C18 Conquest and Survival The TransMississippi West 1860-1900

Oklahoma
Land
Rush April
22, 1889

Indian
Peoples
Under
Siege

Before the Europeans colonists reached the New World hundreds of

tribes, totaling perhaps a million member, had occupied western
lands for more than 20,000 years. At the close of the Civil War
approximately 360,000 Indian peoples still lived in the transMississippi West, the majority of them in the Great Plains.

Curtis Act which abolished tribal jurisdiction over all

Indian Territory. Members of the former Indian nations
were directed to dismantle their governments and
abandon their estates.

The
Reservation
policy and
the

The 10th Calvary was able to take the

Indians out of territories that the
whites wanted. The need for land for
railroads and mining centers.

Government officials
moved the Indians onto
three reservations after
their leaders ceded
45,000 square miles of
tribal land. The
Suquamish leader
Seattle admitted defeat
but warned the
governor, Your time of
decay may be distant
but it will surely come.

The number of wolves went from 2 million to 200,000

from 1600-1900 in the United States. The Buffalo
population went to 5,000 by 1900. The cost for the
bones was only $7.50 per ton

A Remington could kill a buffalo at 600 ft.

Many whites just killed buffalo for fun

The wolf represents

strength and embodiment
of a wild spirit surviving on
its own. They are known
for their endurance and are
a symbol of stamina and
strength. The wolf enjoys
freedom and individualism,
but it is also gregarious
and enjoys the company of
others having a strong
sense of family. This was
an Indian ritual and belief.
Some Indian women would
show their individuality
and run with the wolves.

The
Indian
Wars

Black Kettle had over 200 of his

Cheyenne's killed by Colorado
Volunteer soldiers. These whites
mutilated the corpse and took
scalps back to Denver to exhibit as
trophies. Iron Teeth a Cheyenne's
survived this Sand Creek Massacre.
Iron Teeth was shot scalped crazy,
but not dead.

The Great Sioux War of 1865-66 the Oglala Sioux warrior Red Cloud
fought the United States army t a stalemate and forced the
government to abandon its forts which the Sioux then burned to the
ground. The Treaty of Laramie gave a temporary peace.

Treaty of Ft. Laramie granted the Sioux the right to occupy

the Black Hills or Paha Sap their sacred land, as long as the
grass shall grow but the discover of gold soon undermined
that guarantee.

General
Custers last
stand. On
June 25,1876
one of the
largest
Indian
contingents
ever
assembled
and
estimated
2,000 to
4,000 wiped
out Custers
ill trained

The Red River

War was 18741875: This was
when the
Kiowa's ,
Comanche's
and Apaches
joined
together to
fight American

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perc Indians in 1877

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd Edition

Copyright 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

The Dawes Act broke up the land of

nearly all bribes into small parcels to be
distributed to Indian families. The
remainder the best land was auctioned of
to the white for prime farm land.

In 1900 roughly 53,000 Indians had become

American citizens by accepting land allotments
under the Dawes Act. Congress granted citizenship
to 100,000 residents of Indian territory Oklahoma.
The citizenship position was a false premise of the
privileges they were suppose to receive.

The Nez
Perces

When the United States Army approached

Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce to relinquish all
of his land. Chief Joseph of the Wallowa band
and moved to the Lapwai reservation in Idaho.
Chief Joseph refused and a battle broke out,
Chief Joseph killed one Montana and Wyoming
through mountains and prairies. third of the
army. He went out on a 1400 mile escape into
Montana and Wyoming. Joseph was captured at
Bear Paw . The escape took 3 and a half month
period

In 1877 Chief Josephs band reluctantly set out from the Wallowa Valley
with their livestock and all their possession . The a Nez Perce truce
team approached the United Stated troops. The troops opened fire, and
the Indian riders fired back killing one third of the soldier. Brilliantly
outmaneuvering vengeful United States troops set intercept them, the
750 Nez Perce retreated for some 1400 miles into Montana and
Wyoming though mountains and prairies across the Bitterroot Range.
Over the three and a half months of their journey, the Nez Perce braves
fought 2,000 regular United States. Eventually the Nez Perce just
surrendered.

