movement west
TRANSCRIPT
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The Movement West
United States Studies
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Here’s What We’ll Learn• The West’s Geography• Why Easterners moved West• Conflict with Native Americans• Attempted “assimilation” of Native
Americans• The Cattle Boom• Living in the West
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Statehood
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Why Move West?• Pull Factors:
• Railroads—sold left-over land cheap
• Homestead Act (1862)—160 acres• 21 years old or head of
a family• American citizen or
immigrant applying for citizenship
• Live on land for 6 months for 5 years
• Railroads (Transcontinental Railroad)
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Why Move West?• Push Factors:
• Eastern farmland costly• Restart (African-
Americans)• Escape religious
repression (Mormons)• Who Settled?
• Germans Immigrants: Texas to Missouri
• African-Americans: Kansas (Exodusters)
• Scandinavians: Iowa & Minnesota (climate)
• Mexicans: Texas & New Mexico
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Fighting Native Americans• Whites: “Indian
Problem”• Natives: Life or death—
must do an all-out assault
• Great Plains was their area: nomadic—followed buffalo herds
• Indian Land until the Gold Rush & Homestead Act
• First—made treaties (some kept; others not) to buy land, stop movement of Nomads, or put Natives in Reservations
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Result: Battles• 1871: U.S. Government:
won’t sign treaties any more; fight instead
• Battle lines shifted; forts couldn’t be built; desertion common
• Buffalo Soldiers (10th Cavalry)
• Battle of Little Bighorn (1876): Custer’s Last Stand—Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse (Sioux) won
• Battle of Wounded Knee (1890): Last battle between Natives & US Army
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New Policies Towards Natives
• They were defeated, so…1. Assimilation: Give up culture, learn English, children go to school2. Dawes Act: Created many new reservations, Natives given 160 acres & granted US citizenship (went against Native ideas of shared land & tribal leadership)3. More land for settlement (squatters)
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Homesteaders• Difficult life (~$1000 setup)
• Sod house (leaky roofs; dirt floors)
• Farming: no machines; tough land (backbreaking labor)
• Pests: grasshopper & mosquito infestations; rattlesnakes get into sod homes easily)
• Droughts common in great Plains
• Help was on the way: irrigation; farm machinery (both increased debt)
• “Bonanza Farms” were created too
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Making Money• Sutter’s Mill (Ca. Gold Rush)• Comstock Lode (Silver &
Gold in Nevada)• Black Hills (many ores in
Dakotas)• Result: boom towns• Cattle drive (Great Plains):
Texas ranchers’ cattle escaped when they went to fight for the Confederacy
• US: beef binge; ranchers made $
• Cowboys: 18 hour days!• Cattle boom ended as price
dropped and land became fenced