U.S. 1a,c, i U.S. 2a, b U.S. 4a, d

Westward Migration After the Civil War

Manifest DestinyAmericans want to live from sea to sea!Americans seek more space and build a

transcontinental railroad.

U.S. 1a,c, i U.S. 2a, b U.S. 4a, d

In the 1800s the United States acquired more land.

• The Beginning of Westward Expansion – Early Explorers – Trappers– Mountain Men– America Doubles in size

                                                                

                                          

Westward Expansion-Review

Westward Migration-moving WestEarly Settlers Conestoga Wagon TrainsMormon SettlementOregon Territory-Oregon Trail

Gold Discoveries-CaliforniaMail routes/Pony Express-PullTranscontinental Railroad-PullU.S. 1a,c, i U.S. 2a, b U.S. 4a,

d

U.S. 1a,c, i U.S. 2a, b U.S. 4a, d

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During the 19th century, people’s perceptions and use of the Great Plains

changed. Technological advances allowed people to live in more challenging

environments.

U.S. 1a,c, i U.S. 2a, b U.S. 4a, d

U.S. 1a,c, i U.S. 2a, b U.S. 4a, d

Physical Features and Climate of the Great Plains

Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west.

Erosion

Low rainfall and

frequent dust storms.

U.S. 1a,c, i U.S. 2a, b U.S. 4a, d

New opportunities and technological advances led to westward migration and

expansion after the Civil War. Pull factors

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New Technologies of the West

Helping the farmers to grow more food

*Barbed wire kept the cattle drives out of the farmer’s land.

* Mechanical reapers helped them grow more crops with less people to work on the farm.

Life on the farms*The railroad

allowed more people to come west, so towns and cities developed.

*The west became a true part of the country as more settlers moved in.

U.S. 1a,c, i U.S. 2a, b U.S. 4a, d

1. Barbed Wire People used barbed wire to

make fences.

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2. Steel Plow (hard earth) and Dry Farming (seeds that need little water)

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3. Wheat was an easy crop to grow with

dry-farming.

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4. Windmills-pumped water from underground aquifers and from wells

dug in the ground. Why Needed? Little Rain on the

Great Plains

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5. Sod Houses- Because few trees grew on the Great Plains, most families

lived in houses made of sod.

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Sod is pieces of dirt held together by twisted roots.

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4. Beef Cattle Raising Ranching - Most of the large cattle ranches began in

Texas.

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Settlers raised cattle for food, and to sell in the East.

Took them along trails to the Railroad.

Stayed FAT.

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5. Railroads-Transported Cattle and other goods to market and people to the West.

Transcontinental Railroad

•First started being built during the Civil War by the Union Pacific Company.

•May 10, 1869 the “Wedding of the Rails” took place at Promontory Point Utah.

•The railroad connected the East coast to the West coast.

Chinese and Irish workers worked side by side to complete the railroad.

Transcontinental Railroad

•The railroad ended the way of life for the Plains Indian.

•The Railroad cut the large buffalo herd that grazed on the Great Plains.

•Passengers on the trains would shoot buffalo out of the windows of moving trains for “sport”

Transcontinental Railroad

“With out the Railroad it would have taken a century to accomplish what has been done in five years”–Dakota Newspaper Editor

Because of new technologies, people saw the Great Plains not as a “treeless wasteland” but

as a vast area to be settled.

Reasons for Westward ExpansionWho will go West??

Manifest Destiny

1. Opportunities for land ownership made possible by the Homestead Act..

In 1862 the government wrote a new law:The Homestead Act The WEST, Grandest

It gave men that were 21 years old or more 160 acres of land for $18 and they had to

build a house…

…plant crops… and live on the land for 5 years.

2. Technological advances-Reaper increased farm production

3. Transcontinental Railroads

4. Possibility of wealth created by the discovery of gold and silver.

5. Adventure and Hope

6. A new beginning for former slaves:Exodusters

PioneersWho went WEST?????

1. Farmers and Sodbusters 2. African-Americans or Exodusters.

They called themselves Exodustersbecause they were on a “exodus” or journey

to freedom.

3. Cowboys and Ranchers

•Cattle drives went through land owned by the government if possible. Cowboys worked on the big ranches in Texas and other parts of the Southeast. Every spring the cowboys rounded-up the cattle…for the two-month cattle-drive on the Chisholm Trail. The Chisholm Trail went from Texas to Kansas and connected to the railroad. These cows were then put on trains and sent to cities in the East.

Mexican “Vaqueros”… They were the first cowboys of the West.

They took care of cattle on ranches mainly in California and

the Southwest.

Cowboys•From 1860-1890 was the height of Cowboy era

•9-10 Cowboys would spend about 3-4 months on a cattle drive. After the cowboys would sell their cattle, They would spend all their money on booze, and gambling.

Cattle Kingdom-The Homestead Act of

1862 gave people land, so they moved west, many became ranchers.

