Transcript Changes on the Western Frontier


Buffalo Soldiers – 1st
African Americans to
serve in the US army
during peacetime
• Escort settlers and
railroad crews out west

Exodusters – left the
south after
Reconstruction to move
west (mostly Kansas)
 As
people moved out west, relations
between American settlers and the Native
Americans worsened.
 Each side would lead raids against the
other.
 White settlers forced natives off their land.
• Some Natives would raid white settlements for food.
• Why? A large number of natives were starving and
 In
many women would have a miscarriage due to
malnutrition.
response the United States declared war
on Indians.
 Colorado’s territorial governor, John Evans,
sent out word that peace loving and friendly
Indians should report to the nearest fort if
they wanted immunity from fighting. Each
group would be given a white flag to prove
their immunity.
Chief Black Kettle and
his Cheyenne group
went to Ft. Lyon to
pledge his friendship
and was granted
immunity.
 Afterwards they moved
near Sand Creek for
safety.


When John Chivington
arrived at Ft. Lyon and was
told that the Cheyenne
group was not granted
immunity
When Chivington came
upon Sand Creek, Black
Kettle saw him coming
and raised his white
flag, but he kept
coming. So he waved
the American flag…but
he kept coming.
 November 29, 1964 –
Colonel John
Chivington led an
attack on mostly women
and children at Sand
Creek.

Killed nearly 200
villagers and mutilated
their bodies. Many
women were raped.
 Americans celebrated
Chivington and his men
as heroes.

• Part of what drove
Chivington was that he
wanted revenge on the
death of his family. (Ever
since settlers started
moving west, fighting
between the two groups
were numerous)

1866- Sioux Chief
Crazy Horse attacked
Captain William
Fetterman’s regiment
for invading the
Bozeman Trail.
• Sacred land in the Black
Hills

US agreed to close the
trail if the Sioux moved
to reservations. Most
did on the agreement
that the government
would provide food
and clothing annually.
Sitting Bull (Sioux
medicine man) refused
to move onto a
reservation and
continued to lead raids
against the whites
 1868 – Sioux protested
when gold miners
invaded the Black Hills

• US prepared for war
when the Sioux refused to
sell the land.
More than 60 indigenous nations
had been traveling to the Black
Hills for millennia to conduct
spiritual ceremonies, and gather
medicines . No animals were to be
killed. Ancient funerary practices
were held in the Black Hills and
bodies were given back to the
Creator by being laid on the large
branches of trees.
Healing water coming from our
Grandmother Earth can be found
in various places in the Black
Hills.
The US sent General
George Custer to Little
Bighorn River to protect
the miners.
 June 25, 1867 – Custer
attacked Sioux warriors
led by Crazy Horse

• The Sioux had over 2,000
men and Custer had only
200. He was very
arrogant about his
chances of victory
Custer and all of his men
died in less than 1 hour
Americans demanded revenge for Custer’s
death. The army continued to raid and slaughter
buffalo.
 1876 – The Sioux were defeated and moved onto
reservations
 1885 – Sitting Bull surrendered to keep his
people from starving (and fled to Canada)


The Dawes Act:


Goal was to “Americanize”
Natives
Divided up reservation
lands
• Into 160 acre farms or
320 acre grazing lands
for each Indian family.
Unmarried men were
given 80 acres. (Most of
this land was poor)
• Granted US citizenship to
those who owned a farm
and removed themselves
from their tribe
The land that was not
given to the natives was
set aside to sell to
American settlers, in
which the money made
from these sales was set
aside to educate the
natives how to farm
(which they never
received)
 U.S. government set up
schools to promote white
men’s values to native
children

• Idea was “Kill the Indian,
Save the Man”
 Most
significant blow
to tribal life
 Escalates when the
railroad moves west
 William F. Cody
killed 4,300 buffalo in
8 months. nickname?
• He was hired by
railroad companies to
provide food for
workers laying down
track
 Other
hunters really
killed the population
as well. Buffalo robes
became very popular
back East.
 In 2 years railroads
shipped 1.5 million
buffalo hides
 Why so easy to kill?
By 1885, the
government
estimated that only
200 buffalo were
alive in the wild. In
45 years (1840 to
1885) the huge
herds had been
destroyed with the
numbers declining
from millions to
barely nothing.
Natives believed “The Ghost Dance” would make
the whites disappear and bring back the buffalo.
It became a movement and spread to many tribes.
(Read the prophecy)
 US banned the dance believing it was an uprising
and tried to arrest Sitting Bull for encouraging it

• He was killed during the arrest.



