1. Chapter 16: The American West By Neil Hammond Millbrook High School

2. The Great Plains Two influences on Americans to get them to move to the Great Plains – 1. Federal Government – 2. Railroad companies 180 million acres 1) Homestead Act (1862) – Government sells 160 acre lots to western settlers for $10 – Settlers must farm the land for 5 years before it becomes theirs 2) Pacific Railway Act (1862) – Lincoln wanted a Transcontinental Railroad to connect California and other western lands to the east

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6. The Transcontinental Railroad Two Companies: 1) Union Pacific -- building West from Omaha, Nebraska 2) Central Pacific -- building East from San Francisco

7. How to Pay for This? The Pacific Railroad Act committed Congress to give the companies ten miles of free land for every mile of track they laid Congress also lent the railroad companies money for every mile of track laid: –$16,000 for flat land –$48,000 for mountainous land –$32,000 for everything else Implications??

8. Union Pacific Got off to a slow start because of the Civil War In 1866 a former Union General called Grenville Dodge took charge of construction He was in charge of 10,000 men (most of them were Irish immigrants although his workforce also included African-Americans and Mexican immigrants)

9. The Union Pacific Makes Progress By 1867 Union Pacific work crews were laying as much as seven miles of track a day across the Great Plains For the Plains Indians the railroad was an invasion of their homeland. They watched in anger as millions of buffalo were slaughtered, destroying their main source of food

10. Native Americans Respond Native American warriors attacked workers and derailed supply trains by prying up sections of track Grenville Dodge demanded military help, and soon he had 5,000 troops guarding his men as they built the railroad

12. The Central Pacific Builds East In California, the Central Pacific faced different problems. Soon after the company began laying track, many of the workers dashed off to newly discovered silver mines in Nevada. Construction practically stopped. In desperation, the Central Pacific hired 50 Chinese workers. They surprised him with the amount of work that they could do and they tended to stay healthier than other workers because they boiled water to make tea.

13. The Central Pacific Hires More Chinese The Central Pacific hired agents to hire more Chinese workers In all 12,000 Chinese workers worked for the Central Pacific. At least 1000 lost their lives in explosions, snow slides and other accidents

14. The Two Lines Meet On May 10, 1869 the two lines met at Promontory Point, Utah Golden Spikes were driven in to the track to celebrate The Chinese workers were not acknowledged at the celebration, and most of them lost their jobs with the Central Pacific

15. The Effects 1) Encouraged westward settlement 2) Encouraged industry –Demand for timber and iron for the railroads –The railroads themselves would open new markets for goods 3) Destruction of the Plains Indians way of life

16. Background Stage 1: 1776 to 1830ish…Assimilation Stage 2: 1830s to 1851…Removal

17. Background Stage 3 Containment

19. Background Sioux War and other conflicts lead to STAGE 4…Reservations

22. The Reservation System New & Improved Indian Removal…now bringing you…RESERVATIONS. 1 st step…1867 Treaty to negotiate an end to fighting on the frontier and get Natives to cede their lands and move to reservations – On reservations, under white tutelage, Native Americans would be wards of the government until they learned the white man’s ways – – During the 1870s many Indians left reservations and continued hunting buffalo on the Plains. Fierce fighting erupted between the army and these Indians – Little Big Horn 1876…Nez Pierce late 1870s

24. Undermining Tribal Culture Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor (1881). Told the story of the unjust treatment of Indians. What would save them was assimilation 1. Indian Schools for the kids (Read “Becoming White” 2. Dawes Severalty Act 1887 – authorized president to carve up tribal lands – families would receive 160 acres; individuals less – Land would be held in trust for 25 years – Land NOT claimed by Indians would be sold to white settlers What was the goal of this act?

25. As settlement pushed onto the Great Plains after 1865, the Indians put up bitter resistance, but ultimately to no avail. Over a period of decades, they ceded most of their lands to the federal government, and by 1890 were confined to scattered reservations, leading an impoverished and alien way of life

26. As the Sioux learned to their sorrow, fixed boundaries only increased their vulnerability to the land hunger of whites Sioux lost land in their South Dakota reservation in 1877 because gold was found there Same story in Oklahoma. Two million acres of unassigned Indian territory was up for grabs. White settlers agitated for the land, and in 1889 the government passed a Homestead Act

27. The Last Battle: Wounded Knee The Sioux were the first and greatest victims of the Dawes Act. Their “surplus land” was opened up for white settlement By 1890, a Sioux man, Wovoka, was preaching a new religion, claiming that the world would be regenerated, and whites would disappear…also the Indians of past generations would return to earth. While waiting, Indians were to practice the Ghost Dance. Whites became alarmed, and the Federal government stepped in. On December 20, 1890, US troops became involved in a fight with Sioux Indians. 25 soldiers died, but 146 Indians died, including many women and children who were shot as they fled.

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