The Early Settlement of the West - c1835-c1862

What was the structure of society for the Indigenous peoples of the Plains?

• Tribes (Sioux, Dakota,etc)

  • Bands in the same tribe supported each other during crises.

  • Tribal meetings of all the bands were held each year to arrange marriages, trade horses and discuss issues.

  • Chiefs and elders formed the tribal councils that advised tribal chiefs.

  • Some tribes (such as the Sioux) were part of larger groups called nations

• Bands

  • Most people in a band were related to each other.

  • Bands were led by chiefs and had councils of advisers.

  • Council members agreed everything the band did.

  • The survival and protection of the band as a whole was seen as more important than the individuals within it

• Chiefs

  • Chiefs were chosen because of their wisdom and skills as warriors/hunters.

  • They were rarely chiefs for life. Chiefs and councils decided where their bands would go and what should happen to those who broke with customs and traditions.

  • But they did not have to be obeyed

• Councils - elders and chiefs of Tribes

What were warrior brotherhoods

• The best warriors from each band formed its warrior brotherhood.

• They were made up of young men- they were taught the values of the tribe, and hunted

• They were not under the control of the tribal council, so would often not respect peace treaties

• Members of the warrior societies supervised hunting and protected their bands from attack.

• All short raids and wars were led by the warrior society and the band’s council would always consult them before they made decisions

What were the roles within a band

A band saw every member as being equally important to its survival.

• Men (braves) hunted and fought enemies.

• Women (squaws) made clothing, processed buffalo hides, fed the family and looked after their tipi; they were highly respected in these roles. Chiefs could have more than one wife

• Everyone looked after children, who were taught the skills of their parents.

• Elders were respected for their wisdom but were left behind to die if their weakness threatened the survival of a band

• Consequences: Indigenous children were taught by many different band members, and so when the US government tried to break Indigenous society up into family units, or moved children to schools far away from their tribe, it meant the children did not learn all the skills and traditions of their people. This had an impact on their ways of life

How did the native Americans view leadership

Indigenous society did not view leadership in the same way as white American society did.

• No decision could be made until everyone at the council had agreed to it.

• The rest of the tribe or band did not have to obey the decision.

• Chiefs and elders were often guided by the spirit world through visions.

• Consequences: The US government thought that if a chief signed a treaty, all his tribe should obey the terms of the treaty, but this was not how Indigenous society worked.

• For example, chief Red Cloud signed a treaty in 1868, but many Lakota Sioux bands followed chief Sitting Bull, who opposed it

What is meant by the term Nomadic?

Most Indigenous peoples followed the buffalo migrations through the summer and autumn. They had a nomadic (travelling) lifestyle in these months.

• Tipis, made of wooden poles and covered in buffalo hide, were ideal for Plains life: their coned shape protected them against strong winds, flaps provided ventilation in the summer heat and they could be taken down and packed away in minutes.

• In winter, the bands moved to sheltered valleys where they lived in wooden lodges, insulated with thick layers of soil.

• Consequences: Nomadic tribes found it very difficult to live permanently on reservations because they were used to travelling and hunting freely.

How did bands adapt to survive

• Bands were designed for survival on the Plains. They changed size depending on the amount of food available.

• When food became scarce, bands would split up and spread out so that there was more chance of everyone getting enough to eat.

• Consequences: Food was scarce on the Plains, so bands often moved outside their tribe’s traditional hunting grounds and into areas controlled by other tribes.

• Sometimes this was done by treaty with other tribes. Sometimes it caused conflict.

• Indigenous tribes constantly raided other tribes for food, horses and people.

• These raids were part of the ways in which the tribes survived on the Plains.

Why were the Buffalo important for indigenous people?

• Spiritual rituals (with the skulls)

• Every part of a buffalo (except its heart, which was left on the Plain) was used for food, clothing and equipment

• For example they used the tongue as a hairbrush, and the bladder to carry things

• Indigenous peoples believed a buffalo’s heart gave new life to a herd

• Women and children cut up the buffalo meat. It was eaten raw or cooked. Some was stored for winter (known as jerky)

• Because they depended on the buffalo, they had to follow them, meaning they were nomadic

What did the indigenous people believe about nature

Indigenous peoples believed that:

• Everything in nature had a spirit and that these spirits could help humans or harm them

• Humans were a part of nature and should work with the spirits of nature, rather than try to tame and control nature

• They could contact the spirit world through visions, vision quests, and special ritual dances.

