Transcript THE OLD WEST

1860-1900
• Following the Civil War, the westward
movement of settlers intensified in
the vast region between the
Mississippi River and the Pacific .
• The forcible removal of the American
Indians from their lands continued
throughout the remainder of the
nineteenth century as settlers continued
to move west following the Civil War.
• By the 1860s, the US government
intensified its reservation policy. All
American Indians, regardless of what
tribe they belonged, were expected
to live only on RESERVATIONS. This
resulted in an on-again, off-again war
between the US army and native
tribes.
• Some of the biggest conflicts between
the US government and American
Indians were the SOUX WARS. They
started in 1868 after settlers started
to pour into the Dakotas in order to
find GOLD rumored to be in the
Black Hills. The Black Hills also were
considered to be some of the most
SACRED to the Sioux living there.
Sioux Chief SITTING BULL had no
intention to stay on the reservation
when the survival of his tribe
depended upon following the
BUFFALO herds .
• In 1875, the US government sent
General GEORGE CUSTER to
investigate the claims of gold in this
region. In response, the US allowed
MINERS and HOMESTEADERS to move
into the disputed territory. The
highlight of this conflict that you need
to know is the BATTLE OF LITTLE
BIGHORN. Custer was sent to hunt
down any SIOUX or CHEYENNE who
were not on the Dakota reservation.
Unfortunately for him, the 200 Sioux
he though he found was in reality an
encampment of 2000! Indians wiped
out all of Custer’s command. As a
result, Custer became a martyr to
American soldiers in the west.
• In the aftermath of the Battle of Little
Bighorn, aka “CUSTER’S LAST
STAND,” all Indians not on
reservations were systematically
hunted down. The most famous
example of this was Chief JOSPEH
and his tribe called the Nez Perces. In
1877 they got tired of STARVING on
the reservation in Kansas. So they
decided to flee to CANADA where
they could live where they pleased.
They were captured and sent back to
their RESERVATION.
• By the 1880s, due to pressure from
settlers moving west in large numbers
who demanded more LAND, the US
government started to INCREASE
restrictions. As a result, 25,000 Sioux
left the reservations and started to
perform the GHOST DANCE .
• The Ghost Dance infuriated the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and
they OUTLAWED its practice.
In 1890 US agents decided to
put a stop to all of this and
went to arrest Chief SITTING
BULL who was encouraging his
people to perform the dance.
When they arrived at the
reservation to arrest Sitting
Bull, a FIGHT broke out to
protect the chief. Fighting
broke out, and by the end of
the day 500 of the Indians
were dead. This Battle of
WOUNDED KNEE ended the
Indian Wars.
• Goal= assimilate Indians
to white culture. It gave
160 acres of land to any
Indian who would
convert to Christianity,
farm land, speak English
and behave like whites.
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Six months
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Southerners, including African Americans in particular
(called EXODUSTERS), moved west to seek new
opportunities after the Civil War.
• New technologies (for
example, railroads and the
mechanical reaper), opened
new lands in the West for
settlement and made farming
profitable by increasing the
efficiency of production and
linking resources and
markets. By the turn of the
century, the Great Plains and
Rocky Mountains regions of
the American West were no
longer a mostly unsettled
frontier, but were fast
becoming regions of farms,
ranches, and towns.
• The years immediately
before and after the
Civil War were the era
of the American
cowboy, marked by
long cattle drives for
hundreds of miles over
unfenced open land in
the West, the only way
to get cattle to market.
MECHANICAL REAPER (CYRUS McCORMICK)
BARBED WIRE
STEEL PLOW
STEAM ENGINE
DRY FARMING & HYBRIDIZATION
• The completion of the
Transcontinental Railroad soon after
the war ended intensified the
westward movement of settlers into
the states between the Mississippi
River and the Pacific Ocean.
• Although the RAILROAD was
completed in 1869, it is considered to
be one of the greatest domestic
achievements of the LINCOLN
administration. Commissioned in
1862, the US government split the job
between two railroad companies: the
PACIFIC starting in Sacramento,
California and working east, and the
UNION railroad company who
worked west. They met at
PROMOTORY POINT, Utah.
• Labor for the
transcontinental
railroad depended
upon IMMIGRANT
LABOR. IRISH
workers made up the
bulk of the Union
Pacific labor force,
while the CHINESE
formed the
backbone of the
Central Pacific.