Homestead Act New Technology Life on the Farm Decline of Farming Life on the Plains Plains Indians American Interests Indian Restrictions Indian Wars Assimilation End of the Indian Lifestyle Plains Indians Open Range Cattle Kingdom Cattle’s Decline Mining Towns Mining Life “Wild West Ranching and Mining

Homestead Act  Passed in 1862  To encourage settlement of the Plains area  Gave 160 acres of land to settlers if they improved the land and lived on it  Land speculators  Oklahoma giveaway, 1889  People continued to come for the cheap lands and opportunity

New Technology  Deeper wells  Steel plows  Better farm equipment reaper, harvesters  Morrill Land Grants  Railroad expansion Transcontinental railroad, 1869

Life on the Farm  Sod houses  Weather extremes  Drought  isolation

Decline of Farming  Rise of industry  Urbanization  End of the frontier  Great debts  Railroad charges

Open Range  Great Plains area  No boundaries to man or cattle  Low population

Cattle Kingdom  Greater urban populations demanded more food  Cattle drives to meet railroads Chishom Trail Abilene  Legend of the cowboy Mexican Influences

Cattle’s Decline  Too many cattle  Disease  Drought  Barbed wire fences blocked open range

Mining Towns  Gold Rushes California, 1849 Black Hills Comstock Lode Alaska  Ghost Towns

Mining Life  Large mix of people  Many opportunities for everyone  Saloons, gambling  Hard luck

“Wild West”  Legend of adventure Wild Bill Hickcock Calamity Jane Wyatt Earp Jesse James Billy the Kid  Dime novels that told western tales  Only lasted about 30 years

Plains Indians  Great Plains or Great American Desert  Nomadic Lifestyle  Importance of the horse and buffalo  Communal living  Common use of the tribe’s land  Sioux, Lakota, Cheyenne, apache, Nez Pierce, Blackfeet

American Interests  Lands given by treaty to Indian groups  California Gold Rush, 1848  Homestead Act, 1862  Transcontinental railroad building Massacre of the buffalo herds Central and Union Pacific Railroads Promontory Point, Utah, 1869

Indian Restrictions  Treaties were broken Indians forced onto reservations Gov’t payment and supplies were not delivered as promised  Indian Uprisings Dakota Uprising, 1862  Massacre at Sand Creek, 1864 John Chivington Leads Army unit in massacre of Cheyenne  Fetterman’s Massacre, 1866 Fetterman’s small army band crushed by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and red Cloud’s warriors

Indian Wars  Gold found in the Black Hills of the Dakotas Sioux try to defend area promised to them Army sends George Armstrong Custer  Little Bighorn, 1876 Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull lead warriors as Custer and all his men were killed  Nez Perce Indians, 1877 Led by Chief Joseph, they refused to go to reservation Chased by the army for over 1000 mils until captures “I will fight no more forever”

Assimilation  Century of Dishonor Helen Hunt Jackson’s  Some people supported assimilation of Indians  Dawes Act passed, acres to each family Most of land was eventually taken

End of the Indian Lifestyle  Assimilation Education of Indians to be more like whites  Destruction of the buffalo  Ghost Dance Movement Sioux spiritual dance Dance was outlawed  Wounded Knee, 1980 Massacre of several hundred Sioux  Indian era comes to an end