Westward Expansion

Great Plains  Vast grasslands between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains  Before 1850 it was home to 10 million Native Americans and 60 million buffalo 1

Great Plains

During and after the Civil War, the federal government wanted to encourage westward settlement. How could people be persuaded to move to “the Great American Desert” ?

Factors Negative conditions that pushed people to move away from their homeland to a different region 2

Examples of Push Factors What would make someone want to leave the East or the South?  Loss of land and homes in the South during Civil War  Shortage of land in the East (too expensive)  Business failure in the East or South  Religious persecution (Mormons)  Trouble with the law

Pull Factors Positive conditions that pulled or attracted people to move elsewhere by their own choice 3

Examples of Pull Factors What would attract someone to the West?  Free land from the government – Homestead Act  Job opportunities – mining, cattle ranching, farming  Adventure- cowboys, mountain men

Pacific Railway Acts (1862/64)  U.S. government gave RR companies land in exchange for building the western railroads.  Law signed by Lincoln during the Civil War  175 million acres were given to the RR’s.  RR’s sold this land to settlers to pay for the construction of the rails.  RR’s made over $500 million in profit. 4

Land Grants to Railroads Railroad and government lands formed a checker-board pattern as the land was given in alternating one-square-mile sections.

Land Speculators Much of the land was bought by speculators who bought it from the railroads and then sold it to individual settlers at huge profits. =

Morrill Land-Grant Act (1862)  Also signed by Lincoln during the Civil War  The federal government gave state governments millions of acres of western lands to be use for colleges  The colleges were to specialize in agriculture and mechanical arts.  Agriculture and Mechanical College of Texas (now called Texas A & M) 5

Homestead Act (1862) The federal government granted 160 acre sections of western land for a $10 fee. In order to receive a permanent deed the applicants had to farm the land for at least 5 years be 21 years old or the head of a household be an America citizen (or applying) build a house on the land (12’ x 14’) live on the land 6 months every year 6

So how did westward migration impact Native Americans of the Great Plains

Indian Removal Policy Indian Removal Act (Andrew Jackson) moved 5 eastern tribes across Mississippi into “Indian Territory” (Okla.) 1860’s - “Removal” would also become the official government policy for the Great Plains tribes

Reservations  Federal land set aside (reserved) for Native Americans  The goal was to “civilize” Native Americans by forcing them to farm the land rather than hunt.  Meanwhile white settlers took Native American ancestral land for farming or mining.  They were forced to remain on these lands by treaties they usually could not read and did not understand. 7

Indian Reservations in 1885

B. I. A.  Bureau of Indian Affairs  Part of the U. S. Department of the Interior  Managed delivery of food and supplies to the reservations  Usually corrupt workers- stole supplies and sold them for their own profit while Indians starved 8

So if YOU were a Native American, forced off your land, and moved onto a reservation, where your children were dying from disease, cold, and starvation... How might you respond

VIOLENCE

So begin the great “Indian Wars” of the 19 th Century

The Great Plains Indian Wars 1862 – The Dakota War (Minnesota) 1864 – Sand Creek Massacre (Colorado) 1876 – Battle of Little Big Horn (Montana) 1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre (S. Dakota)

The Cheyenne Tribe and the Sand Creek Massacre 1864

Sand Creek Massacre

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864  In 1851, the Cheyenne and 6 other tribes had been allotted land in Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas.  1858 – Gold was discovered in Colorado.  The government wrote a new treaty, reducing the size of the reservation (1/13 th as large).

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864  Many Cheyenne refused to abide by the new treaty and continued to hunt in the old territory.  The military called these Indians “hostile” and began attacking Cheyenne camps in  Chief Black Kettle wanted peace and met with the territorial governor John Evans.

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864  The governor told Black Kettle to lead his people to Sand Creek south of Denver where they could hunt and be safe from the military.  Black Kettle flew an American flag over his teepee.

Black Kettle Cheyenne Chief Wanted peace

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864  Then the governor told Col. John Chivington where he could find Black Kettle’s band.  He led 700 soldiers to attack the camp early in the morning while they slept.  About 150 (mostly women and children) were slaughtered and mutilated.  Their scalps and body parts (including unborn fetuses) were displayed in Denver theaters and saloons as trophies of war.

Colonel John Chivington Methodist Minister Abolitionist Indian Killer “Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians!... I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians.”

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864 The aftermath:  Most of the chiefs who had advocated peace with the whites died in the massacre.  Younger war-like chiefs took control and led 1000 “Dog Soldiers” on a campaign of revenge in  The clan structure of the Cheyenne was destroyed and they eventually moved to reservations in the Black Hills of Dakota.

Sand Creek Massacre – Nov 1864 The aftermath:  The event was investigated by the military and a Congressional committee.  No charges were ever brought against Chivington and his men.

Sand Creek Massacre Memorial

Sand Creek Phantoms

Video: The Cheyenne and the Sand Creek Massacre 12:00

Did the Native Americans ever win any battles in the “Indian Wars”

The Lakota Tribe and the Massacre at Wounded Knee 1890

The Ghost Dance  Purification ritual performed by many plains tribes  Believed the ritual would restore their traditional way of life

The Ghost Dance  Dancers joined hands and danced in a circle.  Sometimes they danced for days until they fell “dead” and saw visions of their dead ancestors. continued

The Ghost Dance Dancers wore a “Ghost Shirt” - a sacred costume made of white cotton painted with symbols. Lakota believed the shirt protected them from the white man’s bullets.

A Ghost Shirt

The Ghost Dance as described by a Lakota Sioux witness “ They danced without rest, on and on... Occasionally someone thoroughly exhausted and dizzy fell unconscious into the center and lay there “dead”... After a while, many lay about in that condition. They were now “dead” and seeing their dear ones... The visions... ended the same way, like a chorus describing a great encampment of all the Dakotas who had ever died,

The Ghost Dance as described by a Lakota Sioux witness where... there was no sorrow but only joy, where relatives thronged out with happy laughter... The people went on and on and could not stop, day or night, hoping... to get a vision of their own dead... And so I suppose the authorities did think they were crazy – but they were not. They were only terribly unhappy.”

The Ghost Dance

Wounded Knee Massacre 1890 Sitting Bull now back on the South Dakota Reservation encouraged the Lakota Sioux to practice the Ghost Dance ritual. The ritual frightened whites who thought the Indians were preparing for war.

Wounded Knee Massacre  The 7 th Cavalry was sent to arrest Sitting Bull. They shot and killed him.  His followers men and 230 women and children - were rounded up at a creek called Wounded Knee.  As the Indians were being disarmed, a gun went off. Soldiers began firing and killed over 200 Lakota.

Encampment at Wounded Knee

The Dead of Wounded Knee

Chief Big Foot dead at Wounded Knee

Medicine Man Dead at Wounded Knee

Collecting the Frozen Dead at Wounded Knee

Mass Burial at Wounded Knee

Gate to Wounded Knee Memorial

Video: The Ghost Dance and the Massacre at Wounded Knee 9:30

The story of Wounded Knee has been told in a 1970 book by historian, Dee Brown and a 2007 HBO movie. Both are called Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

What was the ultimate goal of the U.S. government concerning any Native Americans that survived the Indian Wars

Assimilation The process of making one society part of another. Usually the dominant society forces its culture and values on the subordinate culture. 10

The Dawes Act  Divided reservation land into individual plots.  Each Indian family was given 160 acres to farm.  Any left over reservation land was given to whites.  The goal was to make Indians self-supporting and make them believe in private property like Americans do.  The idea was offensive to most Indians and many sold their land to whites or were cheated out of it. 11