Closing the Western Frontier 1865 1900 APUSH Lecture

Closing the Western Frontier, 1865 -1900 APUSH – Lecture 5 A Mrs. Kray Some slides taken from Susan Pojer

Turner’s Frontier Thesis

“The Significance of the Frontier in American History” 1893 In 1890, the census reported that for the first time in American history a frontier line no longer existed The “closing” of the frontier inspired Frederick Jackson Turner to write “The Significance of the Frontier in American History. ” Frederick Jackson Turner One of the most influential essays in American history

Turner’s Thesis Turner argued that the existence of cheap, unsettled land had played a key role in making American society more democratic. The frontier helped shape a distinctive American spirit of democracy and egalitarianism. Acted as a safety valve that enabled Eastern factory workers and immigrants to escape bad economic conditions and find new opportunities. Played a key role in stimulating American nationalism and individualism. Because of the frontier, America did not have a hereditary landed aristocracy.

Settlement of the Western Frontier

The First Transcontinental Railroad, 1869 Gov’t believed RRs would lead the way to western settlement Congress authorized land grants & loans to build 1 st transcontinental railroad Union Pacific built westward across Great Plains used Irish labor Central Pacific built eastward through the Sierras used Chinese labor

Western Land Grants To encourage railroad construction westward, government offered land subsidies and loans to the railroad companies Assumed RRs would make every effort to sell the land to new settlers to finance construction RRs controlled 50% of the land in western states Promoted hasty & poor construction Widespread corruption at all levels of government 1880 s protests against land grants mounted

Charles Crocker Mark Hopkins Collis Huntington Leland Stanford

The Other Transcontinentals Southern Pacific Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Northern Pacific Great Northern only one built w/o subsidies

Consequences for the Great Plains The railroads played a key role in the near-extinction of the buffalo herds. This dealt a devastating blow to the culture of the Plains Indians. The railroads brought a tidal wave of troops, farmers, miners, and cattlemen to the Great Plains. As the settlers built farms, range-fed cattle rapidly replaced the now decimated buffalo herds.

Frontier Farmers The Great American Desert Area between Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Coast passed quickly over this vast, dry region to reach the more inviting lands of CA and OR on the West Coast Homestead Act of 1862 Offered 160 acres of public land free to any family that settled on it for 5 yrs. 500, 000 took advantage of act Free land + promotions of RRs & land speculators = migration of thousands to the Great Plains from 1870 -1900 Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889

Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889

Sodbusters and Exodusters Sodbusters Great Plains are dry and treeless 160 acres not enough for farming Farmers faced extreme weather, grasshoppers, loneliness 2/3 of homesteaders’ farms failed Ultimately, new “dry farming techniques, ” new machinery, and hardier strains of wheat that could survive extreme weather made farming successful Exodusters

Frontier Miners Discovery of gold in CA caused the 1 st flood of miners (49 ers) Gold & silver strikes in CO, NV, ID, MT, AZ, & SD kept a steady flow of hopeful prospectors pushing into the western mountains. 0 1859 Gold discovered at Pikes Peak in Colorado brought nearly 100, 000 miners 1859 Comstock Load discovered in Nevada Produced $340 million worth of gold and silver by 1890

Impact of Mining: Chinese Immigration Increase in Chinese Immigration Mining companies needed experienced miners In 1860 s about 1/3 of the western miners were Chinese Native-born Americans resented the competition & Chinese faced discrimination

Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882 First major act restricting immigration based on race

Impact of Mining: Growth of Boomtowns Comstock Lode Virginia City, NV Strikes would create towns overnight Many became ghost towns after the gold & silver ran out Deadwood, SD Other became important commercial centers: San Francisco, Sacramento, & Denver

Impact of Mining Stimulated western settlement Increased silver supply created a crisis over the relative value of gold- & silver-backed currency Leading political issue in 1880 s & 1890 s Environmental scars Led to conflicts with Native Americans

Frontier Cowboys: Long Range Cattle Drives The Open Range Open grasslands reached from Texas to Canada Texas cattle business was easy to get into b/c cattle & grass were free Vast economic potential – changed America’s eating habits to beef Dodge City and other cow towns popped up along the RRs to handle the cattle driven up the cattle trails out of Texas

