Transcript How Industrialism Affected the West

What is the
American Dream?
1. Farming
• Moving west in search of fertile land
• Homestead Act
– 160 acres to anyone who agreed to work the land
for 5 years
• Exodusters
– Black former slaves migrating to the west
Challenges
– building homes
– Climate
– Grasshoppers
– Money
– oversupply of crops
“In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted”
2. Mining
• California Gold Rush
– 1848 John Sutter
– 80,000 “forty-niners”
arrived in California
– By 1860- 380,000
3. Cowboys/Ranchers
• Vaqueros
– 1st cowboys
– Mexican cowboys
– Cities demand beef
(increased population
of cities)
What was a
cowboy’s life
like?
Hard life… lots of threats
-Stolen cattle
-Conflict with Natives
4. Railroads
• Connect the east and west
– Union Pacific
» Starts in Nebraska and goes west
– Central Pacific
» Starts in Sacramento and goes east
• Challenges: rough terrain, fund raising, Native
American attacks
• Chinese Exploitation
– Along with the Irish and ex-slaves
– Chinese = paid less, discriminated against, and
given most dangerous jobs
This Land was made
for you and me…
WhyIndian,
did Nativenot
Americans
and settlers
come intoan
conflict?
“The
needed
– indeed,
obstacle, could be
dealt with by sheer force… And so, Indian Removal, as it
has been so politely called, cleared the land for white
occupancy…”
“In 1820, 120,000 Indians lived east of the
Mississippi. By 1844, fewer than 30,000 were
left. Most of them had been forced to migrate
westward. But the word “force” cannot convey
what happened.”
- Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States, p. 124
“If the Indian would only move to new lands
across the Mississippi,’ Cass promised in 1825
at a treaty council with Shawnees an
Cherokees, ‘The United States will never ask
for your land there. This I promise you in the
name of your great father, the President. That
country he assigns to his red people, to be
held by them and their children‘s children
forever.”
- Cass was U.S. Secretary of War
“You cannot have an idea of the deterioration
which these Indians have undergone during
the last two or three years, from a general
state of comparative plenty to that of
unqualified wretchedness and want… They are
brow beat, cowed, and imposed upon, and
depressed with the feeling that they have no
adequate protection in the United States, and
no capacity of self-protection in themselves.”
- An army colonel
- Excerpt taken from A People’s History of the United States, p. 141
Methods of Dealing with the Indian
“Problem”
• Indian Removal Act
– Moved Native Americans to Oklahoma, then
Americans wanted to settle Oklahoma
– Etc… etc… etc…
• Assimilation
– Educate American Indians in the
“white mans ways”
Methods of dealing with the Indian
“problem”
•
•
•
•
•
•
Food shortages
Whiskey
Military attacks
Put tribes against tribe
Secret bribes
“at the mercy of the state”
– Tax but no right to vote, bring suit, testify in court, etc.
• Assimilation:
– “Kill the Indian, save the man.”
Dawes Act
-Tribes could not own reservation land
-Individually owned land- destroy culture
Dawes Act
Residential Schools: Reflection
– What are your reactions to the film/readings?
What surprised you or shocked you?
– Should people who immigrate to America be
pressured to assimilate to American culture, or is
it OK for them to keep their own language,
culture, customs, etc?
– What, if anything, should be done to make things
right with the Native American population?
Frustrated Farmers
• Farmers experienced
greater costs  anger
• Populism
– Political philosophy
favoring common persons
interest over the
rich/business
– Represented farmers and
industrial workers
William Jennings Bryan
-Democratic nominee
for president
- “Cross of Gold
Speech” condemning
the gold standard
- Bryan lost, populists
faded out, but platform
would soon inspire a
new generation of
reformers
Populism Today
• Huey Long:
• Tea Party Movement:
• Occupy Wall Street: