SS- Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Changes on the Western Frontier

The Native Americans lived on the Great Plains. Horse and buffalo were their way of life- the horses were used for hunting and the buffalo was used for its food, bones, and skins to make homes with.

After the Civil War, Americans began to move onto the Great Plains for different reasons:
1. Gold
2. Opportunities
3. Congress passed the Homestead Act in 1862, which promise 160 acres of land to any family that would settle the land.

African Americans also moved West after the war. They were nicknamed the Exodusters.

As Americans began to move west, they met up with Indians. They often clashed over land and resources:
1. Sand Creek Massacre- in 1864. The Cheyenne Indians that were in the Colorado territory were pushed to the Sand Creek reserve. Life was difficult for them there and they began to raid nearby American camps. The Americans sent troops over to control the Cheyenne. These troops slaughtered 200 Cheyenne, mostly woman and children.
2. Custer’s Last Stand- at the border of Wyoming and Montana, whites and Native Americans clashed. The Sioux Indians were living here. Some settle and made treaties with the Americans, but the Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, wouldn’t make treaties. In 1870, gold was discovered right in the middle of the Colorado hills. The government offered to buy the land, but Sitting Bull said that he’s not going to sell the Black Hills. The Americans sent over Custer, a strategist, to force the Sioux to give up their land. Sitting Bull together with Crazy Horse fought the Americans and the Indians defeated the American army- they killed Custer. Soon after, America regrouped and killed out the Sioux.
In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act- Americanize the Indians. It wasn’t successful and the Indians resented it. It destroyed their way of life. The Indians were given the poorest farm land so they didn’t succeed at being farmers. But what really destroyed the Indians’ way of life was the destruction of the buffalo. By the 1900s, the buffalo were almost all wiped out because:
a. Railroads split the herds.
b. It was a sport to shoot buffalo from railcar windows.
3. Battle of Wounded Knee- the Sioux were losing all their land and the buffalo- their way of life was being totally destroyed. Their last effort at maintaining their culture was by gathering together to dance the ghost dance- this was a ritual which they believed would bring back their land and buffalo. The Americans were frightened by this strange act and tried to arrest Sitting Bull. During the arrest, Sitting Bull was killed. The American forces rounded up about 350 Sioux. They took them to Wounded Knee Creek and the army ordered them to give up their rifle. A shot was fired and 300 people were massacred. This was the last battle.

Books were written to show how the Americans mistreated the Indians. They portrayed the Americans as villains:
1. Dee Brown wrote a book called “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”. It talked about how the Americans mistreated the Sioux.
2. Helen Hunt Jackson wrote “A Century of Dishonor”. It discussed the hundred years of pain that the Americans inflicted upon the Indians.

Growth of the cattle industry-

As the herds of buffalo on the Great Plains disappeared they were replaced by cattle. As the demand for beef grew, so did the cattle industry. Cattle ranching now became a big business from Texas to Kansas.

In the beginning, most of the cattle were long horns. This is a hearty breed. They were sturdy and could forge food on their own. They also took care of themselves. During the winter, they were allowed to roam somewhat free. They were frisky animals.

The men who took care of the cattle were known as cowboys. The cowboy way of life was developed by the Spaniards in Mexico. The Spanish influence can be seen in the cowboy’s vocabulary (lasso is a Spanish word), food and mode of dress- wore bandanas and special pointed boots to fit in the stir ups. They carried a six shooter- gun that could soot six shots before reloading. This came to be the symbol of the old west.

Cattle business didn’t really take off until it reached the west because they had no way of getting to the east. Between 1866 and 1886 there were about 1,500 cowboys- about 12% were Mexican and 25% were African American.

The cowboy’s way of life was difficult. They worked between ten and fourteen hours a day. They worked the hardest in the spring and summer. In the winter, there wasn’t so much work to be done so they either lived off of their savings or did odd jobs. Cowboys that we see in movies or shows such as Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hitchcock aren’t really cowboys and they don’t display the true life in the Wild west. In the spring, the cowboys had to gather up the cattle and they started the Long Drive- a walk from Texas to Kansas. This took about three months. In Kansas, they were shipped in cattle cars. These three months were the heat of their work. The Long Drive was a very difficult journey- they had to swim across rivers with their cattle. After the cattle were delivered, the cowboys went back down south.

