Changes on the Western Frontier
The culture of the Plains Indians declines as white settlers transform the Great Plains. Meanwhile, farmers form the Populist movement to address their economic concerns.
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List-Group-Label
• Brainstorm all the key words you can think of when you think of Western settlement
• Look for at least 1-2 new/unknown words on pp. 408- 420 in your textbook
• Please read pp. 408- 410 in your textbook.• List the possible causes and effects of the
settlement of the West
The Lure of Silver and Gold• 1858 discovery of gold in Colorado
draws tens of thousands• Mining camps, tiny frontier towns
have filthy, ramshackle dwellings• Fortune seekers of different cultures,
races; mostly men
Causes
Effects/Disappearance of Frontier
• By 1900 frontier disappeared• Settlers moved west• Pushed Indians off lands• Railroads helped settle West, brought ppl. and goods
Landscape Changes
• As settlers moved west- built homes, fenced off land
• Made ranches and farms
• Railroad changed landscape
Settlers Push Westward
Clash of Cultures• Native Americans: land cannot be owned;
settlers: want to own land• Settlers think natives forfeited land because
did not improve it• Since consider land unsettled, migrants go
west to claim it
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Population Changes in the West
Where were Native Americans?
Geography of the West
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The New West
(1865-1914)
What was the gold rush?
A California Gold Mine in 1849.
The Gold Rush
The Culture of the Plains IndiansLife on the Plains• Great Plains—grasslands in west-central
portion of the U.S.
• East: hunting, farming villages; west: nomadic hunting, gathering
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The Great Plains The land between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River and from Canada to Texas.
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Section 1: Indian Peoples of the Great Plain
Many Native Americans lived on the Great Plains for hundreds of years. A number of them, such as the Sioux and Cheyenne, had lived on the Plains for hundreds of years.
The Plains Indians
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Many different Native American nations lived on the Great Plains. Plains Indians had rich and varied cultures. They had well organized religions, made fine and crafts, and created much poetry. The Plains Indians lived in villages.
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After the Pueblo Indians revolted against the Spaniards in 1680, they were left with thousands of horses. They traded the horses with neighboring tribes and learned to ride them
Agriculture was their main source of food. The Indians captured and tamed wild horses. By the 1700’s, hunting replaced farming as the basis of life for many plains people. Horses changed the Indians’ way of life. The Spanish brought horses in the late 1400’s. At first Indians could not own horses.
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The Indians moved very often, following the Buffalo that roamed the plains. The buffalo served as a living grocery store for the Plains Indians.
What do we mean when we say the buffalo was a living grocery store for the Native Americans?
After acquiring horses, they followed huge herds of buffalo and hunted them by driving them into large corrals, or enclosures. They sent out hunting parties that pursued Buffalo and other animals.
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Buffalo meat, rich in protein was the main item in the Indians diet. They usually dried the meat on racks. They dried meat called jerky.
Many Americans eat beef jerky today.
The Indians lived in tepees made from wooden sticks and Buffalo skins. The Plains Indians were dependent on the Buffalo for food, clothing,fuel and shelter.
• The Horse and the Buffalo• Horses, guns lead most Plains tribes to nomadic life by
mid-1700s• Trespassing others’ hunting lands causes war; count
coup for status• Buffalo provides many basic needs:• - hides used for teepees, clothes, blankets• - meat used for jerky, pemmican
• 1. Why /how was buffalo important to the Plains Indians?
The Many Uses of Buffalo
2. How are buffalo being used in these pictures?
The Buffalo and Native Americans
"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.” -Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior
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In the summer many groups played together, hunted together and staged horse and foot races.
The most important event for the Plains Indians was a religious ceremony known as the Sundance. In the Sundance, dancers circled around a tree and asked the Great Spirit to give them good fortune during the coming year.
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Plains Indian women tanned Buffalo hides to make leather. Women were skilled in many crafts. They made baskets and blankets. They made clothing, tepees and tools. They made everything but weapons.
The Roles of Women and Men
The woman’s artistic ability established their rank in society. They took care of the children. Women tanned Buffalo hides to make leather. Women were skilled in many crafts.
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They provided military leadership and waged war to fight or extend a territory. The most successful warriors gained great respect from the members of their nation.
Plains Indian men protected the women, children and elders. They passed their valuable skills to the boys. They supervised the spiritual life of the community by leading religious ceremonies.
