Ch 17 the West: Exploiting an Empire

Chapter 17
The West: Exploiting an Empire
After the Civil War, Americans, who believed expansion was their “manifest destiny,” began moving westward across the continent, subduing the Native Americans through various means, creating a North American empire for raw material to fuel factories. Western economies need the Fed Govt

BEYOND THE FRONTIER
Prior to the Civil War, the march of White settlement paused at the margin of the semiarid Great Plains, a region seared by hot winds and too little rain for extensive agriculture in summers and buffeted by blizzards and hailstorms in the winter, which presented a temporary obstacle, like the Rockies, to further migration. It was thought West of MS river was uninhabitable, aka the Great Amer. Desert.

CRUSHING THE NATIVE AMERICANS At the civil war, ¼ million Native Americans lived in the West. Because they were seen as an additional obstacle to further White migration, the Native Americans were pushed from their lands and forced to radically change their cultures by the end of the century. By the 1870’s, most of the tribes had were destroyed or beaten into submission.

Life of the Plains Indians
2/3 Natives lived on Great Plains. After they acquired the Spanish horse they took up a unique culture based upon nomadic hunting of the buffalo( gave food, clothing, shelter, used everything). Though the Plains Indians generally existed in tribes of thousands people, they lived in smaller bands of several hundred. These bands acted independently, making it hard for the U.S. govt. Comanche dominated the Plains using horses and violence. Tribes developed fierce, trained warriors. Within Plains’ culture, men and women existed in relative equality. Men hunted and did ceremonies, women did children and art and most of daily life stuff and in charge of property.

“As Long as Waters Run”: Searching for an Indian Policy
Earlier in the century, the Great Plains, known as the Great American Desert, was considered by the United States government as unusable for Whites and was given to the Native Americans as “one big reservation.” But with the discovery of gold in the West, the federal government began a policy of concentration, restricting tribes to specific, limited reservations, which lasted only a few years. Conflicts-N.A. refused to stay on assigned lands, settlers went into indian lands, and thus N.A. were pushed out of KA and NB. Wanting peace in 1864, Chief Black Kettle led his followers to camp at Sand Creek (CO) where they were massacred by Chivingston’s militia, which caused protests in the East. Great Sioux War- gov’t was to build Bozeman Trail for miners but Red Cloud attacked b/cus it was Sioux hunting grounds and wiped out Fetterman’s 82 soldiers. In the East, they wanted peace/ humanely civilize N.A, but westerners called for control and punishment. Peace Commission created to end Sioux War; small reservations policy (teach to farm, civilize). N.A. sent north to Black Hills, South into OK, to be supervised by gov’t.
Final Battles on the Plains
From 1867 to 1890, the federal government fought a number of tribes in brutal military campaigns b/cus N.A. despised the impoverished reservations and denounced treaties. South, Kiowa and Camanche rampaged in TX Panhandle until U.S army defeated them in Red River War; North, conflict from Black Hills Gold rush in 1875-Custer’s Last Stand. Desperate N.A. turned to Ghost dances thought to make whites go and lands return. 7th Cavalry murdered Chief Bigfoot’s Ghost Dancers/ innocent band in the Wounded Knee Massacre.
The End of Tribal Life
In the 1870s and 1880s, Congress began a new policy to try to end tribal authority, turn Native Americans into farmers(sucked at), and “educate” their children to be more like Whites. The Dawes Act of 1887 forced Native Americans to live on individual plots of land(160 acres/family) and allowed 90 million acres of Indian lands to be sold to White settlers for N.A. school funding Citizenship granted to those who assimilated and accepted land. Settlers attempted to exterminate the buffalo to hurt tribal life. By 1900, there were only 250,000 Native Americans counted in the census, down from nearly five million in 1492, and most of them suffered from extreme poverty and the problems associated with it.
SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST
From 1870-1900, Whites, along with some Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, settled 430million acres of the West seeking adventure, or religious freedom, as in the case of the Mormons, and better health and economic opportunity.
Men and Women on the Overland Trail
Some one-half million settlers flocked to the West, especially California and Oregon, in the three decades after the Gold Rush of 1849. Traveling the Overland Trail, men and women found the journey both arduous and dangerous yet a family affair. It started in May, the 1st leg ended at Fort Kearney, NB. Travelers were exhausted by late afternoon. Women turned to more “indecent clothes” , there was often trash along the trails and in total the journey took 6 months.
Land for the Taking
Government policy, beginning with the Homestead Act of 1862, provided free or inexpensive land to individual settlers (600k families), land speculators, and private corporations like railroads. But, few farmers had the money to move. The Timber Culture Act attempted to adjust to Homestead Act by allowing claims to another 160 acres if trees were planted in it in 4 yrs. This act distributed 10 million acres. Desert Land Act-gave 640 acres in arid states $1.25/acre in they irrigated part of it; led to land fraud. Timber and Stone Act applied to lands for cultivation. Water was a main issue in west. National Reclamation Acts (Newlands Act)- set aside $ from land sales for irrigation projects. Railroads became the West’s largest landowners. Often, unscrupulous speculators and companies took advantage of these government land programs.
Territorial Government
The new territories of the West related to the federal government much like colonies-Start w/ NW Ordinance of 1789;judges and governor appointed for each territory; Congress had absolute power and these territories needed the Fed Gov’t for existence.

