Westward Expansion Samoset Middle School 8 th Grade Social Studies

ManifestDestiny Manifest Destiny Belief popularized in 1840’s that the U.S. was clearly destined to extend to the Pacific  1783 => Treaty of Paris extends territory west to Mississippi River  1803 => Louisiana Purchase extends territory west to Rocky Mountains  1819 => purchase of Florida from Spain  1845 => annexation of Texas  1846 => agreement with Britain gains the Oregon Territory to the Pacific Ocean  => victory in Mexican-American War gains New Mexico & California territories

ManifestDestiny Manifest Destiny

Settlement of the West Starting in the mid- 1850’s, miners, railroads, cattle drives, and farmers came to the Plains Homestead Act of 1862 gave farmers 160 free acres of land in the Plains to settle it for at least 5 years

Native American Struggles Indian Removal Act of 1830 – federal gov’t allowed to pay Native Americans to move west of Mississippi River Cherokees held out until 1838 but were forced by federal troops to leave. Thousands of Cherokees died on the Trail of Tears

The Plains Indians had millions of buffalo to supply their needs. After the Civil War, American hunters hired by the railroads began killing the animals to feed the crews building the railroads and for sport.  William “Buffalo Bill” Cody claimed to have killed more than 4,000 buffalo in 18 months. The loss of the buffalo helped lead to the loss of a way of life for the Plains Indians. Native American Struggles

In 1867 the federal government began moving the Indians to a few large reservations. One large nation was in Oklahoma, the “Indian Territory”. Another was in the Dakota Territory. Most reservations were on poor land and the Indians were often tricked to move there. Many Natives moved to the reservations but some resisted.

Native Americans Fight Back 1874 – Sioux chiefs Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse defeat Gen. George A. Custer at Little Big Horn River. Custer and his army were trying to remove the Laota Sioux from their holy land in search of gold. Army crushed the after. 1880’s – Apache leader, Geronimo, escapes to Mexico but leads raids against settlers and the army in Arizona. He surrenders in 1886.

“From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”  Chief Joseph upon the surrender of the Nez Perce tribe in 1877  Final conflict with whites in 1890 when 200 Lakota Sioux are killed at Wounded Knee, SD after police kill Sitting Bull

The Dawes Act of 1887 Ethnocentrism => belief that your own culture is superior to others The law aimed to give Native Americans private individual ownership of land, eliminate their nomadic lifestyle, and encourage them to become farmers The law broke up the reservations in an attempt to end tribal identification Native American children were sent to white-run boarding schools for deculturization The plan failed and speculators acquired most of the valuable land with Natives receiving land that was often dry and ill-suited for farming. Did this law have good intentions?

Manifest Destiny