How the United States came to occupy the West

SETTLING THE WESTERN FRONTIER: 1865 - 1890

Settling the Western Frontier, 1865 - 1890

What is a “Frontier”?

Where was the “American Frontier”?

Can we identify or define the frontier simply as a place geographically, or is it something else, something less palpable?

“The Frontier”

During the 19th Century, the Frontier in the American West might have been almost anywhere west of the Mississippi River.

The location of the Frontier, however, varies according to time and place. During the 1760s, the “Frontier” might have been anywhere west of the Appalachians. By the 1840s, frontier communities had been established on the West Coast in places like California and Oregon. It moved to the Southwest during the mining booms of the 1850s; the Rocky Mountain region later still. In the 1870s and beyond, isolated communities on the Great Plains were considered the “Frontier” towns.

All of these places have one common link, however, in that they were all communities where American settlers found themselves isolated from their Eastern heritage and cohabitating a region populated by “others”: diverse Native American Indian tribes; English settlers; Mexicans; Chinese, Japanese, or Filipino immigrants; Mormon émigrés; outcasts, misfits, and wanderers. In many ways, the “Frontier” shifted and flowed like running water, or expanded and receded like the tides.

When historians discuss a “frontier” they are usually describing a place where two unique cultures are making contact with one another. On one side of the frontier, there is the familiar society known to its inhabitants. On the opposite side of the frontier is the unfamiliar – the diverse, unknown, exotic, “other.” Often, Americans have viewed the Western Frontier of the 19th Century as being “unsettled,” “uncivilized,” chaotic, godless, and frightening – inhabited by cannibals or “savages.” At times, it seems that Native Americans were not there at all when we watch shows like “Little House on the Prairie” or read passages describing “virgin forests” uninhabited and filled with limitless deposits of natural resources.

Who were the stakeholders on the Western Frontier in American History?Stakeholders:

Some Stakeholders on the Western Frontier –

• American Indians

• American Settlers

• “Exodusters”

• Mexicans

• Mormons

• Cattle Ranchers• Railroad Barons

• Chinese Immigrants

•Women

• Homesteaders

• French Colonists

• Russian Settlers• English Settlers

• Great Plains Farmers

• Bankers & Investors

• United States Military

• “Buffalo Soldiers”

• Miners and Workers

Visions of Prosperity and Freedom on America’s Western Frontier -

Why did this group of Americans (or non-Americans) resolve to live on the Western Frontier?

What did this group of Americans (or non-Americans) hope to accomplish on the Western Frontier?

What advantages did the Western Frontier offer these people to encourage prosperity and independence?

Answer at least one of these questions for each of the eight (8) groups of stakeholders on the Western Frontier which you identified.

You may also feel compelled to acknowledge that the environment was not always very hospitable towards these groups of settlers – the Western Frontier could be a hard, isolated place to live for many reasons.

Stakeholders on the Western Frontier

• Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints moved to the Western Frontier under the leadership of Brigham Young, hoping to escape persecution in the United States, where the practice of polygamy and certain other peculiarities of their faith had been reacted to violently by American communities. When they established “Deseret,” there community near present day Salt Lake City, Utah, the territory was actually claimed by Mexico, not the United States. They had left the country!

• Railroad barons like Leland Stanford of the Central Pacific Railroad hoped to make a fortune in the west by gaining monopolies on the transportation of crops and livestock as they moved from Western farmland to Eastern markets. When the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in May of 1869, farmers in California and cattle ranchers in Texas were able to ship their products to huge markets in Eastern cities like New York, St. Louis, Chicago, and Philadelphia – for a price, payable to Stanford!

The Mormons Railroad Barons

Cooperation and Competition on the Western Frontier

Write out at least eight (8) complete sentences which describe the relationships between the different stakeholders on the Western Frontier.

How did the various stakeholders on the Western Frontier come into conflict or compete for resources and prosperity in the West?

How did the stakeholders in the West cooperate in order to survive in a hostile environment or to defend themselves versus a common enemy?

Did certain stakeholders in the West seek to isolate themselves? Were they successful in doing so?

Conflict, Competition, Cooperation, and Communities on the Western Frontier

• The United States Army was in violent conflict with American Indians when they began to enforce the reservation policy of the United States government. American Indians won a bloody victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn, but the achievement was short lived; the US Army redoubled its efforts to slaughter the buffalo and coerce American Indian tribes into living on reservations so that by 1890, virtually no tribes lived on the Great Plains.

• Buffalo Soldiers primary tasks were to clear the railroad tracks and to maintain telegraph wires, to enforce the reservation policy of the United States government against Native American tribes, and to protect American settlers as they crossed the Great Plains to settle Western Frontier territories or establish homesteads. Although some American settlers maintained racist sentiments, Buffalo Soldiers hoped to prove they were worthy of full citizenship and equality through their service to the Nation.

The US Army and American Indians

Buffalo Soldiers and American Settlers

Categories, Categorize.

Once you have completed all eight (8) of your sentences describing the relationships between the stakeholders on the Western Frontier, you will need to thoughtfully categorize each of the relationships you have articulated. You will design either two or three (2 or 3) categories, title them, and then place each of your eight (8) sentences into one of the categories.

• Category “A”

• Category “B”

• Category “C” * - if necessary.

Categories; Categorize. Groups in Violent Conflict

Cooperative Inhabitants of the Western Frontier

Traders and Businessmen

Cooperative Work Relationships

Economic Dependency

Competition for Limited Resources.

National Rivalries

GENERALIZATIONSIf you had to distill this entire conversation down to one major point, what generalization would you make about the Western Frontier? Are there universal truths about the Western Frontier which emerged from our discussions about the relationships between diverse peoples in the West? Is your generalization surprising? Is it a positive and inspiring statement about the Western Frontier, or a discouraging, negative statement? How could we summarize this discussion in a sentence or two?

Generalizations About the Settlement of the Western Frontier in American History

The Western Frontier was settled by the cooperative efforts and superior work ethic of diverse peoples.

The Western Frontier was a place of violent conflict between American settlers, the United States Military, and their rivals.

Advancements in transportation and communication during the mid to late 19th Century allowed the US territories and states on the Western Frontier to stay connected with national government in the East.

Racism and violence played a prominent role in the history of the Western Frontier.

Economic opportunity and political liberty encouraged immigration to the Western Frontier during the 19th Century.