HST 112 - GR #2 - The Conquest of the Far West (Ch 16) PDF

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HST 112 M. Reznicek

Name: Arturo Magallanes

Guided Reading #2 – The Conquest of the Far West (Ch. 16) Learning Objectives: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Detail the effects of ethnic, racial, and cultural prejudice on western society. List the three major industries important to western development, and weigh their importance for economic transformation of the region. Describe the romantic image of the West, as expressed in art, literature, and popular culture. Explain how the actions and policies of the US government affected the fate of western Indians. Describe the significance of the idea of the “frontier” in American history.

Major Themes: 1.

A multitude of ethnic and racial groups populated the Far West in the 19th century and each interacted with Anglo-American migrants in various ways.

2.

Native Americans faced two options as American settlers poured into the Far West following the Civil War. Either settle on a reservation, or fight the US Army as “hostiles.”

3.

As white settlers (miners, ranchers, and farmers) came westward, they helped link the Western economy to the larger capitalist economic structure centered in the Eastern United States.

4.

The federal government played a large role in promoting westward expansion and exploiting the valuable resources of the frontier.

5.

The “Wild West” has exerted a tremendous influence on the American national psyche ever since the 19th century.

ID Terms: Who, What, Where, When, Historical Significance (use the internet if necessary) Sitting Bull  Sitting Bull (c.1831-1890) was the Native American chief under whom the Sioux tribes united in their struggle for survival on the North American Great Plains. Following the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1874, the Sioux came into increased conflict with U.S. authorities. The Great Sioux wars of the 1870s would culminate in the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, in which Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and a confederation of tribes would defeat federal troops under George Armstrong Custer. After several years in Canada, Sitting Bull finally surrendered to U.S. forces with his people on the brink of starvation, and was finally forced to settle on a reservation. In 1890, Sitting Bull was shot and killed while being arrested by U.S. and Indian agents, fearful that he would help lead the growing Ghost Dance movement aimed at restoring the Sioux way of life. Sitting Bull is remembered for his great courage and his stubborn determination to resist white domination.

George A. Custer 

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A cavalry commander in the United States Army, Custer fought in both the Indian Wars as well as the Civil War. He was raised in Ohio and Michigan and West Point admitted in 1858. During the Civil War he gained a reputation that was strong because of whom he associated with. The Battle of Bull Run was his first major engagement. He had a temporary promotion to major general but returned to captain at the end of the war. He played an important role at Appomattox and was there when Robert E. Lee surrendered. General Custer After The Civil War He left for the west and the Indian Wars after the Civil War. He led the 7th Cavalry in the battle of Washita River. Later, in 1873, he was sent to the Dakota Territory to help protect a railroad survey crew from attacks by the Lakota Indians. Killed black kettle and his people

George A . Custer, was a golden-haired, romantic glory seeker. At the battle of the little bighorn in Southern Montana in 1876, the tribal warriors surprised Custer and 264 members of his regiment, surrounded them and killed them. Custer was accused of rashness, but he encountered something that no white man would likely have predicted. The chiefs had gathered as many as 2,500 warriors, one of the largest armies ever assembled at one time in the US.

Geronimo  Apache chief Geronimo (1829-1909) was born in the upper Gila River country of Arizona. Although he harbored animosity toward the Mexican soldiers who killed his wife and children, he also grew to dislike the Anglo-Americans who took over the region following the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. After his Chiricahua Apaches were forced onto Arizona’s San Carlos Reservation in the mid-1870s, Geronimo led his followers on a series of escapes that bolstered his legend and embarrassed the U.S. government. He surrendered to General Nelson Miles in 1886, and remained a celebrity in captivity until his death at Oklahoma’s Fort Sill. Wounded Knee Massacre  On December 29, 1890, the seventh cavalry (which had once been custer’s regiment) tried to round up a group of about 350 cold and starving Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Fighting broke out in which about 40 white soldiers and more than 300 of the Indians including women and children, died. What precipitated the conflict is a matter of dispute. But the battle soon turned into a one-sided massacre, as the white soldiers turned their revolving canons on the Indians and mowed them down in the snow. Dawes Severally Act  Even before the Ghost Dance and the Wounded Knee tragedy (So prior to 1890), the federal government had moved to destroy forever the tribal structure that had always been the cornerstone of Indian Culture. Reversing its policy of nearly fifty years of creating reservations in which tribes could be isolated from white society. Congress abolished the practice by which tribes owned reservation lands communally. Some supporters of the new policy believed they were acting for the good of the Indians, whom they considered a “vanishing race” in need of rescue by white society. But whatever the motive, the policy designed to force Indians to become landowners and farmers, to abandon their collective society and culture and become part of white civilization. The historical significance of this was that it was forced assimilation. Telling them, “be like us or die,” be like them or suffer. Telling them that Indian culture wasn’t normal. That is wasn’t correct. And that it needed fixing.  The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 provided for the gradual elimination of tribal ownership of land and on the allotment of tracts to individual owners. 160 acres to the head of a family, 80 acres to a single adult or orphan, 40 acres to each dependent child. Adult owners were given US citizenship, but unlike other citizens, they could not gain full title to their property for 25 years (supposedly to prevent them from selling the land to speculators). The act applied to most of the western tribes. The pueblo, who continued to occupy lands long ago guaranteed them, were excluded from its provisions. In applying the Dawes Act, the bureau of Indian affairs relentlessly promoted the idea of assimilation that lay behind it. Not only did they try to move Indian families onto their own plots of land, they also took some Indian children sway from their

