1. America’s History Eighth Edition
James A. Henretta
Eric Hinderaker
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History Eighth Edition
CHAPTER 16
Conquering a Continent
1854–1890
Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. 1. What is this poster promoting? (Answer: Settlement in the West.)
2. Who was the intended audience? (Answer: Those desiring land, economic opportunity, the ability to build a home.)
3. According to this poster, what makes the West “great”? (Answer: Depicted as a land of plenty: vegetables, mountains, trees, livestock, space for housing, land.)

3. I. The Republican Vision
A. The New Union and the World
1. Foreign Relations –
steam-powered ships encouraged U.S. interests in the Caribbean and Pacific
1854, Commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan to U.S. trade.
2. William Seward –
Secretary of state from 1861 to 1869 under Lincoln and Johnson
U.S. must increase its participation in world, including the Western Hemisphere, Hawaii, and the Philippines
1868 Burlingame Treaty gave American missionaries rights in China
negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia; skeptics nicknamed Alaska “Seward’s Icebox.” 3

5. I. The Republican Vision
B. Integrating the National Economy
1. Tariffs and Economic Growth – Republican-supported tariffs helped build industries such as textile, steel manufacturing, and sheep ranching
largest share of revenue for U.S. Treasury; huge debt from Civil War ($2.8 billion) was erased by tariffs in two decades
Republicans argued they created jobs, blocked low-wage foreign competition for U.S. products
safeguarded American from the kind of industrial poverty that had arisen in Europe
historians contend that the tariffs helped the U.S. to become a world economic power in the postwar years

6. I. The Republican Vision
2. The Role of Courts
Munn v. Illinois (1877): states had the right to regulate businesses that served public purposes (ex: railroads) but could not block integration of the national marketplace
3. Silver and Gold – Attempt to create an international system of standard measurements and currency
money should be based on gold (known as the gold standard); in 1873, Congress chose to use gold as the standard for U.S. currency value and end the use of greenbacks (paper dollars

9. II. Incorporating the West
A. Mining Empires
1. Nevada’s Comstock Lode – Discovered in 1859, silver spurs the boomtown of Virginia City, which soon had fancy hotels, theaters, saloons, and brothels.
2. Corporate mining – General Mining Act of 1872 allowed those who discovered minerals on federal property to work the claim and keep the proceeds
mines created many dangerous low-wage jobs
mining towns became a market for timber from the Pacific Northwest.

12. II. Incorporating the West
B. Cattlemen on the Plains
1. Removal of Bison – In the 1870s, combination of overhunting and disease decimated the bison herds, which had once overrun the plains.
2. Ranching –
Texas ranchers began the Long Drive, hiring cowboys to herd cattle to rail lines in the northern plains
millions of cattle were living on the land, destroying the natural ecosystem
drought, bitter cold, and blizzards of 1885 destroyed the industry
invention of barbed wire ends Long Drive
stockyards appeared near ranching operations.

15. II. Incorporating the West
C. Homesteaders
1. Women in the West – Homesteaders went West as families, aiming to find economic opportunity
notion of “domesticity”: a man’s devotion to family made him a good worker
was believed that women could provide moral guidance to men, including Christian charity, commitment to home, motherhood
conflicts arose with Mormons’ acceptance of polygamy and women’s suffrage in Utah
Wyoming Territory granted women suffrage in 1869
II. Incorporating the West
C. Homesteaders 15

16. II. Incorporating the West
2. Environmental Challenges –
A host of challenges, including grasshoppers, prairie fires, hailstorms, tornados, blizzards, lack of water, wood, lumber, fencing
western grasslands had insufficient water for growing; 160-acre homesteads were too much for most farmers to handle
John Wesley Powell wrote Report on the Lands of the Arid Regions of the United States (1879); told Congress that 160-acre tracts would not work in dry regions
encouraged smaller, irrigated farms; proposed that the government work to develop water resources in the West, building dams and canals
Congress plan rejected Powell’s plan
II. Incorporating the West
C. Homesteaders 16

