Describe what you see in the painting

The West & Native Americans Fulfilling Manifest Destiny

Moving West Push Factors Civil war displaced persons Available farm land Religious repression Open spaces sheltered outlaws Pull Factors Private property Morrill Land Grant Land to railroads Homestead Act acres land free if you were 21 or head of family; built house, lived on it for 6 months and farmed for 5 years in a row

Moving West Settlers believed they had a right to western land: they produced more food & wealth than Native Americans Many agreements between the Native Americans and the government fell apart because Native Americans and the settlers had different ideas of land ownership Immigrants went west for cheap land Exodusters –ex-slaves who moved west: To escape racial violence in the South To make a new beginning and farming was the skill most already knew

The Native Americans During 1800s, the federal government carried out policy of moving Indians out of the way of white settlers, encouraging attempts to take Native American Lands At first Indians were moved west into Indian Territory of the Plains Frontier settlers kept pushing west pressuring government to open Indian Territory Indians were forced onto reservations, no longer free to roam the Plains

The first move was the Trail of Tears in 1832

Two other crises also threatened Native American civilizations Disease Loss of the buffalo Settlers introduced diseases to which the Natives had no immunity Settlers slaughtered all the buffalo As more and more settlers moved west, the Native American tribes were weakened or destroyed

Assimilation Some critics attacked the government policies and defended the Indians way of life Most leaders and white reformers hoped that Native Americans would assimilate into American life, be “civilized” and adopt white culture The Indian Rights Movement would grow out the outrage of how government treated the Native Americans 1887 Dawes General Allotment Act One way the government sought to changed the Native American was by requiring them to farm individual plots of land

Activity:

Indian Wars Many Native Americans fought to defend their land 1864 Sandcreek Massacre Red River War 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn Ghost Dance War 1890 Pine Ridge Campaign 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre