1. Moving West

2. Why Move West? Push Factors: Pull Factors:
Civil war displaces farmers and former slaves
Eastern Farmland getting more expensive
Ethnic, racial and religious discrimination
Pull Factors:
Government literally giving away land (Homestead Act)
Easy to get there with the expansion of the railroad
States are selling land very cheaply
Morrill Land Grant Act

3. Conflict with Native Americans
Shifting Frontier-as the people moved west so did the frontier (edge of civilization)
the frontier is on the Great Plains
Plains Indians already affected by whites

5. Indian Wars Settlers were settling on Indian Lands
Native Americans fought back
Treaties (agreements)tried to make peace
Some of these treaties forced Native Americans on to reservations
Many treaties are ignored or violated by the U.S. Government

6. Sand Creek Massacre(don’t need to copy)
Cheyenne are raiding wagon trains of settlers
Cheyenne chief Black Kettle is negotiating peace
Government tells Black Kettle to camp along Sand Creek and wait for negotiators
Is attacked instead by the U.S. Army
Cheyenne are murdered
Cheyenne agree to move to the reservation the next year

7. Little Big Horn (Don’ need to copy)
1865- U.S. Gov. starts building a road through Sioux lands
Chief Red Cloud fights the road for 2 years
Kills 80 soldiers at Fort Phil Kearny
U.S. Abandons road if Sioux move to reservation in South Dakota
Most Sioux move to reservation
U.S. Hears there is gold on the reservation and offers to buy it
Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy horse are angered and leave the reservation
Fighting starts again

8. Little Big Horn
1876 General Armstrong Custer is sent to round up all the Sioux off the Reservation
Custer takes 200 men to Little Big Horn and is met with 2000 Sioux Warriors
“Custer’s Last Stand” Custer and all his men die
U.S. Army floods the area with troops and force the remaining Sioux onto the reservation

9. Wounded Knee
Once on the reservation many Sioux turn to religion to help them cope
Perform “Ghost Dance”
Freaks out the whites who ask for military assistance
Military asks for Sitting Bull to surrender
Sitting Bull refuses and is shot
His followers revolt and Sioux are murdered. Many are women and children

10. 1820 Trail of Tears (Don’t Need to Copy)
U.S. South. –Whites want Indian lands
1830-Indian Relocation Act passed, forces Native Americans onto the reservation in the Great Plains
Worcester v. Georgia-Supreme Court rules that Georgia doesn’t have that authority
Andrew Jackson (pres) ignores the court and declares “Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it!”
Forces the Cherokee out of the south onto the GP reservation
15,000 Cherokee leave, 4000 die on the way

11. Assimilation
Assimilation-the adoption of the dominant culture at the expense of your own
Most Americans believed that the Native Americans should assimilate (act white)
Native Americans are forced to live on private land like Americans
Forced assimilation through schooling (Carlisle School)

12. Oklahoma Until 1889 Oklahoma was Native American territory
Congress buys out the Native Americans and opens the land up to settlers
April 22, 1889 The race begins
Boomers-Settlers who stake a land claim after the race begins
Sooners-Cheaters who stake a land claim before the race began.

13. Gold Rush Many move west to hunt for gold
1848 Gold is discovered in California
1849 people move en masse to find it “49ers”
Afterward people move west for jobs in the mines

14. Ranching Great Plains are a great place for cattle herding
Longhorn Cattle particularly hearty
Beef becomes America’s meat of choice displacing pork
Refrigerated Railway Car allows meat to be transported back to eastern cities
Cattle replace the buffalo over 24 million buffalo are slaughtered

15. Cowboys
Many poor young men move west to become ranch hands and help maintain the cattle
Drive cattle thousands of miles to train depot’s to be shipped east
Often romanticized. In reality the cowboy’s life was pretty boring
This cowboy ideal though has become a symbol of Americana