Indians sought solace in the Ghost Dance,

a religious revitalization campaign
reminiscent of the Indian prophets like
Neolin and Tenskwatawa

Eugenic
Discriminatio
n and Age
Discriminatio
n

An Act

To prohibit age discrimination in employment.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, that this Act may be cited as the Age Discrimination in
Employment Act of 1967.
***
CONGRESSIONAL STATEMENT OF FINDINGS AND PURPOSE
SEC. 621. [Section 2]
(a) The Congress hereby finds and declares that(1) in the face of rising productivity and affluence, older workers find themselves
disadvantaged in their efforts to retain employment, and especially to regain
employment when displaced from jobs;
(2) the setting of arbitrary age limits regardless of potential for job performance has
become a common practice, and certain otherwise desirable practices may work to the
disadvantage of older persons;
(3) the incidence of unemployment, especially long-term unemployment with resultant
deterioration of skill, morale, and employer acceptability is, relative to the younger ages,
high among older workers; their numbers are great and growing; and their employment
problems grave;
(4) the existence in industries affecting commerce, of arbitrary discrimination in
employment because of age, burdens commerce and the free flow of goods in
commerce.
(b) It is therefore the purpose of this chapter to promote employment of older persons
based on their ability rather than age; to prohibit arbitrary age discrimination in

The Internal
Empire
Mining Towns

The
Internal
Empire

Mining town in Bodie, California. It was

boom or bust. Now is a ghost town,

Typical mining town in Nevada. Currently a ghost town.

Black Hills, South Dakota was an example of a mining town, The

population of California alone jumped from 14,000 to 223,856
(1848-1853)

In the hard rock mines of the

1870s one of every thirty
workers was disabled and one of
every eighty killed. Balladeers
back in Ireland sang of Butte
Montana as the town where the
streets were paved with Irish
bones

Other than the Irish the Cornish immigrants also were part
of the new mining towns

Congress passed the Caminetti Act giving the states

the power to regulate the mines. Underground mining
continued unregulated using up whole forest for timber
and filling the air with dangerous sulfurous smoke,

Mormon
Settleme
nt

The act disincorporated both the LDS Church and the Perpetual Emigration Fund on the grounds that they fostered polygamy. The act prohibited the practice of polygamy and pun
The act:

Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. (8 Otto.) 145 (1878), was a Supreme Court o
the United States case that held that religious duty was not a defense to a
criminal indictment. Reynolds was the first Supreme Court opinion to address
the Impartial Jury and the Confrontation Clauses of the Sixth Amendment.

George Reynolds was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

Saints (LDS Church), charged with bigamy under the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act
after marrying Amelia Jane Schofield while still married to Mary Ann Tuddenham
in Utah Territory. He was secretary to Brigham Young and presented himself as
a test of the federal government's attempt to outlaw polygamy. A first trial
ended in his acquittal on technical grounds.[1]

The Mormons, believing that the law unconstitutionally deprived them of their
First Amendment right to freely practice their religion, chose to ignore the
Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act at the time. On the other hand, in subsequent years,
efforts had been underway to strengthen the anti-bigamy laws. Eventually,
amid the efforts to indict the LDS leadership for bigamy, the First Presidency
agreed to furnish a defendant in a test case to be brought before the United
States Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of the anti-bigamy law
Reynolds, a secretary in the office of the President of the Church, agreed to
serve as the defendant, then provided the attorney numerous witnesses who
could testify of his being married to two wives, and was indicted for bigamy by

