1. The Last West

2. Settling the “Last Frontier”

3. Frederick Jackson Turner
“American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character. The true point of view in the history of this nation is not the Atlantic coast, it is the Great West.”
1893

4. The New Midwest Post-CW- industrial development in NE, MW
South, West supply raw materials
Consumers of Northern manufactured goods
Colonial status?

5. Settlement Post-CW = settlement of Great Plains, Rockies, W. Plateau
The “Great American Desert”
GEO-
Few trees, little rainfall , blizzards, heat
Buffalo
250K NA (1865)
1900-
Buffalo GONE
Fences, homesteads, ranches
RRs
Towns
10 new states
Miners, ranchers, farmers > NA

6. BOOMER SOONER!

7. Washington is not a place to live in
Washington is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.

8. Mining CA- GOLD, ‘48  quest for gold/silver into 1890s
CO, NV, ID, MO, AZ, SD
Pike’s Peak (CO, ‘59)
Comstock Lode (NV, ’90- $340 m.)
Prospectors  deep-shaft mining = need for investment, capital (equipment, corporations)
Strikes of gold, silver  boomtowns
Saloons, dancehalls, vigilante justice
Out of resources?  ghost town
Survivors? San Francisco, Sacramento, Denver
Theaters, churches, newspapers, libraries, RR

10. impact
Silver discovery/mining  increase in supply  crisis over relative value of gold/silver-backed money
1880s, 1890s
Pop. increase
Environmental issues
NAs lose land to miners

11. Chinese Exclusion Act
Mining company workers from Euro., Latin America, China
50% pop. of mining towns = foreign-born
1/3 in 1860s = Chinese
Resentment by American-born (competition)
CA- hostility in form of Miner’s Tax
$20/month on any foreign-born miner
1882- Chinese Exclusion Act
No immigration into US by Chinese laborers
= 1st restriction on immigration on basis of race/nationality
Restrictions through 1965

12. Cattle Grasslands of TX – Canada Pre-CW- vaqueros in TX
American cowboy from Mexican traditions
1860s- wild herds of cattle in TX
Grass, cattle = free
RR open E. markets to W. cattle in ‘60s, ‘70s
Stockyards- Abilene, Dodge City
Trails- Chisolm, Goodnight-Loving (“Long drive”)
African-American, Mexican cowboys ($1/day)
$30-$40/head

13. Overgrazing, blizzards, drought (‘85-’86)  90%+ cattle dead
End of long drives in ‘80s
Overgrazing, blizzards, drought (‘85-’86)  90%+ cattle dead
Homesteader arrival + barbed wire fencing = end of open range
Wealthy cattle owners change business
Scientific ranching, new breeds (hay/grains tenderness)
= taming of “Wild West” by ‘90s
Result?
Eating changes from pork to beef
Image of “self-reliant American cowboy”

14. Farming Homestead Act- ’62
160 acres public land- free if settle, farm 5 years
Free land + RR promotions + land speculators  native-born & immigrant families into Great Plains
1870 – 1900
500k families
Over 2 mil. Pay for land
Best public land to RRs

15. Issues Housing for “sodbusters” Extremes of life Dugouts, soddy
Hot, cold
Grasshoppers
Loneliness
Scarcity of water
Little timber (no wood fences)

16. Solutions Joseph Glidden- barbed wire, ‘74 Mail-order windmills
 fences
Mail-order windmills
 deep wells for water
“dry farming”
Need more than 160 acres
Weather
Falling crop prices
High cost of machinery
 2/3 homestead farm failure by 1900
Survive by deep-plowing, Russian wheat, dams/irrigation
Humans reshape environment

17. Horace Greely- “Go West, young man!”
Benjamin “Pap” Singleton- slave in TN, escaped to Detroit.
Future for blacks in farm ownership
“The Advantage of Living in a Free State”
circulated after learning of cheap land in KS ,500 acres purchased to form Dunlap, “Exodusters”
Fear by Southern whites of labor loss blockades of rivers, roads West
Most homesteads too small to make a living.
Many hire selves out to white farmers.
Crop failures (drought, dust storms, fires)  blacks to flee to cities

18. “The Only good indian is a dead indian.”
American Indians
“The Only good indian is a dead indian.”
-Gen. Phillip sheridAN

19. Occupying the west 1865 NA tribes NM/AZ- Pueblo (Hopi, Zuni)
Permanent settlements, AG, livestock
SW- Navajo, Apache
Nomadic, H-G background- move to settled life, AG, livestock, arts/crafts
Pacific NW- Chinook, Shasta
Fish, game
Great Plains= 2/3 of all tribes- Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, Comanche
Nomadic (horse), buffalo, loose organization
Large tribes, small bands ( )