What did indigenous people believe about land?

• Indigenous tribes had sacred areas.

• For the Lakota Sioux, the Black Hills, Paha Sapa, were sacred because this was where the Lakota believed their tribe originally came from, and they believed their dead ancestors were there

• Indigenous families sometimes had their own garden plots, but generally no one owned land.

• For Indigenous peoples, land was not anyone’s property, and not something that one person could buy and keep just for him or herself.

• Consequences: Settlers and Indigenous peoples had very different views about property which led to tension and conflict

Why were horses important?

• Catching buffalo was quicker and easier on horseback.

• Indigenous peoples could not live on the Plains without horses because they would not survive

• Wealth and status were measured by how many horses an individual or tribe had.

• Horses were used in war.

• Horses carried the tribe members and their belongings on their journey to find buffalo.

• For example Hunkpapa Sioux sub-tribe had 2,900 people, but 3,500 horses

• The Comanche had nearly 8,000 horses, and just 3,000 peope

What did the indigenous people believe about war

• Indigenous society was full of conflict, but tribes had developed ways to avoid too much killing because young men were essential to each tribe’s survival.

• The highest respect and prestige was given to warriors, usually young men, for ‘counting coup’: landing a blow on an enemy and getting away without being injured.

• Indigenous war parties would also run away if a fight turned against them.

• Consequences: The US Army found it difficult to fight an enemy that ran away rather than fought to the last man.

• They had to develop new techniques against Indigenous warfare.

What happened in terms of migration west in this period

• 1824 Explorer Jedediah Smith rediscovers the South Pass through the Rocky Mountains

• 1836 The first migrants to travel the Oregon Trail by wagon reach their destination.

• 1837 Financial crisis causes economic depression in the East. This causes more migrants to travel west, seeking better living conditions.

• 1841 Government- funded expedition maps the Oregon Trail and publishes guide book for migrants.

• 1846 Governor of Illinois tells Mormons to leave the state.

• 1848 Gold is discovered in California

• 1849 California Gold rush

Which two events in the east drove people west

• Financial Crisis- In the eastern part of the US, a financial crisis and a collapse in the price of cotton in 1837 led to economic difficulties.

• Banks ran out of money, people lost their savings, businesses closed and many people lost their jobs.

• Unemployment reached 25% in some areas. In contrast, reports from the West told of land and gold, and this attractive possibility motivated many Americans to migrate in search of a better life.

• Farming Crisis- In 1837, corn prices collapsed, leaving farmers facing ruin. This was not helped by overcrowding in this fertile farming region.

• Some farmers began to migrate, believing that they could settle on better farmland in the West, where it was not overcrowded, and make their fortune

What was the Indian Removal Act 1830?

Indigenous people living East of the Mississippi made to move into 'Indian Territory'.
Known to the Cherokee as the 'Trail of Tears'.

What was the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act 1834?

Created a permanent Indian Frontier

Whites were not allowed to settle on Indian land.

What was the Indian Appropriation Act 1851?

• In the 1830s, many Indigenous Americans had been moved west, into Indian Territory, but by the 1850s, white Americans wanted to settle on this land.

• Reservations were the solution. The government paid Indigenous Americans on the Plains to give up lands that white people wanted and move to smaller areas called reservations.

• The Indian Appropriations Act paid for moving Indigenous Americans in Indian Territory onto reservations.

• As well as keeping white and Indigenous Americans apart and making space for white settlers, the government hoped that reservations would help Indigenous Americans learn to farm and live like white Americans.

• On reservations, white people could teach Indigenous Americans about new ways of living.

• Reservations could become a way of controlling where Indigenous Americans went and what they dids.

How did government policy change towards the indigenous people

• 1830 Removal Act- The US government forced 46 000 eastern tribe members to give up their lands in return for new lands west of the Mississippi River. At the time, White Americans thought this land was worthless – the ‘Great American Desert’.

• 1834 Indian Trade and Intercourse Act- A ‘Permanent Indian Frontier’ divided Indian Territory from the eastern states. Forts guarded the Frontier to stop white people crossing over to settle in Indian Territory

• Oregon Trail opened 1836- broke Permanent Indian Frontier

• US gain Oregon (1845), California (1846), and Texas (1848) in war with Mexico, Indian land now between US land- The situation changed when the USA gained new territories in the West. Instead of being on the western edge, Indian Territory was now sandwiched in the middle of the USA.

