Settling the West: Boomtowns, Mining, Ranching, and Native American Conflicts

1. CHAPTER 11 Settling the West

2. Settling the West • Boomtowns began in the late 1800s • Time of economic growth in mining and ranching • Rowdy places because of fighting over claims, and thieves • vigilance committees enforced "law & order” • These towns could not last forever because mines that supported the economy would be used up

3. Settling the West • Virginia City, Nevada - Comstock Lode - strike of silver • started with a few hundred • 1864 during boom had 30,000 • 1934 had 500 • Towns that did not survive were abandoned and called ghost towns

4. Mining leads to Statehood • Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, the Dakotas, and Montana • Colorado 1858 - Pikes Peak • gold and silver were found but hard to extract • yielded more than 1 billion worth of silver and gold • Montana – Copper • Black Hills in the Dakotas - Gold • Arizona - Tombstone – Silver • Mining would spur the building of railroads through the Rocky Mountains

5. Mining Technology • Extracting minerals from the rugged mountains required ingenuity and patience • Placer mining - using picks, shovels, and pans • Sluice mining - used to search the riverbeds • Hydraulic mining began when deposits near the surface ran out • generated a lot of tax money but devastated local environment • Law in 1893 allowed mining if mining company created a place to store the sediment • Quartz mining - deep mine shafts, miners go underground to extract minerals

6. Placer mining Sluice mining

7. Hydraulic mining Quartz mining

8. Ranching • Texas Longhorn • raised in Texas, descended from Spanish cattle • Lean & rangy, longhorn could easily survive the harsh climate of the Great Plains • Great Plains allowed land where ranchers could graze their herds free of charge and unrestricted by private property

9. Ranching • Cattle Long Drives • railroads helped launch the beef business, ranchers could make big business if they could ship cattle back east. • 1860s railroads had reached the Great Plains • 1st long drive had 260,000 cattle and went to Sedalia, Missouri • Route to Abilene, Kansas became the major route • Between 1867 & 1871 cowboys drove nearly 1.5 million head of cattle up the Chisholm Trail

12. Ranching • "Range war" - farmers and ranchers competing for land - new invention, barbed wire • barbed wire would contribute to the end of long cattle drives • oversupply of animals on the market also stopped cattle drives

13. The Chisholm Trail video • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06P-ERCA17M

14. Virginia City History in parts 1-7 videos • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggYFxNHUmn8 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VVrcA2yVMU • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVVO4g-XR9Q • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F458Tj1ndVE • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_EGgHRjXko • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qaJbR306e8 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrdi7KVfALg

15. Moving West • Great Plains grew after the Civil War • Great Plains extended westward to the Rocky Mountains, running North & South from the central Dakotas through western Texas • Home of the buffalo

16. Moving West • Stephen Long explored the region in 1819 • "The Great Desert” • almost wholly unfit for cultivation, an insuperable obstacle in settling the country - seemed uninhabitable

18. Moving West Homestead Act – 1862 law passed to encourage people to move west $10 registration fee, individual could file for a homestead claim up to 160 acres of land receive title to land after living there for 5 years

19. Farming on the Plains • Many challenges to living on the Plains • 1. • 2. • Life was difficult • 1. • 2. • New invention and methods revolutionized agriculture • dry farming • made possible by use of plows, seed drills, reapers, and threshing machines

20. Farming the Plains • These innovations were suitable for harvesting wheat • Bonanza farms yielded big profits • U.S. boomed with the harvest of the Wheat Belt as the world's leading exporter of wheat • late 1880s, severe drought struck plains - many lost land

22. Closing The Frontier • The frontier eventually disappeared • April 22, 1889 – Gov’t would open the last large territory for settlement – Oklahoma • Census Bureau reported there was no longer a true frontier left in America

23. Native Americans • Great Plains was home to many groups • Some lived in communities but many were nomads • Eastern’s moved into the Plains and forced Natives out and relocate

24. Dakota Sioux Uprising • 1862 in Minnesota • Sioux agreed to live on a reservation in exchange for annuities - never saw any • Sioux lived in poverty with no help from local traders • Chief Little Crow led uprising, he wanted to wage war on soldiers but many settler were killed • After rebellion 38 Dakotas were sentenced to death and many fled the reservation

27. Red Clouds War • Lakotas also lived in the Dakota Territory • Nomadic tribe who fought to keep control of their fighting grounds • Chief leaders - Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull • Red Clouds War of 1866- 1868 • Crazy Horse, religious leader, tricked a fort's commander into sending 80 soldiers to a raiding party • hundreds of Indians were waiting and wiped out the entire unit

28. Sitting Bull Crazy Horse Red Cloud

29. Sand Creek • More settlers to the Indian territories created more raiding of wagons and stealing from the Natives • The territorial governor, John Evans, ordered Natives to surrender at Fort Lyon and they would get food/protection • Nov 1864, Chief Black Kettle went to the fort to make peace negotiations • Black Kettle and his followers would be attacked - Sand Creek Massacre • no one knows what really happened but many say the battle lasted for 2 days • 14 soldiers died, 69-600 Indians died

30. Black Kettle

32. Plan for Peace • 1867 - Congress formed an Indian Peace Commission • 1 • 2. • 3. • Reservations were also intended to encourage Native Americans to adopt white culture • eventually they became used only to keep Natives separated from American citizens • Forcing chiefs to sign treaties did not ensure that the Native or Americans would abide by them • Natives that did move to the reservations faced poverty, despair and corrupt practices of American traders

33. Last of Native American Wars • Natives that lived on reservations left in disgust • they preferred hunting on the open plains • buffalo began rapidly disappearing • professional buffalo hunters invaded seeking hides for markets • other reasons buffalo were killed • 1. 2. 3.

34. Battle of Little Big Horn • George A. Custer led the Seventh Cavalry • He was to capture the Lakotas who had left their reservation • The Lakotas defeated all but one of Custers army • Custer would be portrayed as a victim in newspapers and the army stepped in • Sitting Bull and some of his followers fled to Canada while the rest were forced to reservations and lost the Black Hills

36. Wounded Knee Lakota reservation defying government orders they continued to perform the Ghost Dance

37. Wounded Knee • Federal authorities banned the celebration fearing it would lead to violence • Sitting Bull was being blamed for the defiance • The group fled the reservation, they were surrounded by troops at Wounded Knee Creek • gunfire broke out and 200 Lakota men, women and children died

39. The Dawes Act - 1887 • Idea to help Natives assimilate into American society as landowners and citizens, to do so they would be given allotments on the reservation • This act allotted to each head of household 160 acres of reservation land for farming • single adults received 80 acres, and 40 acres for children • granted citizenship to who stayed on their allotments for 25 years, many did not qualify • Citizenship Act in 1924- grant all Natives citizenship • This plain failed • not all Indians succeeded at farming • Natives felt their allotments were too small to be profitable