1. Westward Expansion

2. Great Plains
Vast grasslands between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains
Before 1850 it was home to 10 million Native Americans and 60 million buffalo 1

3. Great Plains

4. Great Plains

5. Factors
Conditions that pushed people to move away from their homeland to a different region
continued 2

6. Push Factors
Thousands of people were displaced (homeless) after the Civil War.
Land in the East was increasingly expensive.
When a business failed, owners headed to a new location to try again.
Some religious groups were seeking escape from persecution (e.g. Mormons)
Outlaws on the run 2

7. Pull Factors
Conditions that pulled or attracted people to move elsewhere by their own choice 3
continued

8. Pull Factors
Government Incentives - Free land grants from the government
Private Property - Laws were passed to make property rights enforceable and transferable. Land was measured, recorded, and deeded. Cattle were branded.
Greed - Profit in new markets or mining precious metals 3

9. Pacific Railway Acts (1862/64)
The government gave RR’s 10 square miles of land on either side of the tracks.
RR’s received over 175 million acres.
RR’s sold much of this land to new settlers at a large profit. 4

10. Morrill Land-Grant Act (1862)
The federal government gave state governments millions of acres of western lands.
The states could sell this land to the public to raise money to start colleges that specialized in agriculture and mechanical arts. 5

11. Land Speculators
People who buy land at a low price, hoping to sell it later for a profit 6

12. Homestead Act (1862)
The federal government offered 160 acres of western land for $10 if these conditions were met:
Must be at least 21 years old or the head of a household 7
continued

13. Homestead Act 7 Must be an American citizen or filing for citizenship
Must build a house at least 12’x14’ on their property
Must live in it for at least 6 months a year
Must farm the land for at least 5 years 7

14. Indians
of the Great Plains

15. Indian Removal Policy
Beginning in the 1820s, Native Americans were forced off their lands to reservations in different parts of the country, usually in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to open up land for white settlement. 8

16. Reservations Federal land set aside for Native American use
They were often restricted to the reservations by treaties the Indians did not fully understand 9

17. B. I. A. Bureau of Indian Affairs
Part of the U. S. Department of the Interior
Managed delivery of supplies to reservations
Often corrupt 10

18. Sand Creek Massacre 11

19. Sand Creek Massacre
Cheyenne and Arapaho occupied the central plains in Colorado Territory
Chief Black Kettle wanted peace
The governor promised to protect the Indians and told them to camp at Sand Creek 11
continued

20. Chief
Black
Kettle

21. Sand Creek Massacre - 1864 700 soldiers then attacked the camp
About 150 women and children were slaughtered and mutilated
Most Cheyenne moved to the reservation the next year 11

22. Sand Creek Massacre Memorial originally placed at wrong site

23. True site of Sand Creek Massacre discovered in 2001 and dedicated in 2007

24. True site of Sand Creek Massacre discovered in 2000 and dedicated in 2007

25. Painting: Sand Creek Phantoms

26. Battle of Little Bighorn
Lakota Tribe - called Sioux by Americans - lived in Northern plains - Dakota, Wyoming, Montana. Hunted in the Bighorn Mountains.
U.S. Government built a road called the Bozeman Trail through this land.
Chief Red Cloud fought against this for 2 years 12
continued

27. Battle of Little Bighorn
Treaty of Fort Laramie - U.S. abandoned the trail and forts but created the Sioux Reservation in South Dakota which included the sacred Black Hills
Col. George A. Custer reported gold in the Black Hills. Government offered to buy the Black Hills. 12
continued

28. The Black Hills

29. The Black Hills

30. Battle of Little Bighorn
Chief Red Cloud tried to negotiate
Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse refused and led rebels off the reservation
June General Custer led 250 men of the 7th Cavalry to round up the rebel Indians 12
continued

31. Chief
Sitting
Bull

32. Chief Crazy Horse

33. General George A. Custer

34. Custer’s Expedition to Bighorn

35. Battle of Little Bighorn
2000 Sioux killed the entire 7th Cavalry within one hour at the Bighorn River in Montana
Sitting Bull escaped to Canada
Crazy Horse surrendered and was stabbed in the back. He was 34 years old. 12

36. Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota
Begun in 1993

37. Unfinished Crazy Horse Monument
Projected completion date: 2018

39. Custer’s Last Stand

40. The Ghost Dance Purification ritual performed by many plains tribes
Believed the ritual would restore their traditional way of life
continued 13

41. The Ghost Dance
Dancers formed a circle, joined hands, and danced around a sacred tree.
Sometimes they danced for days until they fell “dead” and saw visions of their dead ancestors.
continued 13

42. The Ghost Dance
Dancers wore a “Ghost Shirt” - a sacred costume made of white cotton painted with symbols. 13
continued

43. The Ghost Dance
Lakota believed the shirt protected them from the white man’s bullets. 13

44. A Ghost Shirt

45. The Ghost Dance as described by a Lakota Sioux witness
“ They danced without rest, on and on Occasionally someone thoroughly exhausted and dizzy fell unconscious into the center and lay there “dead” After a while, many lay about in that condition. They were now “dead” and seeing their dear ones The visions ended the same way, like a chorus describing a great encampment of all the Dakotas who had ever died,

46. The Ghost Dance as described by a Lakota Sioux witness
where there was no sorrow but only joy, where relatives thronged out with happy laughter. . . The people went on and on and could not stop, day or night, hoping to get a vision of their own dead. . . And so I suppose the authorities did think they were crazy – but they were not. They were only terribly unhappy.”

47. The Ghost Dance

48. The Ghost Dance

49. Wounded Knee Massacre 1890
Sitting Bull now back on the South Dakota Reservation encouraged the Lakota Sioux to practice the Ghost Dance ritual.
The ritual frightened whites who thought the Indians were preparing for war.
continued 14

50. Wounded Knee Massacre
The 7th Cavalry was sent to arrest Sitting Bull. They shot and killed him.
His followers men and 230 women and children - were rounded up at a creek called Wounded Knee.
As the Indians were being disarmed, someone fired a shot. Soldiers began firing and killed over 200 Lakota. 14

51. Encampment at Wounded Knee

52. The Dead of Wounded Knee

53. Chief Big Foot dead at Wounded Knee

54. Medicine Man Dead at Wounded Knee

55. Collecting the Frozen Dead at Wounded Knee

56. Mass Burial at Wounded Knee

57. Gate to Wounded Knee Memorial

58. Assimilation
The process of making one society part of another. Usually the dominant society forces its culture and values on the subordinate culture. 15

59. The Dawes Act
Divided reservation land into individual plots.
Each Indian family was given 160 acres to farm.
The goal was to make Indians self-supporting and make them believe in private property like Americans do.
The idea was offensive to most Indians and many sold their land to whites or were cheated out of it. 16