• 1851 Indian Appropriations Act

• 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty- This effectively ended the ‘Permanent Indian Frontier’, by allowing white settlers into Indian Territory, although the Frontier was not officially ended until 1890

What was the Oregon Trail?

• Discovered by Jedidiah Smith (1825)

• Before the railways (1869) the only safe route across the West.

• The Oregon Trail was 3200 km long – or 3800 km for those using it to go on to California.

• Cheaper than boat

• 1843 900 people travelled along the Trail led by Marcus Whitman - the 'Great Emigration'

• By 1846 5000 had made the journey

• Overall 400,000 made the journey

• Government policy- they want Oregon as a territory, don’t want to share with British, so spend $30,000 for an expedition led by John Fremront

• Migrants needed to complete the journey before winter or risk getting stuck in the mountains.

• Crossing the Great Plains was made dangerous by sandstorms, quicksand, extreme heat, storms, disease, stampeding buffalo, hostile tribes and a lack of supplies

• Each trail crossed two mountain ranges: the Rockies and either the Blue Mountains or the Sierra Nevada.

• They were steep, there was little to hunt, and the weather could be bad. Wagons were hauled across using chains, ropes and pulleys. Injuries were common.

• Early migrants used explorers or Indigenous Americans as guides. Later, as guidebooks to the trails were published, migrants relied on these

What was the Gold Rush of 1849?

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 led to a huge increase in migration to the West, and also had significant consequences for law and order, settlement, farming and for Indigenous peoples of the Plains (Plains Indians)..

• Between 1836 and 1846 the total number of migrants using the Trail was 5000.

• 1849 100,000 people travel to Californiarom 1849, hundreds of thousands of people travelled to California, hoping to find gold.

• Thousands more came by ship, from all over the world, to San Francisco. A famine in China led to 20 000 Chinese people migrating to California in 1852.

• Most migrants did not find gold, but became farmers instead

• Professional miners with the equipment and expertise to mine underground (where most of the gold was) took over through the 1850s.

Why did the Gold Rush cause tensions?

Increased tensions:
Indigenous peoples killed.
Racism against Chinese migrants
Problems of law and order - claim jumping and salting a claim

What were the consequences of the California Gold Rush

• Migration to California – California becomes a state in 1850. By 1855 it has a population of 300 000 people

• Farming boom in California

• Manifest Destiny – White Americans see their ‘destiny’ coming true, which increases confidence for migration and settlement

• Genocide of Indigenous Californians by migrants

• Tension with Indigenous Americans due to huge increase in migration along Oregon Trail.

• Gold from California boosts US economy – helps fund railroads

• Racial tension between American settlers and foreign workers

• Lawlessness in the mining camps

What is the idea of Manifest Destiny?

• Belief that it was God's will for white people to take possession of the whole of the USA and make it productive and civilised.

• Encouraged California Gold Rush

• Encouraged government policy towards the Oregon Trail, and towards Native Americans

• The US government needed to populate their territory in the West to defend it from foreign powers

• This aim was reflected in the belief in Manifest Destiny:

• White Americans at the time simply accepted that Manifest Destiny was right and natural. This meant that they did not see any problem in taking land that was used by Indigenous Americans.

What happened to the Donner Party?

• The Donner Party, led by Jacob and George Donner, left Missouri for California in May 1846 with 60 wagons and 300 people.

• This wagon train was well equipped but had more women, elderly people and children than normal.

• At Fort Bridger, a smaller group of about 80 people tried to take a ‘short cut’, along the Lansford Hastings Trail (they were using a leaflet for guidance).

• Four wagons broke, 300 cattle died and one man killed another.

• They arrived late in the Sierra Nevada and were trapped by heavy snow.

• A group, sent to find help, took 32 days to reach Johnson’s Ranch.

• To survive, both groups ate their dead. Rescue parties found them in January 1847, with only half of them left

Who was Joseph Smith

• Smith founded the Church of Latter-Day Saints – whose followers are known as Mormons.

• His persuasive public speaking meant numbers grew to several hundred by 1830.

• He taught Mormons to obey him because he said his decisions were inspired by God. He was murdered in Illinois in 1844.

Why were the mormons persecuted

• Growing Mormon communities could exercise political power through voting, and this worried groups who did not share their beliefs

• Slave owners were angry that Mormons believed in freeing enslaved people

• Mormons practised polygamy (marrying multiple wives). This offended other Christian groups

• A Mormon paramilitary force, the Danites, was involved in violence, leading to government opposition

• Some white Americans were angry that Mormons spoke up for the rights of Indigenous Americans.