The Court considered whether Reynolds could use religious belief or duty
as a defense. Reynolds had argued that as a Mormon, it was his religious
duty as a male member of the church to practice polygamy if possible.
The Court recognized that under the First Amendment, the Congress
cannot pass a law that prohibits the free exercise of religion. However it
argued that the law prohibiting bigamy did not meet that standard. The
principle that a person could only be married singly, not plurally, existed
since the times of King James I of England in English law, upon which
United States law was based.
The Court investigated the history of religious freedom in the United
States and quoted a letter from Thomas Jefferson in which he wrote that
there was a distinction between religious belief and action that flowed
from religious belief. The former "lies solely between man and his God,"
therefore "the legislative powers of the government reach actions only,
and not opinions." The court considered that if polygamy was allowed,
someone might eventually argue that human sacrifice was a necessary
part of their religion, and "to permit this would be to make the professed
doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect
to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself." The Court
believed the First Amendment forbade Congress from legislating against
opinion, but allowed it to legislate against action

polygamy.
The
act disincorporated
The act prohibited
both the
the LDS
practice
Church
of polygamy
and the Perpetual
and punished
Emigration
it with aFund
fine of
onfrom
the grounds
$500 to $800
that they
andfostered
imprisonment
polygamy.
of upThe
to five
actyears.
prohibited
It dissolved
the practice
the corporation
of polygamy
ofand
the pun
chu
The act:

The EdmundsTucker Act of 1887

was passed in response to the dispute
between the United States Congress
and
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d
ay Saints
(LDS Church) regarding polygamy.
The act is found in US Code Title 48 &
1461, full text as 24 Stat. 635, with
this annotation to be interpreted as
Volume 24, page 635 of United States
Statutes at Large. The act is named
after its congressional sponsors,
Senator George F. Edmunds of
Vermont and Congressman
John Randolph Tucker of Virginia. The
act was repealed in 1978.

James Madison an epileptic who theologians at the time believed the devil
was inside him. Madison wanted to have freedom of religion, checks and
balances, individual choices. Jefferson had a form of autism an had inter
thoughts few could see.

Mexican
Borderland
Communitie
s

Estevan Ochoa merchant philanthropist and the first Mexican to

serve as mayor of Tucson managed to build one of the largest
business empires in the West.

In Las Cruces New Mexico, an exceptional family such as the

wealthy Amadors could shop Bloomingdale's by mail travel to the
Worlds Fair in Chicago and send their children to English language
Catholic school.

Las Gorras Blancas, a band of agrarian rebels in northern

New Mexico destroyed railroad ties and farm machinery
and posted demands for justice on fences.

Porfirio Diaz the

president of Mexico from
1876 to 1911 brought
deteriorating living
conditions to the masses
of poor people and
prompted a migration
northward that
accelerated through the
20th century

National holiday of Mexico May 5, 1862 Mexican

victory over France

Open
Range

Vaqueros were the

Mexican cowboys.
They had worked
with Texans before
1845 and learned
the skills of being a
cowboy. During the
peaks of the cattle
drives between onefifth to one-third
were Indians,
Mexicans or African
Americans.

Cowboys were paid

around $30 a month
for their work. They
may have had to
travel 1500 miles.
The boss supplied the
horses, the cowboy
had his own bedroll
saddle and suppress.
The diet did not have
vegetables and fruits

Occasionally the husband

and wife worked as
partners. Elizabeth
Collins turned her
husbands large ranch
into an extraordinarily
prosperous business
earning herself the title
Cattle Queen of
Montana

