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Chapter 18 - Conquest and Survival: The Trans-Mississippi West

Indian Peoples Under Siege
-Incorporation of the West into the US was keenly felt by natives living there
- Federal officials fought to bring them into the American mainstream
 
On the Eve of Conquest
- The surviving tribes adapted to changing conditions
- Plains Indians learned to ride horses and use guns
- Treaties with the federal government were often ignored by states
 
Reservations and the Slaughter of Buffalo
- Reservations intended that Indians learn English, convert to Christianity, start farming
- Tribes that moved to reservations often found federal policies inadequate to their needs
- Slaughter of buffalo encouraged in order to hopefully assimilate Indians
- Railway also killed buffalo
 
The Indian Wars
- Usually settlers (fresh from the Civil War) that started fights
- Colorado - governor terminated all treaties and ordered raids into Indian territory 
- This led to Indian retaliation
- The Sioux fought the US Army to a stalemate and had the Great Sioux Reservation created for them (although this did not mean peace)
- The discovery of gold forced the government to try to reclaim the land 
- Sioux and other tribes prepared for battle 
- Custer’s last stand at Little Bighorn
- The Apaches with Geronimo fought the US in the Red River War
- Were cut off from the buffalo and therefore lost
 
The Nez Percé
- In crushing the Plains tribes, the US government had conquered those peoples who had most actively resisted the advance of whites into the West. Even those who co-operated such as the Nez Percé, were ordered to sign a treaty giving away their gold rich land
- Tried to run for the border but failed 
- Eventually sent to other disease-ridden reservations
 
The Internal Empire
- Many Americans romantically imagined the West to be the last center of freedom
- West was in fact controlled by centers of power in the East
- Many peoples struggled to find places for themselves (Mormons, Indians, etc)
 
Mining Communities
- The gold rush (1848) fostered western expansion
- Big businesses - bought out smaller claims and started vertical integration
- Western labor movements began in these mining camps as a response to dangerous working conditions and soon became powerful forces
- Strictly white members 
- Eventually admitted Europeans, but never Chinese, Mexicans or Indians
- Caminetti Act - gave state the power to regulate mines
- Underground mining companies polluted a lot
 
Mormon Settlements
- Western expansion fostered the growth of new unstable commercial cities 
- Simultaneously placed new restriction on established communities
- The Mormons had fled New York and eventually formed an independent state in Utah
- The federal government declared the Mormons rebels and sent in the army
- Supreme Court v. Reynolds - granted freedom of belief but not freedom of practice
- Edmunds Act - disfranchised people who believed in polygamy 
- Edmunds-Tucker Act - confiscated Mormon property over the value of $50,000
 
The Southwest
- The majority of Mexicans in American kept Mexican identity
- Although promised all the liberties that go along with citizenship, these were abused
- Whites often used federal laws to their advantage
- In Arizona and New Mexico, elite Mexicans were able to prosper
- Most Mexicans did work outside the commercial economy working for subsistence 
- With the railroad and the arrival of big business they became the first migrant workers
- Mexicans were able to preserve their culture and religion
 
The Cattle Industry
- Buffalo slaughter eventually made way for the cattle industry
- Became one of the most profitable businesses in the West.
- Kansas Pacific Railroad - linked the slaughtering houses and the markets
- 1880 - Nearly 2 million cattle slaughtered in Chicago alone
 
Cowboys
- Rounded up herds of Texas cattle - very unhealthy and dangerous job
- Cowboys were ethnically diverse
- Many came to the south
- Paid in a lump sum which encouraged cowboys to go spend all the money gambling etc.
 
Cowgirls and Prostitutes
- Some women helped the men rounding up cattle
- Most women worked in kitchen or laundry industries
- Many were prostitutes against the law - eventually shut down at the end of the century
 
Community and Conflict on the Range
- Prostitution + gambling + drinking discouraged the formation of stable communities
- Personal violence and horse theft were notoriously high
- Son farmers and sheep herders were encroaching the cattle fields 
- This led to violence 
- President Hayes decided to send in troops
 
Farming Communities on the Plains
- Opening the Great Plains to agriculture took massive improvements 
- Transportation and farm technology, as well as unrelenting advertising
 
