HARDY INDIVIDUALISM?
OR
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT POLICY AND
ENCOURAGEMENT?
MYTHOLOGY OF THE WESTERN FRONTIER
1893 Frederick Jackson Turner’s
―The Significance of the Frontier‖
•
•
•
Frontier thesis presented at the 400th
anniversary of Columbus coming to the
New World
US census ―closed the frontier‖
Analysis of past, warning for future
-what will happen to democracy if there is no
frontier
•
Meaning of ―Frontier‖
- meeting point between savagery and civilization
- Line of most rapid ―Americanization‖
•
•
Individual
-reliance on your own wits and strengths
Successfully links economic opportunity
with the west
Continued debates – Political Correctness v. Good Scholarship?
1. Slavery, Civil War, immigration, industrial capitalism more important factors to
understanding American history than the frontier
2. Was the frontier ―free land?‖ Factors Turner does not address
a. Native Americans had to be subjugated
b. Land is not fairly distributed to yeoman farmers
3. Idea of the ―moving frontier‖ disputed—West more a region
a. can Puritan New England be compared to California & the Transcontinental
railroad?
4. Role of the individual
a. was the West truly settled by individuals or settled by cooperation and
communities
i. wagon trains composed of families
ii. large corporations funded infrastructure—railroads
1) cowboys low-level employees of corporations
iii. goverment used military to rid West of Native-Americans
Iconic Frontiersman
Alternative to refined society
Uncorrupt, simple,
innocent, virtuous
New Masculine Idea
Virtue triumphs
Morality Plays
Eastern establishment impacted
by western myths
Teddy Roosevelt
Wister, ―The Virginian‖
Frederick Remington
Decline of Indian Lands 1492-1890
Loss of nomadic lifestyle and traditions
IMPACT OF SETTLEMENT ON NATIVE POPULATIONS
Plains Indians
1. Northern Plains – Dakotas, Montana, Nebraska
a. Lakota, Flatheads, Blackfeet, Assiniboins,
n. Cheyennes, Arapahos, Crows
2. Central Region
a. Five Civilized Tribes, Pawnees
3. Southern Region - Migratory Tribes
Comanches, Kiowas, s. Arapahos, and Kiowa,
Apaches
• Characteristics
1. very diverse
2. nomadic & agricultural
3. extended family, tribal cooperation
a. Children not physically punished, decisions by consensus
b. relatives – band – tribe- nation
4. Perspective on life: Cyclical
Indian Policies
1.
Decimate the bison herds
a. government policy, overhunting by NA,
development
2. Established reservations to protect both Indian
tradition and settlers’ needs
a. Treaties broken when new mineral wealth discovered,
some tribes never agree to treaties.
3.
Indian schools set up to assimilate natives into
western
culture
Native American Reactions
1.
Accept their fate
a. Pueblos, Crows, Hidatsas
2. Opposition to policies
a. Navajos, Dakota Sioux
3.
Extreme resistance to policies
a. Western Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapahos, Kiowas,
Comanches
1851 – Treaty of Fort Laramie
a. traditional territorial claims in return for $50,000 for 50 years and safe
passage for settlers along Oregon Trail (except Crows)
b. forts and roads allowed within Indian territory
c. failed: US refused to stop emigration after gold discovered
Nov. 29, 1864 Sand Creek Massacre
a. Indians starving – attack settlers – militia attacks – Indians attack
b. Chivington attacks a group of Cheyenne and kills mainly women and
children (150) after a peace agreement
c. Indians flew US flag to symbolize their peace settlement
Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! ... I have come to kill Indians, and believe
it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians.”—Col. John Milton Chivington, U.S. Army[13]
1867 – Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867
a. Set up the Oklahoma reservation
1868 – Second Fort Laramie Treaty
a. established the Great Sioux Reserve
b. not all sign-do not want to live like whitemen
1869 – Board of Indian Commissioners
a. Unsuccessful in reforming reservation system
1874 – Red River War
a. Indians unhappy with broken treaties
b. Independence of Plains Indians ends
Custer’s Last Stand 1876
a. Objectives: find location for new fort, keep an eye
on renegade Indians, ****confirm gold was in the Black Hills
1. buy back the Black Hills
b. June, 1876 – march on Little Bighorn and meet Chief Sitting Bull
c. Result: Immediate-US defeated
Long term: 5 years of harassment
Custer moves his troops to Little Big Horn, Montana
Underestimates his enemy and divides his army
Sitting Bull decimates Custer’s troops
Helen Hunt Jackson
―Century of Dishonor‖
• Highlights broken treaties by US government
• Dawes Severalty Act - Break up Indian
reservations and assimilate Indians
– Indians should be treated as individuals not tribes
– Replace nomadic traditions with agriculture
– Indian lands would be held in trust for 25 years
– Result: Speculators get the best land
– Bureau of Indian Affairs (1870)
http://www.sunflower-health.com/resources/ghost-dance.html
Ghost Dance Movement – 1890’s
a. Prophet: Wovoka – restore Sioux to original dominance
b. Fear prompts agents to arrest Sitting Bull, but bodyguard shot agent
c. Battle of Wounded Knee – 300 die
Bureau of Indian Affairs:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Existed in one form or another since 1775
1832-Commissioner of Indian Affairs
1869 – Ely Samuel Parker, first Native American to hold office
set up to manage reservations
WHY THE WEST?
