WESTWARD MOVEMENT AND SETTLEMENT OF THE FAR WEST, 1862-1900

WESTWARD MOVEMENT AND SETTLEMENT OF THE FAR WEST, 1862-1900

The area we are studying about here consisted of THE GREAT PLAINS, THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, AND THE GREAT BASIN.  Hardly any white people lived in this area by the end of the Civil War with the EXCEPTION of the MORMONS in Utah.  Was described as “1000 miles on all four sides; mountains, plateaus, deserts, plains inhabited by the Indian, buffalo, wild horses, prairie dogs, and coyote.”  This was the area into which those rugged mountain men went as the first non-Indian Americans.

·         Very colorful period of American history

·         Homestead Act, 1862

o   Federal government passed  this to entice Americans to move west

o   Citizen or immigrant who applied for citizenship could claim 160 acres by paying $10.00.  Had to live on the land or cultivate it for 5 years and the land would be theirs

o   Could buy it and own it after 6 months by paying $1.25/acre

 

·         Congress  organized the area into territories for states to be eventually established

·         Settlement became more rapid with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 after Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act in 1862. 

·         Prior to the railroad, steamships had taken passengers from the east coast to the west coast and took a minimum of 30 days.  Also took mail; faster service needed.

·         1857, gov’t. awarded contract to John Butterfield to take mail from St. Louis to San Francisco; would be by stagecoach.  Wells Fargo bought this out in 1866 and continued it until railroad completed in 1869.

·         PONY EXPRESS:  started by Russell Majors, and Waddell in 1860, purpose being to cut mail delivery time.  Route:  St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco; 190 stations approx. 10 miles apart.  Took 10 days to deliver the mail.  Lasted 19 months due to the telegraph being introduced to the west.

·         INDIANS AND INDIAN WAR

o   Estimated that approximately 240,000 Indians in the West by 1860

o   Some tribes resisted very little except for the PLAINS TRIBES.  They resisted:  Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, Apache, Nez Perce

o   Plains Indians were the lifeblood of the Plains Indian:  15,000,000 on the plains in 1860, approximately 1000 by 1880s.

o   1850s, federal gov’t. tried to get the Indians to stay north and south of where white settlement would be and made guarantees to the Indians of land, food, clothing, etc.  This did not happen as there were corrupt Indian agents. 

o   1860-1890 saw almost constant warfare between Whites and Indians

o   Federal government used army (cavalry) to protect settlers.  This included Black cavalry units such as the Tenth Cavalry.  About 1/5 of all soldiers there were black.

o   1851:  Treaty of Fort Laramie with Northern Plains tribes in which these tribes agreed to stay in a defined area and promised not to attack wagons that remained in the specified routes.  Gov’t would give $50,000 per year for 50 years.  Similar treaty negotiated with the Southern Plains tribes.  Will not be successful as settlers and miners crossed lines. 

o   Major Indian Confrontations with Whites

§  1862, Sioux of Minnesota went on warpath, murdering a number of settlers;  was crushed by federal troops and over 300 Sioux hanged after a short trial.

§  Sand Creek Massacre, 1864:  After attacks by the Cheyenne and Arapaho along the trails used by settlers going west along the South Platte River, The Cheyenne and Apache were to meet with the territorial governor at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado.  CHIEF BLACK KETTLE took his tribe to the meeting.  On the morning of November 29, 1864, Colonel J.M. Chivington, out of revenge, ordered his Colorado militia to “Kill and scalp al, big and little.”  98 women, children, and older men murdered by Chivington’s men.  War resulted and led to the Fetterman Massacre.

§  Fetterman Massacre:  1866, Captain William J. Fetterman and 79 men killed by the Sioux.

§  1868, Battle of Washita:  George Armstrong Custer and his men killed Chief Black Kettle and over 100 Cheyenne.

