THE AMERICAN WEST

1865-1900

Mining Frontier

• Discovery of gold led massive migration and immigration to California.

• 1/3 of western miners were Chinese immigrants.

• Gave people riches and destroyed the environment.

What was life like for the Indians on the Great Plains?

• Life centered around horses and buffalo.

• The buffalo provided food, clothing, and shelter.

• Small extended family groups.

• Children learned skills that they would need from their parents.

What was the Sand Creek Massacre?

• In 1864, settlers were moving into areas of Colorado where the Cheyenne Indians lived.

• The Army took the side of the settlers and killed about 200 Cheyenne.

What was the Treaty of Fort Laramie?

• Signed in 1868 in which the Sioux agreed to live on a reservation.

• However, there were Native Americans who did not sign this treaty.

Who was Sitting Bull?

• Leader of the Sioux Indian Nation.

• Did not sign the Treaty of Fort Laramie.

• Defeated General Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

• Months later the Sioux were defeated.

Who was General Custer?

• Led American cavalry to fight Sioux Indians at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

• All of Custer’s men were killed in what is famously known as Custer’s Last Stand.

Song: Please Mr. Custer

• #1 Hit in 1960• Racist terms like

“injun” and “redskins”• Kemo Sabe= Friend• Voice in song does not

want to fight Sioux because he is afraid of being scalped.

What is assimilation?

• Native Americans would give up their beliefs and culture and become a part of white culture.

• Education would be a key part of becoming “American.”

Helen Hunt Jackson

• Wrote about the injustices of the American government towards the American Indian in the book A Century of Dishonor.

• Most Americans however still favored assimilation.

What was the Dawes Act (1887)?

• Act broke up reservations and gave some land to each Native American family for farming.

• Native Americans were cheated out of the best land.

• Whites had killed most of the buffalo.

What was the Battle of Wounded Knee?

• The Sioux Indians performed the Ghost Dance to try and bring the buffalo back.

• The Ghost Dance made the Army nervous.

• In 1890, the Army killed 300 unarmed Sioux.

What were longhorns?

• Sturdy cattle accustomed to grasslands.

• Brought to the American cowboy from Spanish ranchers in Mexico.

What was the Chisholm Trail?

• Growing cities increased the demand for beef.

• Cattle ranchers drove their cattle along the Chisholm trail.

• Stretched from San Antonio, Texas to Kansas where cattle was shipped by rail to Chicago.

What was life like for a cowboy?

• Worked 10-14 hours a day in extreme temperatures.

• In the winter, cowboys lived off savings did odd jobs on ranches.

• In the spring, cowboys rounded up cattle on long drives.

Frederick Jackson Turner

• Wrote The Significance of the American Frontier (1893)

• The frontier experience was an example of independence and individualism.

• Forced people to be inventive and creative as part of the American spirit.

• Worried that the closing of the frontier would lead to social and class conflict.

What was the Homestead Act (1862)?

• Government offered 160 acres of free land to anyone who would farm it for five years.

• By 1900, 400,000 homesteaders had settled on the Great Plains.

• Only 10% were settled by families.

Who were the exodusters?

• African Americans who moved from the post-Reconstruction South to Kansas.

What were soddys?

• Homes built in the Great Plains region.

• Homes were dug into the sides of hills or made from sod.

• Warm in winter and cool in the summer.

• Little light or air in the home.

What was the Morrill Act?

• Helped establish agricultural colleges. (Example: Virginia Tech, West Virginia University)

• Established experiment stations to develop new types of crops and growing techniques.

What were bonanza farms?

• Large, single crop farms in the Great Plains.

• Bonanza farms folded because of droughts between 1885 and 1890.

Who was Billy the Kid?

• Famous 19th century American frontier outlaw.

• Bragged that he killed 21 men, but most think he killed 9.

• Killed at the age of 21.

• Symbolized the lawlessness of the American West in the 1880’s.

Song: The Ballad of Billy the Kid

• Recorded by Billy Joel in the 1970’s.

• Billy the Kid has become a American legend.

• Many movies, TV Shows, and songs have been made in his honor.

Who was Oliver Hudson Kelley?

• Started an organization called the Grange movement.

• Original purpose was to provide a place for farm families to discuss social and educational issues.

• Spent most of time fighting railroads.

What was the Farmers’ Alliance?

• Organizations that included teachers, preachers, and newspaper editors who sympathized with farmers.

• Educated farmers about lower interest rates and protests against railroads.

What is Populism?

• Pushed for reforms for farmers.

• Called for direct election of senators and secret ballot.

• Strong 3rd party in election of 1892 and 1896.

What is bimetallism?

• A monetary system in which government would give people either gold or silver in exchange for paper currency or checks.

• Populists were for bimetallism like William Jennings Bryan.

• Silverites favored bimetallism because more dollars would be available and prices and wages would rise.

Who was William Jennings Bryan?

• Leader of the Populist Movement

• Famous Cross of Gold Speech in support of bimetallism

• Supported cause of the farmers

• Lost 3 presidential elections (1896, 1900, 1908)

Who was William McKinley?

• Elected President in 1896 and 1900.

• Supported the gold standard.

• Protected the interests of American big business

How is the Wizard of Oz symbolize Populism?

• Dorothy= average American, kindhearted

• Kansas= Populist stronghold

• Scarecrow= Midwestern farmers

• Tin Man= Industrial workers

Wizard of Oz Symbolism (continued)

• Cowardly Lion= William Jennings Bryan

• Ruby(Silver) Slippers= bimetallism

• Yellow Brick Road= gold standard

• Emerald City= Washington D.C.

Wizard of Oz Symbolism (Continued)

• Wizard of Oz= President Grover Cleveland

• Glinda the Good Witch= Populists from Midwest and South

• Wicked Witch of the West= Drought

• Oz= ounce

Wizard of Oz (Symbolism)

• Munchkins= little people enslaved by the Wicked Witch of the East (industrial/banking interests in cities)

• Winged Monkeys= Indians of the Great Plains

What was the gold standard?

• Backing dollars solely with gold.

• “Gold bugs” favored gold because prices would be kept from rising.

• Republicans like William McKinley supported gold standard.