Document Analysis Worksheet - Ecology of the West
cboyer17
UTF-8The20Ecology20of20the20West20and20South28129.pptxThe Ecology of the West and South, 1865-1900
Professor Meeks
This Montana farm woman resembled Nannie Jackson in her hard work taking care of her farm. And
like Nannie, she probably had gone to a nearby town to purchase the clothes she wore while milking her
cows.
2
3
The ecology of the West and South, 1865–1900
Rapid white settlement displaces Indians
Indians/whites use environment differently:
subsistence vs. exploitation/profit
West’s resources vital for industrialization:
many human and environmental costs
To whites, area “west” of MS River = land of economic opportunity:
racism also shapes actions
South expands cotton and industry, but inequality remains
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Subsistence Cultures
Shape environment long before 1800s
Very different groups
4 main activities:
1) crops (corn)
2) livestock (sheep/horses)
3) fishing/hunting (bison)
4) trading/raiding
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Subsistence Cultures
Extensive interaction of goods/ideas:
migrating bands and trade/raid
fight over herds/land/water
Plains Indians (Pawnees):
depend on buffalo
alter environment to support horses
Southwest Indians (Navajos):
focus on sheep herding
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Subsistence Cultures
Northwest Indians (Clatsops):
fish salmon extensively with technology
like others, engage in trade
Native economies undermined by:
loss of land to whites
salmon/buffalo decline
Decline of Salmon
White-owned fisheries over-harvest salmon
Dams interfere with salmon reproduction
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Slaughter of Buffalo
Whites (with Army help) kill many for:
railroads
farming
Accelerate decline that start with:
over-hunting by Indians for trade with whites
diseases from white-owned livestock
less grazing area
1820: 25 million bison
1880: less than 1,000
p452
This Montana farm woman resembled Nannie Jackson in her hard work taking care of her farm. And
like Nannie, she probably had gone to a nearby town to purchase the clothes she wore while milking her
cows.
9
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Influence of Young White Men
Extensive white violence against Indians
Young white men:
= majority of western whites
view Indians with contempt
Both commit atrocities
Native American population decline:
disease (including STDs)
less mobile with women/ children
adopt bad habits (alcohol, prostitution)
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Government Policy and Treaties
Divisions:
200 spoken languages
100s of separate bands
No tribal centralization
Chiefs weak
Wars and raids between bands block unity
US government hurt Indians by:
imposing treaties (loss of land) by force
refusing to protect Indian land/rights in treaties from whites
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Reservation Policy
US government:
confines Indians to least desirable lands
promises aid
Indians less independent economically
Reservations weaken Indians politically
Supreme Court define Native Americans as non-citizen wards
Constantly face white encroachment
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Native Resistance
Some resist trade
Others fight
White response:
Navajo “Long Walk” (1863–64)
destroy Cheyenne band (1864)
Little Big Horn (1876):
Lakotas/Cheyennes defeat Custer
White advantages:
more supplies (often starve Indians)
pursue Indians relentlessly
p454
The O’odham people kept track
of historical events by carving
scratches, dots, and notches year
by year into wooden rods or cactus
ribs. The “calendar sticks” were
made by one man who functioned
as a historian and who would
retell the stories symbolized by
his carvings. Markings of different
colors served to remind the
calendar stick recorder of details
about an event.
14
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Reform of Indian Policy
Reformers try to “civilize” Indians:
goal = assimilation
Few Indians in Indian Rights Association
IRA assume Indian ways (gender) inferior
Dawes Severalty Act (1887):
privatize communal lands
reverse reservation policy
Indians with private property become citizens
whites buy unallocated land
Boarding schools (Carlisle in PA):
teach children white culture
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Zitkala-Sa
Zitkala-Sa use education to advocate rights:
translate Sioux stories to preserve traditions
Ghost Dance
US government still use force:
massacre Lakotas (Wounded Knee, SD--1890)
crush Ghost Dance (revival of traditions)
The Transformation of Native Cultures
Dawes Severalty Act
Under Dawes Act, Indian landholding dramatically decline:
whites cheat Indians into selling land
accelerate economic ruin
Schools demoralize children:
not accepted by either Indians or whites
The Losing of the West
West won at Indian expense:
still casualties of aggressive era
p456
In an attempt to inculcate “American” customs into its
native students, the Fort Spokane Indian School in Spokane,
Washington, created a baseball team for the young men who
boarded there.
