1 / 26

The Great West & The Agricultural Revolution

The Great West & The Agricultural Revolution. The Great Plains. Cultures Clash. Plains Indians , 1860 = 360,000 Nomadic, diverse After Civil War, numbers decline as whites expand west Disease Intertribal conflicts Destruction of buffalo – further fighting over hunting grounds.

clyde
Download Presentation

The Great West & The Agricultural Revolution

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Great West & The Agricultural Revolution

  2. The Great Plains

  3. Cultures Clash • Plains Indians , 1860 = 360,000 • Nomadic, diverse • After Civil War, numbers decline as whites expand west • Disease • Intertribal conflicts • Destruction of buffalo – further fighting over hunting grounds

  4. Federal Government Steps In • Treaties – 1851, 1853 • Beg. of reservation system • Est. boundaries for each tribe -2 great colonies • By 1860’s, federal gov’t. intensifies policy • Promise of supplies, blankets, meat, to be left alone • Smaller confines: • Great Sioux Reservation in Dakota territory, Indian Territory of Oklahoma • Federal Indian agents corrupt

  5. Indian Wars • Between U.S. army and natives for more than a decade after the Civil War • 1/5 African Americans “Buffalo Soldiers” (US Army) • Horrible atrocities on both sides • 1854, Custer’s scientific expedition into Black Hills of South Dakota • Discovers gold • Custer and Calvary “supress” Indians at Little Bighorn River (Montana), 1876 • 264 vs. 2,500 • U.S. army seeks revenge

  6. Other Notable Figures • Geronimo and the Apache • Pushed into Mexico • Only surrendered after women exiled to FL • Oklahoma farmers • Nez Perce tribe, Oregon – 1877 • Pushed to Kansas, 40% die

  7. Chief Joseph • I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, "Yes" or "No." He who led the young men [Ollokot] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

  8. “Fire and Sword” Policy • Indians “ghettoized” on reservations • Completely ignored for decades • “Taming” of the Indians • Railroads • Disease • Alcohol • Extermination of buffalo

  9. Buffalo

  10. Buffalo • 1868, 15 million buffalo • Train waits 8 hours for a herd to pass • Slaughtered for hides, tongue and choice cuts, for fun • By 1885, less than 1,000 buffalo *After the Civil War – GREED AND WASTE - environment, politics, business

  11. A National Conscience Emerges • 1880s – Helen Hunt Jackson • 1881, A Century of Dishonor • Humanitarians want to assimilate natives • No respect for culture shown by any group • 1884, Christian reformers outlaw the Sun Dance • 1890 – Ghost Dance leads to the Battle of Wounded Knee (200 slaughtered)

  12. Government Indian Policy – (‘til 1934) • 1887, theDawes Act • Designed to “Americanize” the Native Americans and to teach them the importance of owning property and farming. - No tribal ownership of land. - 160 acres to family heads. - Title to land and citizenship in 25 years.

  13. Forced Assimilation • Gov’t. sells the remainder of the reservations to settlers, and Native American get profits for farm supplies. • Natives never received anything • Government does set up schools • Carlisle School, designed to make individuals out of Indians • By 1934, whites had taken 2/3’s of the bestterritory .

  14. Assimiliation

  15. Mining • 1858 – Colorado gold Rush & Nevada (59 ‘ers) • Corporations eventually take over mining Effects: • population and wealth • Advertized the Wild West (women get the vote early in many western states) • Metals help finance the Civil War, build railroads • Boomtowns/ Helldorados sprout • Dugout then deserted

  16. Cattle Kingdom & the Long Drive • Texas – railroads solve market problem • Swifts and Armours become “beef barons” • Rise of meat packing industry • Stockyards in Chicago and Kansas City • Long Drive – open range herding from Texas to stockyards • 4 million from 1866-1888 • Downfall = • Settlers and barbed wire • 1886-1888 winter • Overproduction • Overgrazing Big Business ranches emerge and organize

  17. Homesteaders • 1862, Homestead Act– 160 acres of free land – live and cultivate it for 5 years. • 1862-1900 - 500,000 families take the offer • Exodusters= A.A.s who moved from Reconstruction South for free land in Great Plains • 5x’s purchase their land • 2/3’s of homesteaders give up from drought

  18. Railroads Promote Settlemet • Huge PR campaigns to “Come out West” • Hired 1,000 agents to advertise in Europe

  19. Settling the Plains & the End of the Frontier • Great Plains • Treeless • Violent weather • “soddies” • Eventually irrigation projects and sturdier crops emerge in the region • By 1900s almost all territories have converted into statehood • By 1890 – the frontier is gone • End to the romantic phase of the nation’s internal development • New problems arise, especially for farmers • Page 611

  20. Read the rest of Ch. 26 • Mechanization of farming • Bonanza farms • Problems faced by farmers • The Grange & Oliver Hudson Kelley • Farmer’s Alliance • Pullman Strike • Rise of the Populist Party – their goals, achievements • Silverites vs. Gold Bugs and the 1896 election • William Jennings Bryan and “The Cross of Gold” speech • William McKinley

More Related