17. II. Incorporating the West
D. The First National Park
1. Preservation – Congress began to preserve sites of unusual natural splendor
1864, Congress gave 10 square miles of Yosemite Valley to California for “public use, resort, and recreation”
1872, it set aside 2 million acres of Wyoming’s Yellowstone Valley as the world’s first national park.
2. Tourism – Railroad tourism developed side by side with other western industries and provided an important motive for creation of Yellowstone National Park
native resistance to expulsion led to conflicts.
II. Incorporating the West
D. The First National Park

19. III. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed
A. The Civil War and Indians on the Plains
1. Dakota Sioux – summer of 1862, Dakota Sioux in Minnesota attacked settlers in protest for what they were not receiving from the government
more than 400 white people killed; thousands fled MN; 38 Dakota Sioux men were hanged for the action (largest mass execution in U.S. history)
Congress canceled all treaties with the Dakotas.
2. Cheyenne – 1864, military attacked the Cheyenne
Chief Black Kettle surrendered to federal agents but was subsequently murdered along with hundreds of women, children, and infants
Arapahos and Sioux began to attack settlers in defense of the Cheyenne
U.S. Army initially failed to subdue the resistance; easterners began to dislike the “Indian problem” and desired new solutions.
III. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed
A. The Civil War and Indians on the Plains

20. III. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed
B. Grant’s Peace Policy
1. Indian Boarding Schools – Reformers = Indians had the capacity to be equal with whites if educated and Christianized
“kill the Indian and save the man”
PA Carlisle School (1879): children required to speak English, cut their hair, and dress in white peoples’ clothing
corruption lingered within Bureau of Indian Affairs; ultimately, native peoples were forced to assimilate to white culture.
2. Breaking Up Tribal Lands – Reformers = assimilate Indians
Dawes Severalty Act”(1887), divided reservations into individual homesteads, believing private property might encourage native people to adopt ways of whites = provide a sense of independence
a total disaster; government seized over 15 million acres of land in Indian Territory and losses by native peoples increased.
III. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed 20

23. III. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed
C. The End of Armed Resistance
1. Sitting Bull and Custer – In 1874, General Custer claimed he found gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota
Sioux were pressured to leave area for white settlers
1876, the government demanded that all Sioux and their leader, Sitting Bull, gather at the federal agencies
Sitting Bull and other Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahos refused
2. Battle of Little Big Horn – On June 26 and 27, 1876, Custer and his men attacked Sitting Bull’s camp in Montana
Custer died at this “last stand,” as did all of his 210 men; was the last major victory of the Plains Indians against the U.S. Army.
III. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed
C. The End of Armed Resistance

26. III. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed
D. Strategies of Survival
Syncretism – Effort to maintain native customs and traditions, while assimilating
Ghost Dance movement (late 1880s) an effort to resurrect the bison, force whites back across the Atlantic
2. Wounded Knee – Lakota Sioux Ghost Dancers left their South Dakota reservation
December 29, 1890, battle at Wounded Knee Creek left at least 150 Lakota dead, but perhaps as many as 300
Like other massacres, the deaths at Wounded Knee stand as a final indictment of decades of relentless U.S. expansion, chaotic and conflicting policies 26

27. III. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed
E. Western Myths and Realities
1. Buffalo Bill Cody – Famous Wild West show was authentic representation of frontier experience provided employment opportunities for Plains Indians who demonstrated their riding skills
Black Elk, a Sioux man who joined Cody’s operation, observed that the Wild West of the 1880s was at its heart a celebration of U.S. military conquest.
III. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed
E. Western Myths and Realities

28. III. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed
2. Frederick Jackson Turner – A 1890s young historian who wrote that there had been a clear, westward-moving line that existed between “civilization and savagery”
frontier experience shaped Americans’ national character, leaving them a heritage of “coarseness and strength, combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness” as well as “restless, nervous energy”
3. Sherman’s death – winter of 1891, Sherman died in New York
celebrations of his life marked the critical moments in which the native population had been destroyed by military conquest