1. Settling the West 1865 – 1900

2. Miners Comstock Lode of gold & silver discovered in Nevada: pure silver ore discovered by Henry Comstock Thousands of miners come to Virginia City to seek their fortune.

3. Virginia City becomes a Boomtown with opera house, hotels, newspapers. Crime & Vigilantees too. http://www.goodoldsongs.com/

4. Pikes Peak Gold discovery in 1858

5. Leadville, Co. Lead worth $1 billion worth of silver & gold. Railroads are built to haul it out.

6. Gold, Silver, Copper Black Hills : Dakotas = gold

7. 1889 Montana, N.S. Dakota Admitted into the Union.

8. Railroads Haul heavy loads out. Bring new settlers in. Bring in supplies. Economic Growth More Settlers.

9. Farming The Plains The Great American Desert Rapid settlement of the West Relief found through technical advances

10. Homestead Act With a $ 10 registration fee, a settler could claim up to 160 acres of public land

11. Later Acts gave more land. Government gave railroads huge tracts of land that they later sold to farmers

12. Life is very difficult. No trees, little water, sod homes

13. Hot in the Summer Dry, hot summers

14. Freezing in the Winter Hailstorms

15. Dry Farming Grasshopper plagues Prairie fires

16. Sod Busters Hard Work

17. Wheat is the Crop!! Bountiful harvests made the U.S. the exporter of wheat by 1880.

18. Trouble Falling prices Drought Mortgage the farm

19. Many Left. Return to Kansas…… But not in a car..

20. Small farmers succeed. Grow smaller crops…. Family Farms

21. Mechanical Reapers Speed the Growing Process

22. Innovations increased Supply Lowered cost of production, especially Wheat.. Steel Wind Mills Reapers Barbed Wire

23. 1890’s The farmer’s frontier is gone. No more free land was available.

24. Hard Times for Farmers Too much supply, lowers the price, and fewer farmers can survive.

25. Ranchers Chisholm trail Cattle Drive Begins 1.5 million cattle between 1867 & 1871 to Abilene, Kansas.

26. Longhorn Cattle Tough – survive in harsh environments Great Plains

27. Cowboys Hard work, low pay, short careers The Cattle Drive Myth of the Cowboy Changes in the cattle industry

28. Barbed Wire Fight between Farmers & Ranchers Fence off areas of the open range for farming

29. Dangers Oversupply of Animals = low prices Blizzards

30. Culture of the Plains Indians Nomads Fighting emphasizing skill and courage Efficient Hunters

31. Before 1850= Little conflict, settlers did not want the desert.

32. Post Civil War Railroads want protection, Army builds forts. Reports of good farmland. Gold Discoveries.

33. Treaty of 1868 promised The Sioux that they could live in their sacred land, The Black Hills, forever…

34. Forever, ended With the gold discoveries.

35. Discovery of Gold in Black Hills Doom for the Indians.. 7 th Calvary was called out to remove the Indians. George Armstrong Custer led them.

36. General Custer 7 th Calvary

37. Dakota Sioux Uprising Sioux felt cheated by the US government Did not want to give up their culture

38. Chief Little Crow On the Dakota Reservation, the Indians are given annuities, or payments yearly. Chief asks for food on credit for his people. They are told to eat grass

39. Uprise and kill settlers Hundreds die before the Calvary arrive to restore order.

40. Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull Native American Leaders fight to keep control of their hunting grounds.

41. Native Americans Sand Creek Massacre

42. 1862:Colorado Indians fight back- starving – Peaceful Indians report to Fort Lyon for safety. Col. Chivington attacked the Indians in the fort, killing 450= Chivington Massacre.

43. Reservations Give up the Nomad life.

44. Battle of Little Bighorn Custer’s Last Stand on June 25, 1876

45. Indians led by Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse Custer & 215 of his men are killed. This marks the greatest and last of the Plain’s Indians victories.

46. Crazy Horse surrenders1877 Killed. Ghost Dance Shirt.

47. Sitting Bull “The Best of all the others.”

48. Crazy Horse A strong warrior with great military tactics.

49. Sitting Bull escaped to Canada Eventually joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

50. Tragedy of Wounded Knee Dec.29, 1890, The Sioux began a Ghost Dance, which they believed would take them to their ancestors.

51. Agents feared violence & sent For the 7 th Calvary. 350 Sioux- women, children, old men 200 Indians are killed. 25 Army Die. Machine guns used.

52. Assimilation Blend in, Give up Identity.

53. Dawes Act Allowed US president to divide Native American land

54. Another Failed Plan Not so good.

55. President Hayes 1877 - 1881

56. President Garfield Assassinated 1881

57. Chester Arthur 1881 - 1885

58. Grover Cleveland 1885 - 1889

59. Dawes Act 1887 Eliminates communal ownership of Native American Reservations.

60. President Benjamin Harrison 1889-1993

61. President Grover Cleveland 1893-1897

62. William McKinley 1897-1901