December 29, 1890 – US
army kills nearly 300
natives when trying
suppress the Ghost
Dance movement.
In an attempt to collect
weapons a shot rang out
that started the “battle”.
The US army gunned
them down with machine
guns. Most were
unarmed and their
bodies were left
unburied.
• Ended the Indian Wars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
PkJaYe1T8l8
On a separate sheet of paper, come up with
your reasons for the requirements to become
a Pony Express rider.
The Pony Express became obsolete when
the telegraph lines reached the west
 Land
(most powerful attraction)
 Mining (fortune seekers)
• Many mining town were violent and lawless (often
filled with saloons and gambling establishments)
• Vigilance Committees offered law and order to
townspeople.
The Homestead Act
 US government offered
160 acres of free land to
anyone who would farm
it for 5 years. Had to
improve the land in
some way – build a
house, barbed wire…

What would you build a
house with if all you had
was hills and grass?

Trees are scarce so
homesteaders make
their homes out of the
land:
• Dugouts – dug out of
cliffs or hills
• Soddies – made out of
stacked blocks of sod

Homesteaders face
extreme hardships:
• Droughts, floods, fires,
blizzards, locust, Indian
raids, and loneliness.
40% of Homesteaders
earned their deed.
 Granted
government loans and land to
railroads
• Gave 20 sq. miles of land for every mile of
railroad track.
• Companies could sell the land to people, and
these people would be their customers.

2 Companies:
• The Union Pacific Railroad -
starting at Omaha,
Nebraska
• Central Pacific Railroad –
starting in Sacramento,
California.


These two were to meet
in order to complete the
first transcontinental
railroad. Turned into a
race.
Finally completed in
1869.
Chinese immigrants made up the
majority of the work force.
They were treated harshly and paid
little.
 Travel
west is
dangerous,
uncomfortable, and
slow. Transcontinental
Railroad made travel
safer and faster.
 Could travel coast to
coast in 10 days
 Cost = $40
• More than 1 month’s
pay for most workers
As more people moved out west, the cattle frontier
slowly came to an end
- Overgrazing, Bad weather, and Barbed Wire
•
Farmers would fence in their lands to keep livestock in
and the cattle drive out. Cattle drivers had to go around.

Farmers are having
trouble paying off loans
and call for reform.
• Reduction of $ in
circulation
• Price of crops decrease
• Price of transportation
increases

Oliver Hudson Kelley
creates an organization
of farmers: “Grange”
• Provides social outlet and
educational forum for
farmers
• Sponsor state legislation
to regulate railroads

Farmer’s Alliance
• Set up town meetings to educate people about lower
interest rates and govt. control on banks and railroads.
• Membership grew to more than 4 million

1892 – farmers create the Populist Party
•
•
•
•
Increase money supply
Federal loans program
8 hr workday
Restrictions on immigration
Government can give either gold or silver in
exchange for paper money.
 Debate began in the US over which system was
more beneficial after the Panic of 1893 and the
discovery of more silver mined out west.
 Gold supporters said only gold should be used
to back up paper money
 Bimetallism supporters said using both gold and
silver would boost the economy (because silver
was more plentiful)

People believe that paper money is
worthless unless gold and/or silver
back it up.
GOLD STANDARD



Less $$ in circulation
Loans would be repaid in
stable money
Deflation:
BIMETALLISM



More $$ in circulation
Products would be sold at
higher prices
Inflation:
• Prices fall
• Prices rise
• Value of $ goes up
• Value of money decreases
• Fewer people have money
• More people have more
money.
Republican William McKinley – gold would make the
value of money increase
 Democrat William Jennings Bryan said bimetallism
would inflate the value of money and more people
would have money
 McKinley is elected president and the gold system
was adopted.

 With
McKinley’s election, Populism
collapsed.
 However the Democratic Party took up
the rains that the government is
responsible for reforming social
injustices.
 Major Impact of Populism
• The downtrodden could organize and have a
political impact