The West

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c. 1850-1900

Prior to the discovery of gold, much of the West was considered a wasteland & much was part of North Mexico
During the last decades of the 1800s, the U.S. was segmented into 1) an industrialized society and 2) a frontier
The 1890 census was the first to record that the frontier had been settled
Additionally, by 1890 the US surpassed Great Britain in iron and steel production
Settlement in the West was powered by industry

Mexico was under Spanish domination until 1821.

By the 1860s, agricultural settlement reached the western margins of the tall grass prairies

Ecology-

60 million years ago, the Rocky Mountains rose out of the sea and covered western North America
With no outlet, the shallow inland sea dried up
A hard pan was left
Sediment washed down from the mountains over time to form a loose, featureless surface

Ecology-

The climate suffered from cycles of drought because moist winds from the Pacific ocean delivered rain on the western slope of the Sierras
Only drought-resistant grasses and plants could survive in this climate
The ecosystem could support certain plants and animals, but had not nurtured very much human settlement

About 100,000 Native American groups lived on the plains in 1850
They were very diverse
They have been categorized across six linguistic families and 30 “tribal” groups
Mandan, Arikara, Pawnee

~lived in permanent villages

~planted corn & beans

~however, smallpox & measles ravaged settled groups

Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, Cheyenne, “Blackfeet,” “Crow,” & Sioux

Were dispersed in hunting groups
First arrived on the plains in the 1600s
Hunted buffalo
Moved from lake country in northern Minnesota when fish and game dwindled

Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, Cheyenne, “Blackfeet,” “Crow,” & Sioux

Became nomadic
Lived in portable skin teepees
Acquired horses from southwestern groups
Came to claim the entire Great Plains North of the Arkansas River
Drove out or subjugated longer-settled groups

One notable group of Plains Native American Indians were the Lakota Sioux
They had strict gender roles
Women were more subordinate than in other groups
Saw God as a series of powers pervading the universe
The Sun Dance was one form of religious worship for them

Image of Sun Dance from http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/2/lectures/lakota/sundance.detail.jpg.

The Lakota Sioux were not a self-contained group of people
They traded with others, including whites
Pelts and buffalo robes were traded for kettles, knives, blankets, & guns, which the Lakota came to rely upon

Again, prior to the 1840s gold rush, land in the west was seen as only worthy of Native American Indian settlement and use
In 1834, congress formally designated the Great Plains as permanent Indian country
The army constructed border forts from Lake Superior to Fort Worth Texas
They were made of stone because they would be in place “forever”
“Mainstream” Americans would theoretically trade with the Native Americans, but not settle the west

What changed these perceptions?

1. Native American country became seen as a “bridge to the Pacific”

People left for Oregon in 1842
So many wagons crossed the western landscape that they rutted it and affected the ecology
Talk of a transcontinental railroad began in 1848

The Pony Express began to deliver mail to CA
In 1861, telegraph lines brought San Francisco in communication with the East
The government granted land to railroad development projects

The Union Pacific met the Central Pacific railroads in Promontory, Utah in 1869
Railroads laid the basis for economic exploitation of the Great Plains

From http://www.ldsces.org/inst_manuals/chft/images/31-01.gif.

2. Cattle raising was thought of as a good venture

Because of this the buffalo had to go
A huge market was created in the 1870s when eastern tanneries learned to treat hides and use them efficiently for a) shoes & b) harnesses
Systematic buffalo slaughter began

Great herds (already decimated by disease and shrinking pastures) were gone in about ten years
Killing buffalo was also a conscious way to starve plains Native American Indians into submission

With the railroads in place, ranchers could get their cattle to market
Long cattle drives were initiated to help ranchers get their cows to market in Missouri
Cattle towns emerged at markets where weary cowboys would stop to binge
Cowboys, many of whom were African American and Hispanic, were farmhands on horseback
Cowboys worked hard, long hours under harsh conditions

When the railroad came to Texas in the 1870s, the long drive was abandoned
Many ranchers bought, leased or claimed huge tracts of land
By the early 1880s, the plains overflowed with cattle, ravaging grass and trampling water holes – altering the ecology
In 1885, a severe blizzard & then a summer drought killed hundreds of thousands of cattle

Cattle were dumped on the market by desperate ranchers
Native grasses were destroyed
Open-range ranching ended
Ranchers began to fence their land and plant hay to replace the tall grasses
Many ranchers adapted, raising sheep

Hispanic shepherds revealed that the sheep would feed on the mesquite and the prickly pear, which replaced the grass

Land associated with railroad development was sold to generate funds and to create traffic
160 acres of public land was given to all takers under the Homestead Act of 1862
Magazines advertised that anything would grow in Kansas and claimed that the area received ample rainfall to attract settlers
To be sure, there was a wet cycle in the area 1878-1886
However, the area was still desolate and distant for most homesteaders

Some women found the plains experience to be liberating
In the harsh environment, many gender roles were dismantled
Women would often be called upon to do “men’s jobs”
Many of the homesteader women became self-reliant as men gave up or died
In fact, the Homestead Act accorded widows & single women the same rights as men

While men brought in large harvest wages, women provisioned various necessities such as eggs or socks
Thus, homesteading men tended to place a high premium on marriage

The Chrisman sisters near Goheen settlement on Lieban Creek, Custer County, Nebraska, 1886, Solomon D. Butcher, photographer. From http://www.nebraskahistory.org/lib-arch/research/photos/digital/women.htm. For an interesting reality show that gives an idea of these concepts, see Youtube [Frontier House PBS] at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNR8GYGmqM&feature=related.

The movement to the West was very large
It was called an exodus by many
Motivated by economic opportunity, Norwegians & Swedes joined
As a result, Swedish & Norwegian became primary languages in parts of Minnesota & the Dakotas

The West was seen as a “Promised Land” for some African Americans
In the spring of 1879, some Southern black communities left for Kansas
6,000 left Mississippi and Louisiana
These groups were called the Exodusters
40,000 were settled in Kansas according to the 1880 census
This constituted the largest group of African Americans in the West outside of Texas

Exodusters in Nicodemus, KS

From http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-kansas/ExodustersNicodemusKS-500.jpg.

Faced many hardships-

Plagues of grasshoppers
Hot winds
Brush fires
Hailstorms

Produced many innovations-

Steel plow, invented to break tightly-matted ground
Drought-resistant wheat
Irrigation systems
Dry farming techniques
Barbed wire

By the late 1800s & the early 1900s-

The Great Plains were fully submitted to agricultural development
The plains’ wheat was consigned to the world markets
Eastern financiers were invested in the situation

What did this situation mean for Native American Indians?

The Far West

Extraction of mineral wealth became the impetus for Far West’s development
By 1860, California boasted 300,000 residents
San Francisco existed as the central mining hub
However, the drive for mineral wealth spread to Nevada, the Colorado Rockies, up to Canada, into Montana, and Wyoming
Prospectors, traders, gamblers, prostitutes, & saloon keepers populated these areas, making their living in mining-related fields

The Far West

Oregon & Washington were stimulated by the population growth, as markets were created for their farming, ranching, logging, fishing and timber industries

From http://www.washingtonstateparksfoundation.org/about.

Hispanics, Chinese, and Anglos

What were race relations like among these groups?

Golden California

With its Spanish flavor and its warm climate, California was billed as a charming destination for visitors and settlers by the 1880s
It was also a part of the final push to the Pacific in terms of “Manifest Destiny”
The idea that this was the U.S.’s “final frontier” spurred conservation efforts, such as Yosemite National Park in 1890
Population pressures caused water shortages, which stimulated water-resource development such as elaborate irrigation and aqueduct systems