Family Life• Form family groups with ties to other bands that speak same
language• Men are hunters, warriors; women butcher meat, prepare hides• Believe in powerful spirits that control natural world
- men or women can become shamans• Children learn through myths, stories, games, example• Communal life; leaders rule by counsel
3. What was the central part of life for Native Americans?
4. What were the roles of men in families?
5. What were the roles of women in families?NEXT
continued The Culture of the Plains Indians
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In 1858, gold was struck at Pikes Peak in Colorado. The gold strike brought miners onto the land the government promised to the Indians. In 1860, the Indians were forced to give up the land around Pikes Peak.
Native Americans refused to give up their land. They attacked trains, burned, and killed many soldiers and common people. Colonel John Chivington, of the United States Army, attacked the Indians. When the Indians surrendered he ordered his men to destroy the village and take no prisoners. He slaughtered about 150 Indian men, women, and children. This was called the Chivington Massacre.
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The Indians in the Northern Plains also signed a treaty. They agreed to live on reservations that included all of South Dakota west of the Missouri River. A reservation is a limited area that has set-aside for Native Americans.
In 1867, the Southern Plains Indians signed a new agreement with the United States Government. The Indians were promised the land in the territory called present-day Oklahoma. The Indians were unhappy with the new treaty. They had no choice but to move.
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The Plains Indians suffered from for lost battles and broken treaties. The Buffalo were being destroyed. The two reasons Buffalo were being destroyed were:
2. Buffalo hunting became a fashionable sport and commercial hunters shot Buffalo to make hide blankets.
End of the Buffalo
1. Hired Hunters killed thousands of buffalo to provide food for the railroad crews laying tracks across the prairie.
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With 2 to 3 million Buffalo hides its being taken every year, the number of Buffalo on the plain dropped from 13 million in 1862 to a few hundred the in 1900‘s.
Please do not hunt
me!
continued The Government Supports Assimilation
The Destruction of the Buffalo• Destruction of buffalo most significant
blow to tribal life
• Tourists, fur traders shoot for sport, destroy buffalo population
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"Historically the buffalo had more influence on man than all other Plains animals combined. It was life, food, raiment, and
shelter to the Indians. The buffalo and the Plains Indians lived together, and together passed away. The year 1876 marks practically the end of
both. . . ." Walter Prescott Webb
11. How did the buffalo die out?
12. How do you think this influenced the Native American way of life?
Culture Clash
Native Americans vs.
The U.S. Government
Bloody Battles Continue
Red River War• 1868, Kiowa, Comanche engage in 6
years of raiding• 1874–1875, U. S. Army crushes
resistance on Plains in Red River War
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Gold Rush• 1874 George A. Custer reports much
gold in Black Hills, rush begins
Battle of the Little Bighorn also known as Custer's Last Stand Fought between the Lakota–Northern
Cheyenne force and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army.
June 25 and June 26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory
The battle was the most famous action of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 (also known as the Black Hills War)
Huge victory for the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, led by Sitting Bull
“There are not enough Indians in the world to
defeat the Seventh Cavalry.”
George Armstrong Custer
"Comanche," the only survivor of the Custer Massacre, 1876.
The U.S. Seventh Cavalry, including a group of 700 men led by George Armstrong Custer, suffered a severe defeat.
Five of the Seventh's companies were destroyed
Custer was killed, as were two of his brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law. Total US deaths were 268, including scouts, and 55 were wounded.
Sitting Bull, leader of Hunkpapa/ Lakota Sioux, does not sign treaty- Protested US demands for Sioux land- Crazy Horse- Sioux chief
- Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeated George Custer and his troops
Outraged over the death of Custer, the nation demanded and received harsh payback.
Within a year, the Sioux nation was defeated and broken.
Custer’s Last Stand• Custer’s Last Stand• 1876, Sitting Bull has vision of
war at sun dance• Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall
crush Custer’s troops• By late 1876, Sioux are defeated;
some take refuge in Canada- people starving; Sitting Bull surrenders 1881
Custer’s Last Stand
Massacre At Wounded Knee, 1890
December 29, 1890, the Sioux chief Big Foot and some 350 of his followers camped on the banks of Wounded Knee creek
US troops were sent to arrest the chief and disarm the warriors
The scene was tense, and the Sioux wore “ghost shirts” and did the “ghost dance”
The Sioux wore the “ghost shirts” to protect them from the soldiers’ bullets
Big Foot’s tribe learned that Sitting Bull was murdered by the army so they went to seek protection from a neighboring Sioux reservation
The tense scene turned violent and the soldiers starting shooting.