The Spanish-Speaking Southwest
The Spanish-Mexican heritage of the Southwest influenced Americans in the West- created framework for land and water; Contests over land was Mexico’s largest industry; men headed families and economy but women also enjoyed more economic rights than American counterparts(wives had half property in marriage);Roman Catholic; Spanish speaking.

The Bonanza West
Quests for quick profits led to boom-and-bust cycles in the western economy, wasted resources, and uneven growth.

The Mining Bonanza
The CA Gold Rush of 1849 began the mining boom and settlers moved west hoping to strike it rich, using the placer mining technique (washpan, etc). Corporations moved in to dig the deep shafts, employing many foreign-born miners, who faced hostility and discrimination. Huge strikes like the Comstock Lode in CO(richest discovery in history, $306million,Mackay richest man) and in the Black Hills(starts Sioux War) added millions of dollars to the economy, but by the 1890s the mining bonanza was over. They built hasty and often short-lived communities(Deadwood-most lawless, Tombstone, AZ). Mining Camps were governed by simple democracy and rules decided on by the miners. In these camps, more men than women, lots of prostitutes, almost half foreign born(Mexicans and Chinese). Foreigners faced discrimination- Foreigner Miner’s Tax, riots against Chinese, Chinese Exclusion Act. Mining impacts-financed Civil War, Statehoods of NV, ID, MO, and ghost towns.

Gold from the Roots Up: The Cattle Bonanza
Between 1865 and 1885, large profits also were possible for the cattle ranchers who grazed their herds on the prairie grasses and used cowboys, mostly Black or Hispanic, to drive them to the railheads(McCoy was 1st to ship cattle via train). Like Miners, Cattlemen lived outside the law and cattle techniques came from Mexicans. By 1880, 6 million cattle had been driven to northern markets, but the establishment of ranches with barbed wire and the invention of new technologies like the refrigerated railroad car ended the possibility of and need for great drives.

Sodbusters on the Plains: The Farming Bonanza
Like the miners and cattlemen, millions of farmers moved onto the Great Plains seeking economic opportunity as well. Many of these settlers were Blacks, aka Exodusters, fleeing oppression in the South. White or Black, Plains farmers encountered hardships, including a lack of water, inadequate lumber for homes and fences, devastatingly hot summer winds, grasshoppers and savage winter storms. Houses were made of sod bricks and neighbors were distant.

New Farming Methods
Several important inventions, innovations, made farming on the treeless, semiarid Plains possible and profitable. Dry farming (slowed evaporation to help with lack of rainfall), new and hardy plants, and new machinery (Chilled Iron Plow, grain drill, baling press, book- How Crops Grow), The Hatch Act (supported agric. Experiments), were among the innovations that facilitated the rise of huge bonanza farms. These farms ran on new machinery and outside capital, hired armies of workers, and profited on rebates from RR’s.

Discontent on the Farm
Oliver Kelley Founds the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry(aka the Grange) to provide social, cultural and educational things for the rural life. It was not meant to be political but some members supported RR regulations anyways. It also set up stores, warehouses, insurance companies and farm factories. Farmers’ Alliance was also popular. The Farming boom ended after 1887 from a drought. “This is the new age to farm”.

The Final Fling
In 1889, Congress forced Creek and Seminole tribes to surrender their rights to land in OK. President Harrison opened the OK District, causing The Oklahoma land rush of 1889 where in 1 day, settlers claimed 1.92 million acres. Participants known as Boomers and Sooners reflected the speed of Western settlement.

Conclusion: The Meaning of the West
In the 1890s, historian Frederick Jackson Turner theorized that the West and Americans’ settlement of it explained American development, shaping American customs and character, giving rise to the American ideals of independence and self-reliance, all while fostering invention and adaptation. Later historians have challenged Turner’s thesis, pointing out frontier conservatism and imitativeness or the importance of family and community on the frontier as opposed to individualism. “New Western Historians” have rejected Turner’s ideas altogether, producing a complex view of the West in which racial and ethnic diversity and conflict dominate, and White Americans can be said to have conquered rather than settled the West.