Two Visions of the West

“Mythic West” vs.

Pioneers & gunslingersIndividualism, freedom, & opportunity

“Tragic West”

Greed, irresponsibility, exploitationDestroyed wildlife & nearly exterminated Native Americans

Reasons for Moving West

PUSH Factors Civil War Failure to achieve

prosperity in the East

Repression

PULL Factors Railroad Land availability Natural resources

Civil War made transcontinental

RR possible – Pacific Railroads Act (1862)

A race between Union Pacific and Central Pacific ended in Promontory, Utah (1869)

Chinese recruited for RR work were later subject to racism

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) due to resentment of white workers

The Transcontinental Railroad

Women in the West had

greater equality within the family

Large numbers of immigrants

African American “Exodusters” fled post-Reconstruction discrimination and poverty

“Buffalo soldiers” in the Indian Wars

Diversity in the West

Began with California Gold

Rush in 1849 Comstock Lode (1873)

generated vast wealth Permanent settlements

resulted In late 1800s, mining

turned commercial

Mining

Violations of Fort Laramie Treaty (1851)

brought conflict Sand Creek Massacre (1864) and other

violence led to new Indian policies Great Sioux Wars were the result of

Custer’s expedition into Sioux hunting grounds

Despite victory at Little Bighorn, Sioux eventually gave up and were moved to reservations

Great Sioux Wars

“Tell your people that since the Great Father promised that we should never be removed, we have been moved five times… I think you had better put the Indians on wheels and you can run them around wherever you wish.” – Chief Spotted Tail of the Sioux

“I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed… The old men are dead… I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find… Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.” – Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

Indian Resistance Ends

Movement started by

Wovoka in 1888 in order to see Indian lands returned

When Lakota Sioux defied the ban on the Ghost Dance, this led to the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

Ghost Dance Movement

Resulted from:OverhuntingClimate changeCompetition for grasslandsDiseaseBarbed wire

Decimation of the Buffalo

“Many, if not most, of our Indian wars have had their origin in broken promises and acts of injustice on our part.” – Rutherford B. Hayes

A Century of Dishonor (1881) brought attention to the Indians’ plightDawes Severalty Act (1887) was central to the new policy of “Americanizing” Indians

Remaking Indian Policy

Homestead Act (1862) and railroad land grants made

farm land available for purchase Land is cheap, but life was hard – many claims

abandoned New technologies played a significant role in

conquering the West Small farmers who stayed struggled with indebtedness,

leading to political movement through the Grange

Homesteading

Shortage of meat after the Civil War created

opportunities Cowtowns emerged, but the boom was shortlived

Cattle Drives

1890 census showed no end to consistent settlement,

which prompted the issuance of Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis

Turner believed that American character was shaped by the existence of new areas to conquer

“Four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years under the Constitution, the frontier has gone and with its going has closed the first period of American history.” – Frederick Jackson Turner

End of the Frontier