The Outcome When the smoke cleared and the
shooting stopped, approximately 300 Sioux were dead, Big Foot among them. Twenty-five soldiers lost their lives.
The great Sioux/Lakota nation was gone
The Battle of Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee• Ghost Dance—ritual to regain lost lands
- spreads among Sioux on Dakota reservation• Dec. 1890, Sitting Bull is killed when police try to
arrest him • Seventh Cavalry takes about 350 Sioux to Wounded
Knee Creek
• Battle of Wounded Knee—cavalry kill 300 unarmed Native Americans
• Last major battle on Great Plains- Battle ends Indian wars, Sioux dream of regaining
old life13. What happened at the Battle of Wounded Knee?
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Slaughter at Wounded Knee
Conflict Continues
• By 1870s, many Native Americans lived on reservations• Land there not useful for farming or buffalo hunting• Ghost Dance- Pauite Indians begin a religious movement that predicted settlers would disappear and buffalo would return14. Why did Native Americans do the Ghost Dance?
The Government Restricts Native Americans
Railroads Influence Government Policy• 1834, government designates Great Plains as one
huge reservation• Reservations- area of federal land set aside for
Native Americans • 1850s, treaties define specific boundaries for each
tribe
• 6. How did the building of the railroad affect the lives of Plains Indians? (List 2 ways)
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Continued . . .
Ghost Dance• Pauite Ghost Dance
"One does not sell the land people walk on." ... Crazy Horse, Sept. 23, 1875
Tecumseh Shawnee""Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a
struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you will cry with me,
'Never! Never!'"
The Government Supports Assimilation
The Dawes Act• 1881, Helen Hunt Jackson exposes problems in A Century
of Dishonor• Assimilation—natives to give up way of life, join white
culture
• 1887, Dawes Act to “Americanize” natives, break up reservations- gives land to individual Native Americans- Tried to make land ownership private not shared- sell remainder of land to settlers- money for farm implements for natives
• In the end, Natives Americans receive only 1/3 of land, no money
10. What did the Dawes Act do?
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Massacre at Sand Creek• Troops kill over 150 Cheyenne, Arapaho at
Sand Creek winter camp
Death on the Bozeman Trail• Bozeman Trail crosses Sioux hunting grounds
- Red Cloud asks for end of settlements; Crazy Horse ambushes troops- US agreed to abandon forts and give Sioux reservations
continued The Government Restricts Native Americans
• Treaty of Fort Laramie—U.S. closes trail; Sioux to reservation
- Treaty recognized Indian claims to land on Great Plains
- Allowed US to build forts and roads through Indian territory
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What did the Treaty of Fort Laramie do?
• Sioux “agreed” to live on reservations
Americanization was an assimilation effort by the United States to transform
Native American culture to European-
American culture between the years
of 1790-1920.
I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had
desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. Sitting Bull
Relinquishing and Resistance
Who was Sitting Bull and what did he do?
Sitting Bull • A Lakota chief and holy man under whom
the Lakota tribes united in their struggle for survival on the northern plains
• Sitting Bull remained rebellious toward American military power and disapproving of American promises to the end.
• As a young man, Sitting Bull became a leader of the Strong Heart warrior society and, later, a distinguished member of the Silent Eaters, a group concerned with tribal welfare.
When I was a boy, the Sioux owned the world. The sun rose and set on their land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them?~Sitting Bull~
Native American isn’t blood. It is what is in the heart. The love for the land, the respect for it,
those who inhabit it, and the respect and acknowledgement of the spirits and elders.
That is what it is to be Indian. ~White Feather, Navajo Medicine Man
To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak. ~Derrick “Suwaima” Davis, Hopi/Chocktaw
We do not want riches. We want peace and love. ~Red Cloud, Oglala Lakota Sioux
Reservation Life then and Now
• Dawes Allotment Act- tried to make land ownership private, not shared, went against Indian way of life• Failed to give US citizenship to Native Americans• Took 2/3 of Indian lands• Reservations today- poverty, poor conditions, US gov’t does little to help
Native American Reservations today
Economic ($/Jobs)
Social Political
• Household income $21,000
• -$14,000 less than average family in South Dakota
• 1/3 of Sioux families living on the reservation lack electricity
• High School drop out rate 50%
• Alcoholism & drug abuse common
• Poor diet• High rates of
obesity
• Low life expectancy
• 20 years less than average American
• Life of Reservation leads to isolation
• Welfare—limits spending on reservation
• Representation in government
Sioux Life Today: Pine Ridge Reservation
• Read article and complete 3-2-1 sheet• http://172.16.7.130/SAFARI/montage/play.php?fr
ompage=play&keyindex=47802&location=local&chapterskeyindex=90501&sceneclipskeyindex=-1
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJapHc7B8Xs
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GACcBe9Be58
Level Thinking Question #15• Why do you think many reservations are so poor today?• I think…• For example..• However…
Cattle Become Big BusinessVaqueros and Cowboys• American settlers learn to manage large herds
from Mexican vaqueros- adopt way of life, clothing, vocabulary
• Texas longhorns—sturdy, short-tempered breeds brought by Spanish
• Cowboys not in demand until railroads reach Great Plains
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Growing Demand for Beef• After Civil War demand for meat increases in
rapidly growing cities
Continued . . .