• Other religious groups saw Mormon beliefs as blasphemy (a crime against God).

Who were the Mormons?

• Religious group started by Joseph Smith (1823) in New York

• Belief in polygamy (more than one wife) led to persecution.

• 1831 leave New York to go to Kirtland, Ohio. They were successful, so others were jealous. Smith started a bank, which collapsed, causing people to loose their savings, forcing the mormons out in 1837

• Next go to Missouri, slave state, and mormons are anti-slave; not good. Mormon property destroyed in riot, Smith imprisoned, and released on the condition they leave again in 1838

• Next go to Illinois, in a small town called Commerce. They were allowed to live there peacefully, in their own society with its own laws, peaceful and prosperous. But Smith became dictator-ish, begins talking about polygamy, and runs for president, shot and killed in a riot

What happened to the Mormons?

• 1845 - 1500 mormons forced to leave Illinois after murder of leader - Joseph Smith.

• New leader - Brigham Young -leads them to Salt Lake as not in the USA.

• 1846 small advance group (150) set out (well supplied). Travel the route of the Donner Party - mark out suitable routes as they go and plant crops.

• Many reach the winter quarters by autumn of 1846, but severe winter of 1846/47 was hard on fuel and food supplies, several hundred die of starvation, disease, cold

• Young and a specially chosen group of 143 continue on in April of 1847

• Reach Salt Lake July 1847.

• Famously 'Make the desert bloom' by using snow from the mountains and digging irrigation channels.

How important was Brigham Young's leadership?

Importance question- likely for mormons

• Point 1- Leadership on the journey (1846)- built wagons and packed supplies, taught them how to make a circle with their wagons to keep them safe, set off with an advanced group of 150, range of abilities, set up base camps along the way for future travellers, as well as planting crops on the journey, and marking the route. Organised groups into groups of 100, each with a captain and lieutenant- by the end of 1847, 2000 mormons had successfully made the journey- clearly worked. . All this prepared the way for the next wagon train of 1500 Mormons. Between 1847 and 1869, 70,000 Mormons followed the ‘Mormon Trail’

• Point 2- Leadership once they reached Salt Lake (1847)- strong leader, disciplined, gave each person a role, if they weren't using their land properly, it was taken off them; declared that everything was owned by the church which forced the mormons to work together and flourish as a community- teamwork. Took snow from the mountains to build irrigation systems for crops- made the desert bloom

Why were the mormons successful

• Their religious faith encouraged them to work very hard and prevented them giving up in the face of terrible hardship.

• A Perpetual Emigration Fund provided the resources to help thousands of Mormons to emigrate to Utah.

• Brigham Young was in control and made good decisions.

• Young organised settlers so that each new town had the right mix of skills to survive and prosper.

• The Mormon Church owned all land, water and timber, which were allocated to families.

• Towns ran efficiently

• They dug irrigation ditches which meant farm land had enough water

What were the problems of farming on the plains?

• Climate – very hot, dry summers and very cold winters

• Lack of water – very little surface water and very low rainfall

• Insect pests – grasshopper plagues and other insect pests ate crops.

• Weather – thunderstorms and violent winds.

• Lack of trees – very little timber for fencing or building.

• Thick sod – the soil was hard to plough as it was a tangled mass of grass roots.

• Prairie fires – dry grass burned easily.

• Crops were vulnerable – without trees to make timber fences, it was hard to protect crops from animals

• Crops that did well in the East shrivelled up and died from lack of water, or were eaten by insect infestations, such as grasshopper swarms.

• Ploughs that worked in the East broke when farmers tried to use them to plough through the thick sod of the Plains.

• At first, settlers had to dig up the sod with spades, which was backbreaking work.

How did settlers deal with the lack of timber

• The lack of wood for fencing meant that settlers had to pay large amounts of money to import timber to fence their claims.

• This made homesteading expensive until 1874, when barbed wire was introduced as a cheap alternative to wooden fences

• Due to a lack of trees to build with, settlers lived in caves and sod houses made from earth.

• The thick walls and roof were good insulation in winter.

• The earth walls and roof were fireproof, giving protection from prairie fires.

• However, sod houses were impossible to keep clean and were full of insects.

How was farming different in California and Oregon

• In California and Oregon, on the west coast, conditions for farming were much better than on the Plains.

