APUSH - Changes in the Western Fronteir

quiz 5/9

Great Plains

* last spot that has been unsettled by white americans

Treaty of Fort Laramie

Terms: Sioux agreed to live on a reservation along the Missouri River.

* It failed because it only provided a temporary end to warfare. People continue to move westward and the Native Americans continue to resist the restrictions placed upon them.

Importance of the Buffalo

* buffalo were a great source of food, clothing, weapons and so much else for native americans (they utilized every part of the animal)
* the skin of these buffalo became popular in white culture and they began hunting them
* eventually millions of bison turned to less than 300
* **U.S treatises specified that certain native nations could continue to hunt and live on the plains as long as there were enough buffalso to “justify the chase” therefore killing the buffalo meant robbing native people of their substance making it far easier to force them onto reservations**

sitting bull

Lakota Sioux cheif

* refused to go to a reservation
* resisted assimilation

general custer

* lead cavalry on the battle of littlebighorn
* discovered gold at Black Hill (land owned by Sioux)

sand creek massacre

* november 29, 1862
* with the union army fighting the confederacy western whites felt vulnerable to indians attacks (dakota sioux uprising - killed 400 whites). They also learned that they could fight native americans with minimul federal oversight
* cheyenne cheif was scared that his tribe would be attacked - us agents adviced him to settle on sand creek colorado while they wait for a treaty to be signed
* on 11/29/1862 - colorado’s militia lead by John M. Chivington on their own initiative attackede camp while most of the men were out hunting. killed more than 100 peaceful nativewomen and children

battle of little bighorn

* sitting bull refused to sell land after gold was found
* allies of sioux came to defend land anticipating a military attack
* us military dispatched thousands of cavalry to drove natives back to reservations
* custered force was defeated by natives but this victory was short lived as us soldiers quickly retaliated
* ends native american organized resistance

assimilation

* white americans tried to americanize native americans
* dawe’s act
* boarding schools
* destruction of the buffalo - destroyed native life and lead to poverty and famine

Dawes Act

throught severalty - division of tribal lands - dawes hoped to force natives into individual landholdings, turning reservations into homesteads just like those of white farmers

* were offered money that never came
* resulted in the loss of 2/3 of native land

Indian boarding schools

* assimilists focused their energy on educating the next generation
* bative families were exhorted, bullied and bribed into sending their children
* boys learned farming skills and girls learned house keeping
* native children were denied their culture
* english only rule
* lead to identity issued for natives growing up as they felt suck between two cultures not feeling like they belong to either - “felt they were no longer indian but an imitation pf a white man”

Ghost Dance

religion of the late 1880s and early 1890s that combined elements of christianity and traditional Native American religion

* fostered Plain Indians hope that they could , through sacred dances, resurrect the great bison herds and call up a storm to drive whites back across the Atlantic
* US citizens/gvnt afraid/threatened by the dance - tribes that had previously been in conflicted are uniting

Battle of Wounded Knee

1890 massacre of Sioux Indians by American cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek - sent to supress the Ghost dance

* deaths at wounded knee highlight the decades of relentless US expansion, white ignorance adn greed, chaotic and conflicting policies, and bloody mistakes

lone wolf vs. hitchcock

1903 supreme court ruling that congress could make whatever indian policies it chose, ignoring all existing treaties

* ex. of the destruction of native rights

longhorn

cattl ebeing raised for profit - beef

cowboy life

* 10-14hrs @ ranch, 14hrs on the greuling trail
* as oung as 14
* didn’t own his own horse
* rarely used gun
* skilled ropers and riders
* diverse community

transcontinental Railroad

* ppl had so much hope - fel tit would unite the US in a way that the civil war could not
* hope it will create a vast economic empire
* allowed farming, trade & tourism
* prmosed all year round and all weather service
* railroad companies transformed american capitalism - raised private capitol

Homestead Act

* provided free land (160 acres) to any applicant who occupied and improved the property
* not enough land to live - many farms did not survive
* lead to the rapid development of the american west
* homesteaders faced many challenges:
* natural disaster, drought, railroad companies taking advantage, new machinary $$ - puts them in debt

challenges for homesteaders

* new machinary = expensive = taking out loans (in debt)
* crop prices fall (big farms able to produce more crops with new machinary - small farms struggle)
* droughts - smaller yields
* railroads taking advantage - farmers relied on them - chraged unatural prices for their service

exodusters

African Americans who walked or rode out of the deep south following the Civil War, many set up farms in Kansas in hopes of finding peace and prosperity

Soddy

home made out of bricks of dirt that homesteaders lived in

Morrill Act

set aside 140 million federal acres that states could sell to raise money for public (agricultural) universities

* goal: broaden educational opportunities and foster technical and scientific expertise

Bonanza Farms

enourmous single crop spreads - owned by corrparations

Grange

social outlet/educational forum

* brings isolated farmers together
* created granger laws that regulated railroad prices

Farmer’s Aliance

political action group (farmers struggling - needed political pwr)

* goal: to seek out politions who cared about the farmers
* populism - create a 3rd party

Panic of 1893

* Serious economic depression beginning in 1893
* Began due to rail road companies over-extending themselves, causing bank failures.
* Was the worst economic collapse in the history of the country until that point, and, some say, as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s.

populism

* “people’s party”
* upports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite

populist wants

* lift burden of debt
* increase the money supply
* greater voice in gvnt
* direct elect senators
* secret ballot
* referendum, initiative, and recall
* 8 hour work day and immigration restrictions

bimetallism

using gold and silver to back up paper money in treasuries

gold standard

backing up the countries currency in gold