Hurdy gurdy a music instrument used in

Cattle towns in the west

Americas 1885 drought caused 90% of death of cattle

1885-1888

Farming
Communitie
s on the
Plains

The Homestead Acts were several United States federal laws that gave
an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "homestead", at little or
no cost. In the United States, this originally consisted of grants totaling
160 acres (65 hectares, or one-quarter section) of unappropriated
federal land within the boundaries of the public land states. An extension
of the Homestead Principle in law, the United States Homestead Acts were
initially proposed as an expression of the "Free Soil" policy of Northerners
who wanted individual farmers to own and operate their own farms, as
opposed to Southern slave-owners who could use groups of slaves to
economic advantage.
The first of the acts, the 'Homestead Act of 1862, was signed into law by
President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862. Anyone who had never taken
up arms against the U.S. government (including freed slaves and women),
was 21 years or older, or the head of a family, could file an application to
claim a federal land grant. There was also a residency requirement.
Several additional laws were enacted in the latter half of the 19th and
early 20th centuries. The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 sought to
address land ownership inequalities in the south during Reconstruction.
The Timber Culture Act of 1873 granted land to a claimant who was
required to plant trees. The tract could be added to an existing homestead
claim and had no residency requirement. The Kincaid Amendment of
1904 granted a full section (640 acres) to new homesteaders settling in
western Nebraska. An amendment to the Homestead Act of 1862, the

Populati
ng the
Plains

You could buy 160 acres at $1.25 per acre for the
Homestead Act. 5-15% were unmarried women. It took
less than three dollars to build one of these sod
homes.

Organized 16 different European colonies to move to

Kansas and Colorado

Among the native born settlers of the Great Plains the largest
number had migrated from states bordering the Mississippi river.
To stave off isolation homesteaders sometimes built their homes
on their adjoining corners. Mobility was high one third to one half
pulled up stakes within a decade.

The Poles and

German Hutterite
kept their
settlement
insolated from
other nationalities.
The German
Hutterite were
people who
disavowed private
property and lived
as a community.

Closeness did not promote social equality or even friendship.

A social hierarchy was based on education 1) Lawyers 2)
Doctors 3) Bankers had a stronger perception to others

From
Dawn to
Dusk

A threshing machine was important in the prairies. The

machine was rented out to other farmers.

The
Worlds
Breadbask

New
Production
Technologie
s

McCormick's reaper at a presentation in Virginia

The McCormick Reaper was designed by Robert McCormick
in Walnut Grove, Virginia. However, Robert became
frustrated when he was unable to perfect his new
device. His son Cyrus asked for permission to try and
complete his father's project. With permission
granted,[3] the McCormick Reaper was patented[4] by his
son Cyrus McCormick in 1837 as a horse-drawn farm
implement to cut small grain crops.[5] This McCormick
reaper machine had several special elements

The 19th century saw several inventors in the United States

claim innovation in mechanical reapers. The various designs
competed with each other, and were the subject of several
lawsuits.
Obed Hussey in Ohio patented a reaper in 1833, the Hussey
Reaper.[1] Made in Baltimore, Maryland, Hussey's design was a
major improvement in reaping efficiency. The new reaper only
required two horses working in a non-strenuous manner, a man
to work the machine, and another person to drive. In addition, the
Hussey Reaper left an even and clean surface after its use.[2]

Weather Bureau of the United States started in

1889

California
Agribusiness

The was aa trend toward large scale or

bonanza farming especially in California
where farming as a business surpassed
farming as a way of life. Farms of nearly
500 acres dominated the California
landscape in 1870 by the turn of the
century two thirds of the states arable

Chinese migrated to California to become

migrant farmers. Chinese tenant farmers
specialized in labor intensive crops such as
vegetables and fruits and the peddled their
crops door to door or sold them in roadside
stands.

Fruit stands were used as an

important place of commerce
and trade by the Chinese in
California

The Toll on
the
Environme
nt

The grizzly bear was an animal

exclusive to the West was at
one time abundant in the west.
However, there was an
estimate that only 800 had

The population of wolves were as

many as 2 million in the California
area. However, the number deleted
to around 200,000.

Buffalo bonuses were sold at

7.50 per ton and there was no
more than 5,000 buffalo left
in the United States by mid1880

The Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 added 1 million

acres of irrigated land and state irrigation districts
added more than 10 million acres. Expensive to tax
payers ultimately benefiting corporate farmers rather
than small landowner, these projects further diverted
water and totally transformed the land scape.

