Conquest and Survival The Trans-Mississippi West 1860-1900

1. 18 Conquest and Survival The Trans-Mississippi West 1860-1900

2. Conquest and SurvivalThe Trans-Mississippi West 1860-1900 • Indian Peoples Under Siege • The Internal Empire • The Open Range • Farming Communities on the Plains • The World’s Breadbasket • The Western Landscape • The Transformation of Indian Societies • Conclusion

3. Chapter Focus Questions • What was the impact of U.S. western expansion on Indian societies? • In what ways was the post-Civil War West an “internal empire,” and how did its development depend on the emergence of new technologies and new industries?

4. Chapter Focus Questions (cont’d) • How can the history of the American West be told as the creation of new communities and the displacement of old communities? • How did agribusiness differ from forms of family farming? • What place did the West hold in the national imagination?

5. North America and Oklahoma

6. MAP 18.1 Oklahoma Territory

7. The Oklahoma Land Rush • Thousands participated. • Land promised to Indians who had been forcibly relocated in the 1830s was first opened to white settlement in 1889. • In a little over two months settlers filed 6,000 homestead claims. • The land rush symbolized the movement toward white settlement and the reconstruction of the West.

8. The Oklahoma Land Rush (cont'd) • This transformation came at the expense of Indian peoples.

9. Indian Peoples Under Siege

10. the Battle of Sand Creek

11. Indian Territory • Indians occupied the plains for more than 20,000 years. • The Europeans brought disease and the need for Indians to adapt to European ways.

12. Indian Territory (cont'd) • Surviving tribes adapted: • The Plains Indians adapted, using horses and firearms. • Some tribes learned English and converted to Christianity.

13. Indian Territory (cont'd) • Legally, tribes were supposed to be regarded as autonomous nations residing within American boundaries. • Treaties were negotiated but force was often used instead.

14. MAP 18.2 Major Indian Battles and Indian Reservations, 1860–1900

15. Reservation Policy andthe Slaughter of the Buffalo • The federal government had pressured Indian tribes to migrate West into a permanent Indian Territory. • Whites’ desire for western land led the federal government to pressure western Indians to move to reservations.

16. Reservation Policy andthe Slaughter of the Buffalo (cont’d) • The tribes that moved to reservations found federal policies were inadequate for their needs. • Nomadic tribes found their freedom curtailed and their buffalo destroyed both by the railroad and white hunting. • Diseases such as smallpox ravaged weakened Indian populations.

17. Kiowa Preparing for a War Expedition, ca. 1887.

18. The Indian Wars • 1860s War: against Cheyenne (Colorado) • Sand Creek Massacre. • 1868: Fort Laramie Treaty • granted the Black Hills to the Sioux • The discovery of gold brought prospectors to the hills. • The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho aligned to protect the Black Hills, wiping out Custer’s regiment before being defeated by the army. • Red River War of 1874–1875

19. The Indian Wars (cont'd) • Under the leadership of Geronimo, the Apaches gained a reputation as intrepid warriors.

20. The Nez Perces • Tribes like the Nez Perce, who tried to cooperate with whites, were betrayed. • Promised Oregon, the Nez Perce were sent to a disease-ridden land in Kansas. • After violence broke out over Indian mistreatment, Chief Joseph led his people on a long march toward Canada.

21. The Nez Perces (cont'd) • Defeated in northern Montana, the Nez Perces surrendered and were forced onto a reservation in Washington.

22. The Internal Empire

23. Map 18.3 Railroad Routes, Cattle Trails, Gold and Silver Rushes, 1860–1900

24. The Internal Empire • The settlement of the West was one of the largest human migrations in history • Settlers found themselves subjects of an “internal empire” controlled from the East. • Older populations were pushed aside by white expansion.

25. “Stampeders,”

26. Mining Towns • Mining fostered western expansion. • Gold discoveries brought thousands of fortune seekers. • Most fortunes went to corporations that bought out the smaller claims. • Although some mine communities eventually became permanent settlements, most were short-lived boomtowns.