Bat Masterson Wyatt Earp

The Myth of the Cowboy Image of the rugged, selfreliant cowboy important to American culture Reality didn’t always match the myth Many were black & Mexican Received about a dollar a day for their work Watching cattle is boring

The Range Wars and the End of the Long Drive Long drive ended in the 1880 s for three reasons: Overgrazing 1885 -86 winter blizzard & drought killed off 90% of the cattle Arrival of homesteaders who used barbed wire invented by Joseph Glidden for fencing Range Wars Sheep-herders vs. Cattle ranchers Cattle rustling, like farming and mining became a business for the wealthy

Jesse James Colt. 45 Billy the Kid “God didn’t make men equal. Colonel Colt did!”

Conflicts with Native Americans

The Plains Indians Made up 2/3 of the western tribes Many were eastern transplants Lived a nomadic lifestyle following the buffalo Skilled horsemen Lived in small tribes of 300 -500 Conflicts with the U. S. government partly due to whites having little understanding of tribal organization and their nomadic lifestyle

Transformation of the Plains Indians’ Lifestyle Transcontinental RRs transformed the economy of the entire region Virtual extermination of the buffalo doomed their nomadic way of life Ravaged by diseases. Reservation Policy Begun under Andrew Jackson in 1830 s 1851: Treaty of Fort Laramie gov’t assigned the plains tribes to reservations with definite boundaries Plains tribes refused to restrict their movements

The Indian Wars, 1860 s-1880 s As whites began to settle the Plains, warfare became inevitable Sand Creek Massacre (1864): Colorado soldiers slaughter 200 Cheyenne on a reservation Sioux Wars, 1862 -1890 U. S government had signed treaties attempting to isolate Native Americans on smaller reservations w/promises of gov’t support Sparked by the discovery of gold in the Black Hills and violations of the treaty Sioux Wars Cont. Fetterman Massacre (1866): 80 U. S. soldiers lured out of sight of their fort and kill Battle of the Little Big Horn (1876): 5, 000 Sioux ambush and destroy Col. Custer’s regiment Red River War, 1874 -1875 1877: Chief Joseph surrendered after trying to lead his Nez Perce into Canada Made it 1100 miles before forced to surrender

Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor Chronicled the injustices done to Native Americans It aroused public awareness of the federal government’s long record of betraying and cheating Native Americans. Especially in eastern part of the U. S. Led to new assimilation policy Emphasized formal education, training & conversion to Christianity

Native American children were separated from their families Boarding schools were set up to teach them white culture, farming, & industrial skills

The Dawes Severalty Act, 1887 Inspired in part by A Century of Dishonor Misguided attempt to reform the government’s Native American policy Goal was to assimilate Native Americans into the mainstream of American life Senator Henry Dawes Dissolved tribes as legal entities and eliminating tribal ownership of land. Divided tribal lands into 160 acres plots Granted U. S. citizenship to any Native American that stayed on the land for 25 yrs. & “adopted the habits of civilized life”

Impact of the Dawes Severalty Act New policy was a failure Act ignored the inherent reliance of traditional Indian culture on tribally owned land. By 1900, Indians had lost 50 percent of the 156 million acres they had held just two decades earlier The forced-assimilation doctrine of the Dawes Act remained the cornerstone of the government’s official Indian policy for nearly half a century. The Indian Reservation Act of 1934 partially reversed the individualistic approach of the Dawes Act by restoring the tribal basis of Indian life.

The Ghost Dance Movement, 1890 Last effort of Native American resistance The dance was sacred ritual expressing a vision that the buffalo would return and White civilization would vanish. The army attempted to destroy it fearing that the ceremony would cause an uprising.

Wounded Knee Massacre, 1890 U. S. army surrounded Sioux encampment at Wounded Knee to disarm them Sioux Chief Big Foot, dead in the snow Over 200 Sioux men, women & children were gunned down by the U. S. army Event marked the end of the Indian Wars