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Chapter 5
Culture Clash on the Great Plains
Objectives:
View of Land:
Land:
Native Americans:
Americans: land could not be owned
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.
Settlers: owning land, making mining claims, starting businesses
Settlers:
would give them a stake in the country
Result: Settlers argued N.A. had forfeited their rights to land because
they had not “settled” the land to improve it. Therefore, the land was
“unsettled” and free for the taking.
U.S. Restricts N. Americans & N.A. Resist
1834: U.S. designated entire Great Plains as a huge reservation.
1850’s: Changed policy and created reservations for each tribe.
1864: Massacre at Sand Creek, military killed 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho
1866: Fetterman Massacre, Red Cloud tried to stop settlement of Bozeman Trail.
1868: Treaty of Fort Laramie, forced Sioux to live on reservation and stop
fighting.
1874--75: Red River War crushed resistance on the southern plains.
1874
1876: Battle of Little Big Horn, led by Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and Gall against
Col. Custer, “Custer’s Last Stand,” Custer and troops are crushed. But, Sioux are
defeated by late 1876.
1887: Dawes Act
goal to “Americanize” N.A.
breaks up reservation
sells land to individual N.A.
remainder of land would be sold to settlers and money to go to N.A.
N.A. never saw any of the money
Dec. 28th, 1890: Battle of Wounded Knee, brought the Indian wars to a end.
The End of the Open Range
Cattle Becomes Big Business
Buffalo disappeared
N.A. forced onto reservations
Post Civil War demand for beef skyrocketed
Chicago Union Yard sent beef to east & north
Overgrazing of land
Extended bad weather
Invention of barbed wire, created fencedfenced-in ranches.
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Chapter 5.2
Settlers Move Westward to Farm
Railroads open west
Objective:
Explain the rapid settlement of the Great Plains due
to homesteading.
Describe how early settlers transformed them into
profitable farm land.
Homestead Act, 1862
Frontier is Gone
Farmers in Debt
Objective:
Identify the problems farmers faced and their
cooperative efforts to solve them.
Explain the rise and fall of the Populist Party.
Offered 160 acres free to any citizen or intended citizen who was head of
household.
1862 -1900 600,000 families took advantage of this offer.
Exodusters – thousands of A. Americans who moved to Kansas
Chapter 5.3
Created 5 transcontinental railroads in 15 years. 1869 – 1884.
Sold extra land to settlers, 44% immigrants
1890 Census Bureau declared no more continuous frontier left.
Farmers borrow money to buy new machinery
Bonanza Farms – enormous singlesingle-crop spreads of 15,000 - 50,000 acres.
1885 -1890, plains experienced drought & Bonanza Farms went bankrupt.
Problems Faced by Farmers
price of food dropped
Farmers mortgaged farms to buy more land to
produce more food.
Good farm land was becoming scarce.
Banks foreclosed on farms who could not pay back
their loans.
Removing “greenbacks” from circulation, increases
value of dollar and caused a decrease in price of food.
Farmers paid high prices to transport grain.
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Populists
Farmers Form Alliances
Grange – founded by Oliver H. Kelley, used most
of its time fighting the railroads.
Farmer’s Alliances – goal is to educate people about
loans and gov’t control over railroads and banks.
Populist Party – created in 1892, to make a greater
change and help lift the debt burden of farmers.
Goal
Increase the money supply – devalue the dollar
Governmental reform
Senators elected by popular vote
One term for President and VP
Secret ballot to end voter fraud
8 hour work day
Immigration restrictions
Graduated income tax
Federal loan programs
Populists – Gold vs. Silver
Silver and gold to back dollar
Populists, “silverites”, farmers and laborers wanted.
More money in circulation
Increase in prices
More people have more money
1896 Presidential Race
Bimetalism
Gold Standard
Businessmen and bankers
Increase value of dollar
Fewer people have money
Prices fall
William McKinley – Republican and “Gold
Standard” supporter.
William Jennings Bryan – Democrat and
supported bimetalism
Election of McKinley collapsed Populist Party
Populist Legacy =
Poor realized they could have an impact on
politics.
Set reform agenda set for the 20th century.
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