21. Reservation policy 1830s- AJ Indian Removal
E. tribes into West
Believe lands W of MS River = “Indian country”
Different view of Great Plains
Wagon trails W to OR, plans for transcontinental RR  end of “Indian country”
‘51- Treaty of Fort Laramie, Fort Atkinson
Fed Gov. assign Plains tribes reservations
Large tracts of land, boundaries
Most refuse to restrict movement (buffalo, enemy territory)

22. Indian wars Late 1800s = settlement of Great Plains
Farmers, miners, cattlemen onto Indian land  violence
Indian raids begin- impact trains, mining camps
Result of forced acceptance of treaties  reduced land
Sioux War- ‘66
Capt. Fetterman + army troops wiped out by Sioux

23. INDIAN WARS 1851- Treaty at Fort Laramie
WY: NA Chiefs agree to tribal borders, not bother emigrants on trails through land
Peace for several years, but road building by army and settling by whites continued deeper into NA land (encroach vs. pass through)
: 150k American settlers into Sioux territory in violation of treaty

24. Early 1860s-late 1870s, Indian Wars rage on frontier
NA raids on trains, mining camps
1864- Col. J.M. Chivington “90-day volunteers” approach NA Sand Creek. Ignore white flag of truce, slaughter 200
1867- Indian Peace Commission established to remove causes of the wars
Should be accomplished at expense of tribes persuade them to reservations

25. Indian Appropriation Act, ’71
1867- Report on the Condition of the Indian Tribes Indian Peace Commission
Medicine Creek Lodge (KS)- Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, Cheyenne  w. OK
Sioux  Black Hills (Dakota territory)
Indian Appropriation Act, ’71
End of recognition of tribes as independent nations
Nullification of any previous treaties

26. Custer’s last stand OR…The Battle of Little Bighorn- June 25, 1876
Col. George Custer- Civil War vet, reckless, glory-seeker, last in class at West Point
Expedition into Black Hills w/ gold seekers, followed by miners
Into Sioux hunting lands
Army did nothing to back promise of protecting grounds from settlers, but did move against Sioux wandering across range
Great Sioux War- 15 months through WY, MT, SD, NE

27. Custer found main camp of Sioux & n. Cheyenne allies
Custer move in surrounded by 2,500 warriors all dead
Crazy Horse
7th Cavalry 4+ miles away
Army regain momentum and force Sioux off land, require payments
Forced onto least valuable land, starvation, disease

28. Players of Little Big Horn
Sioux Chief Sitting Bull
General Custer

29. Wounded knee By 1886, Indians Wars nearly at close
Chief Joseph- Nez Perce (ID): war launched when refused to give up land. Caught headed to Canada, exiled in OK
Chief Geronimo (Apache) captured after 15 years of fighting
“I will fight no more forever.” –Chief Joseph

30. Dec. 29, 1890- @ Wounded Knee, SD: rifle fired
1888- Wovoka ill, delirious.
saw spirit world, learned of deliverer coming to rescue NAs, restore land. Told others must perform ceremonial new moon to bring about deliverer = Ghost Dance
1890- white authorities alarmed at spread, persistence, fervor of NAs.
Sioux chief Sitting Bull killed
Dec. 29, Wounded Knee, SD: rifle fired
from who?
Nervous soldiers react and fire into surrendering group of NAs
“Battle” kills 200 NAs, 25 soldiers

31. Indian policy
Frontiersmen lack tolerance, E. Americans see slaughter as immoral  seek reform
Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor, ’81
Sympathy for NA tribes
 support for end of NA culture (assimilation)
Formal education
Boarding schools- Carlisle School (PA)
Segregated from own people
Job training (AG/Industrial skills)
Xnty
White culture

33. Dawes Act
Dawes Severalty Act of “Americanize” NAs- deal with NAs as individuals, not tribes
Individual land ownership, agriculture
Communal land 160 acres per head of family
47 million acres
To “protect” land, gov. held control through a trust for 25 years
After, person owned land & earned citizenship if “adopt the habits of civilized life”
90 m. acres of best land sold- white settlers, speculators, NAs

34. Act well intentioned, but harmful.
Reservations broken up
Loss of NA land to whites
Inexperienced with ownership, land not distributed to families sold off, fraud
Est. 90 mil sold to white settlers, speculators
Most NA land remaining unsuitable for AG
Traditional culture lost
1925- all NAs granted citizenship
1934- Indian Reorganization Act
Establish tribal organizations, culture
500 tribes, 3 million people