The Transformation of the Trans-Mississippi West

1
Chapter 17

• The Transformation of the Trans-Mississippi West
• 1860-1900

2
Introduction

• 1.) How and why did Native Americans life on the
  Great Plains change between 1850s and 1900?
• 2.) What roles did the army and the railroads
  play in the settlement of the West?
• 3.) How did Anglo-Americans displace
  Spanish-speaking people in the Southwest?
• 4.) How did the Wild West image of cowboys and
  Indians originate?

3
Introduction (cont.)

• 5.) Why did some Americans wish to conserve the
  natural resources and beauty of the West, and how
  did this lead to creating the national parks?

4
Native Americans and the Trans-Mississippi West

• The Plains Indians (mid-1800s)
• Northern Great Plains
• the Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow,
  and other Native American tribes roamed
• In the central and southern Plains
• The Five Civilized Tribes, Comanches, Kiowas,
  Pawnees, and others lived
• Plains Indians
• Lakota Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne
• Hunted and migrated buffalo herds
• They ate the meat and used the hides for tepees
  and clothing

5
The Plains Indians (mid-1800s)

• In the 1860s, the demand for buffalo hides in
  the eastern markets grew so great that white
  hunters, sometimes aided by the Indians, became
  professional buffalo killers
• Buffalo Bill Cody
• 1867-1868
• Killed over 4,000 animals to feed the crews
  building the first transcontinental railroad

6
The Plains Indians (mid-1800s)

• By the 1880s, hunting had reduced the once huge
  herds to only a few thousand animals and doomed
  the nomadic, buffalo-centered way of life of the
  Plains tribes

7
The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life

• By the time of the Civil War, the govt. was
  pressuring Plains tribes to surrender their vast
  hunting grounds
• Settle as farmers on restricted reservations
• Some tribes accepted the change peacefully
• Pueblos, Crows

8
The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life (cont.)

• From 1860s and 1890 there was almost constant
  warfare
• 100,000 Native Americans
• Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche
• Over the possession of the Great Plains and the
  Southwest
• Many atrocities occurred
• Chivington Sand Creek massacre
• Nov. 29, 1864
• In CO
• About 200 Cheyennes were murdered

9
The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life (cont.)

• In 1867-1868 the govt. signed peace treaties with
  many of these tribes
• Assigned most of them to 2 large reservations
• One in present-day OK (then known as the Indian
  Territory)
• The other in present-day South Dakota (the Great
  Sioux Reserve)

10
The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life (cont.)

• Many of the tribes rejected a sedentary farming
  way of life
• Left the reservations and harried white pioneers
• The army retaliated by attacking any bands off
  their reservations
• Even if those groups did not happen to be the
  ones that had committed hostile acts

11
The Assault on Nomadic Indian Life (cont.)

• After the Red River war in the 1870s, the
  southern Plain tribes gave up
• By 1886, when Geronimo surrendered, the
  southwestern tribes also capitulated

12
Custers Last Stand, 1876

• The Sioux refused to report to the govt.-run
  agencies on their reservations
• They also refused to sell the Black Hills part of
  their reserve
• the army made war against them
• The most famous casualties in that campaign were
  Colonel George A. Custer and his Seventh Cavalry
• The Sioux annihilated at the battle of the Little
  Bighorn in 1876
• Custer's Last Stand summary

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Custers Last Stand, 1876 (cont.)

• Despite their brief triumph, the Sioux were
  subsequently forced to settle near the govt.
  agencies and to surrender the Black Hills
• In the late 1870s, the army crushed brief
  resistance by Chief Josephs Nez Perce and Chief
  Dull Knifes northern Cheyennes

15
Saving the Indians

• Humanitarian reformers in the East began to cry
  out against govt. mistreatment of the Indians
• A Century of Dishonor
• 1881
• Helen Hunt Jackson
• Called attention to the sorry record of the govt.
• A Century of Dishonor

16
Saving the Indians (cont.)

• These reformers thought the best way to end the
  injustice was to assimilate Indians quickly into
  mainstream white society
• Dawes Severalty Act
• 1887
• Ended collective tribal ownership of land
• Split the reservation into 160-acre farms
• Assigned to the head of each Indian family
• Any remaining reservation land was sold to whites
• At the end of 25 years, the Indians were to
  receive full title to their farms and U.S.
  citizenship