• By the 1850s, Californian farmers were growing so much wheat they began exporting it worldwide.

What was scalping?

Practice of chopping off part of the scalp.
Religious reasons - to stop them harming them in the afterlife.
Whites feared this.

Why were there increased tensions leading up to the Fort Laramie Treaty

• The huge increase in migrants along the Oregon Trail increased pressures on food supplies for Indigenous peoples, because the migrants disturbed the buffalo herds.

• Less food meant more conflicts between tribes.

• White migrants assumed that any Indigenous war parties they saw were a threat to them. Mostly, though, they were just witnessing conflict between tribes.

What were the terms and significance of the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty?

FART

Financial Aid

Allowed whites to cross Plains

Railways surveyors allowed

Territories allocated for Indigenous people

Significance:

First step towards reservations,

Broke the ‘Permanent Indian Frontier’,

Made the Indigenous people dependent on the US government.

What were the consequences of the Fort Laramie Treaty

• In the first Fort Laramie Treaty, the US government prioritised the needs of white settlers over the previous commitments it had made about Indigenous lands in the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1834.

• The number of white settlers in the West increased because the Treaty allowed for safe passage of white people along the Oregon Trail.

• It also meant there was no longer a ‘Permanent Indian Frontier’ between the eastern states of the USA and Indigenous tribes. These changes meant that there could be reservations in the future

• The Indigenous tribes involved in the Treaty agreed to its terms in return for an annuity (yearly payment) of $50,000.

• This annuity became a lever for the US government to use against Indigenous peoples, and had the consequence of starting to encourage. dependence of some Indigenous peoples on the government for food, resulting in a loss of independence

What is A 'Claim'?

Legal declaration that someone intends to take control over a bit of land.

What was the result of the California Gold Rush?

Non Indian population of California up from 1846 8000 to 1850 120,000 to 1855 300,000
Prospectors gathered in camps - sprung up quickly, lacked law and order.

What were some examples of lawlessness in California mining camps?

Claim jumping - where men tried to steal another man’s land.

Con artists ‘salted a claim’. Sprinkled a few pieces of gold on a piece of land to sell it at a high price.

Prostitutes and alcohol - combination caused fights.

Prospectors often carried weapons

Camps attracted mix of people - different ethnicities and religions - triggered tensions

Why did Chinese migrants come to California? Problems they faced?

• A famine in China led to a huge increase in Chinese immigration to San Francisco: 20 000 came in 1852.

• Chinese people were banned from working new claims, but even when their hard work meant they found gold that had been overlooked, white people would often steal it from them.

• Courts actively discriminated against Chinese people.

What led to the rise in vigilantes in San Francisco

• San Francisco’s population grew rapidly with the California Gold Rush: by 1849, it had grown from a small town of 1000 people to a population of 25 000.

• Very few prospectors found gold, and San Francisco quickly filled with unemployed, disappointed migrants.

• As more Chinese immigrants came to the city, racial tensions increased.

• By 1851, gangs had formed and were out of control in San Francisco.

• The few local policemen were unable to cope (and the gangs bribed many of them). Murder, violence and theft were commonplace.

• With no effective law enforcement available, citizens of San Francisco set up a vigilance committee to control the gang violence of 1851. This idea spread to mining camps

What is a vigilante?

Groups of ordinary citizens who take law into their own hands
e.g. San Francisco 1851.
Often lynch before a fair trail!

What was Federal Law Enforcement like on the Plains?

• Territories controlled by Federal government (until have a population of 60,000 - then could apply to be a state and have its own government and legal system)

• Territories had:

  • A Governor

  • 3 judges

  • A US Marshal

  • Country Sheriffs (A community could have a Sheriff if they numbered more than 5000 )

What was a US Marshal?

A federal officer appointed to an area.
Could appoint deputies to help him and could order any man to join a posse (group) to hunt down lawbreakers.

What was a Sheriff?

Elected law officer
Responsibility for keeping the peace in his area and carrying out orders of a law court, e.g. issuing warrants, making arrests and delivering prisoners to jail.

What was law and order like in Mining Communities?

Communities write down the rules.
A recorder was chosen to record all the claims and who made them.
Created their own courts.

What were the problems for law and order in the west?

Geography - huge areas, scattered communities, not enough law enforcement officers

Poor Pay - Hard to recruit law officers and many were corrupt (accepted bribes).

No legal training - Sherifs did not always act fairly.