westward expansion

THE AMERICAN WEST

“IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO CIVILIZE INDIANS…[THEY] ARE DESTINED TO EXTINCTION, AND [ARE NOT] AS A RACE, WORTH PRESERVING…[THEY ARE] ESSENTIALLY INFERIOR TO THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE. THEY WERE NOT AN IMPROVABLE BREED, AND THEIR DISAPPEARANCE FROM THE HUMAN FAMILY WILL BE NO GREAT LOSS TO THE WORLD.”

~Secr. of State Henry Clay

“Indians and wolves are both beasts of prey, tho’ they differ in shape.” George Washington

“If ever we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down till that tribe is exterminated, or driven beyond the Mississippi… in war, they will kill some of us; we shall destroy them all.”

Thomas Jefferson

“I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”

Theodore Roosevelt

“Let me tell you just a little something about the American Indian in our land. We have provided millions of acres of land for what are called preservations – or reservations, I should say. They, from the beginning, announced that they wanted to maintain their way of life, as they had always lived there in the desert and the plains and so forth. And we set up these reservations so they could, and have a Bureau of Indian Affairs to help take care of them. At the same time, we provide education for them – schools on the reservations…. And we’ve done everything we can to meet their demands as to how they want to live. Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe we should not have humored them in that wanting to stay in that kind of primitive lifestyle. Maybe we should have said, no, come join us; be citizens along with the rest of us.”

Ronald Reagan

Of the approx. 350 treaties made with the Native Americans, the US Government did not honor a single one.

1862 Homestead Act: encouraged squatters to invade Native lands in the Midwest.

1866 Reconstruction Treaties: Gov’t rules all treaties with Native tribes null and void.

Because members of various tribes joined the Confederacy

Natives were forced to accept Freedmen as citizens of their tribe.

1887 Dawes Act: ended collectively owned Native lands, redistributing to individuals. Result: end of tribalism and allowed "surplus" land to be sold to whites, i.e. Land Runs

1917 – 1918: Natives serve in WWI

1924: Natives granted US citizenship

Pres. Lincoln ordered the largest mass execution in US History

December 26, 1862: 38 Dakota Natives were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota

Lincoln ordered the remaining 265

Dakota Natives be sent to a military

prison camp. 120 more died.

The Indian Wars Army troops attacked and massacred surrendering Cheyenne. Congressional investigators condemned the Army actions, but no one was punished in the Sand Creek Massacre.

After the massacre, Cheyenne and Lakota stepped up their raids. In return for closing a sacred trail, the Lakota agreed to live on a reservation. Other nations signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty and were moved to reservation lands in western Oklahoma.

George Armstrong Custer led his troops in headlong battle against Sitting Bull and lost. The Battle of the Little Bighorn was a temporary victory for the Lakota, but the U.S. government was determined to put down the threat to settlers.

Sand Creek Massacre

1864

Treaties

The Battle of the Little Bighorn

1876

1868: Treaty of Fort Laramie ▪ US closed the

Bozeman Trail

▪ Lakota agreed to move to reservation

▪ Sitting Bull was the only Lakota who did not sign treaty

General George Custer & The Battle of Little Big Horn

Comanche, the only survivor

June 25 - 26, 1876: 7th Cavalry with 600 men vs. combined forces of Lakota,

Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho = 1,800 warriors

Crazy Horse

The “Indian Wars”

The Ghost Dance: religious movement. • Newspapers suggested that this

signaled a planned uprising. • The military killed Sitting Bull while

attempting to arrest him.

Wounded Knee Massacre: • 300 unarmed and fleeing Lakota were

killed by the U.S. Army. • Ended the “Indian Wars”

The Ghost Dance ~1890

Wounded Knee

~Dec. 1890

HIDE – BUCKSKIN: moccasin tops cradles winter robes bedding shirts leggings lance covers belts dresses pipe bags pouches paint bags dolls coup flag covers quivers tipi covers gun cases

HAIR: headdresses saddle pad filler pillows rope ornaments halters medicine balls TAIL: medicine switch fly brush lodge exterior decorations whips HOOF & FEET: glue rattles

HORNS: cups fire carriers powder horn spoons ladles headdresses signals toys MEAT: (every part eaten) pemmican - (converted) hump ribs jerky (converted) SKIN OF HIND LEG: moccasins or boots

RAWHIDE: containers clothing headdress food medicine bags shields buckets moccasin soles rattles drums drumsticks splints ropes belts saddles horse masks lance cases armbands knife cases stirrups horse ornament 


NATIVE AMERICAN USES FOR THE BUFFALO

Plenty Coups, the last great Chief of the Crow Nation:

"When the buffalo went away the hearts of my people fell to the ground and they could not lift them up again. After this nothing happened."

