 Land  Opportunity  Herding cattle  Laying railroad lines  Were there any conflicts with the Native Americans?

 In 1849, word got out that gold was discovered in California.  As a result, people moved out west in large numbers.  By 1850, California had enough people living in it to become a state!

 Large population in California.  Few people actually got rich.  Environment destroyed in some areas.  Some polluted rivers.

 Ranching on the plains went back to the times of the Spanish settlers.  Vaqueros – Mexican cowboys. They started many of the traditions and customs of cowboys.

 They rode horses and boots and wide brimmed hats.  Rounded up cattle and branded them.  Railroad companies began to sprout up in Kansas to sell cattle after the Civil War.  Kansas City is known as a “cow town”.

 Chisholm Trail - where cowboys drove longhorn cattle from San Antonio, Texas, to Abilene, Kansas.  Cowboys could sell cattle to the cow towns that popped up and make a lot of money!

 The long cattle drives ended when blizzards in 1886 and 1887 killed off thousands of cattle.  Ranchers were forced to declare bankruptcy.  After that, many ranchers kept their cattle close to home.

 Transcontinental railroad - a railroad that went across the continent.  The railroad would connect people from one end of the country to another!  Why would this be important?

 Come up with some reasons why having the transcontinental railroad would be important.  Write a brief rap song including the reasons why you would think that this is important.

 After the Civil War, freed slaves and Irish immigrants worked for the Union Pacific railroad company.  Both ethnic groups badly needed jobs, because neither group had a lot of wealth.  The Central Pacific railroad decided to hire workers from China.  The Chinese immigrants were heavily discriminated against.

 Some workers were killed in attacks from Native Americans.  Others died in dynamite explosions.  Extreme cold left many workers with frostbite.  Snow avalanches killed others.

 You just immigrated to America, and your family does not have much money.  You hear that you can make a living by working on the railroad, but you also hear of the dangers.  At your table, divide yourselves into two camps: one group will choose to work on the railroad, and one will not. Come up with reasons to persuade the other group to see your side of the argument.

 Both the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads had their lines meet on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah.  It used to take four months to travel from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast.  With the railroad complete, it only took ten days.  However, not all the news was good news.

 Farmers out west depended on railroads to get their food to market.  Railroads were charging excessive rates to the farmers.  The government had to step in to control shipping prices.

 For thousands of years, Native Americans in the area hunted buffalo.  With more settlers moving out west, they chose to slaughter the buffalo, which endangered the Native Americans’ way of life.

 As a result, the warriors began to attack the settlers living on the Great Plains.  The U.S. Army attacked the tribes in the Great Plains.  Reservations began to spring up along the great plains.

 Reservation - land set aside for Native Americans.  Over time, the land was included less land for the Native Americans.  The government still did not stop settlers from moving onto reservation land.

 Many tribes, like the Apaches and Comanches, refused to live on reservations.  They roamed the plains and attacked settlers.  Custer and his men decided to attack them.

 Custer was badly outnumbered in the Battle of Little Bighorn, which took place in Montana.  The Sioux and Cheyenne tribes who fought against Custer’s men killed all of the U.S. Army present.

 Rumor has it that Custer had advance warning that he was badly outnumbered before fighting.  He also had advance information that led him to believe that if he attacked, he would be quickly surrounded.  In groups, write an epitaph for General Custer. An epitaph is what is written on a person’s tombstone. Draw and color your tombstone for Custer.

 Homestead Act - provided tracts of land called Homesteads to anyone settling in the West.  The act offered 160 acres of land to anyone willing to work the land and live on it for 5 years.  The Homestead Act attracted 600,000 farmers who claimed more than 80 million acres of land.

 When the settlers moved here, they faced difficult challenges on the plains.  For starters, there is very little timber in the area to build homes.  Many homes were mud huts built into the side of a hill.  The farmers faced bitter winters and drought like conditions in the summer.  Grasshoppers swarmed in and ate entire crops.

 At your table, discuss the meaning of the phrase, “In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted”.  What could be some of the reasons for this popular phrase at the time?

 Exodusters - former slaves who encouraged other African Americans to build farming communities on the Great Plains.  They settled throughout Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

 Populism - a political philosophy that favored the common person’s interests over wealthy people or business interests.  What political group sounds like the populist movement today?  The populist movement began because farmers were beginning to get frustrated over the way they were treated by the banks and in government.

 The movement eventually formed the Populist Party. It began in  The populist party wanted reforms for working people, and the government to own the railroads.  While it was a good idea, not many people got behind the party.  It faded away around 1900.