Cattle Becomes Big Business
• Cattlemen establish shipping yards where trails and rail lines meet
• Chisolm Trail becomes major cattle route from San Antonio to Kansas
• My.hrw.com- p. 590 trails map
• Turn to p. 416 in text.• Find at least 2 facts for each
topic, fill in on your paper or notebook:–A day’s work–Roundup–The Long Drive
Cowboys at Work
Cowboy Life• Took care of ranchers’ cattle
• Cattle needed to be brought to RR’s/ marketplace and sold
• Transported to Eastern cities for beef• Most important job- cattle drive-to heard to market
A Day in the Life of a Cowboy• A day’s work:
– 1866- 1885, up to 55,000 cowboys on plains
– 25% African American, 12% Mexican
– Cowboy works 10-14 hours on ranch; 14 or more on trail
– Expert rider, roper; alert for dangers that may harm, upset cattle
A Day’s Work• Roundup-
– During spring roundup, longhorns found, herded into corral
– Separate cattle marked with own ranch’s brand; brand calves
A Day in the Life of a CowboyA Day’s Work• 1866–1885, up to 55,000 cowboys on plains
- 25% African American, 12% Mexican• Cowboy works 10–14 hours on ranch; 14 or more
on trail• Expert rider, roper; alert for dangers that may
harm, upset cattle
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Roundup• During spring roundup, longhorns found, herded
into corral• Separate cattle marked with own ranch’s brand;
brand calves
Continued . . .
A Day in the Life of a Cowboy• The Long Drive
– Herding of animals or long drive lasts about 3 months
– Cowboy in saddle dawn to dusk; sleeps on ground; bathes in rivers
Legends of the West- Celebrities like “Wild
Bill” Hickok, Calamity Jane never handled cows
End of the open range• Invention of barbed
wire allowed ranchers to fence off large areas of land
• Competition between farmers and ranchers
• Many cattle died because of over-grazing; ranchers were ruined financially
The End of the Open Range
• Overgrazing, bad weather from 1883- 1887 destroy whole herds
• Ranchers keep smaller herds that yield more meat per animal
• Fence land with barbed wire; turn open range into separate ranches
Miners in the west• Miner found gold in
Colorado
• Many rushed to find gold in Pikes Peak, Co
• 1849- Start of “Gold Rush”
• Comstock Lode- deposit of silver and gold
Mining Life• From “Boom town” to
“Ghost town”
• Prospectors, immigrants and other adventurous people moved West
• Many women settled, cooked, or ran hotels
From Boomtown to Ghost town
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In 1859, two young prospectors struck gold in the Sierra Nevada lands. Henry Comstock discovered a vein of gold called a lode. The Comstock Lode attracted thousands of prospectors. Miners came across the United States, as well as from France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, and China. One of every three miners was Chinese.
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Thousands of people came West to supply the minors with materials such as tools, food, and clothing. People opened restaurants, boarding houses, laundries, etc.
With the boom in mining tent cities formed, but they later became towns and cities. The cities of Denver and Colorado Springs grew very quickly as a result other miner’s discovery of gold.
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When the gold was gone the city’s turned into ghost towns. A ghost town was an abandoned town.
Old boomtowns Built around mining sites. They
started out as little camps with tents.
With the increase of population came the increase of merchants and mining companies.
A general store and other shops would be established.
The Business of Mining
• Few miners became rich
• Placer mining- washing water, dirt, gravel to find flakes of gold
• Hydraulic (water) cannons to blast hillsides- exposed gold below surface
• Harmful to the environment (strip-mining)
Mining- Then and Now