§  1874-75:   Red River War with the southern Plains Indians

§  1876, Battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876:  Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota on land that had been reserved for the Dakota Sioux.  Gold hunters ignored the Indian rights and crossed into land sacred to the Sioux.  Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull led the Sioux and other tribes to resist.  George Armstrong Custer, the “White chief with the yellow hair,”  and 700 troops killed by approximately 2500 warriors.  THIS BATTLE IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR THE INDIANS.  This resulted in the army committing to end the Indian problem. 

§  1877, Nez Perce uprising.  The Nez Perce were under the leadership of CHIEF JOSEPH.  Tried to escape to Canada but caught and surrendered.  Chief Joseph is quoted as saying, “I am tired of fighting.  My heart is sick and sad.  From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”

§  Apaches and GERONIMO continued to fight in southwest and will surrenderin 1886.

§  Battle of Wounded Knee, December 29, 1890:  This is where the end of the Indian problem occurs.  (GOOGLE THIS.)

·         CATTLE KINGDOM

o   Cattle roamed on the open range.  After the Civil War, ranchers began driving their cattle to the railheads. 

o   4 Cattle Trails

§  Goodnight-Loving Trail:  Fort Concho,Texas to Pueblo, Colorado to Denver to Cheyenne, Wyoming

§  Western Trail:  Bandera, Texas to Dodge City, Kansas to Ogallala, Nebraska

§  Chisholm Trai:  San Antonio, Texas to Wichita, Kansas to Abilene, Kansas

Shawnee Trail:  San Antonio, Texas to Austin to Ft. Worth, to Kansas City, Missouri (also split and went to Abilene)

o   Winter of 1886-87 was devastating to the open-range cattle industry.  That plus farmers, sheepherders, overexpansion, and overgrazing and barbed wire ended the open-range cattle industry.

o   JOSEPH GLIDDEN had invented barbed wire.

·         Helen Hunt Jackson, 1881, published CENTURY OF DISHONOR .  It exposed how badly the Indian had been treated by the federal government.  This resulted in strong calls for reform regarding the Indians.

·         DAWES SEVERALTY ACT or DAWES ACT:  1887, Congress passed this and it was to give 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land to the head of each Indian family.  This was an effort to change the Indian’s concept of the tribe and tribal ownership of land and their culture.  Remained in effect until 1934 when the Indian Reorganization Act was passed.  (Google it)

MINING FRONTIER

·         1848: First major gold discovery….was at Sutter’s Mill on the American River near Sacramento, California and was discovered by James Marshall who was building a mill for John Sutter.  Tried to keep the discovery secret but obviously failed to do so

o   Europeans, Asians came, Canadians, whites from across the country, blacks from Massachusetts,, Indiana, Alabama

o   Those who came were known as “Forty-niners.”  +

o    

·         1858:  Gold discovered at Pike’s Peak area which would be part of Colorado territory…..Not as successful as the California discovery, but some fortunes were made

·         1860:  Comstock Lode discovery in Nevada….one of the richest veins of gold in the world…..yielded 306,000,000 dollars in bullion ,gold and silver+

·         Black Hills discovery which resulted in Custer’s Last Stand

·         Other discoveries in Idaho, Montana, Washington Terrritory, Wyoming, New Mexico Territory.

·         Other metals will also be mined such as copper, tungsten, coal, and petroleum deposits.

·         Mining camps that developed around these discoveries would grow into towns (Boom Towns) and cities.  Saloons seemed to be the main business….The Boom Towns would be referred to as “Helldorados.”  Term taken from the term,  “Eldorado,” a legendary city of gold. 

The U.S. Census Bureau declared in 1890 that there was no longer a frontier in the United States.

Frederick Jackson Turner wrote a paper entitled, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.”  In it, he argued that the frontier shaped the American character which in turn helped explain the development of America.  This was due to the individualism needed by those who went west;  he also maintained that the frontier allowed the development of democracy.  Others will disagree with his thesis.