Notes on The Ecology of the West and South (1865–1900)

15-1 THE TRANSFORMATION OF NATIVE CULTURES (1 OF 7)

Ecologies among Western Indigenous groups varied, but four economic activities structured their livelihoods: $Growing crops$ , $Raising t livestock$ , $Hunting, fishing, and gathering$ , $Trading and raiding$ .
Plains: everyday life centered on the buffalo; horses used for hunting and as markers of wealth.
Southwest: diverse peoples raised crops, hunted/gathered, and herded sheep.
Northwest: reliance on salmon.
1850s onward: whites perceived buffalo and plains Indigenous peoples as obstacles; efforts to remove them intensified.
Buffalo were targeted to block trains; eastern sportsmen killed thousands from trains.
Competition for space/water pushed buffalo toward starvation; diseases from white livestock damaged buffalo herds.
Northwest: salmon stocks declined due to commercial fishing, dams, and pollution.

15-1 THE TRANSFORMATION OF NATIVE CULTURES (2 OF 7)

White migrants were mostly young, male, armed, and prone to violence; they pharmacologically and culturally stereotyped Indigenous peoples as primitive.
Indigenous communities included women, elderly, and children; this made them less mobile and vulnerable to attacks.
Indigenous populations suffered from sexually transmitted diseases and diseases such as smallpox spread by whites.

15-1 THE TRANSFORMATION OF NATIVE CULTURES (3 OF 7)

U.S. officials framed Native tribes as separate nations with whom treaties could be made; in reality, Native groups consisted of many bands and confederacies that constantly shifted.
200+ languages/dialects separated groups, hindering unity against White encroachment.
Before the 1880s, officials tried to force western Indigenous people onto reservations, usually the least desirable land.
Reservation policy had degrading consequences: little self-government, shrinking lands, and consolidation of hostile groups.

15-1 THE TRANSFORMATION OF NATIVE CULTURES (4 OF 7)

Some Native peoples resisted (e.g., Apache, Pawnee, Nez Perce); whites responded with military force.
Notable actions: Long Walk (Navajo, 1863–1864) and Sand Creek Massacre (Cheyenne led by Black Kettle, 1864).
1876: ~2,500 Lakotas and Cheyennes defeated U.S. troops at Little Bighorn; pursuit of Indigenous groups continued.
Indigenous people were not simply conquered in battle but harassed and starved into submission.

15-1 THE TRANSFORMATION OF NATIVE CULTURES (5 OF 7)

Seeking to defuse violence and curb corruption, President Grant’s Peace Policy (1869) appointed religious leaders as agents to assimilate Indigenous peoples; barred military expeditions onto reservations.
Native Americans showed limited interest in farming on reservations; clashes with settlers persisted.
Carlisle Indian School opened in $1879$ ; boarding schools expanded in the $1890s$ ; field matrons taught women sewing, chastity, and hygiene.
In $1881$ , Helen Hunt Jackson published A Century of Dishonor detailing government mistreatment.

15-1 THE TRANSFORMATION OF NATIVE CULTURES (6 OF 7)

From the $1870s$ to the $1880s$ , reformers and officials pursued “civilization” through landholding and education.
Dawes Severalty Act of $1887$ dissolved many tribes as legal entities, granted individuals 160 acres held in trust for 25 years; excess land sold to whites; revenues funded Indian education.
Native children were taken to boarding schools; Ghost Dance emerged as a revival movement.
In $1890$ , the Ghost Dance was violently crushed at Wounded Knee, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of men, women, and children.

15-1 THE TRANSFORMATION OF NATIVE CULTURES (7 OF 7)

The Ghost Dance and other resistance persisted into the late 19th century; government responses intensified.
Dawes Act (1887) accelerated the dissolution of tribal landholding and accelerated allotment and assimilation processes.
The era culminated in the Wounded Knee Massacre in $1890$ , symbolizing the end of major indigenous resistance in the Plains.

15-2 THE EXTRACTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES (1 OF 4)

Mid-1800s: prospectors hunted for gold, silver, copper, and minerals across the West (states: $California$ , $Nevada$ , $Idaho$ , $Montana$ , $Utah$ , $Colorado$ ).
Prospectors sold claims to large mining syndicates; these companies brought in engineers, machinery, railroads, and labor crews.
Western timber companies acquired millions of acres via favorable laws (e.g., Timber and Stone Act).
Oil drilling boosted boom towns like $Los Angeles$ and $Houston$ ; mining and timber industries grew into large-scale corporations backed by eastern capital.

