1. An Industrial Nation (1850 – 1890)
Chapter 5
An Industrial Nation
(1850 – 1890)

2. CHAPTER 5 SECTION 1 – The American West
Conflicts with Native Americans
The Ghost Dance was a religious movement among Native Americans based on the idea of a paradise where Indians would live freely without white people around and the buffalo herd would return

3. The Ghost Dance was an expression of deepest grief about the loss of Native Americans’ way of life

4. The Plains Indians followed the migration of the buffalo and did not settle in one place
Most settlers were farmers or town dwellers believed that since the Indians did not settle down in one place that their lands were available for the taking

5. In the mid-1800s the US government’s Indian policy underwent a major change
Instead of forcibly removing the Indians from the East and relocating them farther west, the government began sending them to reservations

6. Tensions between Plains Indians, settlers, and the US Army grew into a long period of violence known as the Indian Wars
Sand Creek Massacre (1864) – Army troops attacked and killed about 150 Cheyenne Indians in Colorado… Congress condemned the actions but did not punish the commander

7. At the Battle of Little Big Horn, the US suffered its worst defeat by the Sioux Indians in 1876 as General Custer and his men were slaughtered by a much larger force
This marked the last victory by any Indian forces against the US

8. The Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 was the last major event of more than 25 years of war with the American Indians on the Great Plains
In the end, over 300 Sioux men, women, and children lay dead in the snow

9. One goal of Indian reservation system was the policy of Americanization – the idea of Indians abandoning their traditional culture and identity and to live like white Americans
Government schools for Indian children where students had to speak English and could not wear traditional clothing

10. DAWES ACT
In 1881, legislation that was passed by Congress, that split up Indian reservation lands among individual Indians and promised them citizenship
The reservation system and Dawes Act resulted in the loss of about 2/3 of the Indians land. Both these plans failed to improve Indian lives

11. MINING
After the California gold rush, each new gold or silver strike inspired a new rush to the West
At first, methods such as panning, washing gold out of loose sand or gravel, was common

12. When the surface deposits of gold ran out, machinery was needed
By the 1880s, it took expensive equipment and mining became a big business, dominated by corporations
Most miners then went to work for mining companies instead of hoping to strike it rich on their own

13. Comstock Lode
It was when miners found a bonanza, a large deposit of precious ore, in western Nevada in 1859
Over 20 years, the Comstock Lode produced over $500 million worth of gold and silver

14. RANCHING
Cattle ranching became the new business of the Great Plains
The Spanish brought cattle from Spain in the 1500s
The Spanish, and later Mexicans, became skilled at raising cattle in a harsh environment

15. Spanish and English cattle were interbred and it developed a new breed – the Texas longhorn which did not need much water and could live on grass alone
After the Civil War, as city populations expanded so did the demand for beef

16. Ranchers hired cowboys to drive a herd of cattle to a railroad town, where they could be shipped to meat-packing centers
Cowboys borrowed techniques from the vaqueros – Mexican cowboys in the West who tended cattle and horses

17. Cowboys faced many dangers during the normal 3 month cattle drives– cattle thieves, bad weather, and unpredictable livestock
The Chisholm Trail was an important cattle drive trail which began in San Antonio and ended in Kansas

18. Barbed wire was a new invention that helped manage the herds and enclosing their grazing lands
This led to conflicts between landless cattle owners and the ranchers and farmers who fenced in their land

19. FARMERS ON THE GREAT PLAINS
Congress passed three acts to encourage settlement in the Great Plains
The Homestead Act granted land to small farmers if they agreed to stay on the land for five years (almost 2 million people would try)

20. Under the Pacific Railway Act, the government gave millions of acres to railroad companies to encourage them to build railroads and telegraph lines
The railroads used some of the land and sold the rest to settlers

21. The Morrill Act gave the states land to build colleges to teach “agriculture and the mechanic arts”
This was the first federal government assistance for higher education

22. NEW SETTLERS TO THE GREAT PLAINS
White settlers were mostly middle class farmers or businessmen who could afford supplies and transportation
African Americans began a massive migration to escape the Black Codes and violence by the KKK
They became known as exodusters

23. Economic opportunities attracted thousands of northern Europeans
Land-poor Scandinavians and Germans
Mennonites – Protestant group from Russia

24. There were laws that often barred Chinese settlers from owning land in the 1880s, so they became farm workers and not owners or worked on the railroad

25. LIFE ON THE GREAT PLAINS
Life on the Great Plains was very harsh, so farmers formed communities to assist one another in times of need.
They built churches and schools
They raised money by putting on plays or dinners

26. In 1890, the Census Bureau gave a report that declared the frontier closed as there was no more area to be settled