1. The Contested West 1865-1900 Chapter 17

2. Native Americans When European settlers arrived on the shores of Virginia in 1607, Native Americans had long lived here. Had it not been for the Native Americans in surrounding settlements whose support in way of food and showing them how to fish and plant by many more Europeans would have died.

3. Westward Expansion In 1803 the Louisiana Purchase Territory doubled the size of the United States from France. In 1846 the United States acquired the Oregon Territory in an agreement with Great Britain. In 1848 at the end of the Mexican American War, Mexico loses much of its northern territory and Texas to the United States. By the conclusion of the Civil War the United States stretched from coast to coast although not all territories were established states.

5. American Progress Painting by John Gast Painted 1872 United States had already extended coast to coast This piece was finished after the Civil War Take a moment and record some of the details you see in the painting. Is the artist’s intent clear?

6. Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act 1830 The U.S. Government used treaties as one means to displace Indians from their tribal lands, a mechanism that was strengthened with the Removal Act of 1830. In cases where this failed, the government sometimes violated both treaties and Supreme Court rulings to facilitate the spread of European Americans westward across the continent.

7. Early Indian Policy Indian Removal and relocation of eastern tribes west of the Mississippi with the promise they could remain in the new reservation. Manifest Destiny dictated the country’s desire to expand west at any and all costs. At times this urgency had devastating consequences. The expansion of railroads opened the frontier to more white settlers.

8. Map Trail of Tears

10. Trail of Tears 1838 Oil Painting created in 1995 Artist Max D. Standley conducted research for the painting

11. Expansion of the United States Protections by the government did not include the Native Americans. They were not included in the “all men are created equal” within the Declaration of Independence. More wars were fought and treaties broken with Native Americans.

12. US government’s Indian Policies The Native American tragedy is the direct result of treaties, written and broken by foreign governments, of warfare, and of forced assimilation. Reservations- Many different Native Americans were forced onto reservations as a means to take their land for white settlers.

13. Life on Reservations There was a lot of poverty and starvation. Native Americans were confined to the reservation. Meager government hand out were not enough. Their culture was assaulted, their religious practices outlawed and their way of life minimized in the name of progress and civilization.

14. Kill the Indian, Save the man

15. Deny the Native American their Cultural Heritage Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania had a policy to to civilize the Indian. They started the “outing system which was to send students to live with white families during summer vacations.

16. Native American Resistance Native American refused to send their children to these schools by hiding them in the mountains. Native Americans with their culture, traditions, and customs were viewed as uncivilized and the government sought to force assimilation Due to diseases the Lakota Western Sioux abandoned areas contagious agrarian areas to a nomadic life that also displaced other tribes.

17. Nez Perce of the Wallowa Valley in Eastern Oregon I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed.... The old men are all killed.... It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are, perhaps freezing to death. I want time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." – Chief Joseph 1877

18. Where did all the buffalo go? The Sioux along with other nomadic tribes of the plains followed the buffalo and was a way of life. The buffalo were more than just a source of food. The buffalo provided fuel, a source of shelter and equally important part of their religious rituals. Western settlers viewed the buffalo as a annoyance as the were in the way of progress. The decimation of the buffalo forced the Native Americans onto reservation with no adequate food supply. The Transcontinental Railroad progress at any cost.

19. Sand Creek Massacre 1864 A group of Cheyenne Native Americans were killed in Colorado Territory by a militia. Native Americans were considered "an obstacle to civilization[and] should be exterminated.” Among those who were brutally murdered were women and children even after the leader tried to surrender. Painting by artist Robert Lindneux in 1936

21. The Impact Repercussions from the Sand Creek Massacre extended throughout the United States, affecting Indian policy, creating public condemnation, and impacting Cheyenne and Arapaho society to the present day. Every year, Cheyenne and Arapaho people return to the site to honor the victims and survivors, offer prayers for healing, and run to Denver to honor their ancestors.

22. Effects of Expansion Mining- Comstock Lode in Nevada had the richest vein of silver on the continent. Transcontinental Railroad completed in 1869 Need for farm Land: Homestead Act 1862

23. Discrimination of other Diverse People in the West African Americans-faced hostile settlers determined to keep the West “for whites only.” Chinese-Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, effectively barring further Chinese immigration. Mexicans-They were often victims of land disputes which dragged on in court for years forcing them to sell their land to pay for their mounting legal fees. “Swindles, trickery and intimidation dispossessed many Californios”.