i need help
THE
AMERICAN
WEST
“IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO CIVILIZE
INDIANS…[THEY] ARE DESTINED TO
EXTINCTION, AND [ARE NOT] AS A
RACE, WORTH PRESERVING…[THEY
ARE] ESSENTIALLY INFERIOR TO THE
ANGLO-SAXON RACE. THEY WERE
NOT AN IMPROVABLE BREED, AND
THEIR DISAPPEARANCE FROM THE
HUMAN FAMILY WILL BE NO GREAT
LOSS TO THE WORLD.”
~Secr. of State Henry Clay
“Indians and wolves are both beasts of prey, tho’ they differ in shape.”
George Washington
“If ever we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it
down till that tribe is exterminated, or driven beyond the Mississippi… in war, they will
kill some of us; we shall destroy them all.”
Thomas Jefferson
“I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe
nine out of ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Let me tell you just a little something about the American Indian in our land. We have
provided millions of acres of land for what are called preservations – or reservations, I
should say. They, from the beginning, announced that they wanted to maintain their
way of life, as they had always lived there in the desert and the plains and so forth.
And we set up these reservations so they could, and have a Bureau of Indian Affairs
to help take care of them. At the same time, we provide education for them – schools
on the reservations…. And we’ve done everything we can to meet their demands as to
how they want to live. Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe we should not have
humored them in that wanting to stay in that kind of primitive lifestyle. Maybe we
should have said, no, come join us; be citizens along with the rest of us.”
Ronald Reagan
Of the approx. 350
treaties made with the
Native Americans, the
US Government did not
honor a single one.
1862 Homestead Act: encouraged
squatters to invade Native lands in the
Midwest.
1866 Reconstruction Treaties: Gov’t
rules all treaties with Native tribes null
and void.
Because members of various tribes
joined the Confederacy
Natives were forced to accept
Freedmen as citizens of their tribe.
1887 Dawes Act: ended collectively
owned Native lands, redistributing
to individuals. Result: end of
tribalism and allowed “surplus” land
to be sold to whites, i.e. Land Runs
1917 – 1918: Natives serve in WWI
1924: Natives granted US citizenship
Pres. Lincoln ordered the largest mass
execution in US History
December 26, 1862: 38 Dakota Natives were hanged in
Mankato, Minnesota
Lincoln ordered the
remaining 265
Dakota Natives be
sent to a military
prison camp.
120 more died.
The Indian Wars
Army troops attacked and massacred surrendering
Cheyenne. Congressional investigators condemned the
Army actions, but no one was punished in the Sand
Creek Massacre.
After the massacre, Cheyenne and Lakota stepped up
their raids. In return for closing a sacred trail, the Lakota
agreed to live on a reservation. Other nations signed
the Medicine Lodge Treaty and were moved to
reservation lands in western Oklahoma.
George Armstrong Custer led his troops in headlong
battle against Sitting Bull and lost. The Battle of the
Little Bighorn was a temporary victory for the Lakota,
but the U.S. government was determined to put down
the threat to settlers.
Sand Creek
Massacre
1864
Treaties
The Battle of
the Little
Bighorn
1876
1868: Treaty of Fort Laramie
▪ US closed the
Bozeman Trail
▪ Lakota agreed
to move to
reservation
▪ Sitting Bull was
the only Lakota
who did not
sign treaty
General George Custer & The Battle
of Little Big Horn
Comanche, the only
survivor
June 25 – 26, 1876:
7th Cavalry with 600 men vs.
combined forces of Lakota,
Northern Cheyenne, and
Arapaho = 1,800 warriors
Crazy Horse
The “Indian Wars”
The Ghost Dance: religious movement.
• Newspapers suggested that this
signaled a planned uprising.
• The military killed Sitting Bull while
attempting to arrest him.
Wounded Knee Massacre:
• 300 unarmed and fleeing Lakota were
killed by the U.S. Army.
• Ended the “Indian Wars”
The Ghost
Dance
~1890
Wounded
Knee
~Dec. 1890
HIDE –
BUCKSKIN:
moccasin tops
cradles
winter robes
bedding
shirts
leggings
lance covers
belts
dresses
pipe bags
pouches
paint bags
dolls
coup flag
covers
quivers
tipi covers
gun cases
HAIR:
headdresses
saddle pad filler
pillows
rope
ornaments
halters
medicine balls
TAIL:
medicine switch
fly brush
lodge exterior
decorations
whips
HOOF &
FEET:
glue
rattles
HORNS:
cups
fire carriers
powder horn
spoons
ladles
headdresses
signals
toys
MEAT:
(every part eaten)
pemmican –
(converted)
hump
ribs
jerky (converted)
SKIN OF HIND
LEG:
moccasins or boots
RAWHIDE:
containers
clothing
headdress
food
medicine bags
shields
buckets
moccasin soles
rattles
drums
drumsticks
splints
ropes
belts
saddles
horse masks
lance cases
armbands
knife cases
stirrups
horse ornament
NATIVE AMERICAN USES FOR THE BUFFALO
Plenty Coups, the last great Chief of the Crow
Nation:
“When the buffalo went away the hearts of my
people fell to the ground and they could not lift
them up again. After this nothing happened.”
