NOTES The West The Railroads Transcontinental Railroad 1

NOTES: “The West"

The Railroads

Transcontinental Railroad 1. Railroad that connects the continent east to west 2. Contributes to the growth of towns & cities 3. Built with Irish & Chinese laborer Promontory Point, UT (May 10, 1859)_

Who Went West? FARMERS RANCHERS MINERS

Growth of Population 1. Gold rush 1849 California

2. Cattle ranchers / cowboys a. Open range system = property not fenced in cattle roamed free (cows identified by branding) b. Refrigerated RR cars – transport beef to cities, lower costs

3. Homestead Act a. land from government b. must improve land over a period of 5 years

4. Exodusters African-Americans moving to the west during & after Reconstruction

Impact on Native Americans

Impact on Native Americans 1. Buffalo Soldiers a. African American cavalry units b. job to keep NA on reservations, & control hostilities

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

3. Sitting Bull

4. Wounded Knee Massacre (Dec. 29, 1890) a. Reservations: Indians moved off land & forced to give up way of life b. Ghost Dance: ceremony that promised to rid the land of whites & restore the Indians’ way of life -white have fears of mass uprising -Sioux arrested for dancing c. Wounded Knee Camp -Big Foot -weapon fired in confusion -153 Sioux are massacred **Importance = marks the end of the Indian wars** http: //video. aol. ca/video-detail/bury-my-heart-at-wounded-knee-trailer/2653559634

5. Assimilation (adopting of another culture) Native Americans were forced to attend government schools as young children to ‘be white. ’ Purpose: destroy Indian culture.

6. Purposeful/systematic destruction of the Buffalo a. Buffalo = center of NA livelihood (food, clothing) b. gov’t supported killing as war tactic c. “every buffalo dead is an Indian gone” – Colonel Dodge US Army