Conflicts Between White Settlers and Native Americans in the American West

1. An Industrial Nation The American West – Chapter 5 Sec. 1

2. Conflicts with native Americans • White settler – farmers/town dwellers • Land should be divided & claims given to people • Native American lands available to take if not settled in • Native Americans • Did not believe that land should be bought or sold • Most tribes consist of 300-500 • Well being of the tribe is more important than individual needs

3. Government Indian Policy • Prior to mid-1800’s • Native Americans moved from the East further and further West • Mid-1800’s onward • Native American lands seized and Native Americans sent to reservations • Goal was to break up the power of the Plains indians

4. The Indian Wars • Settlers/Army most often broke treaties • Sand Creek Massacre – 1864 • Cheyenne are convinced to stop raiding farms and move back to a reservation in Colorado • Attacked by Colonel Chivington while under army protection on the reservation, and flying the American flag • Approx. 150 killed including men, women and children

5. Battle of Little Bighorn – 1876 • Settlers moving into Sioux territory are being raided by Indians • Sioux are ordered to leave and resettle on reservation • Sitting Bull – Sioux leader • Gather people with other tribes along Little Bighorn river • Est. 12,000 camp on the river • Col. George Custer arrives early with his 600 men • Orders attack of Sioux camp which results in the massacre of Custer and his men

6. Wounded Knee – 1890 • Sitting Bull and his followers are captured in South Dakota trying to escape to Canada • Soldiers demand rifles in surrender and fighting breaks out • Women and children who flee are gunned down in the snow • over 300 men, women, children killed

7. End of Resistance • 1877- Nez Percéindians forced to move to smaller reservation in Idaho • Angry young men killed settlers on the way • Nez Percé flee towards Canada & are forced to surrender • Chief Joseph – “I will fight no more forever”

8. Reservation life • Goal was to abandon indian traditions and live like white Americans • Bureau of Indian Affairs • Est. government schools for children • Must speak english • Traditional clothing forbidden

10. Dawes Act • Ended reservation act • Best reservation land is broken up and sold • 160 acres to head of family; 80 acres to single adults or orphans • Remaining land given to Indians • Wanted to place Indians into white society as farmers and small property owners

11. Mining & Ranching • 1859 – Carson River Valley Nevada • $500 million in silver over 20 years of mining • 1896 – Yukon territory, Klondike River • Last large gold rush • On Canadian Alaskan Border

12. Mining Communities • Mostly men • Camps were typically tents or shacks • Eventually grew into towns • Arriving families changed the outlook of the camp

13. Mining as a business • Individual prospectors worked with hand tools • panning for gold – washing gold out of loose soil or sand • 1880’s – large companies dominate mining • Workers dug mine shafts, built tunnels, dug out ore • Cave-ins, explosions and flooding made mining a dangerous business

14. Ranching • Spanish were the first ranchers in the west in the 1500’s • New breed of cattle, the Texas Longhorn is breed to thrive in the plains • Sheep ranching is taken up by the Pueblo and Navajo Indians • Barbed wire allowed ranchers to close in their land with easy fencing

15. Cattle Drives • Demand in the East for beef drives the price up to $40 for a steer worth $4 in the west • Cattle drives led cattle to a near railroad town • Cattle taken to meat-packing centers in Chicago

17. Chisholm Trail – one of the most important cattle drive trails in the West

18. Farmers on the Great Plains • Homestead Act • Any head of household over 21 can claim 160 acres of land • Were required to build a home, make improvements, and farm the land for 5 years • Nearly 2 million attempt to claim land

19. Pacific Railway Act • Gave millions of acres to RR companies for tracks and telegraph lines • Railroads sold much land to settlers

20. Morrill Act • Gave states land to build colleges to teach “agricultural and mechanical arts” • First federal government assistance for higher education

21. Oklahoma Land Rush • April 22, 1889 • 2 million acres of unclaimed land are opened to the American public • 50,000 people rushed into Oklahoma staking their claim the land • 11,000 homesteads established overnight

22. Push vs. Pull factorts

23. Push vs. Pull factorts

24. Western Settlers • White Settlers • Came from Mississippi valley states • Middle class farmers or business people • African American Settlers • Many left the south with its black codes and KKK violence • Exodusters

25. Western Settlers (cont.) • European settlers • Land poor Europeans drawn by economics prosperity • Irish came to work on the railroads • Mennonites from Russia bring farming experience to the Plains • Chinese Settlers • Immigrated for gold rush and railroad jobs • Helped establish California’s fruit industry

26. New Innovations • Water well pumps powered by windmills • Earth/sod houses • New plows & combine harvesters