Post on 25-Dec-2015
transcript
THE AMERICAN WEST
1865-1900
Mining Frontier
• Discovery of gold led massive migration and immigration to California.
• 1/3 of western miners were Chinese immigrants.
• Gave people riches and destroyed the environment.
What was life like for the Indians on the Great Plains?
• Life centered around horses and buffalo.
• The buffalo provided food, clothing, and shelter.
• Small extended family groups.
• Children learned skills that they would need from their parents.
What was the Sand Creek Massacre?
• In 1864, settlers were moving into areas of Colorado where the Cheyenne Indians lived.
• The Army took the side of the settlers and killed about 200 Cheyenne.
What was the Treaty of Fort Laramie?
• Signed in 1868 in which the Sioux agreed to live on a reservation.
• However, there were Native Americans who did not sign this treaty.
Who was Sitting Bull?
• Leader of the Sioux Indian Nation.
• Did not sign the Treaty of Fort Laramie.
• Defeated General Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.
• Months later the Sioux were defeated.
Who was General Custer?
• Led American cavalry to fight Sioux Indians at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
• All of Custer’s men were killed in what is famously known as Custer’s Last Stand.
Song: Please Mr. Custer
• #1 Hit in 1960• Racist terms like
“injun” and “redskins”• Kemo Sabe= Friend• Voice in song does not
want to fight Sioux because he is afraid of being scalped.
What is assimilation?
• Native Americans would give up their beliefs and culture and become a part of white culture.
• Education would be a key part of becoming “American.”
Helen Hunt Jackson
• Wrote about the injustices of the American government towards the American Indian in the book A Century of Dishonor.
• Most Americans however still favored assimilation.
What was the Dawes Act (1887)?
• Act broke up reservations and gave some land to each Native American family for farming.
• Native Americans were cheated out of the best land.
• Whites had killed most of the buffalo.
What was the Battle of Wounded Knee?
• The Sioux Indians performed the Ghost Dance to try and bring the buffalo back.
• The Ghost Dance made the Army nervous.
• In 1890, the Army killed 300 unarmed Sioux.
What were longhorns?
• Sturdy cattle accustomed to grasslands.
• Brought to the American cowboy from Spanish ranchers in Mexico.
What was the Chisholm Trail?
• Growing cities increased the demand for beef.
• Cattle ranchers drove their cattle along the Chisholm trail.
• Stretched from San Antonio, Texas to Kansas where cattle was shipped by rail to Chicago.
What was life like for a cowboy?
• Worked 10-14 hours a day in extreme temperatures.
• In the winter, cowboys lived off savings did odd jobs on ranches.
• In the spring, cowboys rounded up cattle on long drives.
Frederick Jackson Turner
• Wrote The Significance of the American Frontier (1893)
• The frontier experience was an example of independence and individualism.
• Forced people to be inventive and creative as part of the American spirit.
• Worried that the closing of the frontier would lead to social and class conflict.
What was the Homestead Act (1862)?
• Government offered 160 acres of free land to anyone who would farm it for five years.
• By 1900, 400,000 homesteaders had settled on the Great Plains.
• Only 10% were settled by families.
Who were the exodusters?
• African Americans who moved from the post-Reconstruction South to Kansas.
What were soddys?
• Homes built in the Great Plains region.
• Homes were dug into the sides of hills or made from sod.
• Warm in winter and cool in the summer.
• Little light or air in the home.
What was the Morrill Act?
• Helped establish agricultural colleges. (Example: Virginia Tech, West Virginia University)
• Established experiment stations to develop new types of crops and growing techniques.
What were bonanza farms?
• Large, single crop farms in the Great Plains.
• Bonanza farms folded because of droughts between 1885 and 1890.
Who was Billy the Kid?
• Famous 19th century American frontier outlaw.
• Bragged that he killed 21 men, but most think he killed 9.
• Killed at the age of 21.
• Symbolized the lawlessness of the American West in the 1880’s.
Song: The Ballad of Billy the Kid
• Recorded by Billy Joel in the 1970’s.
• Billy the Kid has become a American legend.
• Many movies, TV Shows, and songs have been made in his honor.
Who was Oliver Hudson Kelley?
• Started an organization called the Grange movement.
• Original purpose was to provide a place for farm families to discuss social and educational issues.
• Spent most of time fighting railroads.
What was the Farmers’ Alliance?
• Organizations that included teachers, preachers, and newspaper editors who sympathized with farmers.
• Educated farmers about lower interest rates and protests against railroads.
What is Populism?
• Pushed for reforms for farmers.
• Called for direct election of senators and secret ballot.
• Strong 3rd party in election of 1892 and 1896.
What is bimetallism?
• A monetary system in which government would give people either gold or silver in exchange for paper currency or checks.
• Populists were for bimetallism like William Jennings Bryan.
• Silverites favored bimetallism because more dollars would be available and prices and wages would rise.
Who was William Jennings Bryan?
• Leader of the Populist Movement
• Famous Cross of Gold Speech in support of bimetallism
• Supported cause of the farmers
• Lost 3 presidential elections (1896, 1900, 1908)
Who was William McKinley?
• Elected President in 1896 and 1900.
• Supported the gold standard.
• Protected the interests of American big business
How is the Wizard of Oz symbolize Populism?
• Dorothy= average American, kindhearted
• Kansas= Populist stronghold
• Scarecrow= Midwestern farmers
• Tin Man= Industrial workers
Wizard of Oz Symbolism (continued)
• Cowardly Lion= William Jennings Bryan
• Ruby(Silver) Slippers= bimetallism
• Yellow Brick Road= gold standard
• Emerald City= Washington D.C.
Wizard of Oz Symbolism (Continued)
• Wizard of Oz= President Grover Cleveland
• Glinda the Good Witch= Populists from Midwest and South
• Wicked Witch of the West= Drought
• Oz= ounce
Wizard of Oz (Symbolism)
• Munchkins= little people enslaved by the Wicked Witch of the East (industrial/banking interests in cities)
• Winged Monkeys= Indians of the Great Plains
What was the gold standard?
• Backing dollars solely with gold.
• “Gold bugs” favored gold because prices would be kept from rising.
• Republicans like William McKinley supported gold standard.