SETTLING THE WEST 1865 - 1900 Chapter 8

Section 1 Miners and Ranchers Main Idea: Miners and ranchers settled large areas of the West. Growth of the mining industry: * Placer mining - prospectors used picks, shovels, pans, etc; scooped up shallow deposits.

* Quartz mining - dug deep beneath surface. * Henry Comstock - discovered the “Comstock Lode” - huge silver vein near Virginia City, Nev. “Boomtown” “Ghost town” Wild mining towns led to vigilance committees (volunteers who enforced law in the West). Slowly, placer mining gave way to quartz mining. As the miners made their way up streams to discover the source of the gold they'd always found washed downstream, they found that it was locked away with other minerals in deposits of ore. Ore is rock with precious metal or other minerals trapped inside. A source of ore was called a lode. You've probably heard the phrase "mother lode." A mother lode is a vein containing large amounts of mineral-rich ore; the "mother" of all the small placer deposits downstream. Quartz mining was much more involved and expensive than placer mining.Someone equipped with just a pick, a shovel, a pan, and maybe a bucket could begin placer mining alone. Quartz mining required heavy machinery and, usually, many men. Deep shafts were cut out of hillsides. Those shafts were extremely dangerous and sometimes caved in on the men deep inside.

Boomtown to Ghost town

Ranching & Cattle Drives * Early 1800s - People thought that eastern cattle could not survive the Great Plains (water scarce, prairie grasses tough). * Texas longhorns were well-adapted to Plains. * Open range - vast area of gov’t-owned grassland.

* After Civil War - beef was rare & expensive; RRs could carry rounded-up longhorns to markets in the East. * Long drive - cattle was “driven” (herded) long distances to railheads (RR stations) & shipped East.

Stray Cattle Unbranded animals were called mavericks after cattle rancher Samuel A. Maverick, who avoided the practice of branding his cattle. Today, the term maverick is often used to identify an independent individual.

* Barbed wire - enabled huge areas to be fenced in cheaply. * Chisholm Trail - Famous long drive route from Texas to Abilene, Kansas. * Range Wars broke out when sheep herds moved onto open range & also when farmers moved in. * Barbed wire - enabled huge areas to be fenced in cheaply. (Can you think of another advantage to using barbed wire on the Great Plains?) Answer: Barbed wire fences used far less wood than the old standard wooden fence. Wood was scarce on the Plains.

Why did long drives end? * Fencing-in of the open range. * Brits & European investors poured $$$ into cattle business oversupply prices fell ranchers went bankrupt! * Blizzards in 1886-87; killed huge numbers of herds. Result……. Fenced-in ranches made long drives difficult.

Section 2 - Farming the Plains Main Idea: After 1865, settlers staked out homesteads and began farming the Great Plains - from the central Dakotas through Abilene, Texas. Stephen Long - explored the region in 1819 and called it the Great American Desert.

Why did settlement of the Great Plains begin? * RRs - ensured easy access -- Advertised sale of cheap land along RR lines. * Gov’t passed the Homestead Act (1862) - 160 acres free to settlers who would live on the land for five years and make improvements.

Homesteaders on the Great Plains

Challenges for Great Plains settlers: * Lack of trees and water. -- Had to build sod houses (“soddies”). -- Had to drill deep wells. * Heat & drought in summer. * Blizzards in winter. * Prairie fires!!! * Swarms of grasshoppers destroyed crops.

A Great Plains “Soddie”

Interior of a sod home

Wheat Belt - eastern edge of Great Plains. * New farming techniques. -- Dry farming - planted seeds deep for moisture. -- Steel plows (John Deere), seed drills, reapers, & threshers. -- Mechanical reapers - faster harvest. * Bonanza farms - huge wheat farms up to 50,000 acres; often owned by big corporations.

New farming techniques made farming possible in the Great Plains.

The New Steel Plow by John Deere

* Better farming techniques * Oversupply of crop Problem: * Better farming techniques * Oversupply of crop * A drop in crop prices * Farmers had to mortgage the land * Often led to farm foreclosures by the banks because farmers could not pay off their mortgages.

Section 3 - Native Americans Main Idea: Settlement of the West dramatically changed the way of life of the Plains Indians. Most were nomads - wandered the Plains following the buffalo.

Hunting grounds were disrupted by white settlers. Indians often attacked the settlers. * Dakota Sioux Uprising -- Gov’t delayed payment of promised annuities (pmts to Indians on reservations). -- Chief Little Crow asked traders for food on credit; was turned down. -- Sioux attacked, killing hundreds of white settlers. Little Crow

Sand Creek Massacre (Colorado) Colorado Territory sought to open up the Cheyenne and Arapaho hunting grounds to white development. The tribes, however, refused to sell their lands and settle on reservations. Evens decided to call out volunteer militiamen under Colonel John Chivington to quell the mounting violence. In the early morning hours of November 29, 1864, Colonel John M. Chivington of the Third Colorado Cavalry and his soldiers killed an estimated 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho people, most of whom were still sleeping. The federal government condemned the incident, called the Sand Creek Massacre, and attempted to make amends to those who survived by giving them money. Sand Creek Massacre (Colorado)

Indian Peace Commission (1867) proposed: * Two large reservations on the Great Plains. * Bureau of Indian Affairs would run them. * Forced Indians to sign treaty. * Bad living conditions for the Indians on reservations; they received what was seen as the least desirable land.

