1. STUDENT NOTES FOR CH. 17
HIS122

2. CHAPTER 17: The Contested West, 1865-1900
The American Promise
A History of the United States
CHAPTER 17: The Contested West,

3. Indian Removal and the Reservation System
1. Early Indian Policy- Indian removal and promises made
2. Manifest Destiny and Reservations- definition: ideas and promises begin changing: reservations

4. Indian Removal and the Reservation System
The Treaty of Fort Laramie- 1851; Differences in what the Indians and the US government wanted
The U.S. government promised that the rest of Indian lands would remain inviolate; did they follow through with that promise?!. . .

5. Conquest and Empire in the West
Life on the Reservation
Poverty and starvation stalked the reservations-Why??
Lived on stingy government rations
Found themselves dependent on government handouts and greedy Indian agents
Culture assaulted
Religious practices outlawed
Way of life attacked in the name of progress and civilization

6. Indian Wars and the Collapse of Comanchería
1862- Uprising; Trial; Executions
2. Grant’s “Peace Policy”
3. The End the Comanche

7. The Fight for the Black Hills
The Discovery of Gold and Battling for the Black Hills—how did the government react when gold was discovered?
The Battle of Little Big Horn—
Sioux tribes: Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull
Resistance against Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876
Results?
What happened in the following five years?

8. “To destroy the Indian in him and save the man”
1. Indian Education/schools—in 1877, Congress appropriated funds for Indian education-WHY?
2. Indian Resistance
3. Assimilation

9. Indian Resistance and Survival
The Ghost Dance
Wounded Knee

10. Gold Fever and the Mining West
1. The Immigrant Population in the Cosmopolitan West—The promise of gold and silver drew thousands of men to the mines of the West, the honest as well as the unprincipled; also drew an array of immigrants, making Virginia City more cosmopolitan than either New York or Boston; Irish immigrants formed the largest ethnic group in the mining district; Irish and Irish American women constituted the largest group of women on the Comstock; conversely, the Chinese community was overwhelmingly male; subject to anti-Chinese discrimination.
2. Another Clash between Euro-Americans and Native Americans—Discovery of precious metals spelled disaster for the Indians; miners demanded army troops “hunt Indians” and establish forts; natives became exiles in their own land; developed resourceful strategies to adapt and preserve their culture and identity.
3. New Technology, New Dangers—New technology eliminated some of the dangers of mining but not all; in the 1870s, one out of thirty miners was injured on the job and one out of eighty killed; although the mining towns of the Wild West were often depicted as lawless outposts, these places were often urbanized and industrialized; by 1875, Virginia City boasted a population of 25,000 people, making it one of the largest cities between St. Louis and San Francisco.

11. Gold Fever and the Mining West
1. African Americans
2. Hispanic Peoples
3. The Chinese

12. Land Fever 1. Challenges—?? 2. Women on the Frontier—Easy Life?
3. Success and Failure

13. Ranchers and Cowboys
The Cattle Kingdom—Between 1865 and 1885, cattle ranchers followed the railroads onto the plains, establishing a cattle kingdom from Texas to Wyoming; barbed wire revolutionized the cattle business: As the largest ranchers in Texas began to build fences, nasty fights broke out with “fence cutters,” who resented the end of the free range; on the range, the cowboys (many of whom were African-American) gave way to the cattle king and, like the miner, the cowboy became a wage laborer.
2. The End of the Open Range—By 1886, cattle overcrowded the range, but severe blizzards during the winters of 1886–87 and 1887–88 decimated the herds; in the aftermath of the storms, new and more labor-intensive forms of cattle ranching replaced the open-range model.

15. Commercial Farming and Industrial Cowboys
Farming Revolution—In the late nineteenth century, America’s population remained overwhelmingly rural; new technology and farming techniques revolutionized American farm life; mechanized farm machinery halved the time and labor cost of production and made it possible to cultivate vast tracts of land; meanwhile, urbanization opened markets; railroads carried crops; American agriculture entered the era of agribusiness.
Volatile Markets—Like cotton farmers in the South, western grain and livestock farmers increasingly depended on foreign markets for their livelihood; a fall in global market prices meant that a farmer’s entire harvest went to pay off debts.
The Transformation of the American Farmer—By the end of the nineteenth century, agriculture had been transformed; typical farmer was no longer self-sufficient but was tied to global markets as either a businessman or a wage laborer.