1. Remember: Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was a law passed in order to facilitate the relocation of American Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River in the United States to lands further west.
The Removal Act, part of a U.S. government policy known as Indian Removal, was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830.

2. Remember: Indian Removal Act
The Removal Act did not actually order the removal of any Native Americans.
Rather, it authorized the President to negotiate land-exchange treaties with tribes living within the boundaries of existing U.S. states.

3. The Culture of the Plains Indians
Great Plains
East: Osage & Iowa Tribes
Small villages, hunted, planted crops
West: Sioux and Cheyenne Tribes
Hunted buffalo & gathered wild food
The Horse and Buffalo
Horses increased mobility…led to war between tribes
Buffalo provided many basic needs and was central to life on the Plains

4. Plains Indians: Culture
Family Life
Small extended family groups
Men trained to become hunters & warriors
Killing enemies brought prestige & honor
Believed powerful spirits controlled natural events
No individual was allowed to dominate group in leadership role; leaders of a tribe ruled by counsel rather than force

5. Settlers Push Westward
Native Americans did not believe people should own land
Settlers believed that owning land, making a mining claim, or starting a business would give them stake in the country

6. Lure of Silver & Gold Discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858
Mining camps
Brought Irish, German, Polish, Chinese, and African American men

7. The Government Restricts Native Americans
1834: fed gov’t passed an act = ENTIRE Great Plains = 1 enormous reservation or land set aside for Native American tribes.
1850’s: policy changed and created treaties that defined specific boundaries for every tribe.
Result: Many tribes continued to hunt on their traditional lands, clashing with settlers and miners-with tragic result

8. Gov’t Restricts Native Americans Cont.
Death on the Bozeman Trail
Bozeman Trail ran through Sioux hunting grounds in the Bighorn Mountains.
1866: Crazy Horse ambushed Captain William J. Fetterman and his company.
80+ soldiers killed

9. Results of the Deaths on the Bozeman Trail
Treaty of Fort Laramie
Sioux agreed to live on a reservation along the Missouri River (forced on Sioux)
Sitting Bull
Leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux…never signed treaty
Treaty of Fort Laramie provided only temporary halt to warfare

10. Bloody Battles Continue
Red River War
U.S. Army herded the people of friendly tribes onto reservations while opening fire on all others
Custer’s Last Stand
Conflict with Sioux & Cheyenne…Custer coming to attack
Reached Little Bighorn River, Native Amer. Warriors ready for them
Within an hour, Custer & all his men-dead

11. The Gov’t Supports Assimilation
Assimilation = a plan under which Native Americans would give up their beliefs & their way of life to become part of the white culture
Dawes Act
1887; aimed to “Americanize” Native Americans
Broke up reservations & gave pieces of land to individual Native Americans

12. The Gov’t Supports Assimilation
By 1932, whites had taken about 2/3 of territory that had previously been set aside for Native Americans

13. Cattle Become Big Business
After the Civil War, demand for beef rose sharply in the growing Eastern cities.
Cowboys led thousands of animals on the long drive to Kansas, which took about three months. 

14. End of the Open Range
Herds grew too large, and overgrazing and bad weather struck the Plains in the late 1880s.
Ranchers began to use barbed wire to fence in their land.
The era of the open range and cattle drives ended.  

15. Chapter 5/Section 2 Settling on the Great Plains
Key Idea
The promise of
cheap, fertile land
draws settlers
westward seeking
Their fortunes as
farmers.     

16. The Country gets smaller
Building the transcontinental railroad—stretching from East to West—helped promote settlement on the Plains.
Irish and Chinese immigrants plus African Americans and Mexican Americans did much of the back-breaking work.
In 1869, the two routes met in Utah, completing the first transcontinental track.

17. Sooners
The railroads sold some of their land at low prices to farmers.
Homestead Act:
160 acres to head of household
On one day in 1889, 2 million acres were claimed in Oklahoma.
The government also wanted to preserve some wilderness.
Yellowstone National Park.

18. The new settlers had to endure many hardships. 
people built homes as dugouts in the sides of hills or out of sod. 
Homesteaders
isolated and had to produce everything they needed.
Women 
worked in the fields alongside men
Taught children before schools
Made clothes
Doctored family and animals
Dug wells and hauled water  

19. Farmers Unite to Address Common Problems:
The farmers were plagued by weather and debt. 
Machines cost money, which they had to borrow. 
When grain prices fell, they could not repay their loans.
They also resented how much they had to pay railroads to ship their crops.