Horses are introduced by the Spanish in 1598 and Brought to the Great Plains in the 1700’s Now the Indians could be more accurate hunters and didn’t need to farm Indians rarely had bloody wars, they often “counted coup” which was more respectable Settlers avoided the Great Plains for a long time because they thought you couldn’t farm there. What are the Great Plains? Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota

Why did Settlers begin to want their land? *Railroad companies needed to lay tracks

*The US Army built forts for settlers and they realized the land was good for farming

*1858 the discovery of gold in Colorado At first the Government was going to let them

live on reservations in all of the great plains, but then gold was found!

*They are told they will be taught to farm and given supplies, food, blankets and seed corn--- rarely happens.

Treaties are usually made with chiefs who are imposters.

Many of the government officials were dishonest and made money for themselves.

*From 1862 to 1890 the Sioux and the Cheyenne fight back.*1862 young band of Sioux searching for food kill 5 whites in Minnesota*the Sioux divide up into two groups 1) fled the vicinity 2) the other fear retaliation and attack firstkilling hundreds of settlers before the state militia defeat them.3)“A great hanging-bee” 38 were hanged4) Many others were pardoned*1863 the remaining Minnesota Sioux were forced to leave the state.

MMost successful Sioux were in Montana and Wyoming

-they were able to stop the construction of a wagon trail through their best hunting grounds

-they even made a treaty with the U.S. to abandon several forts built on Indian land.

  Colorado Territory-Sand Creek Reserve miners had forced

Cheyenne into this area and the Indians were short of food. The Indians began raiding nearby trails and settlements Fall of 1864 500 were encamped on Sand Creek with two

flagsa. stars & stripes b. white flag=peace * Chivington and his troops attacked while they were

sleeping killing 450 of them *this leads to four more years of fighting * finally in 1868 most of the Plains Indians withdraw to two

reservations 1) Black Hills of the Dakota Territory 2) Oklahoma

*American troops had Winchester repeating rifles *Native Americans had arrows *railroad lines split up Buffalo herds *Buffalo are killed due to 1) railroad owners who don’t want to contend with

them 2) European visitors going on hunting expeditions 3) Tannery firms that made them into leather 4) The U.S. Government knew that was their food

staple!

Why did many Plains Indians aggressively resist removal to reservations?

Was this resistance justified?

The treaty of 1868 promised the Sioux they could live in the “sacred” Black Hills area of South Dakota forever!

  This land was sacred and good hunting grounds   Unfortunately, GOLD had been found in the Black Hills   The Indians appeal to the government to remove the miners to no

avail   The government sends out commissioners to 1) lease the lands or 2) buy the area outright   The Indians refuse the offer and the 7th Cavalry under Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong

Custer is sent

 1) SITTING BULL- Lakota Tribe

a. medicine man revered by all! Even felt to be above all chiefsb. He was able to convince the following tribes to form an alliance

Arapaho, the Cheyenne and the Sioux    1) CRAZY HORSE- a. field commander in charge of making charges and fake

retreats b. very skilled in attacking the enemy when they least

expected it

June 25, 1876 along the banks of Little Bighorn river in Montana

*when it was all over, 264 soldiers including Custer were dead

*greatest victory the Plains Indians scored against U.S. Forces

  *this shook the U.S. government *1877 Crazy Horse chose to surrender & he was

murdered *Sitting Bull fled to Canada and held out for four years, finally surrendered in 1881. For the next nine years he

was on a reservation and traveling with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

1890 shot by US agents

after Sitting Bull is killed, Lakota Indians seek refuge and travel 300 miles across South Dakota to Pine Ridge Reservation

*This was called a battle but really was a massacre * reservation agents fear a “ghost dance” is going to cause an

armed uprising they send out for the 7th cavalry   *Dec. 29, 1890 the cavalry rounded up about 350 Sioux most

of which were elderly, women and children they searched them for weapons and found two there was a scuffle, a shot rang out soldiers on a nearby hill shot and killed 200 Indians and 25 whites

  Custer’s Last Stand/Little Big Horn leads to Wounded Knee

*make Indians give up their tribal system and become individual farmers

*make children go to schools and tell them how their culture is savage

*Dawes Act- each Indian family could claim 160 acres of land.

