The Great West
Mining was the 1 st magnet to attract settlers to the West CA (1849) started the gold rush, but strikes in Pikes Peak, CO & Carson River Valley, NV (1859) set off wild migrations to the West: Comstock Lode = $306 million John Mackay s Big Bonanza made him richest man in world
Individual Corporations placer had miners the expensive took little machinery skill or money ( hydraulic to start, mining but could techniques ) not reach to deep extract lodes most of the gold in the West Created need for local gov t, law enforcement, sanitation, businesses, prostitutes Mining Regions of the West Discoveries of gold & silver led to overnight mining towns
¼ to ½ of the mining population was foreign born: Latin American miners brought experience & new techniques Chinese brought a tireless ethic Led to hostility & riots: Foreign Miners Act in 1852 charged a monthly mining fee "Courts of Justice Closed to Chinese Extra Taxes to 'Yellowjack'" Chinese Pacific Exclusion Chivalry: Act in 1882 suspended Chinese immigration Encouragement to Chinese Immigration
A cattle bought for $4 in Texas In the 1860s, sold cattle for ranching $40 in Kansas boomed Ranchers used the open range to graze longhorns By 1867, ranchers started using trains to ship cattle to Chicago
½ of all cowboys were black & ¼ were Mexican By 1880, the open range was ending: But range wars erupted over grazing rights between cowboys & sheep-boys Wheat growers, homesteaders, & barbed wire blocked the range Many switched to raising sheep
The U.S. gov t offered incentives 2/3 of all homesteaders failed to farm their land for farmers to settle the West: Homestead Act (1862) gave 160 acres of land if families pledged to live there for 5 years 500 million acres doled to businesses but only 80 million to homesteaders Other gov t acts helped develop western lands by planting trees & building irrigation systems Due to land grants, RRs were the largest western landowners
In 1870, homesteaders pushed West & adapted to the harsh farming conditions: A pioneer sod house Farmers used dry farming techniques & planted tougher varieties of wheat New machinery sped harvesting & planting; led to bonanza farms By 1890, the U.S. became a major crop exporter
In 1900, the West made up 30% of the U.S. population (was 1% in 1850)
Exodusters were black farmers who moved West to escape Southern crop liens & Jim Crow Laws
In 1862, Congress authorized the transcontinental railroad: Union Pacific worked westward from Nebraska (Irish laborers) Central Pacific worked eastward from CA (Chinese immigrants) May 10, 1869 the 2 tracks met at Promontory Point in Utah By 1900, 4 more lines were built to the Pacific
1 st transcontinental railroad connected the west coast to eastern cities in 1869 Irish workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the eastern section Chinese workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the western leg
The national gov t doled $65 million & millions of acres in land grants (received reduced rates for shipping)
Pullman cars & refrigeration cars In 1870, RR companies developed the 1 st time zones to better schedule the RR system; the US would not adopt time zones until 1918
In 1865, 2/3 of all Indians lived on the Great Plains Their culture was dependent upon the buffalo & the horse Tribes of several 1,000 people were subdivided into bands of 100s which made it difficult for the U.S. to negotiate treaties
Before the Civil War, the West was one big reservation The Indian Intercourse Act (1834) forbade whites from entering Indian country without a license
But rapid Western expansion in the 1850s brought a new Indian concentration policy with distinct boundaries for each tribe as long as the waters run and grass grows
Kill and scalp all, big and little Concentration Congress investigated did not last & as whites condemned ignored Chivington s these boundaries: attack Sand Creek Massacre (1864) Col John Chivington attacked 700 sleeping Indians in CO after a peace agreement was signed Sioux War (1865-1867) gold miners wanted a Bozeman Trail (across Sioux hunting grounds) to connect mining towns; Sioux murdered 88 U.S. soldiers
In 1867, the U.S. formed the Indian Peace Commission : The discovery of gold in South Dakota led a Sioux army of 2,500 to ambush Ended Bozeman Trail plans Made & kill Lt small Col Custer reservations & his 197 soldiers in the Black Dakota soldiers & Oklahoma in the U.S. territories army called Custer s Last Stand set off demands buffalo for revenge soldiers among were Americans used to fend Few Native Americans settled into off Indian attacks in the West these The U.S. reservations army was ordered peacefully: to stop Red Sioux River ghost War dances (1874) & machine gunned 200 men, women, & children Little Big Horn (1876) Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
Kill the Indian and save the man Richard Pratt, founder of Carlisle In 1871, the U.S. adopted its 4 th Indian policy: Assimilation U.S. citizenship was offered to all Indians who farmed, lived away from their tribe & adopted the habits of civilized life Dawes Severalty Act in 1887 offered farms (160 acres to families & 80 to men) & the protection of U.S. laws
The final blow to Indian culture came with annihilation of buffalo: Began with the construction of the transcontinental RR in 1860s From 1872 to 1874, 3 million buffalo were killed each year
1 hunter = 100 buffalo per day
In 1889, Congress responded to Oklahoma Boomers waiting for noon demands to open the Oklahoma Sooners couldn t wait until noon Territory to white settlement On April 22, 1889, about 100,000 Boomers & Sooners flooded into the last Indian land White migrants claimed 2 million acres in Oklahoma homesteads Moved out Creeks & Seminoles
By 1890, the western frontier ended Miners, ranchers, & cowboys flooded West at the expense of With no more West to A continuation Indians who of were conquer, restricted where would to smaller antebellum & smaller American reservations expansion Manifest Destiny go next? Westerners were commercially connected to Eastern markets but would grow increasingly frustrated by the economic & political concentration of power in the East