18
p456
In an 1884 edition, Frank Leslie’s Weekly , one of the most
popular illustrated news and fiction publications of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, depicted an
“Americanized” Indian girl dressed as a proper young lady
returning from the Carlisle boarding school to visit her home
at the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota.
19
The Extraction of Natural Resources
Mining
Unlike Indians, whites motivated by:
quest for rapid wealth
1000s move (mid-1800s) to mine:
gold/silver/metals (Map 15.1)
search as individuals
then sell to large companies
Lumbering and Oil Drilling
Lumber companies use fraud to grab millions of acres (Northwest)
Oil drilling starts (Southwest)
Map 15-1 p458
Map 15.1 The Development and Natural Resources of the West
By 1890, mining, lumbering, and cattle ranching had penetrated many areas west of the Mississippi River, and railroad construction had linked together the western economy. These activities, along with the spread of mechanized agriculture, altered both the economy and the people who were involved in them.
21
p459
Much like the American counterpart, the Australian frontier
involved mining operations and was populated by indigenous
people. Here, the Aborigines, as the natives were called, are using
track to bring down ore extracted from a hill.
22
p460
After gold was discovered
along the Klondike River in
northwest Canada in 1896, tens
of thousands of eager Americans
flocked to the area, leaving jobs
and families in hopes of striking it
rich. These jubilant miners found
a gold nugget, but most were not
so lucky. The gold rush subsided
by the end of the century as
the remoteness of the area,
difficulties in prospecting without
heavy machinery, and discoveries
of gold elsewhere in Canada
forced most prospectors to give
up their quest.
23
The Extraction of Natural Resources
Water and Irrigation
Public and private interests use:
technology
organization
for commercial agriculture
Irrigation already exist:
southwestern Indians, Spanish, Mormons
Right to Water
Whites in West reject English riparianism:
users don’t diminish flow downstream
Adopt prior appropriation: water rights to whoever claims it first
The Extraction of Natural Resources
Government Supervision of Water Rights
because of conflicts, whites create public bodies to regulate usage:
WY, 1890
CA organize irrigation districts
CA:
leader in irrigation
most profitable fruit/vegetable farms in USA
Newlands Reclamation Act (1902)
promotes irrigation
not conservation
The Extraction of Natural Resources
Complex Communities
West = multiracial:
whites, Indians
Hispanics, Asians, African Americans
NM: Indians and Hispanics mix (mestizo)
200,000 Chinese immigrate, pre-1882
All-black towns (Nicodemus, KS)
Western Women
White women = minority:
travel west with husband
little independence
make money via domestic services
The Extraction of Natural Resources
Significance of Race
For control:
classify nonwhites as Indian, Mexican, Mongolian, or black
assume nonwhite “inferiority” permanent
create 2-tier labor system
nonwhites work unskilled/low-pay jobs
whites often take nonwhite property
ban marriage between nonwhite men/white woman
I The Extraction of Natural Resources
Conservation Movement
Preserve resources by limiting exploitation
Yellowstone, WY = first national park (1872)
Muir found Sierra Club (1892)
Business and westerners oppose:
both seek quick profit
Admission of New States
Map 15.2:
admit many states, 1889-1912
USA = 48 states until 1959
Map 15-2 p463
Map 15.2 The United States, 1876–1912
A wave of admissions between 1889 and 1912 brought remaining territories to statehood and marked the
final creation of new states until Alaska and Hawai’i were admitted in the 1950s.
29
The Extraction of Natural Resources
Western Folk Heroes
To easterners, West = lawless hedonism:
Tombstone, AZ
Some become folk heroes:
Clantons vs. Earps, OK Corral, 1881
Novelists and self-promoters (Buffalo Bill):
romanticize life in “Wild West”
Most westerners:
not gunfighters or gamblers
struggle to get by
The Age of Railroad Expansion
⅓ of world’s rail track (1900)
Diverse labor crews:
Chinese build east from CA
Irish build westward
Spur steel, coal, and other industries
Create new cities:
link to national/global economy (goods/ people)
Railroad Subsidies
Huge subsidies spur construction:
USG give 180 million acres
p464
The rim of the horseshoe in this advertisement depicts reasons
why railroad travel was better than other forms: one could
avoid crowds of immigrants on steamships, move faster than
a canal boat being towed by a mule, and be safe from bandits
holding up a stagecoach. At the bottom of the poster are two
depictions of luxurious dining and relaxed travel in a chair car
that a railroad offered.