families and sent them to boarding schools run by whites, where they believed the young people could be educated to abandon their tribal ways. The bureau also moved to stop Indian religious rituals and encouraged the spread of Christianity and the creation of Christian churches on the reservations. Chinese Exclusion Act  In 1882, Congress responded to the political pressure and the growing violence by passing this act. The act banned Chinese emigration to the US for ten years and barred Chinese already inside from becoming naturalized. Representatives supported this around the country. They feared for unemployment and labor unrest throughout the nation. The belief that excluding “an industrial army of Asiatic Laborers” would protect WHITE workers and help reduce class conflict. Congress renewed it again in 1892, then later made permanent in 1902. “frontier thesis” Homestead Act  Made in 1862. Implemented by the Federal Government. Allowed settlers to buy plots of 160 acres for a small fee if they occupied the land they purchased for five years and improved it. The act was intended as a progressive measure. It would provide a free farm to any American who needed one. Seen as a government relief to people who otherwise might have no prospects. Would help create new markets and new outposts of commercial agriculture for the nation’s growing economy. But, it has a lot of misperceptions. Framers of the law assumed mere possession of the land would sustain a farm family. It was too expensive to run a farm. It was too small to farm. And the conditions weren’t correct. They sought government aid. Transcontinental Railroad  In 1865, 12,000+ Chinese workers made up 90 percent of the labor force of the Central Pacific. They were responsible for the construction of the western area of the new road. Having no labor organization, the company of this construction preferred them over white workers. Because it gave them an advantage, they didn’t have to pay them as much for hard work, and the Chinese workers didn’t demand much. Work was arduous and dangerous, and workers were offered little protection from the elements of the mountains. Tunnels collapsed, suffocating and thus killing the workers inside. But the company persisted. However, the Chinese workers had enough, and in the spring of 1866, 5,000 workers went on strike. They demanded higher pay and shorter workdays. This failed, and they returned to work. It was completed in 1869. Now all the workers were out of work. “Cattle Kingdom”  In 1886, An important element of the changing economy of the Far West was cattle ranching. Mexican ranchers had developed the techniques and equipment that the cattlemen and cowboys of the Great Plains would adopt and carry to northernmost ranges of the cattle kingdom. Basically, a cattle boom took place and cattle was beginning to be seen around the country.

Vocabulary: Briefly define/describe each term (use the internet if necessary) Crazy Horse  When the War Department ordered all Lakota bands onto their reservations in 1876, Crazy Horse became a leader of the resistance. Closely allied to the Cheyenne through his first marriage to a Cheyenne woman, he gathered a force of 1,200 Oglala and Cheyenne at his village and turned back General George Crook on June 17, 1876, as Crook tried to advance up Rosebud Creek toward Sitting Bull's encampment on the Little Bighorn. After this victory, Crazy Horse joined forces with Sitting Bull and on June 25 led his band in the counterattack that destroyed Custer's Seventh Cavalry, flanking the Americans from the north and west as Hunkpapa warriors led by chief Gall charged from the south and east. Battle of the Little Bighorn

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By 1876, still in the Black Hills, tensions had risen between the United States and the Plains Indian Tribes, leading to a battle on June 25-26 by the Little Bighorn River between Custer’s 7th Cavalry and the Lakota and Cheyenne Tribes led by Crazy Horse and White Bull. Around 500 U.S. soldiers met an estimated 3,500 Indian warriors. All the U.S. troops were killed in what is often referred to as, “Custer’s Last Stand.”

Chief Joseph  Leader of the Nex Perce, urged his followers to flee from the American troops. They scattered in several directions and became part of a remarkable chase. Joseph moved with 200 men, and 350 women, children, and elders in an effort to reach Canada and take refuge with the Sioux there. American army caught up to them and he surrendered. Some were able to escape, but most didn’t. They were relocated and died of disease and hunger. Frontier Santa Fe Ring  By 1870s, the government of New Mex. Was dominated by one of the most notorious of the many territorial rings that sprang up in the west in the years before statehood. These were circles of local Anglo businesspeople and ambitious politicians with access to federal money who worked together to make the territorial government mutually profitable  In Santa Fe, the ring used its influence to gain control of over 2 million acres of land, much of which had long been in the possession of the original Mexican residents of the territory. The old Hispanic elite had lost much of its political and economic authority Californios  Hispanic residents of California “coolies”  Chinese indentured servants whose condition was close to slavery “Chinatowns” “tongs”  Violent criminal organizations, involved in the opium trade and prostitution mining boom cycle  News, then Individual prospectors would exploit the first shallow deposits of ore largely by hand, with pan and placer mining, and then corporations would come in dig deeper into the surface. Comstock Lode  The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Nevada (then western Utah Territory). It was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States, and named after American miner Henry Comstock. Chisholm Trail  The Chisholm Trail was a trail used in the post-Civil War era to drive cattle overland from ranches in Texas to Kansas railheads. “range wars”  Farmers from the east threw fences around their claims, blocking trails and breaking up the open range. A series of range wars between sheepemen and cattlemen, between ranchers and farmers erupted out of the tensions between these competing groups, resulting in significant loss of life and extensive property damage Rocky Mountain School  The Rocky Mountain School was more a school of thought than an actual institution. Its members were influenced by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains and the surrounding landscape. The most famous members were Albert Bierstacht and Thomas Moran. Their works romanticized the West. Wild West Shows

