Settlers vs. Native Americans Chapter 23

 Remember to keep in mind:  Native Americans wanted to share the land equally with no property.  Settlers, on the other hand, wanted to divvy up the land and make individual plots for themselves as they moved westward.

 Led by a man called Chief Joseph by the white settlers, they were a peaceful people that lived what is now Idaho  Was told to give up the land to settlers for mining, or have the army come and force them out.  On their way out, some soldiers lashed out and killed some of the white settlers, sparking a battle.

 After the fighting, like many other tribes, they were relocated several times across the west, from Oklahoma, to Washington, to Idaho.  All of this moving came at the hand of the white settlers looking for land and treasure in the West.

 The Homestead Act: US Gov’t gives 160 acres to any person that will move west, clear the land and farm on it for 5 years After that, it’s your land  Huge success: US # of farms goes from 2 million to 6 million between Boomer Sooner at Oklahoma Univ.

 The Transcontinental Railroad was set up to connect the whole country and was split into two teams that would meet in the middle.  Union Pacific and Central Pacific were in charge of the building, with Union starting in Neb. and Central in California  Central hired many Asian immigrants to help build, and paid them $1/day to lay tracks through the Sierra Nevada Mountains

 During this time ( ) the amount of railroads went from 30,000 miles to 200,000 miles (7x as much!!!)  Now there was an easy way to get more people to the West and keep expanding.

 Three swings with a hammer = one spike  Ten spikes = one rail (30 hammer swings)  One rail = 700 pounds (7000 spikes, 210,000 swings)  One mile of track = 400 rails (280,000 pounds, 2,800,000 spikes 84,000,000 swings)  Between  170,000 miles of track laid (68 Million Rails)

 Built Railroads before Civil War, was an officer during war, and good leader  Took advantages of the 10,000 workers he had to connect the West  Ran into N.A. attacks that were upset with the rail workers killing buffalo and taking land.  Gov’t troops stepped in to help protect Dodge and his men (5,000 of them)

 Lost a lot of workers to stories of silver mines  Then hired Asian (esp. Chinese) workers, who were so good that they sent people to China to bring back more workers. (12,000)

 On May 10, 1869, the Union and Central Rail companies met at Promontory Point, Utah with a golden spike connecting the 1800 mile track.  Chinese workers were not acknowledged during the ceremony

 The California Gold Rush of sparked a mad rush for treasure from New Mexico to Washington  (San Fran 49ers anyone?)  Some towns thrived while others were not as prosperous as they had hoped

 Mining is very destructive to land, and Native Americans were getting tired of dealing with all of it.  They were also upset with the cattle ranching of ranchers  Buffalo were either wiped out or scared off by the new settlers of the West.

 Cattle could now be trained to the East (where the big $$ was).  Lot of cowboys started fights once they got to cities since work was mostly boring  Winter of ended the cattle run because it was so cold

 By 1900, 500Thousand farmers moved to the Great Plains, which was said to be too dry for years.  Farming here was much different than in the East, but after a while the settlers figured out the tricks to good farming  (Digging deeper, sod houses, Windmill pumps for wells

 During this whole time, N.A.s have been continuously moved around throughout the nation, given “reservations” and promised food, supplies, and an education for giving up the land to settlers (Which rarely came if at all)  Many N.A.s starved and the men would leave the reservation to hunt and find food. If they did, they were often hunted down by U.S. soldiers

 Went to the Black Hills (Sioux land) looking for gold (Think National Treasure 2)  There was a treaty to leave the Sioux alone, but the treasure-minded soldiers ignored it  Sioux and Cheyenne tribes became angry and rose up since they didn’t want to leave  Custer and his 260 men attacked the N.A.s and were slaughtered quickly at Little Big Horn River  This uprising of N.A. sparked a movement by the US Gov’t to suppress all N.A.s to reservations and ignore any previous treaties.

 So we’ve learned that America expanded into the West and was great for the wealth of the nation. But at what cost, Millions of N.A.s were moved from their homes, many lost their lives.  Explain in 2-3 paragraphs whether you think it was worth it to expand West at the cost of the N.A.s. Defend your answer with topics/facts discussed this chapter