CHANGES ON THE WESTERN FRONTIER

Great Plains- the grassland extending through the west- central portion of the United States. The United States treated the Great Plains as a huge Indian Reservation

Almost all the tribes on the Great Plains had left their farms to roam the plains and hunt buffalo. The Plains Indians did not understand the concept of land ownership.

As more people came to America, the land on the Great Plains began to look attractive to white settlers. The Settlers argued that the Native Americans had forfeited their rights to the land because they hadn't settled down to "improve" it.

Assimilation- a plan under which Native Americans would give up their beliefs and way of life and become part of the white culture. In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act aiming to "Americanize" the Native Americans. The act broke up the reservations and gave some of the reservation land to individual Natives. In the end, the Native Americans received no money from the sale of these lands.

What’s the Big Idea??? Name three positive or negative results of Native American Assimilation. Native American Assimilation

Native American Lands shrinking across the Great Plains.

Treaty of Fort Laramie, Sioux leaders were forced to live on a reservation along the Missouri River, in Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotanka), leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux, never signed treaty, and refused to go.

Native Americans ignored the restrictions. In 1876, the 7th Cavalry led by George Armstrong Custer planned to round up the remaining free Indians. CUSTER'S LAST STAND Within an hour, Custer and almost all of the men of the Seventh Cavalry were dead. Defeated by Sioux warriors Sitting Bull and a few followers took refuge in Canada, Eventually, to prevent his people's starvation, Sitting Bull was forced to surrender.

U.S. thought Sitting Bull was leader of the Ghost Dance movement. Alarmed military leaders ordered the arrest of Sitting Bull. During the arrest, the tribal police killed Sitting Bull. On December 28, 1890, The Seventh Cavalry–took the Sioux to a camp at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. Soldiers demanded that the Native Americans give up all their weapons. A shot was fired; from which side, it was not clear. The soldiers opened fire with deadly cannons. Within minutes, the Seventh Cavalry slaughtered 300 unarmed Native Americans, including several children. The soldiers left the corpses to freeze on the ground. Battle of Wounded Knee: brought the Indian wars and an entire era–to a bitter end.

After the Civil War, the demand for beef skyrocketed Chisholm Trail –the major cattle route from San Antonio, Texas, through Oklahoma to Kansas. Barbed wire, invented by Joseph F. Glidden. was largely responsible for the end of the open frontier

What’s the Big Idea??? The End of the Open Range Sketch a picture which shows the reason for the end of the Open Range.

To encourage families to develop the west, In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, offering 160 acres of land free to any citizen who was head of the household. Several thousand settlers were exodusters –African Americans who moved from the post-Reconstruction South to Kansas.

Since trees were scarce, most settlers built their homes by stacking blocks of prairie turf. A soddy, was warm in winter and cool in summer, Offered little light or air, Were havens for snakes, insects, They leaked continuously when it rained.

The Morrill Act of 1862 and 1890 gave federal land to the states to help finance agricultural colleges. When crop prices were high, farmers could repay their loans. When crop prices fell, farmers grew more, which caused prices to fall even more

Railroads charged Western farmers a higher fee than Eastern farmers farmers needed to organize. In 1867, Oliver Hudson Kelley started the Grange. Members learned how to Support political candidates, create legislation to regulate railroads, fight the power of the banks.

Leaders of the Farmer’s alliance created the Populist Party, in The Populist Party demanded reforms: to reduce debt from farmers and laborers give the people a greater voice in their government.

The Populists' share the platform of the Democratic Party believe: The government is responsible for reforming social injustices.

The Democrats and populist’s favored bimetallism, either gold or silver in exchange for paper currency or checks. The Republican favored the gold standard –backing dollars solely with gold. Republican Party William McKinley for president. The Democratic Party nominated William Jennings Bryan

The voters of the industrial Middle West, with their fear of inflation, brought McKinley into office. With McKinley's election, Populism collapsed, burying the hopes of the farmers..