Gave audiences an image of the west as a place of adventure and romance that lasted for generations “Buffalo” Bill Cody Frederic Remington  Painter and sculpture, captured the romance of the west and its image as an alternative to the settled civilization of the East. Portrayed the cowboy as a natural aristocrat, living in a natural world where all the normal supporting structures of “civilization” were missing. Frederick Jackson Turner  Perhaps the clearest and most influential statements of the romantic vision of the frontier came from this historian, of the University of Wisconsin. In 1893, the 33-year-old Turner delivered a memorable paper to a meeting of the American Historical Association in Chicago titled, “The significance of the frontier in American history.” In which he argued that the end of the “frontier” also marked the end of one of the most important democratizing forces in American life. Assessments were both inaccurate and premature. The west had never been a frontier. Indian Wars  There was almost incessant fighting between whites and Indians from the 1850s to the 1860s, as Indians struggled against the growing threats to their civilizations. Indian warriors, usually traveling in raiding parties of thirty to forty men, attacked wagon trains, stagecoaches, and isolated ranches, often in retaliation for earlier attacks. They focused their attacks on white soldiers. Sand Creek Massacre  Bands of Indians retaliated from white men settling, they wanted to take back their land. But in response, whites called up a large territorial militia. The governor urged all friendly Indians to congregate at army posts for protection before the army began their campaign. A volunteer militia force-largely consisting of unemployed miners, who were apparent drunk—were led to massacre 133 people, 105 were women and children. “Indian hunting”  It was not only the US army that threatened the tribes. It was also unofficial violence by white vigilantes who engaged in what became known as Indian hunting. In Cali, tracking down and killing Indians became for some whites a kind of sport. Some who did not engage in killing offered rewards to those who did; these bounty hunters brought back scalps and skulls as proof of their deeds. Sometimes the killing was in response to Indian raids on white communities. But often it was in service a more basic and terrible purpose. “Ghost Dance”  The new revival emphasized the coming of a messiah, but its most conspicuous feature was a mass, emotional, Ghost Dance, which inspired ecstatic visions. Among these visions were images of a retreat of white people from the plains and a restoration of the great buffalo herds. White agents on the Sioux reservation watched the dances in bewilderment and fear, some believed they might be the preliminary to hostilities. barbed wire  Even under the most favorable conditions, farming on the plains presented special problems. The problem of fencing. Farmers had to enclose their land, if for no other reason than to protect it from the herds of the open-range cattlemen. But traditional wood or stone fences were too expensive and were ineffective as barriers to cattle. In 1873, two Illinois farmers solved the problem by developing and marketing barbed wire, which became the standard equipment on the plains and revolutionized fencing practices all over the country. tariff 

Discussion Questions: Answer each question, or address these topics in your notes

1.

From the time of initial colonial contact to the close of the nineteenth century, the relationship between Native Americans and white settlers was marked by a high degree of violence by whites toward Natives. What were the popular ideas and cultural beliefs found in white American society that motivated this violence? How was the West “won”?

2.

In the late nineteenth century, why was assimilation between the peoples of the United States and Indian tribes difficult to attain?

3.

Assess the Chinese experience in the West during the second half of the nineteenth century. Despite strong discrimination, why did they stay in the United States and how did they manage to support themselves?

4.

What economic factors would motivate someone to move to the West during the second half of the nineteenth century?

5.

What deep-rooted American ideals and beliefs are found in the mythic status of western cowboys?

6.

Compare the myths and the realities of the American cowboy.

7.

In what ways did the American West not conform to its popular image?

8.

Describe the origins and development of the Texas cattle industry.

9.

What was Frederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier thesis,” and what are the criticisms of it?

10.

Describe and assess the evolution of white American attitudes and policy toward American Indian groups in the last half of the nineteenth century.

11.

How did Native Americans respond to federal government policies—and to military actions against them?

12.

Describe the rise and decline of the western Plains farmer in the late nineteenth century. Did the Homestead Act live up to its promise of providing opportunities to small farmers on the Great Plains?

13.

Why did Americans consider the frontier to be “closed” by the turn of the century?

14.

What effects did the existence of the frontier have on the development of the United States?...