Chapter 5 Changes on the Western Frontier Cultures

Chapter 5 Changes on the Western Frontier

Cultures Clash on the Prairie

Plains Indians

Plains Indians • Horse-increased mobility • Buffalo-provided for basic needs; central to life • Hunters trespass on other tribe’s hunting grounds –war • Powerful spirits control natural world • Stories, myth, games, example –teach proper behavior and culture • Land held in common • Tribal leaders rule by council

Settlers • • Farmers Miners Businessmen Owning land gives one a stake in the country • Natives gave up rights to land by not settling and “improving” it • Primary religion –Christianity

Government Restricts Native Americans • 1834: Great Plains =enormous reservation • 1850: specific boundaries for each tribe designated • Most tribes ignore this, continue to use traditional lands

Government Restricts Native Americans • 1864: Sand Creek –over 150 Cheyenne women and children killed by federal troops • 1866: Battle of Hundred Slain/Fetterman Massacre –over 80 federal troops killed by Sioux ▫ Treaty of Fort Laramie forces Sioux onto reservation along the Missouri River ▫ Sitting Bull never signs treaty

Conflict Continues • Red River War- Kiowa/Comanche raids ▫ Friendly tribes herded onto reservations ▫ All others attacked • Gold Rush ▫ 1874: gold discovered in Black Hills (Indian Territory) • George A. Custer Along with the entire 7 th Cavalry, killed by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors

Conflict Continues • Assimilation-Native Americans give up their beliefs and embrace white culture. • Dawes Act –broke up reservations, gave land to individual Native Americans ▫ Remainder of reservations sold to settlers ▫ Money would go to Native Americans to buy farm implements ▫ White settlers claim 2/3 of Native American land ▫ Native Americans never receive money

Conflict Continues • Destruction of Buffalo ▫ Tourists/hunters/fur traders –overhunt ▫ Government hires people to kill buffalo ▫ Buffalo nearly go extinct 1800 -65 million buffalo 1900 -one herd in Yellowstone National Park • Battle of Wounded Knee ▫ December 1890: Sioux starving/freezing Rounded up and taken to Wounded Knee Creek Demand Sioux give up weapons Shot fired 300(mostly unarmed) Sioux dead Indian Wars brought to an end

Activity • Read: “The Extermination of the American Bison” and answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper. Cite evidence from the text to support your answers. ▫ What, according to the author, were the causes of the buffalo’s extermination? ▫ What were the effects of the extermination of the buffalo? ▫ Do you think the author was for or against the extermination of the buffalo? Why?

Business of Cattle • Buffalo die off –horses and cattle flourish • Americans learned how to manage large herds from their Mexican neighbors. • Vaquero Vocabulary/Vocabulario Cowboy Chaparreras Chaps Charqui Jerky Bronco Caballo Bronco/Bronc Mesteños Mustangs Rancho Ranch Corral Rodeo

End of the Open Range • Overgrazing –grass cannot recover quick enough • Extended bad weather –dry summers/harsh winters • Barbed wire –very cheap, allows ranchers to fence off land, keep herds contained

Cowboys: Myth vs Reality • Myth: Pecos Bill • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=9 QIOZAs. Cx. Z 8 • Reality: ▫ Worked 10 -14 hours a day on the ranch/ 14 or more hours a day on the trail ▫ Some as young as 15 ▫ Most broken down by 40 ▫ Typically didn’t own horses ▫ Expert rider/roper ▫ Had to fight off predators/ diseased animals, not outlaws

Legends of the West • Wild Bill Hickok ▫ legendary spy/scout during Civil War ▫ Marshall in Abilene, Kansas ▫ Violent man, killed during a poker game • Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Burke) ▫ Expert sharpshooter ▫ Dressed as a man ▫ May have been a scout for Colonel Custer • Annie Oakley ▫ Expert sharpshooter ▫ Starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show

Settling on the Great Plains

Railroads open the West • 1850 -1871: government makes huge land grants to railroad companies (170 million acres) • Great Railroad Race: ▫ Union Pacific v. s. Central Pacific 10 square miles/1 mile track (state) 20 square miles/1 mile track (territory) CP moves eastward from Sacramento UP moves westward from Omaha Most labor done by Civil War veterans, Irish/Chinese immigrants, African Americans, Mexican Americans

Results of Railroad Race • Companies sell some of their land to farmers for two to ten dollars/acre • Some sent agents to Europe to recruit buyers ▫ By 1880: 44% settlers in Nebraska =immigrants 70% settlers in Minnesota and Wisconsin=immigrants

Homestead Act • 1862: 160 acres of FREE land to any citizen/intended citizen who was head of a household. ▫ 1862 -1900: up to 600, 000 families move west ▫ Exodusters among this group

Problems • Private Speculators, Railroad Companies, State Governments use land for their own gain ▫ ▫ Cattlemen fence land Miners/woodcutters claim national resources Only 10% of land actually settled by families Not all plots of land created equal 160 acres in Minnesota/Iowa = 160 acres in dry, Western land =

Improving the Homestead Act • 1889: major land giveaway in Oklahoma attracts thousands • 2 million acres of land claimed in less than one day • Some took land sooner than they were supposed to, earning Oklahoma the title of the “Sooner State” https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=yxa. JY 8 UZxn 4

The Closing of the Frontier • Henry Washburn and Nathaniel Langford ▫ Protect the wilderness from settlement ▫ 1872: Yellowstone National Park • 1879: railroads forced to give up land equal in area to New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia combined • 1880: individuals had bought more than 19 million acres of government land • 1900: Frontier closed

