 What is the West?  What is the Frontier?  An idea of manifest destiny. It was there to conquer.  Possibilities of a new beginning, fresh start

 Great American Desert Great Plains  Rocky Mountains  Arid Southwest Under 10 inches of rainfall  Animals Millions of buffalo  American Indian Most successful

 Fur Traders In advance of civilization Prepared way for others  Mining Often first on the scene

 Henry Comstock staked claim near Virginia City. Could not find any gold and sold his claim, not realizing that the soil was almost pure silver.  Boomtowns quickly growing towns that arise nearly overnight.  Vigilance committees – self appointed Vigilante justice

 Mining led to statehood.  The development of California, Colorado, Arizona, the Dakotas, and Montana.  The rail roads helped bring people.

 Placer mining: picks, shovels, and pans.  Sluices  Hydraulic mining Come in after placer miners left Professional

 Long Horn Adapted to Texas  Ranching begins Open range  Long Drive To MO, KS, NE, WY Most cattle ended up in Chicago

 Land was Free Homestead Act only applied to surveyed land  Hope for sudden wealth  Cowboy traditions and rules Round up, branding, line-riding  Became big business Investors from overseas and eastern US

 Overstocking By stock companies from East and Overseas  Barbed Wire Closed the trails Range wars Ended open-range  Bad years Dry summers and the worst blizzards Thousands of cattle died

 Major Stephen Long Explored plains “almost wholly unfit for cultivation.”  Homestead Act $10 fee – 160 acre plots (homestead)  With the assurance of land many will flock to the plains.

 Dry-Farming Plant deep Plows, sod drills  Sod Busters Plow, wind erosion, drought Lost homestead

 Big business Bonanza Farms 50,000 acres Biggest wheat exporter  Farm hit hard times Drought Mortgage land Tenement farms

 1889 last territory for settlement  Frederick Jackson Turner “Safety Valve” a place for people to get a fresh start – the social discontent.

 Plains Indians Nomadic people – follow buffalo Physically finest in west Skilled Horsemen (20 arrows to one rifle shot) Fighting for way of life

 One big reservation  Indians keep their traditional land  Guarantee safe passage for settlers to pass through on Oregon Trail  Get annuity payments for keeping safe passage

 1862 Minnesota – the Dakota Sioux agreed to live on reservations in exchange for annuities (annual payments from government) The payments rarely got to the Sioux Poverty and starvation was a real possibility  After the rebellion was suppressed 308 sentenced to death Reduced to 38 by Lincoln

 Colorado Gold Rush Settlers and miners rush to Colorado  Government did not enforce Treaty to keep miners out  Government told American Indian tribes to relocate from promised land Cheyenne and Arapaho

 Cheyenne-Arapaho Led by Chief Black Kettle Raided settlers  Told to Surrender at Ft. Lyon Black Kettle wanted to negotiate peace  Retreated to Sand Creek Col. Chivington attacked and killed ½ the tribe

 Indian Peace Commission Create 2 Large Reservations Keep Indians separated from Settlers  Doomed from the beginning faced poverty, starvation, and corruption on reservations Settlers and Indians both violated treaties

 Black Hills opened for mining Last straw for Sioux  Chief Sitting Bull Amassed warriors at Little Bighorn River  Col. George Custer Attacked without orders 265 men stumbled into 3000 Sioux warriors  Custer was seen as a hero

 Chief Joseph Refused to move to a smaller reservation  Led 700 people 1,600 miles 100 warriors defeated 10 units 4 months on the run Caught 40 miles from Canada  Ordered to move to reservation

 Ghost Dance A ritual to bring back buffalo and make whites disappear Was banned by Government for fear of violence  Federal Troops killed c.200 Lakota

 160 acre plots Head of household In trust for 25 years Become citizens in 25 years Rest of reservation land to be sold to settlers and put in a trust for American Indians  Goal Assimilate Indian Schools to “civilize”

 Failure Did not change anything Most did not have the Knowledge Many had no desire  in the end buffalo did more to change American Indians than policy.