Question: How would you face the possibility that your

culture might disappear?

By 1886 EVERY Native in

the US was either dead or was living on a reservation.

Life on the Reservation = Death of Tribalism

Government wanted control over all western territories and Natives to live like whites.

Bureau of Indian Affairs erased Native culture through a program of Americanization. Native students were forced to speak only English, could not wear traditional clothing, and had to learn to live like whites.

The Dawes Act of 1887 broke up many reservations and turned Natives into individual property owners - designed to transform their relationship to the land. Natives received less productive land, and few had money to start farms. Most of the land given to the Natives was unsuitable for farming.

Tribes in Indian Territory before the Indian Removal Act

1856

90 MILLION acres of land had been taken from the

Natives.

1934: Dawes Act repealed

•US Government’s objective was to erase Native culture as part of a larger strategy to finally conquer Natives, intending to transform the children, inside and out.

•100 Indian Schools were opened and operated

•Children were often beaten, malnourished , and forced to do heavy laborNative children (sometimes taken by

force) forced to speak English only, cut their hair, and given “white” names. Schools designed to “civilize” the children and assimilate them into white society, teaching them a trade.

'Kill the Indian ... Save the Man'

“I have never seen in my life a good Indian ... except when I have seen a dead Indian.” ~MN Rep. James M. Cavanaugh - 1869

Native children photographed upon arrival at the Indian Boarding School

The same children four

months later.

Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Pennsylvania

Tom Torlino, a Carlisle Indian Boarding School student, before and after

spending time at the school.

Published in Harper's Weekly, January 16, 1869 by Frank Bellew.

GOLD!!!

Striking Gold and Silver • Discovering gold and silver

– After the California gold rush, Colorado was next. Most were disappointed, but the silver in the Comstock Lode rush in Nevada lasted 20+ years.

• The Klondike gold rush – Yukon Territory was site of a huge gold rush,

getting there was treacherous. Canadians required miners to bring a year’s worth of supplies with them, a difficult task.

– Reports of “gold for the taking” were false.

Development of Communities

• Mining camps and towns – Thousands of men poured into mining areas. Camps

were hastily built with no law enforcement. Vigilante justice was used to combat theft and violence.

• Camps become towns – Some camps developed into towns, with hastily

constructed buildings of stores and saloons. – As towns developed, women and children joined the

men, making the towns more respectable. Townspeople established churches, newspapers, and schools.

The Reality: A Sod House, on the Great Plains

The Cattle Boom The Spanish were first ranchers in the West, raising cattle under dry and difficult conditions. They bred the Texas longhorn and started sheep ranching.

The age of the cattle drive had arrived. Cowboys drove cattle to towns with railroads to be shipped to meatpacking centers such as Chicago. One of the most famous cattle trails was the Chisholm Trail.

Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire, allowing ranchers to enclose grazing lands. Privately owned ranches spread quickly, and investors transformed the cattle business into big business. Two years of severe winters brought huge losses to the industry.

Origins of ranching

Demand for beef

Ranching as BIG

business

First Cowboys Vaqueros – Mexican Cowboys ▪ Longhorn cattle were imported from Spain ▪ Everything that became the American Cowboy

derived its origins from the Mexican Vaqueros ❖ Jerky ❖ Chaps ❖ Bronco riding ❖ Corral ❖ Rodeo

LAND USES – 1880S

Incentives for Settlement • New legislation

– 1862, Congress passed 3 acts to turn public lands into private property. • The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of land to

heads of household. • The Pacific Railway Act gave land to the railroad

companies to build lines. • The Morrill Act gave lands to states for colleges for

agriculture and the mechanic arts. • Land-grant institutions (OSU & Langston Univ.),

established under the Morrill Act of 1890, provided teaching in fields related to agriculture and the mechanic arts. These universities accepted women.

Incentives for Settlement, con’t • Railroads encourage settlement

– Railroads reaped profits by selling some of their land to settlers. They placed ads to lure homesteaders to the West.

– The Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 opened unassigned Native land to settlers. 50,000+ people took part in the rush to stake a claim on these 2 million acres of land.

• Closing of the frontier – In 1890 the Census Bureau issued a report, “there can

hardly be said to be a frontier line.” – Historian Frederick Jackson Turner stated in a

famous essay that the existence of the frontier made the US distinctive from all other countries and nations.

SUMMARY Westward Expansion

CAUSED: •The displacement and death of thousands of Native Americans.

•Mining towns to develop, creating new businesses. •The Cattle Boom caused new trails to be blazed and ranches to be established.

•Farmers settled in the Great Plains region, built communities, and plowed up the native grasses.