1. *
07/16/96
The Movement West
11/20/2018 *

2. A Man of Two Worlds
Imagine being taken from your family when you are a child and are forced to live with another
Her son became a famous Comanche warrior and chief
He was very smart and knew how to deal with the “White Man”
The White people of Texas and Oklahoma respected him as well as many others
He always spoke up for his people and worked with the “White Man”
Charged ranchers money to let them use Comanche land for their Cattle to graze
Quannah Parker 1
11/20/2018

3. The Plains before westward movement
What do you think it was like?
Endless miles of grass, rattlesnakes, buffalo, and nomadic Indians
Then….
Miners swept through the plains looking for valuable minerals
Railroads were built to connect the mining towns in the west to cities in the east
What kind of problems do you think the westward movement could cause?
Plains Indians already lived there
Different ways of life clashed with settlers hunger for land
Before long conflicts between the two groups broke out 2

4. Buffalo on the Plains
Before the settlers came, the Great Plains, supported some 30 different Indian tribes
The regions was also home to millions of bison
The buffalo were the lifeblood of the Indians
Food
Shelter
tools
Ornaments
Even toys
Settlers did not treat nor use the buffalo in the same way
Killed them for sport
Killed them just for their hide
Almost caused them to be extinct 3

5. Treaty of Fort Laramie
If someone came into your house and started to live there without asking you, what would you do?
Well, the Indians were fed up with these settlers killing their buffalo and living on their land.
They began to wage war.
In order to protect the settlers and travelers the government decided to strike a deal with the Indians.
1851 Government met with between 8,000 and 12,000 Indians from 8 tribes 4

6. Treaty of Ft. Laramie Continued
There they convinced the Indians to sign the Treaty of Fort Laramie
Gave the government the right to build more roads and forts on the plains
Defined boundaries telling the Indians where they could hunt
Government agreed to make yearly payments to the Indians and promised the tribes that they could live and hunt on this land forever
Does this treaty seem fair to you?
As you will see, this treaty was the first of many the government would make with the Indians that they would fail to honor.

7. 5 Western Mines 1860’s Miners continued to go west in search of riches
No spot was too hot, too cold, too dry, or too wet everyone wanted to strike it RICH!
Miners swarmed through the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, and the Black Hills. They braved the the scorching sands of Arizona and New Mexico as well as the frosty waters of Alaska.
One of the biggest finds of gold was found in Nevada: COMSTOCK LODE
Worth $3,200 to $4,800 a ton (GOLD AND SILVER)
Named after a prospector who bragged he had discovered it
Produced over $300 million in gold and silver
Comstock sold the claims for $11,000 dollars and two mules 5

8. Western Mines Continued
Individual prospectors rarely ever made it rich
Why do you think and who do you think got the gold?
Expensive to mine
Investors in large companies

9. Boomtowns
Despite the odds of striking it rich prospectors ran to each site.
Within days mining camps rose in what used to be empty areas
The camps were tents and shacks built in a matter of days
BOOM AND BUST TOWNS
When the gold was gone so were the towns
Boomtowns such as DENVER and RENO survived and grew
Boomtowns weren’t a place for a lady!
Attracted gamblers, thieves and outlaws
Crime and fighting were common
No JAILS! Well then you were banished, whipped, or killed (HUNG)

10. The Hanging Tree

11. Transportation
As more and more Americans settled in the West they needed a faster and more reliable form of transportation to carry people and supplies
What do you think they used?
Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Bill
It called for a transcontinental railroad linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts
Trains would be able to cross the country in just one week instead of the month that it took stagecoaches
The Transcontinental (across the continent) was to be built by the Union and Central Pacific 7

12. Transportation Continued
Government donated the land and gave the companies sections of free land for every mile of track they laid
Union Pacific began building from the East---Omaha, Nebraska
Central Pacific began building from the West--Sacramento, California
They raced to see which could lay the most track and earn the most free land

13. Building the Railroad
What do you think it was like to build the railroad?
Very dangerous, backbreaking, and low-paying work
Had to cut through the mountains and fight Indians
Built through the snow
Laid from 2-5 miles of track each day and it took them 6 years to finish
Who do you think built the railroad?
Immigrants
Union Pacific employed over 10,000 immigrants from Ireland
Central Pacific employed over 10,000 immigrants from China

14. Promontory Point On May 10, 1869 the job was finally finished
The Union Pacific Engine 119 met the Central Pacific’s Jupiter at Promontory Point,
Union Pacific laid 1,086 miles
Central Pacific laid 689 miles
Leland Stanford marked the occasion by driving a gold spike that linked the two sets of tracks
The Railroad offered:
easy way to travel
cheap way to travel
way to travel to a new life
move from congested cities to spacious free land

15. The End of the Buffalo
The Plains Indians depended on the buffalo to live, yet miners and settlers slaughtered millions of the animals
Railroad companies hired hunters to shoot buffalo to feed their workers
William E. Cody earned his nickname “Buffalo Bill” by killing 4,000 buffalo in 8 months
Sometimes passengers on the trains would shoot buffalo from the windows just for amusement
By 1895 the buffalo faced extermination-total destruction
Population went from 50 million to about a thousand

16. The End of the Buffalo Continued
The extermination was disastrous for the Plains Indians they might have well just killed them as well
The Indians could not stop the settlers from coming and building homes, or the railroad from being built, and the government ignored the terms of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (do you remember them)
The conflict led to decades of warfare on the plains

17. Answer the following on a piece of paper*
Answer the following on a piece of paper
07/16/96
Define extermination.
What is a boomtown?
What problems did Plains Indians face in the 1870’s?
What was the biggest find of gold and silver named?
Why did so few miners strike it rich?
What were the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty?
Who became rich from mining?
Who was said to be a man of two worlds?
How did the transcontinental railroad change the way people thought about moving west?
Where did the two railroad companies meet and what did they commemorate the occasion with? *