SETTLING THE WEST 1865 - 1900

Chapter 8

Section 1 Miners and Ranchers

Main Idea: Miners and ranchers settled large areas of the West.

Growth of the mining industry: * Placer mining - prospectors used picks, shovels, pans, etc; scooped up shallow deposits.

* Quartz mining - dug deep beneath surface. * Henry Comstock - discovered the “Comstock Lode” - huge silver vein near Virginia City, Nev.

“Boomtown” “Ghost town”

Wild mining towns led to vigilance committees

(volunteers who enforced law in the West).

Boomtown

to

Ghost town

Ranching & Cattle Drives

* Early 1800s - People thought that eastern cattle could not survive the Great Plains (water scarce, prairie grasses tough).

* Texas longhorns were well-adapted to Plains.

* Open range - vast area of gov’t-owned

grassland.

* After Civil War - beef was rare & expensive;

RRs could carry rounded-up longhorns to

markets in the East. * Long drive - cattle was “driven” (herded) long

distances to railheads (RR stations) & shipped

East.

Stray Cattle Unbranded animals were called mavericks after cattle rancher Samuel A. Maverick, who avoided the practice of branding his cattle. Today, the term maverick is often used to identify an independent individual.

* Chisholm Trail - Famous long drive route from Texas to Abilene, Kansas. * Range Wars broke out when sheep herds moved onto open range & also when farmers moved in.

* Barbed wire - enabled huge areas to be fenced in cheaply. (Can you think of another advantage to using barbed wire on the Great Plains?)

Why did long drives end?

* Fencing-in of the open range. * Brits & European investors poured $$$ into cattle business oversupply prices fell ranchers went bankrupt! * Blizzards in 1886-87; killed huge numbers of herds.

Result……. Fenced-in ranches made long drives difficult.

Section 2 - Farming the Plains

Main Idea: After 1865, settlers staked out homesteads and began farming the Great Plains - from the central Dakotas through Abilene, Texas.

Stephen Long - explored theregion in 1819 and called it the Great American Desert.

Why did settlement of the Great Plains begin?

* RRs - ensured easy access-- Advertised sale of cheap land along RR lines.

* Gov’t passed the Homestead

Act (1862) - 160 acres free to

settlers who would live on the

land for five years and make

improvements.

Homesteaders on the Great Plains

Challenges for Great Plains settlers:

* Lack of trees and water. -- Had to build sod houses (“soddies”).

-- Had to drill deep wells. * Heat & drought in summer. * Blizzards in winter. * Prairie fires!!! * Swarms of grasshoppers destroyed crops.

A Great Plains “Soddie”

Interior of a sod home

Wheat Belt - eastern edge of Great Plains.

* New farming techniques.-- Dry farming - planted seeds

deep formoisture.

-- Steel plows (John Deere), seed drills,

reapers, & threshers.-- Mechanical reapers - faster

harvest.

* Bonanza farms - huge wheat farms up to

50,000 acres; often owned by big

corporations.

New farming techniques made farming possible in the

Great Plains.

The New Steel Plow by John Deere

Problem:

* Better farming techniques * Oversupply of crop* A drop in crop prices* Farmers had to mortgage the land* Often led to farm foreclosures by the banks because farmers could not pay off their mortgages.

Section 3 - Native Americans

Main Idea: Settlement of theWest dramatically changed theway of life of the Plains Indians.

Most were nomads - wandered the Plains following the buffalo.

Hunting grounds were disrupted by white settlers.Indians often attacked the settlers.

* Dakota Sioux Uprising-- Gov’t delayed payment of

promised annuities (pmts to Indians on reservations).

-- Chief Little Crow asked traders for food on credit; was turned down.

-- Sioux attacked, killing hundreds of white settlers.

Little Crow

Sand Creek Massacre (Colorado)

Indian Peace Commission (1867) proposed:

* Two large reservations on the Great Plains. * Bureau of Indian Affairs would run them. * Forced Indians to sign treaty. * Bad living conditions for the Indians on reservations; they received what was seen as the least desirable land.

Last Native American Wars:

* Buffalo were rapidly disappearing through rampant killing by buffalo hunters.

* Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

Lakota & Cheyenne vs. General George

Armstrong Custer & 210 soldiers.

Custer & all his men were killed.

General George Armstrong Custer

* The Nez Perce led by Chief Joseph - refused to move to a smaller reservation. Fled 1300 miles; finally surrendered and were later moved to Oklahoma.

Chief Joseph

I am tired of fighting.Our chiefs are killed….The old men are all dead.It is the young men who say no and yes.He who led the young men is dead.

It is cold and we have no blankets.The little children are freezing to death.Some of my people have run away to the hillsAnd have no blankets, no food.No one knows where they are -Perhaps they are freezing to death.I want to have time to look for my children…Maybe I shall find them among the dead.

Hear me my chiefs, I am tiredMy heart is sad and sickFrom where the sun now stands

I will fight no more…forever.

Chief JosephNez Perce Indians

1877

* Wounded Knee - 1890

-- Lakota ignored orders and continued to

perform the Ghost Dance (ritual

celebrating the day when whites would be

gone, buffalo would return, etc…)

-- Battle - 25 US soldiers and 200

Lakota men, women, and

children killed. -- Last major Indian

battle.

Aftermath of the

Battle of Wounded Knee

--- the last major battleof the

Indian Wars

A Century of Dishonor - by Helen Hunt Jackson

* Wrote about broken U.S. treaties and promises to

Indians. * The “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” of

the Native American problem.

Assimilation - attempt to make Indians conform towhite society Dawes Act 1887:

* Land given to Indians for farming.

* Failed - Indians not adapted to that lifestyle.

Carlisle Indian SchoolCarlisle, Pennsylvania

1915

Reviewing Key TermsDefine Match the terms on the right with their definitions on the left.

__ 1. money paid by contract on regular intervals

__ 2. method of extracting minerals involving digging beneath the surface

__ 3. a stray calf with no identifying symbol

__ 4. to absorb a group into the culture of a larger population

__ 5. a way of farming dry land in which seeds are planted deep in the ground where there is some moisture

A. placer mining

B. quartz mining

C. open range

D. maverick

E. dry farming

F. sodbuster

G. bonanza farm

H. annuity

I. assimilate

J. allotment

B

D

H

I

E

Reviewing Key Terms (cont.)

Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on the left.

__ 6. a name given to Great Plains farmers

__ 7. method of extracting mineral ore by hand using simple tools, like picks, shovels, and pans

__ 8. a large, highly-profitable wheat farm

__ 9. a plot of land assigned to an individual family for cultivation

__ 10. vast areas of grassland owned by the federal government

A

G

F

J

C

A. placer mining

B. quartz mining

C. open range

D. maverick

E. dry farming

F. sodbuster

G. bonanza farm

H. annuity

I. assimilate

J. allotment