1. Settling the Great Plains

2. Buffalo Soldiers
First black professional soldiers in a peacetime army became known as “buffalo soldiers.”
9th and 10th cavalry units used to fight hostile Native Americans in the west.
Cheyenne called them “buffalo soldiers” after their hair.

3. A Century of Dishonor – Helen Hunt Jackson
1881 work outlining the unfair treatment of American Indians by the US government.

4. Buffalo Soldiers

5. Taming the West
Barbed Wire (Joseph Glidden, 1874) brings an end to the open range.

6. Railroads Open the West
Federal Government gave large land grants to railroads (to assist in the settlement of the west).
Railroads received 10 square miles of public land for every mile of track in a state and 20 square miles for every mile of track laid in a territory.

7. Union Pacific and Central Pacific create a transcontinental railroad
Union Pacific moved east from Sacramento and Central Pacific moved west from Omaha.
Many workers were immigrants (Irish and Chinese).

9. Promontory, Utah
Central Pacific and Union Pacific met on May 10, 1869 at Promontory, Utah.
Golden Spike was driven to celebrate the accomplishment.

12. Government Supports Western Settlement
Homestead Act of 1862 – offered 160 acres of land in the West to any head of a household (citizen or intended citizen) if he would cultivate land for five years.
Many took advantage, including exodusters.
African Americans who moved from the post-Reconstruction South to Kansas.

13. Sooners

14. Oklahoma
Many took claimed land in Oklahoma “sooner” than they were supposed to. The “Sooner” state.

15. The Frontier Closes Congress protects the Wilderness.
1872 – Yellowstone National Park is created.
Census Bureau in 1890 – “Frontier is Closed”

16. Frederick Jackson Turner
Wrote “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893)
Believed that the frontier shaped the American character. (p. 422)

17. Frontier Settlers Face Hardships

18. Soddies
Lack of trees on the Great Plains forced settlers to come up with other options for constructing houses.
Some were dug into hills.
A soddy was a house built of sod.
Warm winter, cool summer. Leaked, bad light, no air, pests.

22. Women often worked beside men

23. Technology for Farmers

24. Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862
Gave federal land to the states to establish agricultural colleges.

25. More Land Grant Colleges

26. Not a Land Grant School, Just the Best in the Nation

27. Hatch Act (1887) Established agricultural experiment stations.
Informed farmers of new developments.

28. Bonanza Farms
Huge farms created by railroads or investors on which a single crop was grown.
Individual farmers struggled due to: expensive machinery, falling prices, and rising shipping costs.