17
Saving the Indians (cont.)

• Dawes Act
• Was supported by well-intentioned reformers and
  whites that only wanted the Indian land
• The govt. also attempted to suppress tribal
  languages and culture
• The new policies proved disastrous for most
  Indians
• By 1934, the total acreage owned by Indians had
  fallen by 65
• What was left was too dry or infertile to be
  farmed

18
The Ghost Dance and the End of Indian Resistance
on the Great Plains, 1890

• Desperate because of their plight, the Sioux and
  other tribes turned to the Ghost Dance movement
• Ghost Dance songs
• The armys decision to stop the Ghost Dance
  movement led
• to the death of Sitting Bull
• The last battles between whites and Indians
• The 1890 Wounded Knee massacre of 300 Sioux

19
The Ghost Dance and the End of Indian Resistance
on the Great Plains, 1890

• By 1900, most of the remaining 100,000 Plains
  Indians lived in poverty on their reservations
• Dependent on govt. support to survive
• The Navajo of the Southwest adjusted more readily
  to reservation life
• By 1900 had increased their land and livestock
  holding

20
Settling the West

• The First Transcontinental Railroad
• May 1869
• Promontory Point, UT
• The meeting of the Union Pacific and Central
  Pacific
• Construction had been authorized by the Pacific
  Railroad Act of 1862
• Much of the labor was performed by Chinese and
  Irish immigrants along with Mexican-Americans and
  African-Americans
• Summary of transcontinental railroad

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Settling the West (cont.)

• The railroads emerged as the biggest landlords in
  the West
• Because the govt. granted land to the companies
  for every mile of track laid
• By the end of the 1800s, 9 major railroads
  linked the country
• Made westward travel and shipping much faster and
  easier

23
Settlers and the Railroad

• To encourage railroad companies to lay track
  across the country, state and federal govts.
  granted them millions of acres of land
• Eager both to sell these lands and create future
  customers for rail service
• The companies made all-out efforts to attract
  settlers
• They opened land bureaus
• Sent agents to the East Coast and Europe
• Offered easy credit
• Offered free transportation out west to potential
  purchasers

24
Settlers and the Railroad (cont.)

• 1870-1900
• Railroads helped to recruit whole families,
  single women, over 2 million European immigrants
  to farm the Trans-Mississippi West
• The railroads wielded great economic and social
  influence over western development

25
Settlers and the Railroad (cont.)

• Their pressure for quick payment from land buyers
  pushed western farmers into concentrating on
  producing a single cash crop
• Wheat or corn
• Made them very vulnerable to price fluctuations
  on the world market

26
Homesteading on the Great Plains

• Homestead Act
• 1862
• Helped to drawn settlers to the Great Plains
• Provided free 160-acre farm to anyone who would
  live on and improve it over a 5-year period
• Especially attractive to immigrants from western
  and northern Europe
• Distributed 80 million acres of land to 400,000
  families by 1900

27
Homesteading on the Great Plains (cont.)

• The most valuable western land ended up in the
  hands of railroads, land speculators, lumber
  companies, and big ranchers
• Homesteading pioneers on the Great Plains had to
  cope with major trials
• Isolation
• Backbreaking work
• Extreme weather conditions
• Living in sod houses due to the lack of trees for
  lumber

28
Homesteading on the Great Plains (cont.)

• Many gave up and left their farms
• Those who persisted for 10 years or more,
  generally lived comfortable lives

29
New Farms, New Markets

• Railroads, improved farm machinery, and mounting
  eastern demand for food, all led to the
  development of millions of new farms
• Also there was a soaring American agricultural
  production between 1870-1900
• Starting a new farm on the Great Plains was a
  risky business
• Most settlers had to go into debt to acquire
  horses, machinery, and seed

30
New Farms, New Markets (cont.)

• To meet debt payments to railroads and banks,
  farmers specialized in growing cash crops
• Made them vulnerable to world market conditions
• Also dependent on the railroads to reach the
  markets
• Uncertain rainfall and severe weather conditions
  added to the farmers problems