Last Native American Wars: * Buffalo were rapidly disappearing through rampant killing by buffalo hunters.

* Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) Lakota & Cheyenne vs. General George Armstrong Custer & 210 soldiers. Custer & all his men were killed. General George Armstrong Custer AKA Custer's Last Stand, American military engagement fought on June 25, 1876, in what is now Montana, between a regiment of the Seventh United States Cavalry led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and a force of Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors. The discovery of gold in the nearby Black Hills in 1874 had led to an influx of prospectors into Native American territory, and the U.S. government ordered all Sioux onto reservations to clear the way for white settlement. Led by Chiefs Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Gall, large numbers of Sioux and Cheyenne continued to practice their traditional nomadic way of life and clashes with the white settlers increased. In 1876 the army planned a campaign against the Native American tribes resisting removal, then centered in southeastern Montana Territory. Custer's regiment of 655 men formed the advance guard of a force under General Alfred Howe Terry. On June 25 Custer's scouts located the Sioux on the Little Bighorn River. Unaware of the Native American strength, between 2,500 and 4,000 men, Custer disregarded arrangements to join Terry at the junction of the Bighorn and Little Bighorn rivers and prepared to attack at once. In the hope of surrounding the Native Americans, he formed his troops into a frontal-assault force of about 260 men under his personal command and two flanking columns. The center column encountered the numerically superior Sioux and Cheyenne. Cut off from the flanking columns and completely surrounded, Custer and his men fought desperately but all were killed. Later Terry's troops relieved the remainder of the regiment. The battlefield, now known as the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, was established as a national cemetery in 1879 and as a national monument in 1946, after becoming part of the National Park Service. It was known, until 1991, as the Custer Battlefield National Monument.

* The Nez Perce led by Chief Joseph - refused to move to a smaller reservation. Fled 1300 miles; finally surrendered and were later moved to Oklahoma. Chief Joseph

I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed…. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say no and yes. He who led the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. Some of my people have run away to the hills And have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are - Perhaps they are freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children… Maybe I shall find them among the dead.

I will fight no more…forever. Hear me my chiefs, I am tired My heart is sad and sick From where the sun now stands I will fight no more…forever. Chief Joseph Nez Perce Indians 1877

* Wounded Knee - 1890 -- Lakota ignored orders and continued to perform the Ghost Dance (ritual celebrating the day when whites would be gone, buffalo would return, etc…) -- Battle - 25 US soldiers and 200 Lakota men, women, and children killed. -- Last major Indian battle.

Aftermath of the Battle of --- the last major battle Wounded Knee --- the last major battle of the Indian Wars Site of the last official battle in the Indians wars, Wounded Knee Creek was a convenient place for the Seventh Cavalry to disarm Big Foot's band during the Lakota Ghost Dance "uprising" in 1890. But then a shot rang out, and some 300 Lakota were gunned down. Eighteen members of the Seventh Cavalry, avenged for its loss at the Little Bighorn, received the Medal of Honor.

A Century of Dishonor - by Helen Hunt Jackson * Wrote about broken U.S. treaties and promises to Indians. * The “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” of the Native American problem. Assimilation - attempt to make Indians conform to white society Dawes Act 1887: * Land given to Indians for farming. * Failed - Indians not adapted to that lifestyle.

Carlisle Indian School Carlisle, Pennsylvania Assimilation? Carlisle Indian School Carlisle, Pennsylvania 1915

Reviewing Key Terms H B D I E Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on the left. __ 1. money paid by contract on regular intervals __ 2. method of extracting minerals involving digging beneath the surface __ 3. a stray calf with no identifying symbol __ 4. to absorb a group into the culture of a larger population __ 5. a way of farming dry land in which seeds are planted deep in the ground where there is some moisture H A. placer mining B. quartz mining C. open range D. maverick E. dry farming F. sodbuster G. bonanza farm H. annuity I. assimilate J. allotment B D I E

Reviewing Key Terms (cont.) Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on the left. __ 6. a name given to Great Plains farmers __ 7. method of extracting mineral ore by hand using simple tools, like picks, shovels, and pans __ 8. a large, highly-profitable wheat farm __ 9. a plot of land assigned to an individual family for cultivation __ 10. vast areas of grassland owned by the federal government F A. placer mining B. quartz mining C. open range D. maverick E. dry farming F. sodbuster G. bonanza farm H. annuity I. assimilate J. allotment A G J C