Question:
How would you face the possibility that your
culture might disappear?
By 1886
EVERY Native in
the US was either
dead or was
living on a
reservation.
Life on the Reservation =
Death of Tribalism
Government wanted control over all western territories and
Natives to live like whites.
Bureau of Indian Affairs erased Native culture through a
program of Americanization. Native students were forced to
speak only English, could not wear traditional clothing, and
had to learn to live like whites.
The Dawes Act of 1887 broke up many reservations and
turned Natives into individual property owners – designed to
transform their relationship to the land. Natives received less
productive land, and few had money to start farms. Most of the
land given to the Natives was unsuitable for farming.
Tribes in Indian Territory before the Indian Removal Act
1856
90 MILLION acres
of land had been
taken from the
Natives.
1934: Dawes Act repealed
•US Government’s objective
was to erase Native culture
as part of a larger strategy
to finally conquer
Natives, intending to
transform the children,
inside and out.
•100 Indian Schools were
opened and operated
•Children were often
beaten, malnourished , and
forced to do heavy laborNative children (sometimes taken by
force) forced to speak English only, cut
their hair, and given “white” names.
Schools designed to “civilize” the
children and assimilate them into white
society, teaching them a trade.
‘Kill the Indian … Save the Man’
“I have never seen in my life a
good Indian … except when I
have seen a dead Indian.”
~MN Rep. James M. Cavanaugh – 1869
Native children
photographed upon
arrival at the Indian
Boarding School
The same
children four
months
later.
Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Pennsylvania
Tom Torlino, a Carlisle Indian Boarding
School student, before and after
spending time at the school.
Published in Harper’s
Weekly, January 16,
1869 by Frank Bellew.
GOLD!!!
Striking Gold and Silver
• Discovering gold and silver
– After the California gold rush, Colorado was next.
Most were disappointed, but the silver in the
Comstock Lode rush in Nevada lasted 20+ years.
• The Klondike gold rush
– Yukon Territory was site of a huge gold rush,
getting there was treacherous. Canadians
required miners to bring a year’s worth of
supplies with them, a difficult task.
– Reports of “gold for the taking” were false.
Development of Communities
• Mining camps and towns
– Thousands of men poured into mining areas. Camps
were hastily built with no law enforcement. Vigilante
justice was used to combat theft and violence.
• Camps become towns
– Some camps developed into towns, with hastily
constructed buildings of stores and saloons.
– As towns developed, women and children joined the
men, making the towns more respectable.
Townspeople established churches, newspapers, and
schools.
The Reality:
A Sod House, on the Great Plains
The Cattle Boom
The Spanish were first ranchers in the West, raising
cattle under dry and difficult conditions. They bred
the Texas longhorn and started sheep ranching.
The age of the cattle drive had arrived. Cowboys
drove cattle to towns with railroads to be shipped to
meatpacking centers such as Chicago. One of the
most famous cattle trails was the Chisholm Trail.
Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire, allowing ranchers
to enclose grazing lands. Privately owned ranches spread
quickly, and investors transformed the cattle business into
big business. Two years of severe winters brought huge
losses to the industry.
Origins of
ranching
Demand
for beef
Ranching
as BIG
business
First Cowboys
Vaqueros – Mexican Cowboys
▪ Longhorn cattle were imported from Spain
▪ Everything that became the American Cowboy
derived its origins from the Mexican Vaqueros
❖ Jerky
❖ Chaps
❖ Bronco riding
❖ Corral
❖ Rodeo
LAND USES – 1880S
Incentives for Settlement
• New legislation
– 1862, Congress passed 3 acts to turn public lands
into private property.
• The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of land to
heads of household.
• The Pacific Railway Act gave land to the railroad
companies to build lines.
• The Morrill Act gave lands to states for colleges for
agriculture and the mechanic arts.
• Land-grant institutions (OSU & Langston Univ.),
established under the Morrill Act of 1890,
provided teaching in fields related to agriculture
and the mechanic arts. These universities
accepted women.
Incentives for Settlement, con’t
• Railroads encourage settlement
– Railroads reaped profits by selling some of their land
to settlers. They placed ads to lure homesteaders to
the West.
– The Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 opened unassigned
Native land to settlers. 50,000+ people took part in the
rush to stake a claim on these 2 million acres of land.
• Closing of the frontier
– In 1890 the Census Bureau issued a report, “there can
hardly be said to be a frontier line.”
– Historian Frederick Jackson Turner stated in a
famous essay that the existence of the frontier made
the US distinctive from all other countries and
nations.
SUMMARY
Westward Expansion
CAUSED:
•The displacement and death of thousands of Native
Americans.
•Mining towns to develop, creating new businesses.
•The Cattle Boom caused new trails to be blazed and
ranches to be established.
•Farmers settled in the Great Plains region, built
communities, and plowed up the native grasses.
