Chapter 5

Chapter 5
Section 1

Assimilation of the Indians.
Zitkalasa was born a Sioux. She was sent to a Quaker school for assimilation. She suffered the loss of dignity and identity when they cut off her long braids. Great Plains- the grassland extending through the central portion of the United States.Counting Coup- plains Indians would touch a live enemy with a coup stick and leave them alive.

Cont..
Native Americans made tepees from buffalo hides and also used skins for clothing, shoes, and blankets. Buffalo meat was dried into jerky and mixed with berries and fat to make a staple food called pemmican.

Native Americans
While on the plainsusually lived in small extended family groups with ties to other bands that spoke the same language. Plains Indians tribes believed that powerful spirits controlled events in the natural world. They believed that land could not be owned on the other hand white settlers believed that land could give them a stage in the country.

Discovery of Gold ..
Discovery of Gold in 1858 drew tens of thousands of miners to the Colorado region. Cities such as Virginia City, Nevada and Helena Montana originated as mining camps on Native American land. The arrival of railroads also influenced the government policy toward Native Americans. 1834 the federal government passed an act that designated the entire Great Plains as one enormous reservation for the Plains Indians.

Massacre at Sand Creek
General Curtis sent a telegram to John Chivington to not leave the Indians at peace in response his troops attacked the Cheyenne and Arapaho at Camp Sand Creek and killed over 150 women and children. Red Cloud wanted the government to stop the settlement on Bozeman trail.Crazy Horse ambushed Col. Fetteman and his company at Lodge Trail Ridge. Over 80 soldiers were killed called the battle of Hundred Stain. Treaty of Fort Laramie- The Sioux agreed to live on a reservation along the Missouri River. Sitting Bull leader of Hunkpapa Sioux , never signed this treaty they thought they could still use the traditional grounds.

Colonel George Custer.
Colonel George Custer-reported that the Black Hills had gold this happened within four years of the Treaty of Fort Laramie. Led by Crazy Horse, Gall and Sitting Bull the warriors outflanked and crushed Custers troops. Within an hour all Custers men were dead. Later Sitting Bull took refuge in Canada and later appeared in Codys Wild West Show.

Assimilation..
Helen Hunt Jackson exposed many of the governments many broken promises in the book A Century of Dishonor. Assimilation- A plan which Native Americans would give up their beliefs and way of life and become part of white culture.

Cont.
Dawes Act- passed in 1887, aiming at Americanizing the Native Americans, the act broke up the reservation and gave some of the reservation land to individual Native Americans 160 acres to each married household and 80 acres to each single household. Ghost dance spread on the Dakota reservation, Pauite prophet if Sioux preformed a ritual called Ghost Dance their lands would be restored. Went to arrest Sitting Bull for this activity and Sitting Bulls body guard shot one of them in return they shot and killed Sitting Bull.

Wounded Knee
Calvary rounded up 350 starving Sioux, demanded that they give up all their weapons, a shot was fired and then the soldiers opened fire with a cannon, within minutes they had slaughtered 300 Sioux Indians including children. This was the event to end all events.

Cattle Drives .
Longhorns- were sturdy short tempered breeds accustomed to the dry grasslands of Southern Spain, the cowboys clothes and way of life was influenced by Mexican vaquero. Cowboys were not in great demand until the railroads reached the Great Plains. The demand for beef skyrocketed after the Civil War the Chicago Union Stock Yards opened in 1865. The ranchers would ship the cattle by railroad to market in Chicago.

Cont..
Chisholm trail- The major Cattle route from San Antonio, through Oklahoma to Kansas. Thirty five thousand head of cattle were shipped out of the yard in Abilene during the first year in operation set up by Joseph McCoy. Cowboys worked 10 to 14 hours a day on a ranch and more on a trail. Cowboys season began in the Spring roundup. Long drive trail bosses chose the cowboys for this.overland transport of animals that often lasted three months one cowboy for every 250 cattle a cook drove the chuck wagon. Wrangler cared for the horses The invention of barbed wire and alternating patterns of dry summers and harsh winters wiped out whole herds. Joseph Gidden invented barbed wire.

Section 2: Settling on the Great Plains
1850 to 1871 Federal Government made huge land grants to the railroads. 170 million acres worth a half a billion dollars.track race Central Pacific and Union Pacific . Railroad companies sold some of their land to farmers 44% to Nebraska and 70% in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Homestead Act- offer 160 acres of land free to any citizen that the head of the household Exodusters- several thousand settlers African Americans who moved from the Post-Reconstruction South to Kansas. Cattlemen fenced open lands and miners and woodcutters claimed natural resources only 10% settled by families .large land giveaways was what settled Oklahoma. Claimed it sooner than they were supposed to become the Sooner State. Soddy- freestanding houses by stacking blocks of turf. Was warm in the winter and cool in the summer but had little light and snakes and pests would infest them. Women would sheer the wool and make clothes for families and hauled water from the well and made soap and candle from tallow

John Deere invented a steel plow that sliced heavy soil. Cyrus McCormick invented mass producing reaping machine.

Morrell Act federal government supported farmers by financing agricultural education 1862 to 1890 gave federal land to states to finance agricultural collegesHatch Act established agricultural experiment stations to inform farmers of new development. Elaborate machinery was expensive and farmers often had to borrow money to buy it. When prices for wheat were higher farmers could usually repay the loans.

Crops..
Bonanza crops- enormous single crop spreads by railroad companies and investors. Farmers felt the pressure of the rising cost of shipping railroads charged Western farmers a higher fee then the Eastern farmers.

Section 3: Farmers and the Populist Movement
Mary Elizabeth Lease raise more hell and less corn she joined the Alliance movement began speaking about the concerns of the farmer. Economic Distress- during the Civil War U.S. issued almost $500 million in paper money called greenbacks. Greenbacks count not to be exchanged for sliver or gold money. Retiring greenbacks caused some discontent and it increased the values of money as long as it stayed in circulationIt meant that farmers had borrowed money had to pay back their loans in dollars that were worth more than dollars that they had borrowed.

More problems for farmers.
At the same time they were receiving less for their crops. Farmers had to pay excessive high prices to transport grain. Railroads made secret agreements with middlemen grain brokers and merchants that allowed railroads to control the grain storage prices. Farmers got in the cycle of credit and were growing in bigger debt each year.

Oliver Hudson Kelley..
Started the Patrons of Husbandry an organization for farmers known as the Grange- its original purpose was to provide a social outlet and an educational forum for isolated farm families. Eventually formed to battle the railroads.

Grange continued..
Farmers Alliance- groups included many other who sympathized with farmers membership grew to 4 million mostly in the south and west. Populism- the movement of the people was born with the founding of the Populist Party convention in Omaha Nebraska demanding reforms to lift the burden of debt from the farmers and other workers.

Populist Party platform
Increase in the money supply which would produce a rise in prices received in goods and services. A graduated incomeA federal loan programGovernmental reforms: senators by popular vote, single term for President and secret ballotAn eight hour work day and restrictions on immigrants

Panic of 1893
The stock market crashedPeople panicked and traded paper money for gold the price of silver plunged.. Five hundred banks collapsed and 15,000 businesses. Business owners and bankers of the Northeast were Republicans and farmer and laborers of the South and West were Democrats.

The Gold Standard.
Bimetallism- a monetary system in which the government would give citizens either gold or silver in exchange for gold currency or checksPopulist party supported this. William Jennings Bryant. Cross of Gold Speech. Lost by 5 million votes and farmers lost hope and this ended the party. President Cleveland favored the gold standard backed solely with gold during the election supported candidate William McKinley