The Societies of the Far West

The Western Tribes

The Indigenous people of the Americas made up the largest and most important western population group before the “great white migration.” Among them included the Serrano, Chumash, Pomo, Maidu, Yurok, and Chinook, who had lived on the Pacific Coast before Spanish settlers arrived. Native Americans living in the plains were also made up of many different tribal and language groups. The bison, horses, and small sedentary settlements were key components of the plains. The “Plains warriors” were also strong and deeply rooted to their territory, not willing to give up their lands without a fight. This caused a lot of conflict when white expansion started to push farther and farther west.

Hispanic New Mexico

In “New Mexico,” the land claimed after the Mexican War meant that many new Mexicans were now residents in U.S. territory. Many engaged in cattle and sheep ranching. Among their biggest fears, though, were that their land would be taken away by American settlers and government, and rebellions from groups including the Taos Native Americans broke out. This led to New Mexico remaining under military rule for three years. Other tribes including the Navajo and Apache were unsettled by these events and the U.S. government.

Hispanic California and Texas

Spanish settlement in California had existed for decades prior to the U.S.’s acquisition of the land. The missions there had long since collapsed, however a strong Catholic presence still remained in the region. English speaking settlers quickly uprooted Spanish speaking residents of California, also causing them to lose their land during the gold rush and afterwards. A similar pattern occured in Texas when it joined the U.S. as a state, where most landowners lost their land and Mexicans were constantly pushed towards a lower class status and jobs.

• Californios: Hispanic residents of California

The Chinese Migration

During this time, many Chinese migrants crossed the Pacific looking for better work and lives, with some moving to the U.S. After 1848 the number of migrants coming into the country increased dramatically. Most came as free laborers. For some time, white Americans welcomed the Chinese people as conscientious and hardworking, giving them little trouble. However, once they saw their rising success, white Americans turned hostile and began discriminating acts, laws, and crimes targeted to Chinese people solely due to bias.

• “coolies”: derogatory term for Chinese migrants looking for work

Anti-Chinese Sentiments

As Chinese communities grew larger, establishing permanent towns and areas known as “Chinatown” in cities such as San Fransisco, anti-Chinese sentiments among white residents intensified. Chinese workers would often take laborer jobs for lower wages and poorer conditions than white workers would, upsetting them.

• Chinese Exclusion Act: passed by Congress in 1882, the act banned Chinese immigration into the U.S. for ten years and barred Chinese people already in the country from becoming naturalized citizens

Migration from the East

White settlers flocked to the west in the millions post-Civil War. These included immigrants born in Europe, such as Scandinavians, Germans, Irish, Russians, Czechs, and others. They were attracted for several reasons, including gold and silver deposits, agricultural land, and economic expansion and opportunity. New acts, including the Timber Culture Act and Desert Land Act, attempted to provide relief for settlers and expand the amount of land they could claim farther out west and in the Great Plains.

• Homestead Act: established in 1862, it permitted settlers to buy plots of 160 acres for a small fee if they occupied the land they purchased for five years and improved it

The Romance of the West

The Western Landscape and the Cowboy

The romanticization of the west by white Americans was more fiction than fact. Part of its allure was attributed to the spectacular and “untouched” natural landscapes of the West. New paintings and photographs of these western landscapes attracted tourists from both local and farther regions, and resort hotels even began to form near the region’s most famous landscapes. The idea of the cowboy also inspired many Americans, with novels, shows, and tours of cowboy and frontier idealism.

• “Rocky Mountain school”: a school in the West for paintings, focused on the natural landscapes of the Rocky Mountains area

The Idea of the Frontier

The image of uncharted territory in the west always comforted and inspired those who dreamed of starting life anew, particularly in Anglo-American culture. Mark Twain’s novels often resonated with Americans, reflecting a larger vision of the West as a reprieve from the constraints of society and a yearning for freedom and reconnection with nature. Frederic Remington was another notable figure whose paintings and sculptures portrayed the romance associated with the West.

• Mark Twain: popular novelist in the late 19th century, wrote “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

• Turner thesis: Frederick Jackson Turner’s bold paper, stating that western expansions stimulated individualism, nationalism, and democracy and characterized America as a whole

The Changing Western Economy

Labor in the West

The increase of commercial activity in the west led to many farmers, ranchers, and miners to recruit a paid labor force. The labor shortage led to higher wages for some, however the working conditions in projects including building the railroad, crop harvesting, and mining were all treacherous and extremely unstable jobs. The western working class was also very diverse, where Anglo-Americans worked next to African Americans, immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, Chinese, Filipinos, Mexicans, and Native Americans. However, upper tiers of employment in management and skilled labor were usually offered to white workers only.

The Arrival of the Miners

The mining boom of the west began around 1860 and stayed strong until the 1890s. The first news of a gold and silver strike during this period would send thousands of people flocking to those areas looking for precious metals. As a result, cities such as San Fransisco and Denver popped up quickly around the miners who moved to those regions. Other more stable pursuits of minerals included quartz, lead, tin, and copper mines. The work was almost uniform in the terrible conditions. 1 out of every 30 men was disabled from work in the mines, while 1 out of every 80 men died.

