1. Miners, Ranchers, Farmers, and Native Americans
Why would people take on the challenges of the west?

2. Growth of the Mining industry
Demand for minerals rose dramatically after the Civil War
U.S. changed from a farming nation to an industrial nation
Mining led to the building of railroads to connect mines to factories back east.

3. Mining leads to Statehood
U.S. Government required a certain population amount to become a state.
With the discovery of minerals and the creation of new towns, population in the west grew
1889 – Congress admitted three new states: North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana
1912 – Arizona and New Mexico apply for statehood.

4. Ranching and Cattle Drives
By 1865, some 5 million Texas Longhorns roamed the Texas grasslands
The open range was vast areas of grassland owned by the federal government.
Ranchers could graze their herds free of charge and unrestricted by private property.
After the Civil War, beef prices soared
Ranchers began driving their cattle towards the railroad to be sold for a huge profit.
1866 – rounded up around 260,000 longhorns and drove them to Missouri – the first “long drive”

5. The End of the Open Range
Sheep herders began moving their flocks into the open range
Farmers moved in and began breaking up the land for their crops
Hundreds of square miles of fields got fenced in with a cheap new invention – barbed wire
Fences blocked the cattle trails
Ranchers had to change over to fenced in herds.

6. The Homestead Act
1862 – the government encouraged settlement on the Great Plains by passing the Homestead Act
For a small fee, an individual could file for a homestead – a tract of public land available for settlement
Could claim up to 160 acres and receive the title for the land after having lived there for 5 years.
Settlers began moving to the plains area in large numbers.

7. Native Americans
As miners, ranchers, and farmers entered Native American lands on the Great Plains, clashes grew more common.
Government tried to force Native Americans onto reservations and pressure them to assimilate into the culture of the U.S.

8. The Dakota Sioux Uprising
1862 – the Dakota people (part of the Sioux) had a conflict with the settlers in Minnesota
Dakota agreed to live on a reservation in exchange for annuities they often did not receive.
Many lived in poverty and faced starvation.
When local traders refused to provide food to the Dakota on credit, the Dakota protested by launching a rebellion that killed hundreds of settlers.
A military tribunal sentenced more than 300 Dakota to death after the uprising.
President Lincoln reduced the number to 38
Many Dakota fled the reservation and became exiles in a region called the Dakota territory.

9. Red Cloud’s War
The Lakota (also Sioux) were led by their chiefs Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull
1866 – the U.S. Army was building forts along the Bozeman Trail, the path to the Montana gold mines.
Crazy Horse tricked the fort’s commander into sending Captain William Fetterman and about 80 soldiers out to pursue what they thought was a small raiding party.
Hundreds of waiting warriors wiped out the unit
Known as Fetterman’s Massacre
The Sioux continued to resist any military presence in the region and in 1868, the military abandoned its posts along the trail.

10. Sand Creek Massacre
Tensions between miners seeking gold and silver and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Native Americans
Native Americans would raid wagon trains and ranches
By 1864, dozens of homes had been burned and an estimated 200 settlers killed
November 1864 – Chief Black Kettle brought several hundred Cheyenne to Fort Lyon to negotiate a peace deal
The Cheyenne were allowed to make camp at Sand Creek
Colonel John Chivington attacked Black Kettle’s camp
Few soldiers died but the reported Native American deaths range from 70 – 600.

11. The Last of the Native American Wars
By 1870s many Native Americans had left the reservations in disgust
Preferred hunting buffalo on the open plains
Buffalo were rapidly disappearing due to overhunting
Battle of Little Bighorn
1876 – Prospectors violated a peace treaty between the U.S. and the Lakota Sioux by overrunning the Lakota Sioux reservation.
Many Lakota left the reservation to hunt in the mountains of Montana
Lt. Col. George Custer was sent to get them.
June 25, 1876, he launched an attack on one of the largest groups of Native American warriors ever assembled on the plains.
The Native Americans killed all the American soldiers.

12. The Last of the Native American Wars
Flight of the Nez Perce
Chief Joseph refused to be moved to a smaller reservation.
He and his people fled but were eventually caught and forced onto a reservation in Oklahoma.
Tragedy at Wounded Knee
The Lakota Sioux continued to perform a ritual called the Ghost Dance against government orders.
The police came to arrest Chief Sitting Bull, violence broke out.
Many fled the reservation.
December 29, 1890 a battle broke out at Wounded Knee Creek taking the lives of 25 U.S. soldiers and appx. 200 Lakota men, women, and children.

13. Americanization & the Dawes Act
Some Americans opposed the treatment of the Native Americans
Some believed the solution to the mistreatment was Americanization.
1880s – the Bureau of Indian Affairs sponsored the creation of Indian boarding schools separate from reservations.
By 1902, 25 schools had been set up
Students were forced into the schools through pressuring their parents. Forced to speak English, choose and English name, dress in American-style clothes, cut their hair to match American styles, attend church, and learn job skills.
The schools were often underfunded, poorly maintained, and discipline was overly strict.
Many cases of abuse were reported.

14. Americanization & the Dawes act
Altered the reservation system by dividing reservation land into allotments for farming or ranching
160 acres were allotted to each head of household, 80 acres to each single adult, and 40 acres to each child.
Land remaining after allotment was sold to American settlers with the proceeds going to a trust for Native Americans.
Citizenship was granted to Native Americans who stayed on their allotments for 25 years.
Most did not stay long enough
Assimilation policy failed
1924 – Congress passed the Citizenship Act, granting all Native Americans citizenship
1934 – The Indian Reorganization Act reversed the policy of assimilation, restored some reservation lands, gave the Native Americans control over those lands, and permitted them to elect their own governments.