Unveiling the American West: Myths, Realities, and Settlers' Struggles

1. Looking to the West, 1860-1900

2. STANDARDS g. Identify and evaluate the influences on the development of the American West h. Analyze significant events for Native American Indian tribes, and their responses to those events, in the late nineteenth century

3. THE AMERICAN WEST Stereotypes? Take 2 minutes and write down everything you know about the west.

5. Great Plains, Pacific Northwest, and the Southwest develop

6. WHO MOVED WEST AND WHY? (1860) Searching for land and opportunity 1. Miners searching for gold and silver 2. Railroad workers 3. Cowboys 4. farmers

7. Pacific Railways Acts of 1862 and 1864 • Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads • Received huge land grants from the federal govt • 10 square miles of public land on each side of track • Railroads profited from selling land near tracks • Farmers needed railroads to transport goods to city

9. Railroad challenges Rough terrain and expensive Labor? Ex-slaves, soldiers, immigrants especially Irish and Chinese (paid lower wages and discriminated against) LIFELINE of the WEST

10. Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862

11. Homestead Act 1862 – 160 acres of public land to anyone who met these requirements

12. By 1900 – 600,000 claims of 80 million acresPROBLEMS

13. Life in the West

15. African Americans in the West

16. Sodbusters – a farmer Exoduster- African Americans who left the south for Kansas led by Pap Singleton (planned a mass exodus) to escape violence and exploitation

17. Frontier Women

18. Women’s Suffrage in the West

19. Native Americans – 1830s Jackson removed… to the Great Plains

21. Indian Territory • Located in today’s Oklahoma • Page 181 – Look at Map

22. Railroads and Settlers • Settlers felt they had a right to the land • Some settlers signed treaties with natives, but both sides had different intentions of what the treaties meant • The Federal Government wanted to place natives on Reservations (federal land set aside for natives)

26. Sioux – fought westward expansion!

29. Nez Perce - Northwest

30. Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

31. September 30, 1877 • Nez Perce headed to Canada, but was blocked by the military • Many died while being held in the Indian territory, including all of Joseph’s children • Eventually Nez Perce were moved to a reservation in Washington state

32. Change in Culture of the West

33. Dawes Act of 1887

34. Indian Territory (Oklahoma)

35. Farming on the Plains

36. Farming • Dry farming – crops that do not require a great deal of water • 1870s – improvements – plow, harrows to break ground, seed drills • 1875 – steam powered threshers • 1890s – corn huskers and corn binders

37. 1862 – Department of Agriculture – added under the Morrill Act • 1880s and 1890s – formulated statistics on markets, studied crop and plant diseases • Distributed publications on crop rotation, hybridization, topsoil

38. Bonanza farms – farms controlled by large businesses and managed by professionals • Single cash crops • Surplus – prices fell

39. Debt • Farmers bought to much land and had to mortgage • 1849 – California Gold Rush (Sutter’s Mill, California 1848) • 1859 – rumors of gold strikes in the area of Pike’s Peak, Colorado • “Pikes Peak or Bust!” • Nevada – Comstock Lode • Mining towns led to gambling and drunkeness

40. Mining Techniques • placer mining – shoveled loose dirt into boxes and ran through water • 1850s and 1860s – deeply buried gold which was harder to get • Larger companies had to do the mining

41. Cattle Industry • Texas – early 1800s • Longhorn cattle • 1860s and 1870s – booming period • Plains – areas to pasture • Demand for beef in large cities • Railroad aided in cattle industry • Long drive – cowboys would move cattle from place to place (18 hours in the saddle)

42. Changes in the cattle industry by the 1880s • 1874 – Joseph Glidden – invented barbed wire • Overstocking of cattle • 1885 – beef prices began to fall • 1885 – 1886 – hard winter (loss of 85% of cattle)

43. Problems

44. Tariffs • Tariffs – encourage the sale of goods produced at home by taxing imports • Hurt farmers • Raised price of manufactured goods • Foreigners had no $ to buy American crops • Helped farmers • Protecting them from farm imports from other countries

45. Money Issue • Value of money is linked to amount in circulation • If money supply goes up =value of money goes down • CAUSES INFLATION • Reduce the supply of money and the value of money goes up • CAUSES DEFLATION • After Civil War – period of deflation

46. Monetary policy – printing/producing money or not

47. Disagreement over which is best

48. Farmers want more money in circulation • Manufacturers and other businesses want less money in circulation

49. 1873 – nation went on the Gold Standard • Silverites were mad! Silver miners and western farmers are furious. • Want free silver – unlimited coining of silver to increase the supply of money

50. 1878 – Bland Allison Act – required government to purchase and coin more silver, increase $ supply, and cause inflation • Vetoed by President Hayes • Congress Overrode his veto • However, the treasure refused to buy more than the minimum under the law and refused to circulate silver dollars