Mining - Gold
Cattle - Rancher
Farm Land - Farmer
May 10, 1869
Pacific Railroad Act, 1862
1. Government provides land and
subsidies to railroads for each
mile of track laid
Result:
West becomes more accessible
Railroads largest landholders in
West
Impact of Railroads on the West
1. Chinese enter US as railroad laborers
2. Ship men to kill Native Americans and their food supply, buffalo
3. Bring new settlers to the west
4. Ship cattle and grains to market
5. Recruit settlers from the Europe – 2.2 million
6. Land is available to single women (unintended consequence)
7. Rise of cash crops: wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco
Mining
Discovery of Gold, 1849
Forty-Niners
Comstock Lode, 1860’s – 1870’s
Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota,
Canadian Klondike, Alaska
Result: Melting Pot
Boom-Bust Cycles
Environmental Damage
Conflicts with Native Americans
Virginia City, Nevada
RANCHERS:
Cattle Frontier:Joseph McCoy
Objective: Raise cattle cheaply in Texas, herd
them North to ship
Shortens the Chisholm Trail
First Wild West Show
Cowboys: low pay, generally young, 1-2 years
Homestead Act, 1862
1. Goal: Allow poor people to
achieve economic
independence
2. Offer: 160 acres for $10
registration fee and live on land
for 5 years
Impact: Immigration of British,
Germans, Swedes, Danes,
Norwegians, Czechs
Result:
1. Land speculators (1 in 9 acres goes to pioneers)
2. In dry climates, farmers need more than 160 acres (acts passed)
3. Difficulties in adjusting psychologically (1/2 give up)
FARMERS
DISADVANTAGES FOR FARMERS IN THE WEST
1. Start-up expenses - $1,200
2. Crop specialization makes them dependent
3. Unpredictable weather
4. Insect infestations
ADVANTAGES FOR FARMERS IN THE WEST
1. Production increases – corn, wheat; new strains
2. Technology advancements – plows, spring-tooth
harrows, wheat planters, grain binders, threshers,
windmills results in tenfold increase, barbed wire
Acts:
Timber Culture Act of 1873
Additional 160 acres if 40 acres are planted with trees
Desert Land Act, 1877
640 acres available at $1.25 if irrigated within 3 years
Timber and Stone Act, 1878
160 acres of forest land at $2.50/acre
EXPLOITED BY: Lumber Companies, Land Speculators,
Cattle Ranchers
Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889
2 million acres available to settle (against Indian protests)
Sooners – arrived illegally
Dawes Severalty Act
Indian reservations broken up for non-Indian settlement
The Grange-National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry –
Established to assist farmers; fight against railroads practices
such as: discounts to large shippers, bribery of state
legislators; higher rates for short runs versus long runs
Granger Laws – Fix maximum rates for freight shipments
Supreme Court Decisions
Munn v Illinois, 1877
Granger laws not unconstitutional
Maximum rate for storage of grain
Wabash Decision, 1886
States cannot regulate interstate railroad rates
Interstate Commerce Act, 1887
Federal government investigates and oversees railroad
activities
Establishes Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)
Conservation Movement
• Push for government
protection of western
lands
John Wesley
Powell, Report
on the Lands of
the Arid
Regions of the
United States
Yellowstone National Park created 1872
John Muir
First president of the Sierra Club
Influenced by the writings of
George Marsh, ―Man and Nature‖