32
The Age of Railroad Expansion
Railroad Subsidies
Land for track + extra to sell:
fund construction
States add 50 million acres
Towns buy rail stock/bonds; offer loans
As private companies:
railroads want aid
fight regulation
Many towns boom from railroads
Others lose (stock failures, loan defaults)
The Age of Railroad Expansion
Standard Gauge, Standard Time
Link railroads together (1880s)
Alter concepts of time and space
Measure distance in travel time, not miles
Earlier, time vary from place to place
Railroads need standardization:
create 4 time zones (1883)
become national time
Spur engineering profession
Farming the Plains
Settlement of the Plains
Commercial agriculture:
requires adaptations to climate and terrain
100s of 1000s of whites migrate
Railroads promise instant riches
Global population growth creates demand
Hardship on the Plains
Farm life on Plains very difficult:
hard work
essentials (water, fuel) scarce
Map 15.3: rainfall divides settlement
p466
Three adults and a child are
posing alongside a road and in
front of a sod house with their
horse team in the background.
Much of the farm frontier
was virtually treeless, dry, and
dusty. This family at least had
enough resources to afford a
relatively “high-toned” house
and a windmill to bring up scarce
water.
36
Farming the Plains
Hardship on the Plains
Weather (heat, storms, blizzards, floods, prairie fires) and insects
Social Isolation
Homestead Act (1862):
disperse settlement
= social isolation
Also lonely because many bachelors:
many abandon farms for cities
Mail-order and Rural Free Delivery
reduces isolation some
Map 15-3 p467
Map 15.3 Agricultural Regions of the United States, 1890
In the Pacific Northwest and east of the twenty-eight-inch-rainfall line, farmers could grow a greater variety of crops. Territory west of
the line was either too mountainous or too arid to support agriculture without irrigation. The grasslands that once fed buffalo herds
could now feed beef cattle.
38
Farming the Plains
Mechanization of Agriculture
Vital to agricultural revolution
Increase production with less time and labor:
farms feed cities
cities supply machines
railroads = link
Legislative and Scientific Aids
governments fund research:
stronger, productive crops
combat disease
Farming the Plains
The Ranching Frontier
Cattle ranching mushroom, post-1860s
Population growth create demand
Railroads allow bulk transport:
drive cattle 1,000+ miles from TX to rail link
inefficient
raise herds near rail links
The Open Range
Open-range ranching on Plains with massive use of government lands
Table 15.1 on USG and West
Farming the Plains
Barbed Wire
Ranching conflicts with farms and sheep herds
Little materials for traditional fences
Barbed wire solve conflict:
reflect links between West/East and rural/urban
accelerate farming on Plains
Ranching as Big Business
Ranching and meatpacking = big business
same with mining and agriculture
Often negative on environment
p468
Evelyn Cameron was a
British-born Montana settler
whose diaries and photographs
portrayed the hardship and beauty
of the frontier in the 1890s and
early 1900s. Here, she depicted
two homesteaders and their
simple dwelling with its dirt floor,
wood stove, and boxes serving as
furniture.
42
p469
This lithograph, drawn from a photo in 1878, displays the transition from old means of farming, using
horses and wagons, to new machines, such as the steam-powered wheat thresher depicted on this Dakota
Territory farm.
43
Table 15-1 p470
Table 15.1 Summary: Government Land Policy
44
The South After Reconstruction
Expansion of number of Southern farms, but a decline in ownership
Sharecropping and Tenant Farming in the South
Few benefits from mechanization
Laborlords replaced by landlords
Millions of blacks and whites entangled in debt
Merchants controlled consumer prices
Backcountry yeomen move from diverse farming to cotton
The South After Reconstruction
Closing the Range
Fencing of free range animals undermined small farmers
Poor whites feared black votes would further reduce their status
Leading Industries
Growth of textile mills, cigarette factories and company towns
Lumber, steel, and Coca Cola sponsored with northern and European capital
The New South?
p472
In a cotton field looking like it is snow-covered, all members
of this share-cropping African American family are engaged in
picking cotton balls. The work was exacting, requiring constant
stooping and lifting, and picking the cotton often left hands and
fingers cut and calloused.
47
p473
Cigarette factories were
among the few southern
industries that employed
African American workers. Here,
a workforce of men are pressing
and storing tobacco leaves in
a Richmond, Virginia, tobacco
company in 1899.
48
Summary: Discuss Links to the World and Legacy
US West and Australia as frontier societies?
Parallels: mining, male folk heroes
Bias and violence to nonwhites:
Chinese
Aborigines
National parks as legacy?
Spread from West to East?
Problems from success?
Preservation vs. development debate?
49
