The Western Experience
** (1860 - 1890)**
Essential Questions
- Are Treaties Intended to Be Forever?
- How did post Civil War Western expansion impact American Society
Expansion West brought to you by the US Gov’t. in 1862
Homestead Act
- Passed by Lincoln to expand Union influence
- Granted 160 acres of free land to those loyal to the Union
- Contract: Agree to farm land for 5 years and then land deeded in your name
Morrill Land Grant
- States granted land for agricultural education
- Supports new/inexperienced farmers
- Establishes tradition of Agricultural & Technical Colleges
Railway Act
- Provided federal assistance and land grants to encourage the construction of the transcontinental railroad
- Two companies raced to lay the most track
- Union & Central Pacific Rails
Exodusters
- **Freed men heading west after the Civil War - Mainly to Kansas, the option for those who stayed was sharecropping **
- Sharecropping is a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop. This encouraged tenants to work to produce the biggest harvest that they could, and ensured they would remain tied to the land and unlikely to leave for other opportunities.
Role of Women in the West
- Could do her chores in the morning give birth in the afternoon & get back to work in the evening to make dinner
- Civilized mining & cattle towns
- Called for libraries, theaters, schools
- Became doctors, teachers, etc
- Gained the right to vote in the mid-late 1800s
- Women in Montana began voting in 1869 & most western women had earned the right to vote by 1910
- Eastern women were still fighting for the right!
Mining & Boom Towns
- The discovery of gold & silver lodes in the ROcky Mountains & Montana led to a huge population boom in the west
–Eventually leads to statehood
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More people began to move west due to the discovery of more gold & silver
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Most heading to California & Colorado
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Immigrants, Civil War Vets
As mining population grew, wealthy people bought out claims of individual miners, who then began to mine for the companies
–Bad working conditions / pay
Boom Towns: Cities that sprang up around gold / silver mines
–As word got out about a lode, more people came to mine it trying to get rich
– Originated as tent cities, eventually grew into towns
Cattle Ranchers v Homesteaders
- Longhorn cattle ranching became extremely profitable
- Steer sold in Chicago: 1,750 in 2021
- Ranchers used open range herding to graze their cattle and drive them to the railway
- Cowboy life
- Open range herding increase conflict between ranchers and homesteaders
- Cattle destroying crops
- Homesteaders began using barbed wire fences to keep cattle out of crops
Buffalo Soldiers
- African American Army regiment charged with protecting the western fronteir and engaged in battles during the plains wars
- Comprised of Civil War veterans & freedmen. Given name “Buffalo Soldier” by the Cheyenne as a sign of respect.
General Information
- Many of the plains tribes were nomadic
- They moved – followed food
- Lived in small extended families
- Buffalo was most important animal
- Provided clothes, weapons, shelter, toys, etc.
- Land was for tribal use = no land ownership
- Many tribes were relocated to the Great Plains during the 1830s
- Forced onto reservations
- Land did not support buffalo & soil was of poor quality
The Vanishing Buffalo
- Railroads expanding westward
- Killed millions of buffalo to create tracks & for fun.
Disappearing Buffalo
- 1800: 15,000,000
- 1886: Less than 1000
- Devastated the Plains Tribes
- Their way of life was disappearing – how will they live?
Sand Creek Massacre, 1864
- Under command of Col. Chivington, the US Army attacks Cheyenne & Arapaho living in Sand Creek
- Chivington gave direct orders to kill everyone - no prisoners
- US Army slaughtered hundreds of women, children & elderly
The Battle of Little Bighorn: June 1867
- United under tribal elders, Crazy Horse & Sittting Bull, Sioux tribe moving west to find new land
- General Custer sent to capture them & bring them back to the reservation
- Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse ambush Custer’s 7th Cavalry & slaughter the military
- Custer & his men were dead within minutes
Resistance & Relocation
- In 1877 the Nez Perce, under Chief Joseph, fled & fought the US Army to avoid being put onto a Reservation
- In 75 days, they traveled 1300 miles trying to get to Canada
- Unsuccessful - stopped just short of the Canadian border
- Forced onto reservations
- The Arizona Apache tribe was the last to continue resisting forced resettlement onto reservations
The Dawes Act 1887
- Attempt to assimilate Native Americans by dividing up tribal lands and redistributing plots to individuals.
Boarding Schools
- Progressive reformers removed children from tribal camps & placed them in boarding schools to assimilate them.
- Carlisle Industrial School
Wovoka & the Ghost Dance Movement
- Piute Chief
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- Cleanses the Native American spirit & prepares him/her for the afterlife
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Battle of Wounded Knee - December 1890
- Ghost dance alarmed military leaders
- Sitting Bull was killed & sparked conflict
- 300 native americans slaughtered
- Mostly women, children & the elderly
- ended indian wars
Giving a Voice to Native Americans
**Sarah Winnemucca **
- Spoke out for fair treatment for her people - wanted reform of the Reservation System
- Despite speaking with President Hayes, Promises to return tribal lands were never honored.
Giving a Voice to Native Americans
Helen Hunt Jackson
- Brought attention to native american issues
- Wrote a century of dishonor detailing the broekn promises made to Native Americans
- Sent a copy to members of Congress with the following inscription written in red:
- Look upon your hands they are stained with the blood of your relations.”
**Native American Civil Rights: **
A Look Forward
- 1924: Native AMericans declared citizens of the US
- 1932: Native Americans can consolidate land
- 1965: Granted suffrage under the Voting RIghts Act