as native americans gradually lost their battle for their lands in the west, settlers brought in new...
TRANSCRIPT
THE WESTERN FRONTIER
Modern Day Perceptions
As Native Americans gradually lost their battle for their lands in the West, settlers brought in new enterprises
—mining, ranching, and farming.
The Main Points
A mining boom brought growth to the West. The demand for cattle created a short-lived Cattle Kingdom on the Great Plains.East and West were connected by the transcontinental railroad.
The BIG Picture
Advertised a Better Way of LifeLand GoldExploration
What Brought People to the West
Population Shift
Migration West
Americans continued to move west during the 1800’sThe American frontier reach the Pacific Ocean when California was added to the Union in 1850Settlers built homes, ranches and farmsRailroads expanded west to bring western goods to eastern marketsMining companies shipped gold and silver east from western mines.
Main Point #1: A mining boom brought growth to the West.
1848
John Marshall finds gold at Sutter’s Mill in California.Created a BOOM in population
Started a race to find the GOLD
49’ERSGroup of people who traveled to California in 1849 in search of GOLD / awesome football
team
This was a global event, people came from all over the world
Mexico, China, Germany, Turkey, France
Commercial Break!
Placer Mining – surface mining for goldPanning – wash sand or gravel with water in a panLucky Strike – drive a stake into ground claiming areaStrike It Rich – find a huge deposit of gold
Mining Gold Terms
Mining CultureMining Communities
Most miners were men, but some families and single women also came.
Mining camps were usually just groups of tents and shacks.
Some camps grew into towns with stores and businesses.
As more families arrived, churches, schools, and newspapers sprang up.
Some camps grew into major cities such as Denver, Colorado.
Mining as a Business
At first individual prospectors worked mines with hand tools.
When surface deposits ran out, large companies moved in to prospect with machinery.
At that point, most miners went to work for large companies giving up on striking it rich.
It was dangerous work, and some miners tried to organize unions for better working conditions, but mining companies resisted.
Ghost TownsMining Settlements
Mining towns that were deserted after the gold and silver were gone
Boom TownsMining town that “grew up” overnight into mining communities
Denver & San Francisco
Vigilante --citizens groups formed in the boom towns to maintain law and order.
Vigilantes often acted and “judge and jury.”
Law and Order
OZARKS HISTORY
Nat McKinney
Bald Knobbers•Non racial vigilantes•They are commonly depicted wearing hoods with horns•Between 1865-1885 40 murders in Taney county occurred with out a single suspect. (Branson, Hollister, and Forsyth area etc.)•Nat McKinney standing at 6' 6 300 + lbs started Bald Knobbers with good intentions •Violence gained national attention
•The organization grew rapidly. • 1st time they met was on April 5, 1885, two hundred people showed up at a meeting on Snapp’s Bald, a hilltop south of Forsyth, Missouri. •Kinney, an excellent speaker, was unanimously elected as their leader. •Extracting a vow of secrecy from his followers, Kinney instructs them to recruit new members to carry out the goals of the group.
•Within days, the Bald Knobbers made a public display of their force when over 100 hundred of them broke open the door of the Taney County Jail and kidnapped brothers, Frank and Tubal Taylor. who had previously wounded a store owner over a credit dispute on a pair of boots. The Bald Knobbers took the two men out south of Forsyth and hanged the two men. •This degree of violence made several founding members leave the Bald Knobbers, but the group continued to grow to 500 to 1000 members.
The nation’s newspapers published stories about the bloody war in Missouri and the Bald Knobbers were described as the nation’s largest and fiercest vigilante movement. In 1887, the Bald Knobbers killed William Edens and Charley Green, both of whom had been critical of the group, and seriously injured several members of their families. This brought a further outcry from the nation’s newspapers.
Twenty Bald Knobbers were arrested and most received light sentences ranging from fines to short prison terms. However, four were sentenced to death. On August 20, 1888, Nat Kinney was shot and killed by Billy Miles, a member of the Anti-Bald Knobbers, in a planned assassination. Though Miles was tried for Kinney’s murder, he was found not guilty based on self-defense
Levi Strauss – Levi Jeans
Phillip Amour – Amour Meats
John Studebaker – wagons and eventually cars
Henry Wells and William Fargo – banking industry
Other Fortunes Made in Boom Towns
Main Idea 2: The demand for cattle created a short-lived Cattle
Kingdom on the Great Plains.
• The increasing demand for beef helped the cattle industry grow.
• Cattle ranchers in Texas drove herds to Abilene, Kansas, to be shipped east.
• Cattle ranching spread across the Great Plains, creating the Cattle Kingdom that stretched from Texas to Canada.
• Ranchers grazed huge herds on public land called the open range.
• Competition, the invention of barbed wire, and the loss of prairie grass brought an end to the Cattle Kingdom.
