Warm-up Questions What Act made Native Americans divide their reservation land into smaller plots for farming? What was the lasting significance of the Battle of Wounded Knee? What book did Helen Hunt Jackson write about the injustices that Native Americans have suffered?

Moving West

Push Factors Civil War Expensive eastern farmland Displaced farmers Freed slaves Soldiers Expensive eastern farmland Ethnic and religious repression Immigrants Mormons African Americans

Pull Factors Available property Escape of the post Reconstruction south Wealth Cattle Mining (gold, silver and precious metals)

Land Legislation Homestead Act (1862) 160 acres if: 21 years old or head of household American citizen or immigrant filing for citizenship Built a house and lived there for 6 months of year

Land Legislation cont. Morrill Land Grant Act (1862) This gave states money for colleges specializing in agriculture and mechanics

Prairie Life Lumber was scarce, people often built homes of sod (soddy) or by digging into a small hill (dugout) Water was scarce, which made farming risky due to droughts Sod was tough, hard to plow through

People Moving “West” Immigrants African Americans Miners Ranchers Chinese Irish Northern Europeans African Americans Exodusters Buffalo Soldiers Miners Ranchers Farmers Buffalo Hunters

Immigrants Many Chinese and Irish immigrants helped build new rail lines Irish and Northern Europeans were escaping war, famine and persecution

African Americans Exoduster’s Buffalo Soldiers African Americans who moved to Kansas to escape the post reconstruction south Buffalo Soldiers Black troops who served in the U.S. military in the west

Miners Miners moved west to search for precious metals Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill, California Silver at the Comstock Lode, Nevada

Ranchers Ranchers brought cattle to the wide open grasslands Cowboys drove the cows across the plains to the nearest rail line on cattle drives

“Range Wars” Farmers and Ranchers feuded over land use Farmers needed fenced in property to protect crops, contain livestock Ranchers needed wide open lands to allow cattle to roam Eventually barbed wire fences brought the end of the “open range”

Railroad Brings Change Transcontinental Railroad Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads connect at Promontory Point, Utah Atlantic to Pacific Ocean unified by a railroad Transportation of people and goods became much faster and cheaper

Railroads Continued Power of the Railroad Companies RR companies had land (Pacific Railway Act) given by the government RR’s were the only cheap, efficient mode of transportation in much of the west, creating monopolies This begins to create problems for farmers and ranchers who needed the trains for transportation.