Changes on The Western Frontier: Section 1-4

Chapter 5

Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock rasta:There was a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America,Stolen from Africa, brought to America,Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.

If you know your history,Then you would know where you coming from,Then you wouldn't have to ask me,Who the 'eck do I think I am.

I'm just a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America,Stolen from Africa, brought to America,Said he was fighting on arrival, fighting for survival;Said he was a Buffalo Soldier in the war for America.

Dreadie, woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!Buffalo Soldier troddin' through the land, wo-ho-ooh!Said he wanna ran, then you wanna hand,Troddin' through the land, yea-hea, yea-ea.

Said he was a Buffalo Soldier win the war for America;Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock rasta,Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival;Driven from the mainland to the heart of the Caribbean.

Dreadie, woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!

Objectives:

• To understand the mistreatment and final defeat of the Natives

• To describe the opening up of the West

• To understand the role of cowboys and the role of prairie settlers in defining the West

• To evaluate the role of inventions in changing life in the West

Settlers moved West for gold, silver and farmland.

• Homestead Act, 1862 – gov’t gave 160 acres of free land to anyone who lived on it for 5 years.

• This created problems for the Natives.

• Why????

• Settlers saw natives as savages.

• (Just like the movie stereotype)

• Yet, Plains Indians had a highly developed culture.

Culture clashes with white men:

1. Natives believed in spirits.

–Shamans – medicine men/women (communed with spirits)

2. Natives lived communally.

• Everyone shared

• (true communism).

3. Natives did not believe land could be owned, they set aside hunting and burial grounds.

• 1598, Spanish brought horses to America giving Plains natives mobility leading to the hunt for buffalo as their main way of life. (1700’s)

• Land competition led to Indian wars.

• African Americans joined the US Army; Indians called them “Buffalo Soldiers”..

• In early 1800’s, land was set aside for the natives; treaties were passed, but not honored.

• Map – page 205

• Treaty of Laramie, 1851 – beginning of the Reservation system.

• By 1860’s, Indians had become dependent on the gov’t for all supplies. (why is this so bad?)

• Gov’t agents were often corrupt

• Massacre at Sand Creek: 1864, US Army leader, Chivington, massacred the Cheyenne at the Sand Creek Reserve.

• Chivington led the massacre.

• Over 400 Arapaho and Cheyenne, mostly women and children.

• Indians responded with the Fetterman massacre.

• Result: Another treaty….did not last …Indians began raids again.

• 1874, gold discovered in the Black Hills of the Dakotas. (land set aside in the Treaty of Laramie)

• Miners rushed in; Natives protested….

• Geronimo was a famous Apache war chief. Mexicans killed his mother, wife, & 3 children so he repeatedly caused problems. Lived on reservations in Al., FL, Ok.

• Custer’s last stand: (1876) General George Custer and all of his men were killed by the natives at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

• (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Gall)

Sitting Bull fled into Canadauntil starvation brought himback into the US.

Short film about the battle…

• How badly were the Native Am. treated?

• 1881, Helen Hunt Jackson wrote A Century of Dishonor about 100’s of broken US/Native treaties.

• The US did not keep a single treaty.

• “assimilation” – process where Natives would become like whites.(dress, language, etc.)

• Whites would “Americanize” the Natives.

• Dawes Act, 1887 – broke up reservations and divided land among the Natives. Additional land was to be sold and $ given to the Natives for farming equipment. (didn’t happen)

• White settlers destroyed the buffalo too.

• Only about 1000 buffalo were left by 1900.

• Once a proud race, Natives lived in poverty and disease.

• They looked for a savior…

• A Paiute prophet taught them a Ghost Dance to save them from the white man.

• (much like the ideas of Christianity)

• They came to believe if they wore the white shirts, it would keep bullets from piercing their skin.

Ghostshirt wornby a warrior

• White reaction was to kill Sitting Bull (1890) and …

• Reaction: At Wounded Knee Creek Camp the army massacred over 200 Natives.

• The Natives resisted no more.

• (movie clip)

• Ranching became big business on the Plains (from Kansas to Texas).

• American cowboys learned from Mexican cowboys.

• They herded cattle on the “open range”.

• The Longhorns came from Spain.

Cowboy terms:

1. “jerky” (dried meat)

2. “broncos” (wild horses)

3. “mustangs (strays)

4. “rancheros” (ranch)

5. “corral” and “rodeo”

American Buckeroo

» Wore “spurs” and overalls called “chaps”

• Cowboy boots and bandanas are of American origin.

• Bandanas were used for sun screens, tourniquets, dust masks, washcloths, strainer for muddy water, face covering for dead cowboys, noose for hanging horse thieves, and blindfold for skittish horses.