Ranching the Plains• After the Civil War, cattle ranching dominated the Plains.
• First the Spanish in the 1500s, then the Mexicans, became skilled at raising cattle in harsh conditions. They interbred Spanish and English cattle to breed Texas Longhorns, which were hearty and thrived on the Plains.
• The Spanish also brought sheep ranching to the Plains, which grew after the Civil War when demand for wool expanded.
• Sheep farmers cattle owners clashed over grazing land and became violent.
Ranching Culture
Cattle Drives• Demand for beef grew in the East, so ranchers hired cowboys, usually white teens, for three–months–long cattle drives to railroad towns for shipping.
• The Chisholm Trail from San Antonio to Kansas was a major cattle trail.
Ranching as a Big Business• The invention of barbed wire helped cattle owners manage large herds.
• Between 1882 and 1886 more than 400 cattle corporations sprang up in the West, but fencing led to conflict when land owners who enclosed their land left landless cattle owners with nowhere to graze their cattle.
With encouragement from the government, people started pouring onto the Great Plains to build farms.
In 1862 Congress passed three acts to encourage settlement:
Population Explosion
The Homestead Act let any head of household over 21 to claim 160 acres of land, as long as they built a home, farmed for five years, and made improvements.
The Pacific Railway Act gave millions of acres to railroad companies to build tracks and telegraph lines.
The Morrill Act gave the states land to build colleges that taught agriculture and mechanics. This was the first federal government assistance for higher education.
The Oklahoma Land Rush occurred when a lobbyist found 2 million acres of land not assigned to any Native American nation. Despite the government’s ban against settlers’ entry into the Indian Territory, settlers were still able to claim the land.
On April 22, 1889, would-be settlers lined the border until it opened, when 50,000 people rushed in and claimed homesteads.
White Settlers• Came mainly from states in the
Mississippi Valley• Were mostly middle-class
farmers or business people • Could afford supplies and
transportation
African American Settlers• Some left the South because of
the Black Codes and Ku Klux Klan violence.
• Rumors spread that the federal government would set Kansas aside for former slaves, which wasn’t true but brought settlers anyway.
European Settlers• Came for economic opportunity• Many Northern Europeans came
because they were land-poor.• Irish who came to work on the
railroads settled on the Plains.• Mennonite Protestants from
Russia brought farming experience.
Chinese Settlers• Came for the gold rush and
railroads but turned to farming• Helped establish California’s
fruit industry• Laws often barred Asians from
owning land, so many became farm workers, not owners.
WHO MOVED WEST?
Prairie Schooner – large, covered wagonPilot – person in charge of the wagon train
At evening time the pilot rode ahead and marked a circle of about 100 yards in diameter as a camp site.
Oxen used to pull the wagonsMany had bells tied to the harness so there would be something to fight the monotony
Many people were barefoot the whole way
How Did They Get There?
Oregon Trail
What did the settler’s receive?**160 acres of land What were the settlers’ citizenship requirements?**Had to be a citizen or in the process**Male and Female could both applyWhat were their age requirements?**21 years oldHow long did a homesteader have to reside on the property?**At least 5 yearsWhat was a homesteader required to do to improve the land?**Cultivate the land
HOMESTEAD ACT OF 1862
MAY 20TH, 1862
Challenges and Solutions Farming on the Plains presented challenges because of the
harsh climate—bitter cold, wind and snow in the winter, intense heat and drought in the summer. Many families used wells powered by windmills. Some settlers learned irrigation from Hispanic and
Native American farmers. Wood for houses was in limited supply.
Settlers used the earth itself to build by digging into the sides of hills or making homes from sod.
Used buffalo chips as fuel instead of wood Farming was challenging in the hard soil of the Plains.
New machinery like new, sharper-edged plows and combine harvesters helped Plains farmers.
Large companies started giant bonanza farms that were like factories, which profited in good years but were too expensive to survive bad growing years.
Famous Cattle Drives
• The growth of the West created a need for communication across the country.–The Pony Express carried messages on a route
2,000 miles long.–Telegraph lines put the Pony Express out of
business.• Demand for a transcontinental railroad grew.–Congress passed the Pacific Railway Acts of
1862 and 1864, giving railroad companies loans and land grants. –The railroads agreed to carry mail and troops
at a lower cost.
Main Idea 3:East and West were connected by the
transcontinental railroad.
In the race to complete a transcontinental railroad, the Central Pacific started in San Francisco and worked east, and the Union Pacific started in Omaha and worked west.
Large numbers of Irish and Chinese immigrants worked on the railroads.
Geography and weather posed many challenges to building the railroads.
On May 10, 1869, the railroad lines met and joined the two tracks with a golden spike at Promontory, Utah.
Companies continued building railroads throughout the West.