Life on the Plains • Dugouts and Soddies ▫ Trees scarce ▫ Some dig homes into the sides of hills ▫ Some build houses out of prairie turf

Life on the Plains • Women’s Work ▫ ▫ ▫ ▫ Homesteaders have to be self-sufficient Women work beside men in fields Sheared sheep and carded wool to make clothes Dug wells and hauled water from them Made soap and candles Canned fruits and vegetables Learned how to doctor ailments from snakebites to crushed limbs ▫ Sponsored schools and churches

Life on the Plains • Technical Support for farmers ▫ ▫ ▫ Barbed wire Reaper Steel Plow Steel Windmill Seed Drill • 1830: 183 minutes to produce a bushel of grain • 1900: 10 minutes to produce a bushel of grain

Life on the Plains • Agricultural Education ▫ Government finances agricultural education ▫ Morrill Act 1862: federal land given to states to establish agricultural colleges ▫ Hatch Act 1887: established agricultural experimentation stations Developed grain for arid soil Techniques for dry farming Result: Eastern plains flourish…for now.

Farmers in Debt • Machinery expensive –farmers have to borrow money • High wheat prices =farmers can repay loans • Low wheat prices = farmers have to produce more to make ends meet • Cost of shipping grain rising ▫ Railroad takes advantage of farmers ▫ Farmers grow as much as they can; slide farther into debt ▫ Farmers unite in a common cause…

Crash Course US History: Westward Expansion • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Q 16 OZkg. S Xf. M

Farmers and the Populist Movement “What you farmers need to do is to raise less corn and more Hell! We want the accursed foreclosure system wiped out… We will stand by our homes and stay by our fire-sides by force if necessary, and we will not pay our debts to the loan-shark companies until the Government pays its debts to us. ” -Mary Elizabeth Lease

Economic Distress • Civil War ▫ US issues $500 million in “greenbacks” cannot be exchanged for silver/gold Worth less than hard money (can be exchanged for gold) • After War ▫ Government takes greenbacks out of circulation ▫ Raises value of money still in circulation Problem: farmers had to pay back loans with dollars that were worth more than the dollars they had borrowed. Adding to that, 1867 -1887, price of bushel of wheat falls from $2. 00 to ¢ 68 Result: Farmers lose money at every turn

Problems with Railroads • Lack of competition =Railroads can charge whatever they want • Cost more to ship grain across US by rail to ship it to Europe by boat. • Secret agreements with grain brokers and merchants allow railroads to control grain storage prices and influence market prices.

Farmers fall farther into debt • Farmers mortgage farms for credit to buy seed and supplies • Suppliers charge high interest rates, more for credit than for items bought on cash • Vicious cycle of credit and debt, banks foreclose on farms whose mortgages go unpaid.

Farmers’ Organize • 1867 -Patrons of Husbandry a. k. a. the Grange: ▫ Founded by Oliver Hudson Kelley ▫ Provided social outlet/educational forum for farm families ▫ Fought against railroads • Farmers’ Alliances ▫ Educated people about lower interest rates on loans and government control over banks ▫ Sub-groups: Southern Alliance Colored Farmers’ National Alliance

Populism • Social reform cannot happen without political power • July 2, 1892: Populist Party founded ▫ Gives rise to Populism –the movement of the people

Populist Party Platform • Economic reforms proposed: ▫ Increased money supply –raise prices received for goods and services ▫ Graduated income tax –higher income=higher percentage of tax ▫ Federal loan program • Governmental reforms proposed: ▫ Election of US senators by popular vote ▫ Single terms for the president and vice president ▫ Secret ballot –designed to end vote fraud ▫ Eight-hour workday ▫ Restrictions on immigration

Populist Party gains support • 1892: Populist presidential candidate wins about 10% of the votes • 5 Senators, 3 governors, 1, 500 state legislators elected from the Populist Party • Democrats adopt Populist platform ▫ Gov’t responsible for reforming social injustices

Panic of 1893 • Farmers overextended w/debts & loans • Railroad construction expanded faster than markets ▫ Many RR companies go bankrupt • Gov’t’s gold supply wore thin ▫ Panic! People try and exchange paper money for gold ▫ Prices of stocks fall rapidly ▫ Price of silver plunges • Over 15, 000 businesses and 500 banks collapse • 3 million people lose jobs • December, 1894: 1/5 of workforce unemployed

Silver or Gold • Campaign of 1896: ▫ Republicans: Business owners/bankers of industrial Northeast ▫ Democrats: farmers and laborers of the agrarian South and West • Central issue: monetary system ▫ Bimetallism (economy backed by silver and gold) vs gold standard (economy backed by gold) ▫ Silver=more plentiful than gold, more money available ▫ Gold =more expensive, but more stable than silver

“Cross of Gold” • Populist Party calls for bimetallism • Join forces w/democrats? Or retain political identity but risk losing election? • Republicans nominate William Mc. Kinley • Democrats nominate William Jennings Bryan after he gives an impassioned speech…

Activity: “Cross of Gold” Speech • Directions: Read the excerpt from William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech then answer the following questions: • 1. What argument does Bryan offer to those who say that “the great cities are in favor of the gold standard”? • 2. What kind of symbolism does Bryan use to win support? Cite specific examples.

The End of Populism • Free-silver stance weakens Bryan’s support in cities (consumers fear inflation) • Bryan had a much smaller campaign fund than Mc. Kinley • Bryan carries the rural vote; Mc. Kinley carries the East • Industrial Mid-West fears inflation, votes for Mc. Kinley ▫ Mc. Kinley wins • Populism collapses

A popular children’s tale? • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Jo. CUXIn. C r. Xs