Gunslingers and Outlaws:

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

• Billy the Kid

• The Younger Brothers

• Jesse James

• Calamity Jane

• Wild Bill Hickock

• Wyatt Earp

• Judge Roy Bean

• Railroads now transported cattle to the East leading to a demand for beef .. (after the Civil War)

• “Beef barons” (Swifts and Armours) became big meatpacking businesses in Chicago.

• Joseph McCoy built a shipping yard where the cow trails and railroads met (cow towns).

• Abilene, Kansas - one of the first on the Chisholm Trial.

• Cowboys herded cattle across farmer’s land.

The end of the Cattle Frontier:

1. Overgrazing of the land

2. Extended bad weather

3. The invention of barbed wire

Settling the Great Plains:

• Railroads opened the West.

• By the late 1800’s, there were 5 transcontinental railroads.

• Movie clip about Oklahoma– 19th Century Turning Points– Oklahoma Land Rush

Oklahoma Sooners: 1889

• The gov’t set aside free land in Oklahoma. Some took possession before the official opening – “sooners”

• In less than a day, 2 million acres were claimed.

Day 2 – Objectives:

• Description of the farmers in the west

• Evaluation of their problems

• Political reaction to the farmers

• Significance of the Populist Party

• Settlers faced hardships: droughts, floods, fires, locusts, blizzards, outlaws and Natives.

• Some early settlers built Dugouts -in the sides of hills or ravines. On the flatlands, they built soddies.

Frontier Women:

• Had to be self-sufficient.

• Cooked, farmed, doctored, sponsored schools and churches.

Exodusters: African-Am. whomoved West.

• Morrill Act in 1862 and 1890: supported agricultural education. Gave federal land to states to help finance agricultural colleges.

• Hatch Act in 1887 – est. agricultural experiment stations to inform farmers of new research.

New inventions that helped farmers:

1. John Deere’s steel plow

2. McCormick’s reaper

3. Steel windmill

4. barbed wire

• These led to mass production.

• Bonanza farms: huge single cash crop farms. (wheat, corn)

Farmer’s problems:

1.Expensive machinery

2.Bad weather (droughts)

3.Expensive transportation fees

“The Iron Horse Eats Up the Farmers’ Produce” , 1873

• Lack of competition among railroads made it hard to get lower shipping prices.

• Farmers products price down

• Farmers borrow more $ for more

land to produce more

• Prices down because more is

in circulation

• Farmers borrow more $

• Gov’t wanted to pull greenbacks out of circulation to make the value of money go up.

• This meant farmers would be paying back more money than they borrowed.

• 1867, Oliver Hudson Kelly started the Grange to bring farmers together for social and political reasons.

• It organized farmers’ co-ops.

• Farmers’ Alliances formed.

• There was a separate Alliance for African Americans.

“What you farmers need to do is raise less corn and more Hell!” Mary Elizabeth Lease (1890) Populist Organizer

• Farmers formed the Populist Party, 1892

• Farmers met in Omaha, Nebraska and demanded reforms.

Populist Party (Omaha Platform):

1. increase money supply

2. graduated income tax

3. federal loan program

4. direct election of senators

5. single term for Pres.

6. secret ballot

7. 8 hour work day

8. restrictions on immigrants

• This platform became the platform of the Democratic Party.

• The concept that gov’t is responsible for social injustices grew in popularity over time.

• Panic and Depression of 1893

• Worst in history up to this time…

• Led to economic difficulties especially for the farmer.

Two Options:

• Bi-metallism – citizens use gold and silver as money exchange

• Gold Standard – citizens use only gold to back paper money

• South and West – Democrats and Populists

• (Agricultural), bi-metallists

• North and East – Republican

• (Industrial), gold standard

Election of 1896:

• Rep. William McKinley

• Dem. William Jennings Bryan

William Jennings Bryan “Cross of Gold Speech”

• You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

• McKinley’s campaign was called “ the front porch campaign”.

• Bryan traveled all over trying to unite the Dem. and Populists.

• McKinley won, end of Populism.

WilliamMcKinley,1896

L. Frank Baum, author of

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ,1900, was a supporter of the Populists.

Some people believe it was written as an allegory about the Populist movement.

Even the word “Oz” is used to represent the measurement of gold.

Remember the issue of gold vs. silver. The slippers were originally silver.

Dorothy:

• Represents everyman. She is an innocent Midwest girl.

Munchkins:

Represent the common people, controlled by the Wicked Witch of the East (who represented the Eastern Industrialists and Bankers.

Scarecrow:

Represents the naïve western farmer, taken advantage of by the industrialists and bankers.

No brain….

Tinman:Represents the

dehumanized industrial worker.

“No heart….”

Cowardly Lion:

Represents William Jennings Bryan, no real courage, pacifist.

Wicked Witch of the West:

Represents the Western industrial influence.

• Emerald City –

Washington D.C.

• The Wizard -

The President