in the middle of the USA in 1848
• indian appropriations act

  1851

  provided money to the government to move plains indians onto reservations

  hunting lands added to some reservations - buffalos were still hunted

  reservations reduced the amount of land that the plains indians had

  government wanted the indians to take up farming and live like white americans
• fort laramie treaty


  1851

  ended fighting between tribes

  allowed migrants to travel through land safely

  allowed the government to build roads through the land

  indians had to pay if they broke treaty terms

  protected plains indians from white americans

  payed the tribes a yearly payment of $50000 as long as the terms of the treaty were followed
• development of the railroad


  pacific railroad act of 1862 provided permission for the railroad to be built

  split the building between union pacific and central pacific

  by 1880, he railroads had settles 200 million sares in the west
• homestead act


  1862

  plots were 160 acres

  cost $10 to get one

  could get one if you were head of a household, single or over 21

  ex-slaves and women could do it

  had to live on the land for 5 years, build a house, plant 5 acres of crops, could pay $30 and own the land outright - proving up
• lawlessness and solving these problems

  theft, murder

  US Marshals - appointed local deputies

  Judges - heard cases brought forward by US Marshals

  Town Marshals

  Texas Rangers - enforced law in texas

  Pinkerton Detective Agency - provided protection

  Vigilantism - took the law into their own hands
• cattle development


  north needed meat

  cattle moved by long drives

  texas fever - very fatal

  goodnight-loving trail

  • did not pass through kansas
  • drove 2000 cattle to fort sumner
  • 800 of these sold for $12000 - 4 x more than in texas
• joseph mccoy and abeline

  mccoy bought 450 acres of land

  built large stockyards to store cattle

  it had a railway depot and hotel built

  he spent $5000 marketing abeline

  at the end of 1867, 35000 cattle went to abeline
• reservations

  indians were moved onto them to allow white settlers to pass through their territory

  indian appropriations act gave money to the government to move the indians onto them

  fort laramie treaty was one of the first steps towards reservations
• john illif

  bought a herd of cattle for $500 in 1861

  wanted to fatten the cattle using the grass on the great plains

  by 1870, he extended his ranch using the homestead act and had 26000 cattle on the plains

  1872, provided beef to 7000 sioux indians
• lincoln county war/ billy the kid

  1878

  heavily involved in the killings in the lincoln county war

  arrested, tried and found guilty of killing sheriff william brady

  only killer in the lincoln county war to be convicted

  escaped lincoln county jail in 1881, killing 2 deputies

  $500 dead or alive bounty placed on his head

  said to have killed at least 21 men
• cattle industry changing

  overstocking

  • so much money went into cattle ranching that the open range became overstocked
  • too many animals were relying on the same area of land

  fall in demand for beef

  • so much beef in the eastern states - much easier to get

  shortage of grass

  • overstocking put pressure on the soil which damaged it
  • drought in 1883
  • prairies fires reduced the grass even further

  severe winter of 1886 - 87

  • very harsh winter - temperature as low as -55ºC
  • cattle were already weak from overstocking
• little crow's war

  1862

  reservations could not produce enough food to survive over winter

  many indians starved to death in their first winter

  the dakota sioux were in a desperate situation - crops failed and they had no money to buy food

  stole provisions from the agency warehouses

  400 warriors put on trial - most sentenced to death

  president lincoln only executed 38 men

  remaining members were moved onto the crow creek reservation - dry
• sand creek massacre

  1864

  black kettle agreed to move to a reservation

  young warriors rejected this - led to conflict

  set up camp at sand creek - thought he was under army protection

  black kettle waved the white flag of surrender

  chivington led 700 troops to sand creek

  chivington and his men killed over 130 men, women and children

  black kettle escaped

  promised a larger reservation - but it was smaller

  payments promised but never happened
• red cloud's war

  1866-68

  gold discovered in montana - people used the bozeman trail

  red cloud found out that the army had brought materials to build forts so he chose to fight

  red cloud joined by sitting bull and crazy horse in his fights

  3000 plains indians fighting 700 US soldiers

  government agreed to close the bozeman trail

  second fort laramie treaty signed - great sioux reservation was for the use of the sioux nation only

  sitting bull and crazy horse refused to sign
• battle of the little bighorn

  gold found in the black hills of dakota

  government tried to buy the black hills from the plains indians but they refused - sacred to them

  sioux refused to return to their reservations

  start of 1876, they had 4000 warriors

  custer attacked immediately and was outnumbered

  custer and all of his 225 men were killed

  greatest native american victory

  indians gone from weak savages to real threats

  black hills opened up to white settlement
• wounded knee massacre

  ghost dance unsettled whites

  250 sioux killed

  25 US army soldiers killed

  marked the end of the indian wars

  destroyed tribes faith in restoration of their old lives

  1890, indian frontier closed
• exoduster movement

  1879

  a rumour had spread that the government had given the state of kansas for ex-slaves to settle

  this rumour was not true

  encouraged people to migrate and start a new life

  end of 1879, 40000 had set off west, heading for kansas
• oklahoma land rush

  1893

  opened the middle section of indian territory for white settlement

  land divided into 160 acre sections

  12 noon it was open for claims

  thousands waited at the boundary

  7 land rushes in total

  this was the largest land rush - 8 million acres were open for settlement
• extermination of the buffalo

  buffalo killed by white settlers

  fed soldiers and construction workers

  skins used for buffalo leather

  killed for sport - shot from windows of trains

  buffalo numbers decreased rapidly

  caused plains indians to accept life on reservations
• dawes act

  1887

  each plains indian family was given 160 acres of land

  wanted to encourage farming

  encouraged plains indians to assimilate and become american citizens

  freed up more land for settlers

  land was sold to whites at a cheap price