Transcript The Settlement of the Western Frontier

The Settlement of the
Western Frontier
Opportunity and Opposition in the
American West
“Manifest Destiny”
Native Americans and the West

The western frontier
had long been seen as
the “great unknown”,
mostly Indian
Territory; with some
white American
presence.

Shaped by past
American-Indian
policy
• Indian Removal Act
(1830)
• Worcester v.
Georgia (1832) and
President Jackson’s
response.
• Cherokee “Trail of
Tears” (1835)
• Reservations
Life of Plains Indians
Miners
• Thoughts of
striking it rich
first brought
miners to the
West into
Colorado,
California, and
Nevada, in the
1850’s.
• Mining
continued to
attract settlers
into the late
1800’s.
• Booms and
Busts (ghost
towns).
Industrialization Impacts the West:
RAILROADS
Impact of the Railroads
The Decline of the Buffalo
A New Way of Life: Native Americans
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Without buffalo, the traditional way of life of Native Americans was threatened.
New American policy was to reorganize reservations, and to force Indians to
assimilate: Dawes Act (1887).
At first, many Native Americans tried to fight back, but after the Battle of Wounded
Knee (1890), it appeared that the armed struggle between Native Americans and
Whites was over.
Further Incentives for Settling the
West
 1860-1900—Federal
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land grants
48 million acres granted under Homestead
Act (1862)
100 million acres sold to private individuals,
corporations
128 million acres granted to railroad
companies
Farmers

Factors bringing
farmers to the
plains:
1. Railroads
2. Free land
3. Higher rainfall
better farmland
F
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Ranchers and the Long Drive
At the Turn of the Century: The
West
 Life
was not easy for people in the West–
Native Americans, Farmers, Miners and
Ranchers.
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Natives’ way of life was threatened and then
forever changed.
Miners left boomtowns and ghost towns
Ranchers found overgrazing and new breeds
that ended the need for the Long Drive.
Farmers faced hard times– with low yields
and high costs to get goods to market.