history american west Flashcards
THE GOLD RUSH OF 1894
1894 - CALIFORNIA
Discovery of gold - huge increase in migration to the west and significant consequences for law and order, settlement, farming and plain Indians.
1836-1849 tens thousands used trail to try find gold.
Thousands came from all over the world, most people did not find gold. Famine in china led to 20000 migrating to CALIFORNIA in 1852.
California by 1852 300,000.
Caused TENSION with Plain Indians
THE OREGON TRAIL AND THE DONNER PARTY
The trail for people MIGRATING.
DISTURBED PLAINS INDIANS
Dangerous: natural disasters(sandstorms, extreme heat, storms etc), stampeding buffalo and hostile Indians.
Oregon trail was 3200km or 3800km for migrants to California .
Needed to be complete journey before winter or risks of getting stuck in mountains.
PROBLEMS OF FARMING THE PLAINS
CLIMATE - very hot, dry summers, very cold winters. Lack of water Grass BURNED easily. WEATHER - thunderstorms, violent winds. EATEN BY INSECTS - GRASSHOPPERS Lack of trees - timber, wood, building.
THE FORT LARAMIE TREATY, 1851
BECAUSE - tension between Indians and white migrants - Indians concerned about impacts on resources, conflicts between tribes and whites feared Indian attacks.
Treaty - reservations for Indians, white settlers allowed into Indian territories and military posts in Indian territories, loss of Indian Independence (receive resources from US Government).
THE HOMESTEAD ACT, 1862
New wave of settlement in west after Civil War, HOMESTEAD ACT. provided incentives to take unclaimed land in west and build new life.
AIMS - wanted families to start new lives in the west NOT RICH people that’s why land was cheap and weren’t allowed more than one claim.
LIMITATIONS - high dropout in homesteading, 60% claims proved up because of problems farming - plots too small for the dry Plains environment.
CATTLE TRAILS AND COW TOWNS
GROWTH occurred as railroads provided a way to move cattle worth $5 a head in Texas to the industrial cites in North to $40 a head.
ABILENE first cow town - Joseph McCoy, first to see potential in cow towns but needed too: build stockyards & hotels, build new railroad spur for loading cattle onto trucks, spent $5000 on promoting marketing.
GOODNIGHT-LOVING TRAIL - 1866 government forgot to get enough supplies for Indian reservations, 800 cattle sold for $12,000 four times price in Texas. Success led to cattle ranches beginning to grow.
JOHN ILIFF - saw opportunity to sell meat to mining towns, Denver where it was hard to bring supplies in so he set up a ranch near there and had 26,000 cattle to sell and became a millionaire by selling it to miners, Indian reservations and railroad worker gangs.
IMPACTS ON THE PLAIN INDIANS
Growing of cattle industry increase pressure on Plains Indians, the resources they depended on had already shrunk as white America expanded.
IMPACTS OF RAILROADS - Increased settlement, disrupted buffalo herds, Indians moved off rail road land to reservations, led to buffalo extermination.
Cattle trails crossed through Indians land most tribes allowed this but the southwest Comanche didn’t and attacked cowboys - leading to tension and US Army retaliation attacks.
THE BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIG HORN, 1876
Combined forces of the SIOUX nation defeated the US Army - defeat transformed US policy towards the Indians.
Migrant George Custer went into Sioux land and took gold even though whites weren’t allowed to settle there or prospect for gold. US government badly wanted their land then gave them 60 days to leave or get attacked - harsh snow so 7,000 Indians prepared for war and did not leave. Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and their people General Crook at Rosebud river, 17 June 1876 then travelled to Little Big Horn River, 25 June 1876 Custer attacked them and got badly defeated - 225 men died and were stripped, disfigured and scalped.
CONSEQUENCES - before people favoured getting agreement with Indians - afterwards wanted to destroy the Indians, at least their way of life.
THE WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE, 1890
Indians facing cuts in their rations due to crop failure - drought and despair at the loss of lands and way of life - response was GHOST DANCE.
In belief that the GREAT SPIRIT would bring back the dead and a great flood would take the whites away - this worried whites, US Army moved in. Sitting Bull killed when arrested in case he led a rebellion, his people fled to join Big Foot who fled when Army moved in.
MASSACRE - Big Foot slowed by snow and pneumonia army caught up, taken to wounded knee creek where they were disarmed, Indians danced and shooting started, in 10 minutes 250 Indians died and 25 soldiers, it was the end of Indian resistance.
IMPACTS OF WKM - Sioux band resisting, became a reason to fight for Indians, end of Ghost dance, last clash between the Sioux and US Army.
END OF THE PLAINS INDIANS WAY OF LIFE
after wounded knee massacre
FACTORS:
- Railroads in the west
- Extermination of the buffalo
- Governments reservation policy
- Discovery of gold in the west
- Homesteads on the plains
