Transcript Document
West Texas after the Civil War Vocabulary • Commercial Agriculture-producing crops for sale • Expansion-the act of extending • Immigrant-a person who comes to a country to settle • Sharecropper-a tenant farmer who receives a share of the value of the crop minus charges for rent and other expenses • Subsistence Agriculture-producing most of the goods needed by a farm family Native Americans control the West • By 1850 all NA had moved westward • During the Civil War federal soldiers left Texas to fight • This left West Texas settlements vulnerable to NA raids • Most settlers abandoned their farms and ranches to safer East Texas settlements Troops occupy West Texas • After the Civil War federal soldiers were stationed in West Texas – Albany, Menard, San Angelo, Fort Stockton, El Paso • The army was unable to prevent NA raids because the forts were too far apart, food shortages, and soldiers were not used to fighting NA • The NA knew the territory and were skilled fighters • By the time it took to reload a muzzle rifle, a NA could ride 200 yards and shoot 20 arrows Treaty of Medicine Creek Lodge • 1867 US agents met with NA chiefs to sign a peace treaty • NA would live on reservations • US would provide food and supplies • US army would not be allowed on reservations • NA would stop making raids on settlements Indian Reservations • US appointed agents that would treat the NA well • Many agents were Quakers that did not believe in violence • Agents educated NA in agriculture in order for them to live in the Anglo world Peace Policy Fails • Most NA in Texas did not sign the treaty • Claimed the US lied, cheated, and treated NA badly • Kiowas and Comanches refused to move to reservations • NA believed Western Texas belonged to them and they did not want to abandon their way of life Medicine Lodge Speeches • I love the land and the buffalo and will not part with it. I want you to understand well what I say. Write it on paper. I hear a great deal of good talk from the gentlemen whom the US sends us, but they never do what they say. I don’t want any of the medicine lodges schools and churches within in country. I want the children raised as I was. – Santana, Kiowa Chief Medicine Lodge Speeches • I was born upon the prarie, where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the lightof the sun. I want no blood upon my land to stain the grass. I want it all clear and pure, and I want it so that all who wish to go through among my people may find peace when they come in. – Santana, Kiowa Chief Quanah Parker • Last chief of the Comanches • His mother was Anglo and raised by NA • Was captured by US and influenced other NA to live like US West Texas NA questions •Copy and answer the following questions 1. What advantage did the NA have over the US army? 2. Why was the US army not able to stop NA attacks? 3. List three reasons why the Treaty of Medicine Creek Lodge failed.