15-2 THE EXTRACTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES (2 OF 4)

Water development: irrigation projects funded by public/private means; prior appropriation doctrine allocated water rights to first claimant.
States established agencies to regulate water use and expand irrigated acreage.
The Newlands Reclamation Act of $1902$ allowed sale of 160-acre parcels to fund irrigation projects; it controlled water but did not address conservation.

15-2 THE EXTRACTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES (3 OF 4)

West became a multiracial society; unmarried men dominated the frontier, but women also sought opportunity (cooking, laundering, prostitution, or missionary work).
White settlers used race to structure labor and social relations.

15-2 THE EXTRACTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES (4 OF 4)

Post-Civil War conservation movement emerged: sports hunting regulations, national parks, and forest reserves due to advocacy by artists, travelers, and activists.
Lumber and railroad interests opposed conservation.
New Western states formed in $1889$ : North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, and Montana; Wyoming and Idaho admitted in $1890$ ; Utah admitted in $1896$ after pledging to ban polygamy.

15-3 THE AGE OF RAILROAD EXPANSION (1 OF 2)

Transcontinental railroad financing relied on federal support: liberal loans and land grants totaling over $180\times 10^6$ acres.
Railroads profited by using land as collateral or selling it; states and cities provided subsidies; towns along lines prospered, others declined.
Railroads attracted investment and integrated markets; transformed western development.

15-3 THE AGE OF RAILROAD EXPANSION (2 OF 2)

By the $1880s$ , standard-gauge rails linked lines; safety improvements included air brakes and automatic couplers.
Railroads spurred engineering professions and redefined time/space by measuring travel time, not just distance; standard time zones established (four zones).

15-4 FARMING THE PLAINS (1 OF 4)

Farm numbers tripled from $1860$ to $1910$ due to the Homestead Act; settlers moved to Kansas, Nebraska, Texas.
Railroads marketed cheap land, credit, low fares, and promises of quick success; farming life was harsh (scarcity, aridity, variable weather).

15-4 FARMING THE PLAINS (2 OF 4)

Social isolation on the Great Plains; many farms separated by at least a half-mile; women bore household burdens and loneliness.
Surviving families formed churches and clubs; mail-order catalogs (e.g., Montgomery Ward, Sears)
Rural Free Delivery (RFD) expanded in $1896$ , improving mail access.

15-4 FARMING THE PLAINS (3 OF 4)

Mechanization accelerated post-Civil War; productivity rose.
Morrill Land-Grant Act of $1862$ provided lands to finance agricultural colleges; Hatch Act of $1887$ funded agricultural experiment stations.
Science-driven farming improved soil use, crop varieties, and disease control.

15-4 FARMING THE PLAINS (4 OF 4)

Cattle drives ( $1866-1888$ ): millions of cattle driven from Texas to market in railroad towns in $Kansas$ .
Open range era ended as settlers homesteaded, fenced with barbed wire, and stockmen consolidated.
The severe winter of $1886-1887$ devastated cattle herds; later decades saw consolidation and adaptation (winter feeding, larger, meatier cattle).

15-5 THE SOUTH AFTER RECONSTRUCTION (1 OF 3)

Postwar South: farm numbers doubled, but landowners did not; renting common; average farm size declined.
Cotton-focused agriculture with high seed/implement costs; falling cotton prices, taxes, and debt trapped many farmers in poverty.
Mechanization lagged behind the Midwest; open-range restrictions in the 1870s contributed to rural poverty.
After the war, industrialization had limited impact on the South.

15-5 THE SOUTH AFTER RECONSTRUCTION (2 OF 3)

By 1900, the South produced a smaller share of the nation’s manufactured goods; sharecropping and tenancy persisted on absentee plantations.
Tobacco industry grew with machine-made cigarettes; James Buchanan Duke founded mass production and consolidated the American Tobacco Company in $1890$ .
Northern-dominated railroad rate structures slowed Southern industrialization; preferential rates favored manufactured goods moving south over raw materials north.

15-5 THE SOUTH AFTER RECONSTRUCTION (3 OF 3)

Pittsburgh steel magnates influenced freight rates, hindering Birmingham, AL’s steel industry growth.
Beginning around $1880s$ , northern capitalists built textile mills in the South, drawn by cheap labor.
Rural white southerners worked in mills—especially in the Piedmont of southern Appalachia; families often toiled long hours for low wages.
Poor conditions and wages limited improvement in status for many workers.