American West III Flashcards
Why was there increased tension?
- People would steal to make a living and eat
- Homesteaders, ranchers and Plain Indians bickered over resources
- People afraid to act against powerful ppl
- Killing by self defence was acceptable
- Plenty of space to hide from the law - large territories
- Corrupted law people - bribed judges, officers, governers
- Few men who wanted to be sheriffs.
- Undermined power of the law
Importance of Billy the Kid 1878-81
- Exciting figure - dramatic newspaper writings
- Fought rich and powerful (small homesteaders, black americans liked)
- Showed how weak the law system was
Summary of Billy the Kid
- Lincoln County War 1878 - fought with ranchers who wanted more land (JOHN CHISUM)
- Priv war
- Capture, escape, dead - Pat Garrett (asked by ranchers)
Wyatt and OK Corral 1881
- 1874 - offered a job as deputy marshall after helping sheriff stopping cowboy fight, so did in Dodge City, then moved to Arizona
- 2 rich ranching families hired Wyatt to bring law and order, 1881 now rumoured to be lawless, stagecoach robberies
- Killed members of the rich families he had helped at OK Corral. Claimed he fired first but simply murdered
- Had to flee tombstone after he shot 2 people he thought killed his brother
Importance of the Johnson County War 1892?
- Range wars
- Roich cattle barons v smoll ranchers/homesteaders
- SMoll fed up with letting biggies go scot free lawmen links
Killing of Ella Watson and Jim Averill
- Small homesteaders had a claim from a landholder called Albert Bothwell
- Jim wrote a letter calling Bothwell a rich land grabber
- Bothwell accused Ella of steeling cattle she bought
- Hung them both and took their land
Other killings of small homesteaders happened and soon these people formed their own group and
decided to ROUND UP CATTLE THEMSELVES without permission from the big ranchers.
Wealthy cattlemen showed they had not accepted this when they raised $1000,000 to kill 70 men who
were out on the round up and called them RUSTLERS.
Importance of the Battle of Little Bighorn 1876
- Plain Indians ASSMILIATE OR DIE - change in attitude
- George Custer and 200 men killed from Plain Indians
- Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull
Consequences of the Battle of Little Bighorn 1876
- Plain Indians seen as a real threat
- Questioned Manifest Destiny
- Huge pressure on government
For Plain Indians:
- Had to be kept on reservations for supplies
- Previous treaties could be ignored
- Sioux had to live under military rule and weapons were taken
Importance of the Wounded Knee Massacre
- Sacred dance to ancestors
- President Harrison take control - Sitting Bull killed
- Sitting Bull’s followers went to Wounded Knee Creek
Consequences of Wounded Knee Massacre
- Positive relieved public
- White settlers believed Plain Indians should be killed
- 1890 no land belonged to the Plain Indians
Permanent extermination of buffalo?
-Industrial Revolution - leather cities
- Transport - railroad shooting funsies
- Weapons - easy rifle kill
- Waste - only skin was used - detriment to Plain Indians
The fall of Plain Indians
- Smaller reservations or no food (Sioux)
- US gov didn’t talk to Tribal Chiefs but easily bribed councils
- Gov agents responsible for how much land taken - assimilation by doing this to Plain Indians
- Education under military conditions
- Religion - brought up christian
- Living conditions - no nomad, just gov
- Agri was now essential
The Dawes Act?
- Each Plain Indian family given 160 acre plot
- Plain Indians who left the reservation could become American Citizens
- Remaining land in reservations could be sold off
Importance of Dawes Act?
- Produced more land for white settlers
- Plain Indians lost more than half of land
- Plain Indians couldn’t make a living if they bought land
- Indian Frontier closed in 1890
- Enough people in old reservations to make states EG Dakota, Mantanna, Wyoming