Cows or Horses

• 1850 Texas had an estimated 330,000 heads of cattle, by 1860 it had grew to an estimated 3 to 4 million.

• By 1868 Cattle Drives became the big business in Texas.

• The Transcontinental Railroad solved the problem of transporting the cattle.

• Cowboys would take the cows to towns and loaded them on trains and ship them to cites like New York and San Francisco.

4. Miners, or Forty-Niners In 1849 gold and silver was discovered

in California.

They started “mining towns” Boom Towns from the Rocky Mountains to California.

5. Immigrants: Thousands of Americans and people from other countries migrated

Westward. EX. The Chinese

During the 1849 gold rush, thousands of Chinese immigrated to the U.S.

Some of them looked for gold…but most of them helped to build the Central Pacific Railroad in the west.

6. Pioneer Women: They made clothing, quilts, soap, candles, and other

goods by hand. They also had to cook and preserve food for the winter, educate the children, take care of the sick and injured,

help with planting and harvesting, and help to build the sod houses.

7. Native Americans

New opportunities and technological advances led to westward migration and

expansion after the Civil War.

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A Way to Remember: Why GO?

• L: Land• A: Adventure• R: Railroads• G: Gold and Silver• E: Exodusters- former slaves

want freedom U.S. 1a,c, i U.S. 2a, b U.S. 4a,

d

7. Native Americans:

Population changes, growth of cities, and new inventions produced conflict between

different cultural groups.

Indian Removal Act of 1830

Native Americans and U.S. Policies

A. Assimilation on Reservations

In 1838, more than 15,000 Cherokees were forced to leave their homes… and move to

a reservation in Oklahoma.

About 4,000 Native Americans died along the way…

it became known as the Trail of Tears.

Killing of the Plains

• The Military removal of the Indians was relentless. The Army spent an estimated 1 million dollars on every adult male Indian killed.

• 1874 gold was discovered in Dakotas.

• Miners flooded into the Sioux and Cheyenne territory.

• The two tribes attacked the miners.• Led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

B. Battle of the Little Bighorn

Colonel George Custer

Lakota Chief

vs

Little Bighorn

• The battle came to a climax at the Little Bighorn river.

• Sioux and Cheyenne tribes were at camp there.

• General George Custer attacked the Native Americans.

• In 1876, General Custer led a group of about 225 soldiers against the Lakota tribe.

• General Custer and all his men died.

• The Sioux and Cheyenne finally surrendered in 1881.

Dawes Act- Assimilate them

•The Plains Indians fought 100’s of battles from 1860-1890, but due to the killing of the Buffalo the Natives could not keep fighting. Lost a resource!!!

•1887 the Government passed the Dawes Act. This gave Native families 160 acres and after 25 years they would be citizens

C. Chief Joseph-Leader of the Nez Perce Tribe.

In the 1870s, settlers and gold miners wanted his land.They persuaded the government to force the Nez Perce onto a

reservation.

Chief Joseph did not want to go to a reservation… so he led a group of his followers

on a 1,000-mile journey from Oregon to Canada.

30 miles from Canada, the soldiers found them. For 5 days, the Nez Perce fought for freedom. Finally, Chief Joseph surrendered.

The Nez Perce tribe was also taken to the reservation in Oklahoma.

D. Battle of Wounded Knee-South Dakota

• On the morning of December 29, 1890, the Sioux chief Big Foot and some 350 of his followers camped on the banks of Wounded Knee creek. Surrounding their camp was a force of U.S. troops charged with the responsibility of arresting Big Foot, disarm his warriors and take t hem to Nebraska. The scene was tense. Trouble had been brewing for months.

• The next morning the chief, racked with pneumonia and dying, sat among his warriors and powwowed with the army officers. Suddenly the sound of a shot pierced the early morning gloom. Within seconds the charged atmosphere erupted as Indian braves scurried to retrieve their discarded rifles and troopers fired volley after volley into the Sioux camp. From the heights above, the army's Hotchkiss guns raked the Indian teepees with grapeshot. Clouds of gun smoke filled the air as men, women and children scrambled for their lives. Many ran for a ravine next to the camp only to be cut down in a withering cross fire.

• Many of the injured died of exposure in the freezing weather, and several days after the incident the dead were strewn as far as approximately two to five miles away from the original site. By mid-afternoon on December 29, 1890 the indiscriminate slaughter ceased. Nearly three-hundred men (including Chief Big Foot), women, and children -- old and young -- were dead on the frosty banks of Wounded Knee Creek. Twenty-nine soldiers also died in the melee, but it is believed that most of the military causalities were a result of "friendly" crossfire that occurred during the fighting frenzy. Twenty-three soldiers from the Seventh Calvary were later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for the slaughter of defenseless Indians at Wounded Knee

Result of the Indian Wars. They lost most of their land and freedom, and were forced to

live on reservations.

Settlements in the West caused problems for Native Americans because they were

forced to live on reservations.