31
Building a Society and Achieving Statehood

• Out of crude frontier settlements, civilized
  communities began to develop
• Churches and Sunday schools were usually the
  earliest institutions to emerge
• Residents drew up state constitutions
• In 1860s and 1870s the following states entered
  the Union
• KS, NV, NE, CO
• Most of the northern portions of the Great Plains
  achieved statehood in the late 1880s and 1890s

32
Building a Society and Achieving Statehood (cont.)

• Early 20th-century OK, AZ, and NM entered the
  Union
• The trans-Mississippi West completed its
  transition from frontier territories to states
• Most western govts. were conservative
• But they did grant womens suffrage
• By 1910, ID, WY, UT, and CO had given women full
  voting rights

33
The Spread of Mormonism

• Persecuted in the East, the Mormons migrated to
  the Great Salt Lake Valley
• Led by Brigham Young
• Began in 1847
• They declared their territory the independent
  country of Deseret
• Attracted many converts from the East and Europe
• Created church-directed govt.
• Practice polygyny

34
The Spread of Mormonism (cont.)

• In the 1860s, the federal govt. began outlawing
  their practices
• In the 1870s, the federal govt. won backing for
  repressive and coercive measures from the federal
  courts
• Under pressure, in 1890, the Mormons renounced
  polygyny and church involvement in govt.
• Applied for statehood
• UT as admitted to the Union in 1896

35
Southwestern Borderlands

• After the Mexican War, American ranchers and
  settlers in the Southwest took over the
  territorial govts.
• Forced most of the Spanish-speaking population
  off the land
• The Mexican minority tended to become low-paid
  day laborers
• Faced discrimination and periodic violent attacks

36
Southwestern Borderlands (cont.)

• Mexican-Americans fought back by organizing
  groups such as Las Gorras Blancas (the White
  Caps)
• They had little success
• The Hispanic struggle for justice and equality
  would continue throughout the 20th century

37
Exploiting the Western Landscape

• The Mining Frontier
• Mining booms in the West
• 1849CA Gold Rush
• Gold Rush summary
• 1850sSierra, NV and British Columbia
• New gold and silver strikes followed in NV, CO,
  ID, MT, WY, SD, AK

38
The Mining Frontier (cont.)
39
The Mining Frontier (cont.)

• Each new discovery brought a rush of eager
  prospectors who believed in the get-rich-quick
  myth of the West
• Infamous boomtowns such as Virginia City, NV
  sprang up
• Virginia City, NV pictures
• Most quickly declined into ghost towns when the
  mines were depleted
• Legends of American--Ghost towns

40
The Mining Frontier (cont.)

• A few individual prospectors with picks, shovels,
  and strainers made a fortune
• Most barely earned a living though
• The real profits went to large mining companies
  backed by European and eastern capital
• Had the expensive equipment necessary to mine the
  gold and silver deposits deep underground

41
The Mining Frontier (cont.)

• These mining companies did stimulate the U.S.
  economy
• They also though ravaged the landscape and filled
  the surrounding area with smoke and chemicals
  from their smelters

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Cowboys and the Cattle Frontier

• Open range cattle industry was successful
• Confinement of the Plains Indians on reservations
• Extension of the railroad into KS
• Construction of new stockyards at railheads
• Abilene, KS
• Railroad promoters enticed thousands of people to
  enter the business by predicting great profits
• For a time open-range ranchers did make fortunes
• Ordinary cowboys did not make a profit
• Tended the cattle on the long drives to the
  railheads

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Cowboys and the Cattle Frontier (cont.)

