Culture Clash on the Prairie
Objectives:
•Contrast the cultures of Native Americans and white
settlers and explain why white settlers moved west
•Identify restrictions imposed by the government on
Native Americans and describe the consequences
•Identify the government’s policy of assimilation as
well as continuing conflicts between Native Americans
and settlers
•Trace the development of the cattle industry
•Describe both the myth and the reality of the
American cowboy and explain the end of the open
range
The Culture of the Plains Tribes
Significance of the Buffalo and Horse
sources of: food clothing shelter transportation
Family Life
communal property
communal government
individualism valued
Culture
focus on the present
world inhabited by spirits
Treaties
1. The Homestead Act of 1862
2. The Morrill Act of 1862
3. The Treaty of Fort Laramie 1868
4. The Dawes Act 1887
The Homestead Act of 1862
•During the Civil War, 160 acres of FREE
LAND was given to any citizen head of
household interested in settling West of
the Mississippi River. Unmarried adults
were given 80 acres.
•By 1900 over 600,000 families took
advantage of this offer.
•Some of this land was resold for profit
by land speculators.
The Morrill Act of 1862
•Federal money was given to states to
create agricultural colleges.
•The first two colleges created were
Michigan State University and Penn
State University
•Every state has one land grant college
•Local land grant colleges include West
Virginia University and the University of
Maryland (College Park Campus)
The Treaty of Fort Laramie 1868
The Sioux in Wyoming were
FORCED to sign this treaty agreeing
to leave their land and live on much
smaller reservations, forfeiting their
land the the US Government to be
given or resold to United States
citizens
Sitting Bull REFUSED to sign this
treaty.
The Dawes Act 1887
This act was aimed at the ASSIMILATION
and AMERICANIZATION of Native Americans
At the age of eight years old,
Indian children were taken
from their parents and educated in
special schools created for them.
(forced Americanization).
One of these schools was located in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
This land was TAKEN from the
existing reservations and any land
remaining was then given/sold to
white settlers.
As with the Homestead Act,
160 acres of FREE LAND was given
to Native American male heads of
household interested in settling
West of the Mississippi River.
Unmarried adults were given 80 acres.
DE JURE (by law): the income raised
from the sale of this land was
supposed to buy farm equipment for
the Indians
DE FACTO (the facts): massive
corruption ensured that very little of
this money actually went to support
Indian farmers on their new lands
Settlers Push Westward :Why?
the growth of the railroads
the growth of the cattle industry
the government support of “free land”
silver and gold mining
How do you think the
various Native American
tribes reacted to the drastic
increase in White settlers
West of the Mississippi into
their territories in the Great
Plains?
Terms
The Government Restricts Native Americans
Various sources report Custer’s 7th Cavalry had
between 200 and 250
troops and the Sioux and their allies had between 1800
and 4000 troops
(out-numbering Custer’s men by estimates from 8 to 1
to as much as 20
to 1).
Fighting took place on June 25th, 1876 in the
afternoon and only lasted a
little over an hour. Of the 200 or so men from the 7th
Cavalry present,
there were NO SURVIVORS.
Exoduster: African Americans who moved from the
post-Reconstruction South to Kansas
Several thousand families who took advantage of the
Homestead Act were EXODUSTERS
Soddies: Homes created on the plains from stacks of
prairie turf (sod)
Soddy homes were well insulated and fire proof but
leaky and infested with pests (spiders and
snakes)
The Ongoing Popularity of the “Western” in Modern
Culture
Farmers and the Populist Movement
Benteen. Come on. Big village.
Come quick, bring packs.
W.W. Cooke
P.S. Bring pacs
This message was
carried by a trumpeter
named Giuseppe Martini
(John Martin). Because
he left the front to
deliver this message, he
was not present for the
battle and therefore was
the only survivor of
Custer’s 7th Cavalry.
Presumably Custer wanted Captain Benteen
to collect the mules carrying ammunition and
bring those with him. Doing that was not
consistent with coming quickly since the
pack train of mules was not with Benteen.
Objectives:
•Contrast the cultures of Native Americans and white
settlers and explain why white settlers moved west
•Identify restrictions imposed by the government on
Native Americans and describe the consequences
The Bonanza Farm
In the 1870’s land was granted to the railroad
companies as an incentive to built more railroads in the
West
The railroads then resold this land for profit HUGE
farms ( 40,000 to 50,000 acres) were built to farm a
single type of crop, usually wheat
These were the first industrial farms
These farms did well until the droughts of 1885 -1890
Smaller farms could more easily adapt to other crops
and needed less irrigation
The problems of the farmers
The rise of POPULISM
Sitting Bull and George Custer at the
Battle of Little Big Horn
Settling on the Great Plains
Objectives:
•Explain the rapid settlement of the Great Plains due to
homesteading
•Describe how early settlers survived on the plains and
transformed them into profitable farm land
The growth of the railroads and cattle industry
OLIVER HUDSON KELLEY
Minnesota Pioneer, 1849-1868
Formed “The Grange”
-a farmers organization
designed to educate about
farmer’s issues:
Farming technology and
techniques, financial planning,
provide socialization for
isolated farmers,
protection from
exploitation and mistreatment
by the Railroad Industry
The MONOPOLY of the Railroads
The railroads had local MONOPOLIES in each region
and were unfairly charging farmers HUGE amounts to
transport their crops to markets
Other Farmer’s Alliances form to protect the interests
of farmers
This eventually becomes the POPULIST political
movement or “The People’s Party”
The POPULIST Party was a REFORM political
movement who campaigned for:
Farmer’s Interests, Railroad Reform, Increase of
Inflation, BI-METALISM
WHAT?! I thought inflation was BAD. How would
inflation help the farmers?
What is the GOLD STANDARD? What is BIMETALLISM?
Introducing a silver AND gold standard would increase
the money supply
Inflation would raise the prices paid for crops,
allowing farmers to pay off their debts faster
William Jennings Bryan
(March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925)
•Most successful POPULIST politician
•Attended the Democratic Convention of 1896 as the
Nebraska Delegate
•Famous speech “Cross of Gold”
•Wins the Democratic nomination for president
•Loses election to William McKinley
•Later: Secretary of State, Prohibition, anti-Darwinist,
Scopes Trial, loses presidential election two more
times (against McKinley again, and then Teddy
Roosevelt)
“…we shall answer their demands for a gold standard
by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the
brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not
crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”