The Homestead Act
- Homestead Act - offered the first incentive to prospective white farmers
- Granted a quarter section (160 acres) of public land free to any settler who lived on the land and improved it for at least five years
- Greatest success achieved in the central and upper Midwest 
- rich soil vs. harsh Great Plains
- Instead of homesteading, many settlers paid state or land companies 
- Owned the most valuable land near railways
- Only 10% new farms were created by the Homestead Act
 
Populating the Plains
- The rapid settlement would not have taken place without the railroad
- Although the Homestead Act offered prospective farmers free land, it was the railroad that promoted settlement, brought people to their new homes, and carried crops and cattle to eastern markets
- Railway companies were in the business of bringing people West
- The National Land Company enticed Easterners and Europeans to immigrate
- People from the Old World tended to build cultural communities
 
Work, Dawn to Dusk
- Men farmed seasonally, women kept the house and children helped out
- Neighbors helped out one another through bartering due to lack of cash
 
The World’s Breadbasket
- New technologies allowed farmers to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency
- Western Agriculture became increasingly tied to international trade
 
New Production Techniques
- Drilled seeds down as tough soil broke iron plows
- McCormick’s reaper and later inventions drastically reduced the manpower needed
- Weather was harsh
 
Producing for the Market
- Farmers became more aimed at producing for the market
- New technology and scientific expertise favored the large farmer over the small one
- Most large farmers specialized in one or two crops, eg corn, rye, or barley
- Average farm sizes increased from around 64 acres to more than 100 acres
 
California
- End of the Mexican-American War in 1848 coincided with start of the gold rush
- The whites flooding the new territory wanted the land that had been occupied 
- Challenged Californians in the Supreme court
- Californians won but court cases bankrupted many 
- Whites took over and soon prosperous 500 acre farms showed up 
- Large scale production made California the leader in wheat production
- Fruit farmers used refrigeration cars on railways
- Californians were kicked off the land by big business
 
The Toll of the Land
- New plants were introduced - this led to an ecological disaster
- Grizzlies and wolves had their populations reduced
- Buffalo were replaced by cattle and sheep - this was disasterous for the land
- Buffalo tend to roam from place to place
- Less wear on the land vs. domestic animals who stayed in one place 
- Huge dust storms
- Timber Culture Act - gave homesteaders another 160 acres of land if they planted 40 acres of trees to reduce the ecological toll
- Commercial agriculture also took a toll on inland waters
- Rainfall used to drain naturally into lakes but now was diverted - lakes disappear etc.
- Newlands or National Reclamation Act - Irrigated even more of California 
- Helped big business
- The forest service was established to protect water sources and set the path for the government to play a bigger role in regulation
 
The Western Landscape
- The East was hungry for stories of the “Wild West”
 
Nature’s Majesty
- Beautiful scenery inspired many of the American writers and painters
- The Yosemite Act placed land under the management of the state of California 
- The federal government funded geological surveys which brought back surveys and visual proof of the lands beauty 
- Yellowstone, Yosemite etc. become national parks
 
The Legendary Wild West
- Roosevelt among others promoted the idea of the “wild west”
- Railways promoted these images
- Buffalo Bill brought the West to the East
- Books and comics immortalized cowboy figures
 
The “American Primitive”
- Painters like Remington illustrated the West
- Pictures of Indians were faked to make them look primitive
- These painters and photographers led the way for scholarly research on Indian societies
- Organisations like the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts used tribal lore to instill character
 
The Transformation of Indian Societies
- 1871 - federal government formally ended the treaty system, eclipsing without completely abolishing the sovereignty of Indian nations
- Indians both adapted and maintained
 
Reform Policy and Politics
- While many Indians had been resettled, few had adapted to White ways
- Helen Hunt Jackson formed WNIA to rally support for a program of assimilation
- Wanted to phase out the reservation system and send Indian kids to boarding school
- The Dawes Severalty Act passed by Congress incorporate these measure and allowed the President to distribute land not to tribes but to assimilated individuals
- Children fled the schools and the land available was poor
 
The Ghost Dance
- Ghost Dancers preached the day where Whites would be wiped off the Earth
- The army pursues the fleeing Ghost Dancers
- Could have ended peacefully, accidental shot from a deaf Indian starts battle
 
Endurance and Rejuvenation
- The most tenacious tribes were those occupying land rejected by white settlers of distant from their new communities
- Most tribes found it difficult to survive in proximity of white settlers
 
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