• Most cowboys were poorly paid young men
• About 1/5 were black or Mexican
• Peak between 1880-1885
• The industry declined rapidly
• Overgrazing
• Fencing of the open range by farmers
• Freezing winters of 1885 and 1886
• Killed 90 of the steers in some regions

46
Cowboys and the Cattle Frontier (cont.)

• The open range and great cattle drives
  disappeared
• Cattle ranching still continues today

47
The Cattle Towns and Prostitutes

• The open-range cattle industry produced legendary
  cattle towns
• Abilene, KS
• Dodge City, KS
• Cozad, NE
• These towns were generally less lawless and
  violent than they have been portrayed in novels,
  films, and TV
• Did have many saloons and prostitutes
• Prostitutes came from many different class and
  ethnic backgrounds

48
Bonanza Farms

• Speculators Believed that enormous profits could
  be made in large-scale wheat growing
• the late 1870s and the 1880s
• established ten-thousand-acre farms
• invested heavily in the latest equipment

49
Bonanza Farm in ND
50
Bonanza Farms (cont.)

• For a while these bonanza farms did reap handsome
  profits
• In 1890 many enterprises went into bankruptcy
• Overproduction
• Poor weather conditions
• Falling wheat prices

51
Bonanza Farms (cont.)

• Large-scale farming did best in CA
• Big growers irrigated their land
• Cooperatively marketed their citrus fruit under
  the Sunkist trademark

52
The Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889

• The federal govt. initially set aside OK as a
  reservation for various Native American tribes
• National Archives--Indian Territory map
• Pressure form land-hungry farmers mounted
• The govt. reconsidered
• In 1889, Congress opened some 2 million acres in
  the hear of the Indian Territory to white
  settlers
• Within weeks, OK pioneers filed 6,000 homestead
  claims

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The Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889 (cont.)

• In the following years, under the provisions of
  the Dawes Act, more and more OK land passed into
  the hands of whites
• Curtis Act
• Congress passed in 1889
• Proclaimed the end of the Indian Territory
• Curtis Act--OK Historical Society

55
The West of Life and Legend

• The American Adam and the Dime-Novel Hero
• Writers in the middle of the 19th century often
  presented the West as a place to escape from the
  corruptions of civilization
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• 1885
• Description of life along the Mississippi River

56
The American Adam and the Dime-Novel Hero (cont.)

• In the 1860s and 1870s, eastern dime-novel
  writers created the western novel
• Frontiersman hero who fights Indians and bad
  guys for right and justice
• Buffalo Bill
• Character made famous by Ned Buntline
• Modeled after William F. Buffalo Bill Cody
• Cashed in on the fame by founding a Wild West
  touring show that became extremely popular

57
Buffalo Bill Cody
58
Revitalizing the Frontier Legend

• The dime novels and Wild West shows caught the
  fancy of 3 young members of the eastern elite
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Frederic Remington
• Owen Wister
• They visited the West and made it the subject of
  their histories, art, and novels

59
Revitalizing the Frontier Legend (cont.)

• They fostered the frontier legend of the West
• as a testing ground in which the fittest and best
  survived
• As the home of the cowboy
• who embodied the essence of manly virtue

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Beginning a National Parks Movement

• The frontier legend aroused some public interest
  in protecting the Wests natural beauty and
  wonders
• John Wesley Powell, Henry D. Washburn, George
  Perkins Marsh, John Muir
• The nation created its first national parks
• Yellowstone and Yosemite

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Yellowstone and Yosemite
63
Beginning a National Parks Movement (cont.)

• Sierra Club
• First organization dedicated to conservation
• Muir was first president
• Sierra Club website

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Conclusion

• As Americans struggled to adjust to the
  disruptive changes brought by industrialization
  and urbanization
• They embraced the myth of the West as a paradise
• Life was simple, moral right and wrong were
  clear-cut, and opportunity abounded
• That myth was created by popular writers,
  journalists, artists, railroad publicists, and
  politicians

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Conclusion (cont.)

• The myth ignored the darker elements of westward
  expansion
• The use of the army to destroy the way of life of
  the Native Americans and force them onto
  reservations
• The heedless exploitation of the environment
• The fact that the individual prospectors,
  ranchers, and homesteaders were increasingly
  overtaken by big eastern-financed companies in
  mining, ranching, and agribusiness

66
Conclusion (cont.)

• It was also true that the creation of new western
  settlements
• enhanced the image of the United States as a land
  of opportunities
• Fostered certain democratic ideas
• Extending the vote to women
• Gave birth to the conservation movement
• The development of the vast western resources
  made the nation one of the worlds richest powers
  by 1900