1. Why did settlers Move West to Great Plains?
Objective 4.01: Compare and contrast the different groups of people who migrated to the West and describe the problems they experienced.
Why did settlers Move West to Great Plains?
Pull Factors:
– Lure of Gold and Silver
– Building of railroads
– Lure of Land (farming)
Push Factors:
– poverty in South after Civil War
- Whites felt Indians did not deserve the land

2. Objective 4.01: Compare and contrast the different groups of people who migrated to the West and describe the problems they experienced.
Lure of Land
• Morrill Act
• Homestead Act
• Oklahoma Land Rush
Morrill Act
– Gave federal land to the states to erect agricultural colleges
• Homestead Act
– The governments way of trying to push settlers west by offering 160 acres of land free
• Oklahoma Land Rush
– Newly opened lands that were sold first come, sold by bid, or won by lottery, or a run

3. Objective 4.01: Compare and contrast the different groups of people who migrated to the West and describe the problems they experienced.
Gold and silver
(1859) 1st major U.S. deposit of silver ore, discovered under what
is now Virginia City, Nevada (Comstock Lode)
• prospectors rushed to the area and Mining camps soon thrived
• Businesses that went along with the boom towns sprang up
• Large mining companies took the place of local panning

4. Transcontinental Railroad
Objective 4.01: Compare and contrast the different groups of people who migrated to the West and describe the problems they experienced.
Transcontinental Railroad
Met at Promontory Point, Utah (May 10, 1869)
Revolutionized the American West, making the system of wagon trains obsolete
It served as an essential link for travel
Congress supplying land grants
Chinese & Irish Immigrants as workers – high death rate

5. Objective 4.01: Compare and contrast the different groups of people who migrated to the West and describe the problems they experienced.
Driven to US Army outposts, feed settlers, or Railroad depots to ship east in refrigerated cars

6. Cultures Clash on the Prairie
Objective 4.02: Evaluate the impact that settlement had in the West upon different groups of people and on the environment.
Cultures Clash on the Prairie
Destruction of the Buffalo: The most significant blow to tribal life on the Plains
Native American relocation:
– Reservation System
– American Calvary
– African Americans (earned respect of Native Americans)

7. • Women: More active role & more responsibility
Objective 4.01: Compare and contrast the different groups of people who migrated to the West and describe the problems they experienced.
Life on the Plains
• Women: More active role & more responsibility
Sod houses
• African Americans: Exodusters (1879) looking for fresh start, Buffalo Soldiers who worked for the US Army

8. Cultures Clash on the Prairie
Objective 4.02: Evaluate the impact that settlement had in the West upon different groups of people and on the environment.
Cultures Clash on the Prairie
Sand Creek Massacre (1864)
While flying a white and US Flag, the military led an attack on the Cheyenne, killing 200
Battle of Little Big Horn (1876)
Gold found in Black Hills Mont.
Colonel George A. Custer was ordered to force the Sioux back on to the reservation. The Sioux led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, killed Custer and all of his men
Wounded Knee: 400 Sioux massacred, last major confrontation

10. Cultures Clash on the Prairie
Objective 4.02: Evaluate the impact that settlement had in the West upon different groups of people and on the environment.
Cultures Clash on the Prairie
A Century of Dishonor
Helen Hunt published her book exposing how the US govt. broke countless promises to the Native Americans
Dawes Act (1887)
An act aimed at “Americanizing” the Native Americans
Gave lands to individual, ended idea of tribal treaties
Assimilation

11. Farmers and the Populist Movement
Objective 4.03: Describe the causes and effects of the financial difficulties that plagued the American farmer and trace the rise and decline of Populism.
Farmers and the Populist Movement
• The Farmers' Plight
– – Drought
– Plagues of Grasshoppers
– Boll Weevils
– Rising Costs of land & Falling Prices for crops
– High Interest and Railroad Rates
• 75% of African American Farmers & 25% of White Farmers Were Sharecroppers or Tenant
Increasing productivity led to decline in prices

12. Farmers and the Populist Movement
Objective 4.03: Describe the causes and effects of the financial difficulties that plagued the American farmer and trace the rise and decline of Populism.
Farmers and the Populist Movement
Farmers Blamed
– Discriminatory Railroad Rates
– Monopoly Prices Charged for Farm Machinery and Fertilizer
– A Oppressively High Tariff
– Unfair Tax Structure
– Inflexible Banking System
• Greenbacks
– Civil War money taken out of circulation
• Political Corruption
– Corporations that Bought Up Huge Tracks of Land

13. Farmers and the Populist Movement
Objective 4.03: Describe the causes and effects of the financial difficulties that plagued the American farmer and trace the rise and decline of Populism.
Farmers and the Populist Movement
Grange
Because of the horrible financial conditions and debt of farmers, it was time for reform. The Grange was an alliance of farmers that assisted in all facets of farming and got Interstate Commerce Act passed (created Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate rates)
Farmers Alliance
Began to organize and spread further than local
Colored Farmers National Alliance & Southern Alliance
Populism
Farmers decided to make a change through politics: Increase in money supply, graduated income tax, federal loan program, election of senators by popular votes, single terms for president and VP, secret ballot, and 8 hour workday

14. Farmers and the Populist Movement
Objective 4.03: Describe the causes and effects of the financial difficulties that plagued the American farmer and trace the rise and decline of Populism.
Farmers and the Populist Movement
William Jennings Bryan: the Democratic nominated presidential candidate and became the Populist candidate
“Cross of Gold” Speech
William McKinley was the Republican nominee: elected in 1896 due to massive financial support
Populism never recovered

15. New technological innovations: How did they change society?
Objective 4.04: Describe innovations in agricultural technology and business practices and assess their impact on the West and Great Plains.
New technological innovations: How did they change society?
John Deere and his steel plow: allowed areas once thought of as not suitable for farming to be worked
Barbed wire: ended the “open range” in cattle farming
Water pumping windmills: allowed farming in areas otherwise devoid of accessible water