1. Samoset Middle School 8th Grade Social Studies
Westward Expansion
Samoset Middle School
8th Grade Social Studies

2. 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

3. Manifest Destiny

4. 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

5. 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

6. Native American Struggles
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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. “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

10. Did this law have good intentions?
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?

11. Manifest Destiny John Gast’s American Progress 1872
Progress – railroad, Columbia carrying book for education, telegraph wire, miners?, farmers, cabins, sunny, boats
Destruction – Native Americans fleeing, buffalo, stormy weather, animals running