The Reclamation Act (also known as the

Lowlands Reclamation Act or National
Reclamation Act) of 1902 (Pub.L. 57161) is a
United States federal law that funded irrigation
projects for the arid lands of 20 states in the
American West.
The act at first covered only 13 of the western
states as Texas had no federal lands. Texas was
added later by a special act passed in 1906. The
act set aside money from sales of semi-arid
public lands for the construction and maintenance
of irrigation projects. The newly irrigated land
would be sold and money would be put into a
revolving fund that supported more such projects.
This led to the eventual damming of nearly every
major western river. Under the act, the Secretary of
the Interior created the United States Reclamation
Service within the United States Geological Survey

Powell's report advised agricultural settlements near

watersheds and the construction where necessary of
irrigation systems. Prompted by the railroad Congress
ignored his suggestions fearing that such planning would
inhibit free enterprise.
Powells plans were not used because the government stated
it must keep its hands out of business.

The question of irrigation. Who owns the water? Who

has the right to take water from a natural location?

Problem with the irrigation plan is that

Lake Tulare of California, its largest lake
decreased in size from 760 square miles
to 36 square miles

California farms which had 1,000 acres of land or

more made up two-thirds of the states arable land.
Medium sized growers shrewdly combined in
cooperative marketing associations .

Farmers used refrigerated railroad

cars to increase the quality and
quantity of their fruits and
vegetables in delivery to market.

By 1900 the
California Citrus
Growers Association
described oranges
as a necessity for
good health ,
inventing the
Sunkist trademark
which they stamped
on each orange.
Also raisins where
packaged as Sun
Maid: and packaged
them in small boxes
for school children.

Chinese tenant
farmers specialized in
labor intensive crops
such as vegetables
and fruits and peddled
their crops door to
door or sold them in
roadside stands

The
Western
Landscape
Natures
Majesty

The General Land Revision Act of 1891 President Harrison

established fifteen forest reserves exceeding 16 million
acres and President Cleveland added more than 21 million

Albert Bierstadt a German Bierstadt photographer tried to capture natures

beauty through painting.

The
Legendary
Wild West

American
Primitive

Frederick
Remington left
Yale Art School
to visit Montana
in 18881
became a
Kansas
sheepherder

President Roosevelt praised Edward Curtis for vividly convey tribal

virtue

Lewis Henry Morgan present a universal process of social

evolution leading from savagery to barbarism to civilization.
Morgan spent his entire life studying Indian family or kinship
patterns mostly of eastern tribes such as the Iroquois. He
published Iroquois which was the first scientific account of an
Indian tribe

Alice Cunningham Fletcher: to

learn from the Omaha's something
about their tribal organization,
social customs, tribal rites ,
traditions and songs.

Both Wendel Phillips and Helen Hunt Jackson help the Indians causes and
exposed the exploitation they experienced. Jackson threw herself into the
Indian Rights Association an off shoot of the Womens National Indian
Association (WNIA)

Transformat
ion of
Indian
Society

The WNIA had

gathered 100,000
signatures to
establish the
universal education
for Indian Children.

The Dawes Act allowed the president to

distribute land not to tribes but to
individuals legally severed from their
tribes. The commissioner of Indian affairs
rendered the popular interpretation that
trial relations should be broke up socialism
destroyed and the family and autonomy of

Ghost
Dances

Endurance
and
Rejuvenati
on

The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or
the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887),[1][2] adopted by Congress in 1887,
authorized the President of the United States to survey American Indian
tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians. Those who
accepted allotments and lived separately from the tribe would be granted
United States citizenship. The Dawes Act was amended in 1891, and
again in 1906 by the Burke Act.
The Act was named for its creator, Senator Henry Laurens Dawes of
Massachusetts. The stated objective of the Dawes Act was to stimulate
assimilation of Indians into mainstream American society. Individual
ownership of land on the European-American model was seen as an
essential step. The act also provided what the government would classify
as "excess" Indian reservation lands remaining after allotments, and sell
those lands on the open market, allowing purchase and settlement by
non-Native Americans.
The Dawes Commission, set up under an Indian Office appropriation bill
in 1893, was created to try to persuade the Five Civilized Tribes to agree
to allotment plans. (They had been excluded from the Dawes Act.) This
commission registered the members of the Five Civilized Tribes on what

