Essential Questions 1 What national issues emerged in

Essential Questions 1. What national issues emerged in the process of closing the western frontier? 2. Why does the West hold such an important place in the American imagination? 3. In what ways is the West romanticized in American culture?

Major tensions Native Americans Cattlemen Ranchers Buffalo Hunters Railroads U. S. Government Sheep Herders Farmers

Key Tensions Ethnic Minorities Nativists Environmentalists Lawlessness of the Frontier Big Business Interests [mining, timber] Local Govt. Officials Farmers Buffalo Hunters “Civilizing” Forces [The “Romance” of the West]

THE GREAT WEST • After the end of the Civil War, the Great West was still mostly unpopulated by white people. Exceptions were the Mormons in Utah, trading posts and gold camps, and Spanish American settlements in the Southwest. • Great West was a rough As noted by established railways, in square measuring roughly 1870, the Great West was shockingly 1, 000 miles on each side, a underdeveloped. Look at 1890 below. huge expanse waiting to be carved up and developed • By 1890, this huge territory will be split into several states and four territories of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Indian Territory.

Plains Indians • In 1860, the Native Americans on the Great Plains numbered roughly 360, 000. • However, as Americans moved West, the Native Americans stood in their way. A clash was inevitable. The Buffalo Hunt, by Frederic Remington, 1890 A New Yorker who first went west at the age of nineteen as a cowboy and ranch cook, Remington (1861 -1909) became the foremost artist of the vanishing way of life of the old Far West. Once a common sight on the high plains, the kind of buffalo kill that Remington records here was a great rarity by the time he painted this scene in 1890. The once-vast herds of bison had long since been reduced to a pitiful few by the white man’s rifles.

Plains Indians • Prior to American expansion to the western Plains, the Native American tribes had already transformed the vast area and competitions/rivalries existed between the various tribes as different tribes moved into the area • Most importantly, the introduction of the horse forever changed the lifestyle of the Native Americans, particularly, the Sioux and the Cheyenne

Plains Indians • As Americans settled the Plains, it further exacerbated the competition between the Native Americans. – White diseases killed many natives – Destruction of the bison destroyed the livelihood of the Plains Indians – Loss of land to American cattle and other livestock • All this leads to more warfare between different tribes for scarcer resources and hunting grounds.

Treaty of Ft. Laramie (1851) Treaty of Fort Atkinson (1853) Both treaties marked the beginning of the Indian reservation system in the West. Established boundaries for the territories for the tribes and created two great Indian colonies. But whites misunderstood the Native Americans who made these treaties. Simply put, they had never lived life bound to the concept of territory.

Plains Indians • Great Sioux reservation and Indian territory in present day Oklahoma established in the 1860’s. This intensified the federal governments plan to corral the Plains Indians into reservations. • Native Americans only gave up their ancestral lands when promised to be left alone and given food, clothing, and other supplies.

Plains Indian War • From 1860 -1890, the U. S. Army fought bitter wars with the Plains Indians. – Many of the soldiers were immigrants – 1/5 th of the soldiers were African-Americans, dubbed Buffalo Soldiers by the Native Americans

Colonel John Chivington Kill and scalp all, big and little! Sandy Creek, CO Massacre November 29, 1864 Cruelty begot Cruelty! 400 Native Americans murdered gruesomely

Capt. William J. Fetterman 80 soldiers massacred by the Sioux, December 21, 1866 “Awakened a bitter feeling towards the savage perpetrators”- Custer

2 nd Treaty of Ft. Laramie (1868)Abandoned the Bozeman Trail and gave Great Sioux Reservation to the Sioux Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek (1867) Reservation Policy

Gold Found in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory! 1874

The Battle of Little Big Horn 1876 Gen. George Armstrong Custer Chief Sitting Bull

Chief Joseph I will fight no more forever! Nez Percé tribal retreat (1877)

Geronimo, Apache Chief: Hopeless Cause

Defeat of Plains Indians • Plains Indians defeated by many factors: – 1. Railroad – 2. Disease – 3. Alcohol – 4. Extermination of the Buffalo

