Closing Frontier 1865 1890 Indian War I Expansion the End of the Frontier A Facts of Westward Expansion 1 Only 4 states west of the Missouri River at this time but land was occupied by Indians 2 Between 1860 1900 10 new states joined the union 3 Open land waiting to be settled or Indian country occupied by people who ve lived there for hundreds of years B Turner Thesis Document 3A 1 Frederick Jackson Turner the first professional historian 2 Presented in 1893 at Chicago World Fair 3 Wrote about the American character slipping away because of disappearing frontier land 4 Rather than thinking of Europeans bringing their culture to US he says that the frontier makes Americans 5 Distinctive about American character individualistic 6 Indians are absent from Turner Thesis C American Progress painting by John Gast in 1872 1 Manifest Destiny Our God given right to go and capture the entire continent 2 Painting of a woman holding a telegraph wire and a Bible facing west Ships railroad and cattle civilization in the East Buffalo chased by Indians and darkness unknown in the West 3 Different view than Turner but still seen as whites taking over the West 4 American Dreams is changing from middle class farmer II Conquering Indian Country Culture A Cheyenne Tribe Sand Creek Massacre 1864 Chivington v Cheyennes Impacted by California Gold Rush in 1849 1 2 Treaty of Fort Laramie 1851 Indians would allows whites to cross their territory if the whites provide cash to tribe and guarantee safety to the tribe 3 Colonel Chivington Colorado Senator that wants to kill all Indians and attacks Cheyenne village and kills at least 28 men and 105 women and children Chivington boasts that he killed several more 4 Forced the Cheyennes and neighboring tribes to retaliate against American army with guerilla warfare B Sioux Tribe Battle of Little Bighorn 1876 Custer v Sioux 1 Sioux tribe finds gold on their reservation so settlers want their land 2 Sioux Chief was Sitting Bull that wanted to fight American army to keep land 3 Custer wants more fame so he decides to attack Siouxs alone 600 Americans with thousands of Indians 4 Sioux s win half American soldier die including Custer 5 One of the few major defeats of the war pyrrhic victory for the Indians 6 Justifies the desire of white settlers to seize their land and American government to send more resources to army to solve Indian problem C Nez Perce Tribe Washington Oregon 1 Chief Joseph converted to Christianity and moved his tribe to Oregon but government made them transfer to smaller land until American General Howard breaks treaty 2 General Howard catches tribe near Canadian border and captures starves and freezes them out until Chief Joseph finally surrenders 3 Massacre at Wounded Knee Ghost Dance 1890 Avenging earlier defeat a Ghost Dance was a ritual of fasting purification sweating and dancing that was thought to protect them from army gunfire D Changing American Policy towards Indians 1 Assimilation of Indians a Created Indian boarding schools where children were forced to speak English and embrace American culture i e cut hair dress American b Kill the Indian but save the man 2 Dawes Severalty Act 1887 a Established a new policy from 1887 1930s allowed President to distribute land from reservation to individual Indian family that severed ties from their tribe Severed ties family would get American citizenship and 160 acres of land b 47 million acres given to severed Indian families c 138 million acres given to whites III Homesteaders Cowboys the Corporate West Most 96 Indians died of diseases from white people i e flu cholera Many White had convinced Indians to sign treaties they didn t understand Whites continued to push Indians further west Began using armed violence to resisting Indians and integration to Indians that cooperated A Morrill Land Grant Act 1862 1 Signed by Pres Lincoln that created land grant colleges that taught A M arts in universities in 1874 LSU received funding 2 Made sure public universities would teach agriculture to preserve farming farmers B Homestead Act 1862 1 Gave an incentive for Americans to move West to settle on land of their own 2 Anyone man or woman over 21 could apply except Confederate soldiers 3 Land loaned to person for 5 years if they lived on their plot for 5 years and cultivated and improved grow crops build house the land they got full title to the land 4 Mixed results Gave 300 million acres of land to women immigrants and freed slaves but only 10 of all farmers in the West used Homestead Act and 50 of users lost their land after five year trial period 5 Land was often far away from water and trees which made it hard to farm and build on 6 The best land was along the railroads 7 Sodbusters a Homesteaders who tried to use supplies on the land sod to build houses due to lack of adequate materials b Land speculators Got cheap land from homesteaders that didn t want their land in hopes of investment 8 Bonanza Ranches a Most successful owned by large corporations b At least 1 000 acres used mechanisms and factory ideas and applied them to ranching to increase productivity and decrease labor c Cattle Ranchers stretched from Texas to Wyoming Transport cattle along railroads Represented the Corporate West 9 Chisholm Trail a Cattle trail that goes from San Antonio to Kansas b Cowboy life was not good c The point of cattle trails was to end up near train station it was important to get the cattle to the packing place that slaughtered cattle d Cattle Kingdom takes steep drop because of record cold winters with drought which killed 90 of cattle on trails Cattle competition increases
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