1. America’s Last Frontier
The Great Plains and the Far West

3. ‘Push’ and ‘Pull’ Factors
Push – Factors that encourage someone to LEAVE an area
War, drought, poverty, religious persecution, ethnic prejudice
Pull – Factors that attract people to an area
Economic opportunity, safety, religious freedom
Migration – movement of people from one place to another

5. Transcontinental Railroad
Made it easier for settlers to move west
Allowed farmers/ranchers to ship goods back east
Railroad companies sold land to settlers
Railroad advertising encouraged expansion westward

8. (Un)Intended Consequences?
Buffalo Population Destroyed
Railroad expansion
US Army Hunting
Loss of habitat
Farms/Barbed Wire

11. Relocation and War Native populations continuously moved
(By request or by force)
Indian Wars of
Land hungry miners, ranchers, and farmers encroached on Native lands
Sand Creek Massacre
100+ Native women and children killed
Natives were no match for battle hardened Civil War veterans
Winchester rifle, revolver
Destruction of buffalo forced nomadic tribes to submit to US authority

12. The Battle of Little Bighorn
Gold is discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota
Sioux are asked to move in 1876
Sitting Bull inspires resistance
Crazy Horse leads warriors
Surrounds General George Custer at Little Bighorn
Custer and 276 of 700 are killed
Fearing another rebellion, US troops massacre 200+ men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota

13. “The Death of Custer”

14. Reservation System
Once tribes submitted to US authority, they were settled on reservations
Reservation – land set aside by the Federal Government for Native American relocation (Oklahoma)
Available land from relocation led to Homestead Act (1862/1889)
1889 – Government sells 2 million acres in Oklahoma (caving to public pressure) again displacing Native Americans.

15. Far and Away
Movie Clip

17. Mining and Cattle Boom Towns – “Pull” factors – gold rush
After minerals wore out, became ghost towns
Cattle Boom
Cowboys
Long Drive – Cattle drives through the
Open Range (public, unfenced lands)

23. Farming Obstacles and Solutions
Far from markets  Railroads
Lack of supplies for construction  Built “sod-houses” (dirt)
Lack of wood for fences  Barbed Wire
Lack of rainfall  Deep wells
Tough, dry soil  Steel plows
Lack of fuel  Burned ‘buffalo chips’ (dried buffalo manure)
Lack of manpower (labor)  machinery

24. The Dawes Act and “Americanization”
Dawes Act (1887) – divided reservation lands into plots for individual Natives
Private property would replace communal tribal lands
Went against Indian culture
Reservation lands were not good for farming
Schools were poor
Government never provided the help it had promised
Natives suffered from poor health conditions
White settlers convinced Natives to sell their land cheaply
Natives in cities faced discrimination and poverty