The American West

1. The American West

2. I. Introduction • Frederick Jackson Turner • Land pulled the people • Frontier generated qualities of Americans • Individualism, self-help and courage • Orderly movement west • W.P. Webb • Movement erratic • Industrialization and Technology conquered the West • Manifest Destiny • Conviction the country’s superior institutions and culture gave Americans the God-given right, an obligation to spread civilization across the entire continent. • The poverty at the end of Reconstruction prompted large number of blacks and whites to look for opportunities in the West

4. II. Subordination of the American Indian • 1860’s – 1880’s the federal government tried to force NA onto reservations, where they could be “civilized.” • Indian Wars • Chivington’s raid (1864) 450 Cheyenne and Arapaho killed in Colorado • Little Big Horn (1876) federal troops led by George Custer massacred Sioux Indians • Reform Movement • Missionaries attempted to persuade Indians to abandon traditional culture • Richard Henry Pratt – “kill the Indian, save the man.” • Dawes Severalty Act (1887) • Reversed reservation policy • Treat Indians as individuals not as tribesman • Children sent to boarding school • Remaining land sold to white settlers

6. Dawes Severalty Act • Reversed reservation policy • Treat Indians as individuals not as tribesman • Children sent to boarding school • Remaining land sold to white settlers • Dawes Consequences • Between 1887-1930’s 52 million acres to 138 million • Boarding schools caused children to loose their cultural identity • Wounded Knee (1890) 200 unarmed Sioux killed after Sitting Bull. Extinguished any uprising