Eventually, the era of the open range came to an end. There were a series of natural disasters such as droughts and blizzards which killed the cattle during the winter months. The cattle ranchers moved away from long horns to other breeds of cattle. These new breeds produced better meat and needed more care. The ranchers began to fence in their cattle. Barbed wire was a new invention at this time- it helped close in the open range. It was invented by James Glidden.

Settling of the Great Plains-

More and more people moved onto the Great Plains. As railroads were built, people were moving out west. The American government encouraged the building of the railroads. From 1850 to 1871, the government gave huge chunks of land to the railroad companies to encourage them to build railroads.

The two major railroad companies were:
1. Central Pacific- started in California and built east.
2. Union Pacific- started in Nebraska and built west.

They hired mostly immigrant workers such as the Chinese and Irish. African Americans and Mexican Americans also worked on the railroads.

In 1869, the tracks met at Promontory, Utah- they put a gold spike at the meeting point. America now had a transcontinental railroad.

Railroads brought many people west. Railroad companies also sold some of their lands to foreigners- this attracted people. The Homestead Act also brought people out west. The government passed many laws to get people to move out west. A lot of land went to miners and ranchers.

The west was lonely and building homes was challenging. People lived in:
1. Soddies- houses made out of mud.
2. Dugouts- houses dug out of the hills.
The prairie land was tough so it was hard to work. Woman worked with the men, while at the same time being responsible for their womanly jobs.

Inventions that helped farmers:
1. Steel plow
2. Reaper
3. Barbed wire- kept other wild animals away.
4. Windmill- helped water from down under the earth.

The government also tried to help farmers- the US government passed the Morill Land Grant Act. This act gave money to farmers to set up universities that would teach farmers new techniques in agriculture.

To buy machinery was very costly, so the farmers had a lot of debt. In order to minimize the debt, the farmers would farm huge tracts of land- bonanza farms. These farms generally grew cash crops. Over the years, there were a series of droughts in the Midwest. This hurt some of the farmers so that they now had huge debts. In addition, shipping the crop was very expensive so the farmers were really not doing well. In addition to this, after the Civil War, the dollar was very strong. This was great for the consumer but terrible for the farmer. The farmers felt that the strong dollar hurt them because they do more selling then buying and it’s lousy for their debts. They felt that they were choking and were ready for reform.

Oliver Kelly started the Grange movement. At first, this was a social movement- get together to talk and ease the loneliness. This quickly changed into a political movement. They spent most of their energy fighting the railroads.

The Farmer’s Alliance was an outgrowth of the Grange movement. All kinds of people joined, not only farmers. People realized that if they wanted change, they needed political clout. They formed the Populist Party, which wanted to give people a greater voice in government. Some of their ideas were:
1. Direct election of senators.
2. Secret ballot
Many people felt that the Populist Party was radical however in the national election, they won about ten percent of the votes. On a local level, many of their party members were elected. From this we see that the Populist Party was a real political force.

In 1893, the economic wheel turned and there was the Panic of 1893. During the presidential election of 1895, so during that year, it was a hot topic. There were two different opinions:
1. Gold bugs- let’s restore the dollar’s strength by making sure that it’s only backed by gold as opposed to silver.
2. The farmers didn’t want a strong dollar. They were therefore nicknamed the silverites. They wanted the dollar backed by silver. Their official term was bimetallism- mostly silver and a little bit of gold.

The presidential campaign was an interesting one:
1. Democrats and Populist Parties nominated William Jennings Bryon. A was a fabulous speaker and was a very dynamic person. He made a famous speech called the Cross of Gold. He spoke to the nation, telling them that they need their farmers because everyone needs to eat. He said that if they down the gold peoples’ businesses, nothing will happen, but if you shut down farms, grass is going to grow in the city because people need food. He said that gold shouldn’t be so important that you’ll kill people for it.
2. Republican Party- nominated William McKinley. He looked like a person who could be counted on. He wasn’t a good speaker so his campaign manager didn’t let him go out to speak; his manager would bring people to him and he would speak to them. Because of this, he was nicknamed the Front Porch Campaigner. He stood for the idea that the dollar shouldn’t lose its value.
McKinley won and the Populist Party died. Down the road however, all the Populist reforms did become laws.