2.  What is the West?  What is the Frontier?  An idea of manifest destiny. It was there to conquer.  Possibilities of a new beginning, fresh start

3.  Great American Desert Great Plains  Rocky Mountains  Arid Southwest Under 10 inches of rainfall  Animals Millions of buffalo  American Indian Most successful

4.  Fur Traders In advance of civilization Prepared way for others  Mining Often first on the scene

5.  Henry Comstock staked claim near Virginia City. Could not find any gold and sold his claim, not realizing that the soil was almost pure silver.  Boomtowns quickly growing towns that arise nearly overnight.  Vigilance committees – self appointed Vigilante justice

6.  Mining led to statehood.  The development of California, Colorado, Arizona, the Dakotas, and Montana.  The rail roads helped bring people.

7.  Placer mining: picks, shovels, and pans.  Sluices  Hydraulic mining Come in after placer miners left Professional

8.  Long Horn Adapted to Texas  Ranching begins Open range  Long Drive To MO, KS, NE, WY Most cattle ended up in Chicago

9.  Land was Free Homestead Act only applied to surveyed land  Hope for sudden wealth  Cowboy traditions and rules Round up, branding, line-riding  Became big business Investors from overseas and eastern US

10.  Overstocking By stock companies from East and Overseas  Barbed Wire Closed the trails Range wars Ended open-range  Bad years 85-87 Dry summers and the worst blizzards Thousands of cattle died

11.  Major Stephen Long Explored plains “almost wholly unfit for cultivation.”  Homestead Act $10 fee – 160 acre plots (homestead)  With the assurance of land many will flock to the plains.

12.  Dry-Farming Plant deep Plows, sod drills  Sod Busters Plow, wind erosion, drought Lost homestead

13.  Big business Bonanza Farms 50,000 acres Biggest wheat exporter  Farm hit hard times Drought Mortgage land Tenement farms

14.  1889 last territory for settlement  Frederick Jackson Turner “Safety Valve” a place for people to get a fresh start – the social discontent.

15.  Plains Indians Nomadic people – follow buffalo Physically finest in west Skilled Horsemen (20 arrows to one rifle shot) Fighting for way of life

16.  One big reservation  Indians keep their traditional land  Guarantee safe passage for settlers to pass through on Oregon Trail  Get annuity payments for keeping safe passage

17.  1862 Minnesota – the Dakota Sioux agreed to live on reservations in exchange for annuities (annual payments from government) The payments rarely got to the Sioux Poverty and starvation was a real possibility  After the rebellion was suppressed 308 sentenced to death Reduced to 38 by Lincoln

18.  Colorado Gold Rush Settlers and miners rush to Colorado  Government did not enforce Treaty to keep miners out  Government told American Indian tribes to relocate from promised land Cheyenne and Arapaho

19.  Cheyenne-Arapaho Led by Chief Black Kettle Raided settlers  Told to Surrender at Ft. Lyon Black Kettle wanted to negotiate peace  Retreated to Sand Creek Col. Chivington attacked and killed ½ the tribe

20.  Indian Peace Commission Create 2 Large Reservations Keep Indians separated from Settlers  Doomed from the beginning faced poverty, starvation, and corruption on reservations Settlers and Indians both violated treaties

21.  Black Hills opened for mining Last straw for Sioux  Chief Sitting Bull Amassed warriors at Little Bighorn River  Col. George Custer Attacked without orders 265 men stumbled into 3000 Sioux warriors  Custer was seen as a hero

22.  Chief Joseph Refused to move to a smaller reservation  Led 700 people 1,600 miles 100 warriors defeated 10 units 4 months on the run Caught 40 miles from Canada  Ordered to move to reservation

23.  Ghost Dance A ritual to bring back buffalo and make whites disappear Was banned by Government for fear of violence  Federal Troops killed c.200 Lakota

24.  160 acre plots Head of household In trust for 25 years Become citizens in 25 years Rest of reservation land to be sold to settlers and put in a trust for American Indians  Goal Assimilate Indian Schools to “civilize”

25.  Failure Did not change anything Most did not have the Knowledge Many had no desire  in the end buffalo did more to change American Indians than policy.