All tribes are abolished while the government held the land in trust for 25 years however, they were not given farm equipment or taught to farm!

*speculators managed to buy up more than 2/3 of the reservation lands through loopholes in the laws

*malnutrition and disease were common and death rates are high

 

Could the Americanization policy have been changed to make it successful, or was it by nature doomed to failure?

Spaniards introduce cattle and horse to America

  *Texas is the hotbed for cattle ranching.

*After the civil war, Texans come home to find their cattle they left to fend for themselves has exploded in population.

Longhorns are sturdy and can travel many miles without water.

Only drawback is their nervousness.

How do you get all these herds to the east coast where immigrants are increasing population over there?

*Shipping Yards –Joseph G. McCoy in Kansas *Now you have the Long Drive

*you have 1-3,000 cattle, trail boss, horse wrangler, cowboys and a cook and the chuck wagon

*Life on the drive sunrise to sunset –covered 10-20 miles a day

*lasted 3-4 months

*Stampedes, thunder & lightning, rivers and drought

  End of the Drive= “Party time” in saloons for the

cowboys Finally head back home for winter and start over in

the spring

*cowboys didn’t like to fight with his fists-he needed them for the drive

*usually only 5 ½ feet tall

*shootings were rare

*1 out of 7 were black – most famous -Nat Love “Deadwood Dick”

*by 1872 prairies are beginning to be filled up with farmers

*buffalo herds were killed off leaving much more open space for farmers

*Indians were on reservations *Americans were eating more beef than pork *refrigerated cars help get beef to the western part

of the U.S. *Blizzards and droughts 1885-1886 ranchers lost up

to ¾ of their stock in the Great Plains

*1.5 frozen carcasses after blizzard of 1886 *Cattle could no longer be left to fend for

themselves!   ****FENCES needed to protect the cattle ****railroads could now ship the cattle ***By 1890 the Open range was fenced in! TThe cattle industry becomes the meat packing

industry

Why was fencing cattle-grazing land a benefit to both farmers and ranchers?

 1862.The Homestead Act

a. gives 160 acres to anyone who could live on the land for 5 years

b. 4,000 families take advantage of thisc. some were New Englanders eager to have fertile landd. some were German & Scandinavian unable to earn a living

in their native landse. thousands were “exodusters” blacks who moved to

Kansas from the South

1870-1880’s Four transcontinental railroads are built Followed by settlers

Union and Central Pacific given huge tracks of land (10sq. miles for every mile put down)

Advertising all over the U.S. and Europe was sent by R.R. Companies.

1889-Free Homesteads given in Oklahoma

In 24hrs. land hungry settlers claimed 2 million acres

You lived in Sod Houses with leaky roofs or dugout homes

Physical Problems:They faced rain, cold, dry summers= prairie fires, hail

storms, Grasshopper plagues which destroyed crops

Emotional Problems:Loneliness-land stretched for miles before you had a

neighborWinter storms kept them inside for weeks (no tv, radio,

or telephone!)

Four technological inventions bring relief!

1.Barbed wire invented by Joseph f. Glidden2.Steel windmills to help pump water to the surface3.The Steel Plow4.The Steel Reaper- could not only cut wheat, but threshed it as

well These inventions helped farmers increase their productivity, but

they were expensive and started to make them vulnerable to the banks. If they had a bad season, they could go into debt.

 Farmers were also dependent on railroads to get their crops to

eastern markets By the 1890’s the farmer’s frontier was disappearing from the

Great Plains and the farms that made it were very large. 

How did both the sod houses and the windmill illustrate the ingenuity of plains settlers?