The important provisions of the Dawes Act[2] were:

A head of family would receive a grant of 160 acres (0.65km2), a
single person or orphan over 18 years of age would receive a grant
of 80 acres (320,000m2), and persons under the age of 18 would
receive 40 acres (160,000m2) each;
the allotments would be held in trust by the U.S. Government for 25
years;
Eligible Indians had four years to select their land; afterwards the
selection would be made for them by the Secretary of the Interior. [15]
Every member of the bands or tribes receiving a land allotment is
subject to laws of the state or territory in which they reside. Every
Indian who receives a land allotment "and has adopted the habits of
civilized life" (lived separate and apart from the tribe) is bestowed
with United States citizenship "without in any manner impairing or
otherwise affecting the right of any such Indian to tribal or other
property."[16]
The Secretary of Interior could issue rules to assure equal
distribution of water for irrigation among the tribes, and provided
that "no other appropriation or grant of water by any riparian
proprietor shall be authorized or permitted to the damage of any
other riparian proprietor."[17]
The Dawes Act did not apply to the territory of the: [18]
Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Miami and Peoria
in Indian Territory

Carlisle Indian Industrial

School. Founded by
Richard Pratt in 1879 in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
with approval of the
Department of Interior .
Indians were to learn the
white world.

The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890,[4] near

Wounded Knee Creek (Lakota: hakp pi Wakpla) on the Lakota
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of South Dakota. On the day
before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by
Major Samuel M. Whitside intercepted Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou
Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them
five miles westward (8km) to Wounded Knee Creek, where they made
camp.
The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment arrived, led by Colonel
James W. Forsyth and surrounded the encampment supported by four
Hotchkiss guns.[5]
On the morning of December 29, the troops went into the camp to disarm
the Lakota. One version of events claims that during the process of
disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant
to give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it.[6] A scuffle over Black
Coyote's rifle escalated and a shot was fired which resulted in the 7th
Cavalry's opening fire indiscriminately from all sides, killing men, women,
and children, as well as some of their own fellow soldiers. The Lakota
warriors who still had weapons began shooting back at the attacking
soldiers, who quickly suppressed the Lakota fire. The surviving Lakota fled,
but U.S. cavalrymen pursued and killed many who were unarmed.
By the time it was over, at least 150 men, women, and children of the
Lakota had been killed and 51 were wounded (4 men, 47 women and
children, some of whom died later); some estimates placed the number of

Yana tribe of California hunters

just wanted to escape. For more
than a decade they lived in caves
and avoided all contact with white
settlers.

In October 1891 the remaining 250 Flatheads were first put on a

reservation. The federal government drastically reduced the size of
the reservation using a large part of it to provide a national reserve
for buffalo. Only a handful of Flat heads mostly elderly continued to
live together in pocket of rural poverty

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is an agency of the federal

government of the United States within the U.S.Department of the
Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of
55,700,000 acres (225,000km2) of land held in trust by the United States
for Native Americans in the United States, Native American Tribes and
Alaska Natives.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is one of two bureaus under the jurisdiction
of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs: the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and the Bureau of Indian Education, which provides education services to
approximately 48,000Native Americans.
The BIAs responsibilities once included providing health care to American
Indians and Alaska Natives. In 1954 that function was legislatively
transferred to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, now
known as the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services, where it
has remained to this day as the Indian Health Service

Colonel Kit Carson burnt the Navajos crops in 1863,

Navajos were forced in a 300 mile Long Walk to the
desolate Bosque Redondo reservation where they nearly
starved. Four years later, the Indian Bureau allowed the
severely reduced tribe to return to a fraction of its former
lands.