warm-up: describe this painting. westward expansion fulfilling manifest destiny
TRANSCRIPT
Warm-Up: describe this painting
Westward Expansion
Fulfilling Manifest Destiny
Moving West
Push Factors• Civil War displaced persons:
– farmers, former slaves and others
• Available farm land• Religious repression• Open spaces sheltered
outlaws
Pull Factors• Private Property• Morrill Land Grant
– Land to railroads
• Homestead Act 1862– 160 acres land free if you were 21
years old or heads of families; built a house, lived on it 6 months; and farm for 5 years in a row
• Settlers believed that they had a right to the western land because they produced more food and wealth than the Native Americans
• Immigrants went west for cheap land and new jobs
• Exodusters were ex-slaves who moved west to escape racial violence in the South and to make a new beginning and farming was the skill most already knew
The Native Americans
First removal was the Trail of Tears 1832
Came from many diverse cultures but shared common view toward nature
Native Americans saw themselves as part of nature
and viewed nature as
sacred
Many white Americans viewed the
land as a resource to
produce wealth
Native Americans and the settlers had very differing concepts of land ownership
During the 1800s, the government carried out a policy of moving Indians out of the way of white settlers, encouraging attempts to take Native American lands
Indians were forced into reservations, no longer free to roam the Plains.
At first, Indians in the East were moved west, into the Indian Territory of the Plains.
Frontier settlers continued pushing west, pressuring the government to open Indian Territory.
Two other crises also threatened Native American civilizations.
Disease
Loss of the buffalo
Settlers introduced diseases to which Indians had no immunity.
Settlers slaughtered buffalo herds.
As more and more settlers moved west, theNative American tribes were weakened or destroyed.
Some Native Americans fought to defend their lands.
The Sand CreekMassacre saw an unarmed camp of Indians under the U.S. Army protection killed by Colorado militia.
But attacks and retaliation led to distrust—and to tragedy.
Promises were made and peace treaties were signed, but they often were broken.
Frustration turned to violence as the government moved to crush Indian resistance.
• The Red River War led to the defeat of the Southern Plains Indians.
• The Sioux were victorious at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
• Chief Joseph and the Nez Percés surrendered after attempting to retreat to Canada.
Fearful of insurrection, government officials
tried to ban the practice.
The ritual preached that white settlers would be banished and the buffalo would return.
As their way of life slipped away, some Indians turned to a religious revival based on the Ghost Dance.
However, he was killed in a confrontation with U.S. troops.
More than 100 Indians who fled were killed at Wounded Knee.
The Indian Wars were over.
In an effort to end the Ghost Dance, the government attempted to arrest Sitting Bull.
Some critics attacked government policies and defended the Indians’ way of life.
Most leaders, however, hoped that Native Americans would assimilate into American life, becoming “civilized” and adopting white culture.
• Replaced the reservation system with an allotment system
• Granted each Indian family its own plot of land
• Specified the land could not be sold for 25 years
In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes General Allotment Act to encourage assimilation.
The Indian Right’s Movement would grow out of outragebecause of the way the government treated
the Native Americans
Activity:
• In The White Man’s Image video & questions