Transcript Westward Expanison Occupational and Ethnic Groups

Westward Expansion
Conflict and Cooperation Among
Occupational and Ethnic Groups
LEQ 3:
What are some examples of conflict
and cooperation between occupational
and ethnic groups?
Vocabulary
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Miner- a person who mines for precious minerals (ex: coal, gold, silver,
diamonds, etc.)
Rancher- a person who raises animals (livestock) for a profit
Cowboy- a person who guides herd of animals to a desired place
Farmer- a person who plants and harvests crops for profit
Rustler- a person who steals cows from cowboys and ranchers
Conflict
Occupational Group
Cooperation
Ethnic Group
What does conflict mean?
Conflict means to disagree verbally or physically.
What are some examples of conflict?
What does cooperation mean?
Cooperation is the act of working together.
What are some examples of cooperation?
Occupational Groups
Occupational groups are groups of people who are classified by the jobs
they have.
Examples:
Miners
Ranchers
Cowboys
Farmers
Rustlers
Ethnic Groups
Ethnic groups are people from different cultures and backgrounds.
Examples:
Native Americans
Mexican Americans
European Immigrants
Asian Immigrants
Westward Expansion
Although the journey west often required groups of people to
help one another, settlement also brought conflict among groups that
competed for the natural resources of the region.
Miners
•The discovery of gold and silver brought many men westward seeking
their fortunes.
•Miners competed with one another to find the precious minerals and
often broke the law.
•Mining companies that had the equipment to dig deeper into the terrain
competed with single miners for claims to the richest digging sites.
•Boom Towns grew quickly to serve the needs of the miners and then
just as quickly turned into ghost towns when the mines had run out of
the precious minerals.
Ranchers and Cowboys
Ranchers and cowboys cooperated to develop the cattle raising industry. Cowboys
drove the herds, owned by the ranchers, across the open plains to the nearest railroad depot
and shipped them to processing plants in the east. They competed with rustlers and often came
into conflict with the townspeople.
Ranchers, Cowboys and Farmers
The cowboys and ranchers often argued with farmers over the cattle getting onto the
farmers land. Farmers did not like for the animals to ruin their crops and property. When
farmers settled and fenced in large parts of the plains, they interfered with the open ranges
across which the cowboys drove the herds. The cowboys, who did not like the fences, and the
farmers who built the fences, fought over how the land should be used. These conflicts caused
the end of most cattle drives in the plains.
Mexican Americans
Many Mexican Americans were also driven out of
the land. Spain and Mexico controlled much of the
Southwest of the United States, until the Mexican
War in the 1840’s. Mexico lost to the US, and
those that were living in the West were
discriminated against and forced to move back into
the country of Mexico because they lost their land.
African Americans
Due to discrimination in the South, African
Americans were eager to move out West. They
wanted to move out West, in hopes to own their
own land through the Homestead Act rather than
sharecropping in the East. One group of African
Americans that were encouraged to move West
were the Exodusters who settled in Nicodemus,
Kansas.
European Immigrants
European Immigrants came to seek jobs and start new lives in the West. However, most European
immigrants were too poor to move West and stayed and worked in the industrial cities of the East and Midwest.
Irish immigrants worked on the building of the Transcontinental Railroad for the Union Pacific, which began in
Omaha, Nebraska. Americans who were born in the US (nativism) often did not like people from Europe
because they threatened their jobs. European Americans formed communities and worked together to develop a
life in the US. They engaged in cooperative activities such as: building houses, finding jobs and helping with
barn raisings (when a community comes together to raise the walls of a barn).
Asian Immigrants
Asian immigrants experienced the worst discrimination. Asian people came to America to search
for gold, but later, worked on the transcontinental railroad. They were often paid less than white workers
and suffered from discrimination because their culture was so different. Once the railroad was complete,
many Chinese immigrants tried to stay in the US and compete with white Americans for jobs, such as
opening laundries for washing miners’ clothes in boom towns. This competition made the white Americans
very angry and soon, the United States government passed a law that kept Chinese people from entering the
United States.
Native Americans
At first, Native Americans welcomed and cooperated with explorers in the
West. As more and more people came to the West, the Native Americans and the
settlers did not get along. The railroad destroyed the buffalo, and with it, much of
the Native American culture.
Native Americans
Farmers and Miners claimed the lands that belonged to
the Native Americans. Native Americans were forced to
live on reservations. Those who would not move to
reservations were hunted down by American soldiers
and often massacred. After gold and silver was
discovered in the Black Hills, the Native Americans who
lived there were driven out by the US.