The Cattle Kingdom

The open range of the vast grasslands provided a huge area in the Great Plains where cattle raisers could establish farms and graze their herds. Mexican ranchers had previously developed techniques and equipment to manage large herds of cattle, including branding, roundups, roping. They used gear such as lariats, saddles, leather chaps, and spurs. Texas became a prime area for cattle ranching, and an estimated 5 million cattle roamed the Texas ranges by the end of the Civil War. Eventually, cattle and ranching profit became so lucrative that corporations started to establish themselves in the business.

• long drives: caravans of cattle going from ranches to distant markets, able to connect isolated cattle breeders of west Texas to booming urban markets in the East

• “range wars”: conflicts over land between sheep breeders, farmers, ranchers, and cattlemen

The Dispersal of the Tribes

White Tribal Policies

The desire for white expansion, settlement, and conquest pushed more and more into Native American lands. By the early 1850s, the government adopted the concentration policy. By 1867, Congress established the Indian Peace Commission to instate a new and presumably permanent Indian policy. They recommended that the government move all Plains tribes into two reservations, one in Oklahoma, and the other in the Dakotas. This was an extremely harmful policy that uprooted thousands of people and tribe from their land. The overkilling of buffalo also led to the decimation of strength of many Great Plains tribes.

• concentration policy: divided the tribes from one another to more easily control them, consolidating tribes to leave areas open for white settlers

The Indian Wars

Native Americans often fought with white people over the seizure of their land. They rebelled in many ways, attacking wagon trains, stagecoaches, and isolated ranches, often in retaliation to previous attacks from white people. At some points, tribes were pushed to their breaking points, such as during the Civil War when the eastern Sioux in Minnesota rebelled. Conflict was also seen in eastern Colorado, where the Arapaho and Cheyenne came into conflict with white miners settling in the region. In Montana, white expansion included the army’s attempts to build a road to connect Forts and mining centers. The western Sioux resented the intrusion right through their buffalo range, and demanded a change in the building plans. White “vigilantes” also often tried to harass and even kill Native Americans, hell-bent on the idea that they could not coexist peacefully.

• Little Bighorn: when miners began to enter territory in the Dakotas promised to Native Americans, they united under leaders Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, fighting against Colonel George A. Custer, killing him and all of the American troops

• Chief Joseph: a leader of a band of Nez Percé Native Americans who killed white settlers on the way to a reservation in Idaho

• Geronimo: Cochise’s successor for the Apache tribe, led bands of his people to raid white outposts

• Wounded Knee: the site of a battle between Seventh Cavalry and the Sioux, turning into a massacre where white soldiers killed over 200 Native Americans

The Dawes Act

Congress passed legislation during this period that would deeply inhibit traditional Native American cultural practices surrounding community of the tribe. The Dawes Severalty Act did this by gradually forcing Native Americans to own land individually, rather than complete reservations or lands as a whole. Many white lawmakers and agents fo the Bureau of Indian Affairs tried to promote the idea, saying it was necessary for Native American’s assimilation into white culture. Some even went so far as to take Native American children away from their families, send them to boarding schools run by whites, and spread Christianity on reservations.

• Dawes Severalty Act: passed in 1887, it gradually forced Native Americans to own land individually, rather than complete reservations as a whole

The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer

Farming on the Plains

In the late 1870s to early 1880s, new western farmers flourished, with an agricultural economic boom on the rise. However, by the mid 1880s, the western agricultural economy began a long and steady decline. The completion of longer railroads by the 1860s made huge areas of settlement accessible for the first time. To create new markets, railroad companies actively promoted settlement. During the 1870s, rainfall in the plains states was above average, rejecting the idea that the region was the “Great American Desert.” When creating fencing, many didn’t have the resources in the plains necessary to enclose their land. The invention of barbed wire helped with this problem. Water was also scarce, especially during dry season, and its scarcity led to many farmers being unable to harvest ample crops and pay off their debts.

Commercial Agriculture

By the end of the 19th century, the independent farmer was being replaced by the commercial farmer, similar to the trend of the manufacturing economy. Commercial farmers specialized in “cash crops.” Eventually, the farm economy as a whole suffered form a significant decline when compared to the rest of the nation.

The Farmers’ Grievances

The cause of such struggles in western agriculture were related to the national and worldwide overproduction of crops. Inequitable freight rates, high interest charges, and inadequate currency also irked farmers on a smaller scale. Farmers expressed resentment with the railroads for charging higher rates for farm goods than for other goods, and resented institutions controlling credit.

The Agrarian Malaise

These economic difficulties resulted in social and cultural resentments. Farm families were isolated, and often seen as less than by the growing urban culture that was dominating American life. Some writers reflect the growing disillusionment of the agricultural west, such as Hamlin Garland. Where yeoman farmers had once been viewed as quintessential to American life, the urbanization and industrialization of America was quickly overtaking the ideals of American society as a whole.

Conclusion

Comprehension Questions

1. How did ethnic, racial, and cultural prejudice affect western society?

2. What were the three major industries involved in the development of the West, and how did these industries transform the western economy?

3. What was the romantic image of the West, and how was this image expressed in art, literature, and popular culture?

4. How did actions and policies of the federal government affect the fate of Indians in the West?