27. Mining Towns (cont’d) • The western labor movement emerged in this rough and often violent climate. • Unions refused membership to Chinese, Mexican, African American and Indian workers. • Unions were unable to stop owners from closing down mines when the ore ran out, leaving empty towns and environmental blight.

28. MAP 18.4 Mormon Cultural Diffusion, ca. 1883

29. Mormon Settlements • Mormons migrated to the Great Basin in Utah beginning in 1846. • They shared land and water as they built agricultural communities. • The federal government assumed control of the Utah territory. • Disputes over polygamy delayed Utah statehood until 1896.

30. Mormon Settlements (cont'd) • Mormon society soon resembled the individualist East the original settlers had sought to escape.

31. Mexican Borderland Communities • The Southwest saw a series of clashes between Anglos and Mexicanos over control of the land. • Some Mexicano elites continued to maintain wealth and power. • The majority of Mexicans found themselves trapped in poverty and turned to migratory work or moved to urban areas to work for wages.

32. Mexican Borderland Communities (cont’d) • Mexicanos maintained key elements of their traditional culture. • In the 1890s, Las Gorras Blancas arose as agrarian rebels in the Southwest. • New immigration from Mexico reinforced traditional culture.

33. Mexican Americans in San Antonio continued to conduct their traditional market bazaar well after the incorporation of this region into the United States.

34. The Open Range

35. The Legendary Cowboy: Nat Love, Deadwood Dick

36. The Open Range • The destruction of buffalo opened the path for the western cattle industry. • After the Civil War, entrepreneurs like Joseph McCoy began driving longhorn cattle from Texas to the Kansas railroad towns for shipment East

37. The Long Drives • Cowboys rounded up herds for $30 a month (at best) and lived under harsh circumstances, stimulating efforts to unionize. • Workday lasted from sunup to sundown with night shifts to watch the cattle. • There was no protection from the elements. • Poor diet often led to disease. • The drive could be as far as 1,500 miles.

38. The Long Drives (cont’d) • One-fifth to one-third of cowboys were Indian, Mexican, or African American. • Few women worked on the open range. • Elizabeth Collins, the “Cattle Queen of Montana” who took over her husband’s ranch, was a rare exception.

39. The Sporting Life • Cattle towns and mining camps offered saloons, bars and dance halls where cowboys could spend their pay and blow off steam. • Prostitution served as the largest source of income outside the home for women. • There were few jobs for women and many resorted to prostitution simply to pay the bills.

40. The Sporting Life (cont'd) • Their life was quite harsh and seldom paid well.

41. As early as 1879, the local newspaper described Leadville, Colorado, as a town that never sleeps

42. Frontier Violence and Racism • Personal violence commonplace • Horse theft and cattle rustling rose rapidly • 1870s: Range wars turned violent when farmers, sheep ranchers, and cattle ranchers battled over the same land. • Mid-1880s: cattle business went bust • Overstocking • Bad weather

43. Farming Communities on the Plains

44. “Soddies”

45. Farming Communities on the Plains • Easterners struggled to adapt to the Plains, with few trees and limited water. • Improvements in technology and transportation were vital to the growth of the West.

46. “Thirty-three horse team harvester”

47. The Homestead Act • 160 acres were given to any settler who lived on the land for at least 5 years and improved it. • Homesteaders had their greatest success in the central and upper Midwest where the soil was rich and the weather was relatively moderate.

48. The Homestead Act (cont.) • This act sparked the largest migration in U.S. history but only 10 percent of all farmers got their start under its terms (most farmers bought their land outright) and nearly half the homesteaders lost their claim. • Railroad and land speculators profited from selling off cheaply bought or free land.

49. Populating the Plains • Railroads held great power in developing and settling the West. • Railroads delivered crops and cattle to eastern markets and brought back goods. • Railroads put communities “on the map.” • Railroads in the West preceded settlement. • Professional promoters were sent to Europe and throughout the United States to recruit settlers.

50. Populating the Plains (cont’d) • Immigrants formed tight-knit communities. • Many groups retained their native languages and customs. • Tight social hierarchies, religion and ethnic habits persisted for generations in these communities.