American West

• In 1848, gold was discovered in California, which would lead to changes
• Bands


  Smaller groups within a tribe, could be several hundred people or just 20 or 30 people
• Chiefs


  • They were the leaders of Plains Indian society, always men
  • Each tribe could have many chiefs - a war chief, a spiritual chief and a chief who led negotiations
  • Chiefs were valued for their wisdom, leadership, spiritual powers or skill as warriors or hunters
  • Chiefs were rarely chiefs for life, they came and went as their skills emerged and faded
• Band chiefs and elders

  • They made up the tribe's council when the tribe came together
  • The council could declare war on another tribe, or negotiate a peace treaty
  • Everyone could give their opinion in the council and was listened to
  • No decision was made until everyone at the council had agreed to it
• Warrior brotherhoods


  • Young men joined after proving their bravery and skill in fighting with other tribes
  • They trained young men in fighting skills and taught them about the tribe's beliefs and values
  • Warrior brotherhoods were not under the command of the tribal council in many tribes
  • Leading men from the brotherhoods were invited to join a guard unit for the whole tribe
• Last Child Society


  A warrior brotherhood started by Crazy Horse, made up only of youngest sons who would be the bravest and most daring
• Women's role


  • They were responsible for feeding and clothing their families, processing buffalo hides and meat, and turning them into products that could be traded
  • Women's roles were respected very highly as everyone needed to perform their specialised role with great skill if the tribe was to survive
• Challenges the Plains Indians faced included hot summers, extremely cold winters, dry conditions with little surface water, and lightning flashes that could cause great fires
• Crazy Horse's thinking was that the youngest son always tries to impress his brothers and sisters and so the 'last child' would be the bravest and most daring
• Women could not be chiefs and a successful man could have more than one wife in Plains Indian society
• Women were responsible for feeding and clothing their families and for their family's possessions
• Women were also responsible for processing buffalo hides and meat, turning them into products that could be traded
• Women's roles were respected very highly
• Both men and women had set roles that could not change
• This was because everyone needed to perform their specialised role with great skill if the tribe was to survive
• Challenges faced by the Plains Indians

  • Hot summers
  • Extremely cold winters
  • Dry, with little surface water (streams or rivers)
  • When rain comes, it is often in thunderstorms
  • Lightning flashes could cause great fires, which swept across the Plains, burning the dry grass
  • Strong winds made the fires worse
• The lives of the Plains Indians depended on the buffalo
• White Americans believed the only way to hold onto the land was to fill it with loyal, white Americans
• This idea was called Manifest Destiny
• In 1837, there was an economic crisis in the East and the South of the USA, which lasted until the mid-1840s
• Many banks collapsed, people lost their savings, businesses failed and people lost their jobs
• In some areas, unemployment was as high as 25%
• Those who still had a job faced wage cuts of as much as 40%
• Traders and fur-trappers had been travelling to Oregon (on the USA's Pacific coast) for many years and they passed back news of the rich farming land west of the Rocky Mountains
• The sea route to Oregon was expensive – it cost at least $300, when a farm labourer could expect to earn $11 a month
• It also took as long as a year to make the trip round South America and up the west coast of the USA
• Migrants needed an overland route that wagons could travel on so they could transport everything they needed to set up a new life in the West
• The high mountain ranges of the Rockies and Sierra Nevada formed an enormous barrier
• A way through the mountains was needed before migration to Oregon could begin
• The key part of the route, the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains, was first publicised by an explorer called Jedidiah Smith in 1825
• Fur trappers started to use the route, digging out a path through gullies, clearing scrub vegetation and finding the best spots to cross rivers
• By 1869, when the Oregon Trail was replaced as the main way of travelling west by the First Transcontinental Railroad, 400,000 people had migrated along the Oregon Trail
• The first migrants to travel the Oregon Trail with a covered wagon reached their destination in 1836
• They were two married couples, Narcissa and Marcus Whitman and Henry and Eliza Spalding
• They were all missionaries who travelled to Oregon to convert American Indian tribes to Christianity
• Their success established the Oregon Trail as a route for migrants
• In 1840, the Walker family (including five children) completed the Trail
• In 1841, a party of 60 people made the trip, 100 people in 1842 and 900 people in 1843
• This proved that large numbers of people could make the journey
• The 1843 trip was called the 'Great Emigration' and was led by Marcus Whitman