Cyanna Hicks Amy Wong Kim Pham

MMost Indians were spiritual and respected nature WWere divided into distinct tribes, each with its own culture PPlains Indians made living on Buffalo

MMost white settlers believed that Indians were inferior to them BBefore, the West was seen as a barren place to relocate the Indians, however as soon as Americans discovered the West could have resources, they relocated the Indians yet again into smaller reservations TThe Dawes Severalty Act was created to assimilate Indians into white culture and break up the tribes

LLeaders such as Geronimo and Crazy Horse attempted to fight back against whites, all of them failed TThe Ghost Dance movement was created to fight back against white culture, was met with violence from whites BBattles like Little Bighorn resulted in the deaths of many US soldiers and Indians

BBefore Americans came to the West, it was organized by a rigid system set up by the Hispanics who lived there However, when whites came to the area, they eroded both this system and the Indians’ power over the area

IIn the West, many Chinese and other Asian immigrants came over to find work MMany Westerners hated the Chinese for taking their jobs, especially on the Continental Railroad TThe Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 which prevented Chinese immigration into the US for ten years

TThe Continental Railroad was built in order to link the resources of the West to the East WWas built mostly by Chinese laborers

TThe West was incredibly lawless, as settlers moved in long before the government could take control TThere was a lot of violence against Native Americans AAlso, there were “grange wars” between ranchers and farmers that resulted in violence

TThe Populists were one of many groups in the late 1800’s that wanted better conditions for farmers BBelieved in the gold standard AA Populist candidate ran for president many times but never won WWere often seen as radicals and anarchists

TThe mining boom was started in 1849 when a miner discovered gold in California This led to the formation of “boom towns” around mining areas that quickly turned into ghost towns if the resources ran out

TThe West was an unsettled land for a while when the ranchers came to it to make a living off their cattle RRanching led to the development of barbed wire RRanchers also killed the Buffalo and displaced the Indians in order to make room for their cattle

AAfter the ranchers, the farmers began to move into the West in order to take advantage of the fertile land in the Great Plains OOften fought with ranchers over land in “range wars”

TThe West was seen as an open land with possibilities for many people to get rich IIn reality, many people did not find money MMany books, such as Mark Twain’s Roughing It were published showing the adventure of the West

TThough popular culture viewed the cowboy as having an adventurous life, most cowboys lived a lonely and hard life WWestern shows, like “Buffalo Bill’s,” showed off the Western cowboy myth to the world

TTurner wrote in his thesis that a very important part of American culture was the frontier. He declared that it was then closed, due to the 1890 census TThough Turner’s ideas of the frontier were incorrect, he was still right in saying that affordable land was no longer available