Buffalo • Some 10 million buffalo roamed the Plains when white Americans first arrived • The lifeblood of the Native Americans – Food – Dung provided fuel – Hides provided clothing, harnesses etc – Bones provided tools • By end of the Civil War, an estiamted 15 million Buffalo roamed the Plains

Buffalo • To give perspective, a Kansas Pacific train had to wait 8 hours for a herd to pass • Buffalo Bill killed 4, 000 buffalo in 18 months working for the train company • As railroads advanced West, buffalo were killed for food, their hides, and amusement. • By 1885, only an estimated thousand Buffalo still survived

Helen Hunt Jackson A Century of Dishonor (1881)

Assimilation Debate • Humanitarians – Wanted the Native Americans to “walk the white man’s road. ” • Hard-Liners – Wanted to use reservations and brutality • Missionaries – Hoped to get Native Americans to give up their religions and adopt Christianity and assimilate into society

Arapahoe “Ghost Dance”, 1890

Chief Big Foot’s Lifeless Body Wounded Knee, SD, 1890 Marks the end of the Indian Wars and the adoption of forced assimilation

Dawes Severalty Act (1887): Assimilation Policy Carlisle Indian School, PA

Dawes Severalty Act (1887): Assimilation Policy • • Forced assimilation Dissolved tribes as legal entities Wiped out tribal ownership of tribal lands Gave 160 acres of land to family leaders – If behaved like good white settlers, they could keep the land get citizenship in 25 years • Land not given to N. Americans was sold to railroads and settlers, and proceeds were to be used to educate and civilize the N. Americans • “Kill the Indian and save the man. ”

Susette La Flesche Omaha Indian lecture tour on Native American issues in the 1870 s

Indian Reservations Today

Crazy Horse Monument: Black Hills, SD Lakota Chief

Korczak Ziolkowski, Sculptor Crazy Horse Monument His vision of the finished memorial.

Mt. Rushmore: Black Hills, SD

Vanishing Lands • Once masters of the continent, Native Americans have been squeezed into just two percent of U. S. territory. Source: Copyright © 2000 by The New York Times. Reprinted by permission.

Cattle Trails • The eventual expansion of the railroad into the cattle country of the American West solved the problem of how to get their meat profitably to market. However, driving the cattle from their ranches in the south to rail hubs further north often brought cattle ranchers and the cowboys they employed into conflict with the increasing numbers of farmers on the Plains. Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.

Homesteads from the Public Lands (acreage legally transferred to private ownership) Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.

Average Annual Precipitation, with Major Agricultural Products as of 1900 • Northern Hemisphere storms typically circle the globe in a west-to-east direction. Much of the lifenourishing water in these storms is dumped as rainfall on the western slopes of the Pacific coastal ranges and the Rocky Mountains, creating huge “rain shadows” in the Great Basin and in the western Great Plains. Westward-faring pioneers had to learn new agricultural techniques when they pushed settlement into the drought-prone regions west of the 100 th meridian, as reflected in the patterns of crop distribution by 1900. Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.

1890 and the Closing of the Frontier • Superintendent of the Census claimed that no discernable frontier line existed and that all unsettled territories had some pockets of settlement • Famous essay published by Frederick Jackson Turner – “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”

Frederick Jackson Turner and the Frontier • In 1827, Secretary of War claimed it would take 500 years to settle the west, it took less than 70 • As frontier closed and was settled, Americans created national parks to preserve the lands: – Yellowstone (1872) – Yosemite and Sequoia (1890)

Frederick Jackson Turner and the Frontier • But frontier was more than a place, it was a state of mind and symbol of opportunity. • The closing of the frontier had some consequences: – Safety Valve Theory • Idea that when times got tough, city dwellers and workers moved put west to farm and prospered • Partly true, Why? – – Most did not know how to farm Not funds to leave But, maybe kept wages high enough to discourage leaving Immigrants did go and farm • Real safety valve was western cities like Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco

Frederick Jackson Turner and the Frontier • “ American History has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. ” • According to Turner, cannot understand U. S. History without understanding the movement and drive to head West

Farming and Industrialization • As prices increased for cash crops such as wheat and corn, Farmers found themselves investing greatly in the industrialization of farming: – Become both specialists and businesspeople – Invest heavily in expensive machinery such as the combine and twine binder – Become more and more dependent on manufacturing, bankers, railroads, and industry – So, in a nutshell, farming becomes Big Business, but farmers are not really businesspeople – Farms got larger as the work force got smaller, hence increasing urbanization – When things went sour, farmers usually blamed outside forces of railroads, bankers, manufacturing, and global crop prices

Farming and Industrialization • So, being tied to a one crop economy meant for many booms and busts. Especially wheat and grain farmers, as they sold a crop that was tied to the world market and prices • In 1880’s and 1890’s this is exactly what happened as world prices dropped about 50% for a bushel of wheat and deflation occurred • Much of deflation a result of low money supply • So farmers caught in vicious cycle of producing too much grain, lowering the price, and not making enough money to pay mortgages or loans on machinery. Basically, they were screwed.

Farmer’s Plight • In addition, farmers were stricken with natural disaster: – – Grasshoppers Boll Weavil Drought Erosion and flooding • Government also over assessed many properties and charged enormous property taxes. They also put protective tariffs on manufacturing and none for agriculture

Farmer’s Plight • They also were charged extortionate rates by the barbed-wire trust, fertilizer trust, harvester trust. • Middlemen took huge cuts from profits and storage rates crazy high • Lastly, railroads had them firmly under control and charged stupid rates too • Farmers traditionally very individualistic, so they did not know how to organize well for their collective benefit. • But what they did do was start a huge political movement

The Farmers’ Grievances • This poster from 1875 expresses one of the agrarian radicals’ fundamental premises: that all other walks of life were dependent--or even parasitic-- on the indispensable work of farmers. In his famous “Cross of Gold” speech in 1896, Populist presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan put it this way: “Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country. ” The Granger Collection

The Grange • Organized in 1867 by Oliver Kelley. – At first, goal was to enhance life of the isolated farmer through social, educational, and fraternal activities. – By 1875, had nearly 800, 000 members – Overtime, raised goal from individual improvement to the improvement of the farmers’ collective plight • Cooperatively owned stores and grain storage units • Many Grangers also entered politics, especially in mid west

Farmers Alliance • Founded in Texas in late 1870’s. – Allied together to break the control of the trusts, and spread widely in West, Midwest, and South. By 1890, had over million members • Out of this the People’s Party emerged, better known as the Populists

Populist Party • Agenda – Attacked Wall Street and the trusts – Nationalizing the railroad, telephone, and telegraph – Graduated income tax, – Sub-treasury to provide loans to farmers and store grain in government held warehouses until prices rose – Free and unlimited coinage of silver

Coxey’s Army • As panic hit laborers hard, Populists tried to join the two groups together. • Many marched in protest, and most important was Jacob Coxey – Demanded 500 million in treasury notes and also relive unemployment with a public works program – Marched to D. C. , but arrested for walking on the grass

Pullman Strike • Pullman cut wages by a third, but rent had to stay the same • Eugene V. Debs, labor organizer and leader, lead Pullman laborers on a strike • Attorney General Richard Olney had federal troops squash the strike • Federal government sided with capital and caused a larger wedge between labor and capital

Mc. Kinley Campaign Headquarters, Chicago, 1896 • Those few black Americans who could exercise their right to vote in the 1890 s still remained faithful to “the party of Lincoln. ” Smithsonian Institution

Crying for Protection, 1896 • Vanderbilt established a shipping-land transit line across Nicaragua in response to the California gold rush. By the time of his death, his New York Central rail line ran from New York to Chicago and operated along more than forty-five hundred miles of track. The Granger Collection