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American History

Settling the West- RR, Mining, Cattle Drives,

Unit 5.1 Mr. Duncan

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Remember: MANIFEST DESTINY?��"...THE AMERICAN CLAIM IS BY THE RIGHT OF OUR MANIFEST DESTINY TO OVER SPREAD AND TO POSSESS THE WHOLE OF THE CONTINENT WHICH PROVIDENCE HAS GIVEN US FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT EXPERIMENT OF LIBERTY AND...SELF-GOVERNMENT ENTRUSTED TO US.”

~JOHN O’SULLIVAN (1845)�

Manifest Destiny: The belief that it is the God-given right of the United States to expand across the continent.

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�

John Gast:

“American Progress”

1872

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Settlers Move West: Railroad Expansion

Railroads= most important to settling West
1862 Pacific Railway Act- finance construction of 5 transcontinental RR
1st completed ran from Omaha to Sacramento
Union Pacific moved west from Omaha used Irish labor
Central Pacific moved east from Sacramento used Chinese Labor
Met Promontory Point, Utah May 10,1869
The Golden Spike
180 million acres land grants given by gov. to RR companies-incentivized RR construction>RR made $ selling the land
6 months to 4 days

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Mining

1st reason people moved in mass to West
Began with placer mining>sluice (panning)>hydraulic>mineshaft>mountaintop removal
Approx. 20% Chinese
Boomtowns all across West>Ghost towns
1876 Gold discovered in Black Hills-1868 Treaty Ft Laramie broken
Mtn top removal-blown up over 500 mountains, providing 10% US coal
1 ton coal= 16 tons debris

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Growing Cattle Business

Cattle drives began in 1860s
Texas Longhorn Cattle Driven north from Texas
Roamed Open Range- vast grasslands of Plains owned by government where herds cattle could graze without restrictions
Cattle herds (3,000 head avg.) driven (15 miles day) thousands of miles to RR terminals
Nearly 30 million heads cattle drive end Civil War-1900
Refrigerated train car – 1877, could ship beef long distances without spoiling
Barbed wire – 1874, easily divided up land and secured animals- fenced in Open Range

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Cowboys

Herded cattle along cattle trails
1865-1866 – 55,000 cowboys
25% black, 12% Mexican, As young as 15

NOT like Hollywood portrayals

10-14+ hour days
3 months = 1 “long drive” (trip on cattle trail)
1 cowboy to every 250-300 cattle
Always on alert for dangers to cattle
Gun to protect herd, not to hurt/chase outlaws
Expert rider and roper, but horse usually belonged to trail boss/supervisor

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End of the Open Range

By the late 1880s, the land on the Great Plains was no longer profitable.

Overgrazing
Oversupply
Series of cold and dry weather

Most ranchers scaled down ranches and focused on high-grade cattle = more meat per animal = more $
Barbed wire was used to divide up land (“tamed” the west)

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Clashes with Native Americans

Legacy Broken Treaties/Promises

1834 – Fed gov’t designated the Great Plains as one large reservation for NA tribes
1850s – Fed gov’t created boundaries for each tribe
1871 US government stopped negotiating with tribes as sovereign nations-stopped making treaties
US Government broke over 350 treaties through 1871
More than 40 separate battles in Indian Wars between US and Native tribes killing appro. 20,000 US and 30,000-45,000 natives
Buffalo soldiers- AA soldiers 20% of calvary
1850-1900 Native population cut in ½- 500,000 to under 250,000

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Great Plains Native Buffalo

Cheyenne and Sioux – largest and most resistant tribes on the plains

No sense of land ownership

Nomadic, followed buffalo herds
Buffalo were vital to Plains Native Americans life
Buffalo = survival
Food, clothes, shelter, tools, weapons
From 1800-1900 the buffalo population went from 60 million to under 1,000- intentionally done to harm natives

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Clashes with Native Americans

Treaty of Ft. Laramie- Negotiated after Red Cloud’s War (Natives successful) (1868)

Temporary peace between US gov’t and NA tribes
Sioux forced to live along the Missouri River
Sitting Bull (Sioux leader) never signed it
Negotiated after Red Cloud’s War- successful native campaign

Battle of Little Bighorn(1876)

Miners entered Sioux territory, broke Treaty of Ft. Laramie
Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse attacked Col. George Custer and killed Custer and all troops (aka Custer’s Last Stand)
Army increased military campaign against natives >Sioux eventually lost and Sitting Bull fled to Canada until 1880s

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Wounded Knee-December 1890

GHOST DANCE their lands would be returned

The Ghost Dance spread quickly
The military became alarmed and went to arrest Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull’s body guard fired at the police

The police fired back – Sitting Bull killed

350 Sioux taken to Wounded Knee, South Dakota
One Native American resisted turning over weapons and fired his rifle…
Nearly all Native Americans were killed and left to freeze on the ground
20 Congressional Medals of Honor given- Most Ever!

Wounded Knee was the end of Native resistance to settlement in the west

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Native American Assimilation

Not all Americans supported the killing of Native Americans

1881 – Helen Hunt Jackson published “A Century of Dishonor” that exposed NA treatment by fed government for over 100 years.

Some Americans encourage assimilation – a minority group’s adoption of the cultural beliefs of the dominant culture

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