The Great Race
GrowthEconomic growth and Population increasedRailroads provided better transportation for
people and goodsThey also encouraged people to move westRailroads became one of the country’s
biggest industriesPanic of 1873
Railroad speculation increasedThe collapse of railroad owner Jay Cooke’s
banking firm helped start the Panic of 1873Many small western railroads were deeply in
debt by the 1880s.
Results of Railroad
Indians
White Man
The Big Idea
Native Americans and the U.S. government came
into conflict over land in the West.
Main Ideas
• As settlers moved to the Great Plains, they encountered the Plains Indians.
• The U.S. Army and Native Americans fought in the northern plains, the Southwest, and the Far West.
• Despite efforts to reform U.S. policy toward Native Americans, conflict continued.
Indians were Nomadic – moved from place to place following the buffalo
Relied on the buffalo for FoodWeaponsClothingShelterFuelGlue
Old Way of Life
After the Civil War, railroad companies paid men to kill the buffalo to feed the workers
One man boasted he killed over 4000 buffalo in 18 months
This was the beginning of the end for the Indians
The Government tried to move the Indians from reservation to reservation and this would lead to conflict
Indians Long Journey
Battle of Little BighornLed his 250 men into battle against over
2000 Indians Everyone in his company were killed
GeronimoOutlaw
Battles
Dawes Act 1887Ethnocentris
mthe tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own
•The law aimed to give Native Americans private individual ownership of land, eliminate their nomadic lifestyle, and encourage them to become farmers•The law broke up the reservations in an attempt to end tribal identification•Native American children were sent to white-run boarding schools for deculturization•The plan failed and speculators acquired most of the valuable land with Natives receiving land that was often dry and ill-suited for farming
Wounded KneeNative Americans were upset and
turned to ,Wovoka, a Sioux prophetSaid that Sioux would gain their
greatness
Consequences of Dawes Act
Farmers
BankersRailroad
sEastern Business
es
The Big Idea
Settlers on the Great Plains created new communities
and unique political groups.
Main Ideas
• Many Americans started new lives on the Great Plains.
• Economic challenges led to the creation of farmers’ political groups.
• By the 1890s, the western frontier had come to an end.
After the Civil War farming expanded and as more land was cultivated supplies grew faster than demand which caused prices to fall while the farmers costs of transporting their goods to market, for seed, and for equipment all rose. Farmers blamed their troubles on three groups:Railroads – They engaged in pools and rebatesEastern Manufacturers – because they charged
high prices for their goodsBankers – because of their lending practices
and money supply based on gold Farmers wanted free silver money based on
an unlimited production of silver coins
Farmer’s Complaints
Farmers began to organize to solve their problems. In a short time they created a political movement. The movement started with local self help groups that eventually became called the National Grange
• The Grange offered farmers education, fellowship, and support • It encouraged economic self-sufficiency• It set-up cash only cooperatives in an attempt to end
buying on credit that burdened farmers with debt they often could not pay.
• The Grange looked to gets states to limit railroad rates and did get many laws passed.• The railroads put pressure on the state legislatures
and the laws were repealed.• The Grange cooperatives also failed as farmers, always
short of cash, had to borrow money until their next crop sold.
• The Grange was replaced by Farmers Alliances.
The Grange
The Populist Party (or People's) was formed in 1892 when the Knights of Labor and the Farmers Alliance leaders turned their movements into a political party. Wanted to increase the democracy of the people
• Banking Reform -- The Populists believed that much of their economic hardship had been caused by bankers' unfair practices.
• Government Ownership of the Railroads -- During the Theodore Roosevelt administration, steps were taken toward reform of the railroads.)
• Graduated Income Tax --The Populists viewed the graduated income tax as a means to pry loose a portion of the tremendous wealth of the nation's most prosperous citizens.
• Free and Unlimited Coinage of Silver --The Populists in 1892 raised the silver issue the free silver crusade would die a natural death in the years following 1896 as prosperity returned and the world's gold supply increased.
• William Jennings Bryan ran for President and lost – marked the end of the Populist Party
The Populist Party
• Only small portions of the Great Plains remained unsettled by 1870.
• U.S. officials allowed homesteaders to settle the Indian territory in what is now Oklahoma in 1889.
– Settlers claimed more than 11 million acres of former Indian land in the Oklahoma land rush.
• The frontier had ceased to exist in the United States by the early 1890s.
End of Western Frontier
Causes Economic Potential
Opportunity for land and gold
Farming, ranching, and rail jobs
Native Americans end resistance As Native Americans lose
battles, they are relocated off valuable land
Government allowed settlers into Indian Territory
EffectsTraditional Native
American ways of life are destroyed.
Mining communities are established.
Ranches are established, and the cattle industry booms.
Farmers settle on the Plains despite challenges.
