1865-1890

Land was communal – no one person or tribe could own land

Buffalo was central to life

The buffalo were destroyed by settlers and tourists who shot them for sport

Viewed Native American land as unsettled

Advanced to claim land Gold intensified the rush for land

1834 – all of Great Plains set aside as “Indian Lands”

1850s – Policy shift – native get smaller amounts of land

Sand Creek Massacre – U.S. army attacks

150 native women and children killed

Colonel Custer and infantry reach Little Big Horn

Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull lead Sioux tribe

Outflank and crush Custer’s troops

December 1890- 7th Cavalry (Custer’s old regiment) rounded up 350 Sioux and took them to Wounded Knee, SD

7th Cavalry slaughtered 350 unarmed Natives

The corpses were left to freeze

Attempted to assimilate natives Would break up reservations and

introduce natives into American life – farming, etc

By 1932 2/3rds of the land committed to Natives had been taken

After the Civil war the demand for beef rose sharply

Urbanization and the rise of the railroad contributed to this

Chicago Union Stock Yards

Thousands of cattle driven from Texas to Kansas

Abilene, KS – place where trail met the railroads

Overgrazing, bad weather, and the invention of barbed wire led to the end of the cattle drive

Homestead Act – federal land policy Gave 160 free acres to any “head of

household” Had to live on and farm land for 5 years

African Americans – moved from South to Kansas

Took advantage of land deals in West

In a less than a day 2 millions acres of government land being given away was claimed by settlers

Some took possession of the land before the government officially declared it open – thus Oklahoma became known as the “Sooner State”

Droughts, floods, fires, blizzards, locust plagues, bandits

No neighbors nearby

Homes were built from the land itself Dug out of the sides of ravines or hills If land was flat made homes out of dirt

Despite these hardships, the number of people living west of the Mississippi grew from 1% of the nations population to 30% by 1900

1837- John Deere steel plow – slice through heavy soil

1847 – reaper – invented by Cyrus McCormick

More people moved west and the railroads were born

Government gave land grants to the railroads to help it grow

Completed in 1890 with help from Chinese workers

The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 gave federal land to states to help finance agricultural colleges

In the late 1800s, many farmers were struggling

Crop prices were falling, debt increased

Mortgages were being foreclosed by banks

Between 1867 and 1887 the price of a bushel of wheat fell from $2.00 to 68 cents

Railroads conspired to keep transport costs artificially high

Farmers got caught in a cycle of debt

1867 – Oliver Hudson Kelley - Grange

Fought for farmer’s rights

Populism – the movement of the people – 1892 – Populist Party started

THIS POLITICAL CARTOON SHOWS A POPULIST

CLUBBING A RAILROAD CAR

economic - increase money supply (bimetallism - gold and silver standard), a rise in crop prices, lower taxes, a federal loan program

Political - direct election of senators, single terms for presidents

for an 8-hour workday and reduced immigration

In the 1892 Presidential election, the Populist candidate won almost 10% of the vote

In the West, the party elected 5 senators, 3 governors and 1,500 state legislators

James B Weaver

The central issue of the 1896 Presidential campaign was which metal would be the basis of the nation’s monetary system

Bimetallism (those who favored using both) vs. those that favored the Gold Standards alone

Republicans favored the Gold standard and nominated William McKinley

Democrats favored Bimetallism and nominated William Jennings Bryan

Despite Bryan’s stirring words, “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold,” McKinley won the 1896 election

BRYAN’S CROSS OF GOLD SPEECH

With McKinley’s election victory, Populism collapsed,

2 Legacies 1) the downtrodden

can organize and be heard and

2) An agenda of reforms, many of which would be enacted in the 20th century

THE PEOPLE’S PARTY WAS SHORT-LIVED BUT LEFT AN

IMPORTANT LEGACY