The West: Exploring an Empire

Chapter 17Chapter 17

Which “Old West” and Whose?

• Where was the “old west” between 1865 and 1890? Can you locate it on a map? Why or why not?

• Who was Frederick Jackson Turner and why was he significant?

• How did the US deal with American Indians in the west?

• Is the West still appealing today? Why or why not?

• The American West played an increasing significant role in US history between 1865 and 1980. During this period, Anglo-Americans settled 430 million acres of land and overwhelmed Native Americans in the so-called Indian Wars. Furthermore, ten new states entered the Union, bringing the total number o states to 48 by 1912. Finally, over the course of just a few decades, three commercial “empires” rose and fell: mining, farming, and cattle.

Space

• 3 disctinc regions– Trans-Mississippi West– Far West– Great Basin

Great American Desert

• Stephen H Long, surveyed a portion of Louisiana Purchase in 1819

• Coined phrase “Great American Desert” to describe land between 98th parallel to Rockies– Described as “wholly unfit for cultivation and

uninhabitable for those dependant on agriculture.”

The Myth of the Garden

• Western boosters popularized the myth of the Garden to encourage settlement

• Claim based on “scientific” evidence• Credibility strengthened by unusually high

levels of rainfall recorded in 1870s and ‘80s.• “In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted.”

Images of the “West”

Frederick Jackson Turner

• “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893)– Turner’s thesis, which generated tremendous

interest in the fronter

Major Points

• Frontier process• Epic struggle explains American development• Fronteir reproduces American democracy and

individualism• By 1890 frontier had closed, ending the first

stage of American development• In sum, civilization is a process which becomes

ever more complex.

Cowboys

• Approximately 35,000 men between 1864 and 1884

• 25% black, 12% Mexican, 63% white

American Indians

• Population estimated to stand at 10 million in 1600

• By 1865 300,000 remained

1867 Peace Commission

• Effort to “civilize” and “pacify” western Indians by moving them to reservations

• Reservations established in present day South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Arizona

Indian Policy

• Destruction of buffalo to weaken tribes and attract tourists– 1865 roughly 12-15 million buffalo– 1885 roughly a few hundred

• This led to Indian rebellion and then open warfare– 1874 - Red River Way – defeat of Comanche– 1877 – defeat of Chief Joseph and Nez Perce– 1886 – defeat of Geronimo and Apache– 1876-1890 – Sioux battle government

BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG HORN

Custer’s Last Stand

• 1876• Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse flee federal

reservation• Custer and 7th Cav pursue• Indian forced overwhelm US troop and killed

Custer and his soldiers

Wounded Knee

“Ghost Dance”

• 1880s• Sioux• Belief that following this faith would drive

away white Americans and bring back Sioux society.

Final Battle

• In 1889, Sioux warriors, women, and children tried to flee to Canada

• Government troops surrounded at Wounded Knee in South Dakota

• Machine guns• Americans left wounded to die in the snow• Two views– Triumph over “Indian Problem”– Senseless slaughter of innocents

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)

• Shaped Indian policy until 1930s• Attempt to tranform Indians into independent

farmers• Pledged to privde Indian families with 160

acres of reservation land• If accept grant, Indians become full citizens• Government act as trustee to “protect”

Indians from “unscrupulous” whites.

• Good intentioned but impossible to enforce• 1880s-1930s, Indians sold or lost 2/3 of total

land (approx. 86 million acres)– Land that remained was not good for agricultural

development

End of the “Old West”

• “Old West” didn’t last long• Industrialized transformed economics,

politics, and society.• Politicians and leaders began looking for gold

in factories where Americans had once searched for gold in the frontier lands