* 07/16/96 The Movement West 11/20/2018 *

A Man of Two Worlds Imagine being taken from your family when you are a child and are forced to live with another Her son became a famous Comanche warrior and chief He was very smart and knew how to deal with the “White Man” The White people of Texas and Oklahoma respected him as well as many others He always spoke up for his people and worked with the “White Man” Charged ranchers money to let them use Comanche land for their Cattle to graze Quannah Parker 1 11/20/2018

The Plains before westward movement What do you think it was like? Endless miles of grass, rattlesnakes, buffalo, and nomadic Indians Then…. Miners swept through the plains looking for valuable minerals Railroads were built to connect the mining towns in the west to cities in the east What kind of problems do you think the westward movement could cause? Plains Indians already lived there Different ways of life clashed with settlers hunger for land Before long conflicts between the two groups broke out 2

Buffalo on the Plains Before the settlers came, the Great Plains, supported some 30 different Indian tribes The regions was also home to millions of bison The buffalo were the lifeblood of the Indians Food Shelter tools Ornaments Even toys Settlers did not treat nor use the buffalo in the same way Killed them for sport Killed them just for their hide Almost caused them to be extinct 3

Treaty of Fort Laramie If someone came into your house and started to live there without asking you, what would you do? Well, the Indians were fed up with these settlers killing their buffalo and living on their land. They began to wage war. In order to protect the settlers and travelers the government decided to strike a deal with the Indians. 1851 Government met with between 8,000 and 12,000 Indians from 8 tribes 4

Treaty of Ft. Laramie Continued There they convinced the Indians to sign the Treaty of Fort Laramie Gave the government the right to build more roads and forts on the plains Defined boundaries telling the Indians where they could hunt Government agreed to make yearly payments to the Indians and promised the tribes that they could live and hunt on this land forever Does this treaty seem fair to you? As you will see, this treaty was the first of many the government would make with the Indians that they would fail to honor.

5 Western Mines 1860’s Miners continued to go west in search of riches No spot was too hot, too cold, too dry, or too wet everyone wanted to strike it RICH! Miners swarmed through the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, and the Black Hills. They braved the the scorching sands of Arizona and New Mexico as well as the frosty waters of Alaska. One of the biggest finds of gold was found in Nevada: COMSTOCK LODE Worth $3,200 to $4,800 a ton (GOLD AND SILVER) Named after a prospector who bragged he had discovered it Produced over $300 million in gold and silver Comstock sold the claims for $11,000 dollars and two mules 5

Western Mines Continued Individual prospectors rarely ever made it rich Why do you think and who do you think got the gold? Expensive to mine Investors in large companies

Boomtowns Despite the odds of striking it rich prospectors ran to each site. Within days mining camps rose in what used to be empty areas The camps were tents and shacks built in a matter of days BOOM AND BUST TOWNS When the gold was gone so were the towns Boomtowns such as DENVER and RENO survived and grew Boomtowns weren’t a place for a lady! Attracted gamblers, thieves and outlaws Crime and fighting were common No JAILS! Well then you were banished, whipped, or killed (HUNG)

The Hanging Tree

Transportation As more and more Americans settled in the West they needed a faster and more reliable form of transportation to carry people and supplies What do you think they used? Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Bill It called for a transcontinental railroad linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts Trains would be able to cross the country in just one week instead of the month that it took stagecoaches The Transcontinental (across the continent) was to be built by the Union and Central Pacific 7

Transportation Continued Government donated the land and gave the companies sections of free land for every mile of track they laid Union Pacific began building from the East---Omaha, Nebraska Central Pacific began building from the West--Sacramento, California They raced to see which could lay the most track and earn the most free land

Building the Railroad What do you think it was like to build the railroad? Very dangerous, backbreaking, and low-paying work Had to cut through the mountains and fight Indians Built through the snow Laid from 2-5 miles of track each day and it took them 6 years to finish Who do you think built the railroad? Immigrants Union Pacific employed over 10,000 immigrants from Ireland Central Pacific employed over 10,000 immigrants from China

Promontory Point On May 10, 1869 the job was finally finished The Union Pacific Engine 119 met the Central Pacific’s Jupiter at Promontory Point, Union Pacific laid 1,086 miles Central Pacific laid 689 miles Leland Stanford marked the occasion by driving a gold spike that linked the two sets of tracks The Railroad offered: easy way to travel cheap way to travel way to travel to a new life move from congested cities to spacious free land

The End of the Buffalo The Plains Indians depended on the buffalo to live, yet miners and settlers slaughtered millions of the animals Railroad companies hired hunters to shoot buffalo to feed their workers William E. Cody earned his nickname “Buffalo Bill” by killing 4,000 buffalo in 8 months Sometimes passengers on the trains would shoot buffalo from the windows just for amusement By 1895 the buffalo faced extermination-total destruction Population went from 50 million to about a thousand

The End of the Buffalo Continued The extermination was disastrous for the Plains Indians they might have well just killed them as well The Indians could not stop the settlers from coming and building homes, or the railroad from being built, and the government ignored the terms of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (do you remember them) The conflict led to decades of warfare on the plains

Answer the following on a piece of paper * Answer the following on a piece of paper 07/16/96 Define extermination. What is a boomtown? What problems did Plains Indians face in the 1870’s? What was the biggest find of gold and silver named? Why did so few miners strike it rich? What were the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty? Who became rich from mining? Who was said to be a man of two worlds? How did the transcontinental railroad change the way people thought about moving west? Where did the two railroad companies meet and what did they commemorate the occasion with? *