THE CONQUEST OF THE FAR WEST

Chapter 16

THE AMERICAN
MYTH

What is it?
What is the Myth of the West?
Is the myth the landscape or the people?
England=knights
Japan=Samurai
France=Musketeer
Spain=Conquistador

AMERICA=

THE SOCIETIES OF
THE FAR WEST
West=area west of the
Mississippi River
Vast variety of climates,
environments, and
peoples.
The West wasnt just
one thing.

TRIBES
Pueblo Indians

Lived in the Southwest

Were stationary, agricultural, corn growers

Built cities of adobe houses

Built complex irrigation systems to water

their crops

Allied themselves with the

Spanish/Mexicans

Caste System
Spanish/Mexicansheld estates and
controlled trade
Pueblosmostly free, middle class
Apache/Navajos Slaveslower
servant class (Genizaros=Indians
without a tribe

PUEBLO ADOBE CITY

PLAINS INDIANS
The most populous Indians in the West

Diverse groups of tribes and languages

Some were stationary farmers, other

tribes were nomadic

Society based on close and extended

family and networks with other tribes

Strong relationship with nature

Tribes divided into bands of 500 Indians,

each band with its own governing council

Most tribes survived on Buffalo

Skilled and proud warriors

Males were warrior class
These were the most formidable foes
whites encountered.

THE NOMADIC PLAINS INDIANS BUFFALO

HUNTERS

PLAINS INDIANS
The Weaknesses of the Plains Indians
1. Inability to unite against White aggression and
expansion
2. Inter-tribal conflicts distracted them from the real
threat
3. Vulnerable to white/Eastern diseases
4. Economically and technologically weaker than
Whites

HISPANIC NEW
MEXICO
Many Spanish/Mexicans stayed in territories that became the
United States as territories gained statehood
Anglo-American encroachment meant opportunity for wealth for
some but the end of communal societies and their system of
economics for most
When the United States took territorial control of New Mexico,
they ignored the Mexican Ruling Class and created a
government comprised almost exclusively of Anglo-Americans
(Whites)

CALIFORNIA AND
TEXAS

Most of California and Texas were settled by Spanish/Mexicans or Indians

Missionaries and soldiers were the first White people to settle Spanish California
Missionaries tried to convert Indians and Mexicans to protestant christianity
Soldiers gathered Indians into communities

AS Whites moved in, the social structure of the region changed

Many Hispanics become part of the impoverished working class
Hispanics lost land
Most powerful Hispanics watched as their power dwindled
White ranchers took lands and political power away from Hispanic
landowners and farmers

THE CHINESE
MIGRATION
Chinese were traveling to the United States to find prosperity
After 1849 Gold Rush, Chinese migration to California increased
dramatically
By 1880 200,000 Chinese and settled in California
1/10 of Californias total population
1850s Chinese were welcome as the Most worthy classes of
newly adopted citizens
As Chinese became successful Racism began to grow

THE CHINESE
LABORER
Most Chinese Immigrants worked as
Semi-Skilled Laborers like:

Miners of goldforeign Miners tax

Owners of small business

Agricultural Workers

Railroad employeesa variety of jobs

By 1865
12,000 Chinese workers
worked on the
Transcontinental Railroad
Chinese made up 90% of
Central Pacific workforce

CHINESE RAILROAD WORKERS

THE CHINESE
MIGRATION

By 1900 half of the Chinese Population in the US lived in cities

Chinatowns

As the Chinese became a larger part of American culture racism against them also
grew
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
Banned Chinese immigration into the US for 10no Chinese let into the
country
Banned citizen ship for those already here
Grew from fears that Chinese would cause a labor shortage
Act passed again in 1892, then again in 1902 when it was made permanent

MIGRATION FROM
THE EAST

Settlers came West in the millions after the Civil War instead of by the thousands before
the war

Transcontinental Railroad started brining people west in 1869

They came for a variety of reasonslike what?

The government helped

Homestead Act of 1862
160 acres for almost nothing if the owner occupied it for 5 years and made
improvement to the land
Legislators didnt realize the rising cost of farming
160 acres was too small for grazing animals (cattle, sheep)
400,000 used the Homestead act to move West

EAST

Settlers came West for

Gold and Silver
Pasture lands to raise cattle
and sheep
Cheap farmland and high
demand for industrial and
agricultural crops

But there were problems with the

West
Water sources were scarce
People were not well supplied
Indians threatened their safety

GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE
TO CIVILIZING THE WEST

Timber Culture Act 1873

160 more acres if people planted 40 acres of trees
Why would the government want settlers to plant trees?

Desert Land Act1877

640 more acres as long as the farmers irrigated their land within 3yrs
Why would the government want an irrigated West?

Timber and Stone Act1878

Sold 1,280 acres for $2.50 an acre for mining and lumber use

Fraud ran rampant

The Federal Government funded local governments with no local tax base

WESTERN
ECONOMY

Expansion West was tied to the growing industrial economy of the East
Mining, timber, ranching, farming

The West replaces the South as the prime supplier of raw materials to fuel the
Northeasts Industrial economy

Growth of corporations

Labor market in the West was volatile as need for labor rapidly changed
Mines being emptied of minerals
Farms harvesting their crops

The West had the highest level of single adults in the country
Women find work as household labor (laundry/cooking) or as saloon girls and
prostitutes

WESTERN
ECONOMY

There was very limited social and economic mobility in the West.
Did this live up to the myth and dream of the West?
Distribution of wealth in the West was the same as in the East

Racially Stratified Working Class

Western working class was very multiracial
White workers occupied upper tier jobs (managers, supervisors, skilled
labor)
Non-whites (blacks, Chinese, Mexican/Spanish, Indian) occupied lower
tier jobs
A persons race told employers white type of job they were best suited
for

ARRIVAL OF THE
MINERS

1860-1890=mining boom in the West

Started with hand or pan mining

Shallow deposits of gold and silver

Corporations
Had the capitol to invest in deeper mining
Usually for quartz and lode (both used for jewelry, industrial abrasives, and cement)

Cities like Denver become large industrial mining towns

Comstock Lode (1859)

Nevada Mine
Produced no supplies of its own, got everything from trains bringing goods from California
Typical of industrial mining towns
Over a ten year period until 1880, the Comstock mine produced $306 million dollars in
minerals

IN TODAYS DOLLARS
THAT WOULD BE OVER

$6,950,000,000.00

MINING LIFE

Mining towns boomed then declined after deposits were mined out
Many mining towns were abandoned after mines closed
These became what are known as Ghost Towns (Barstow California)

Culture in Mining towns was rough

Lawlessness ruled
Almost all the citizens were men
Prospectors came first
Most mining towns mined
Gold, silver, copper, or quartz

GENDER
IMBALANCE
Men outnumbered woman in mining towns 60 to 1
Most woman who did live in these towns came with
their husbands and engaged in normal womans work
around the home or in some cases outside the home as
cooks and laundresses.
Some young, single woman worked as tavern keepers,
waitresses, dancing girls, and even prostitutes.

THE CATTLE
KINGDOM

Open Range
Open grasslands owned by no one that cattle owners used to transport cattle to market
(usually St. Louis) and for free grazing (feeding) of their cattle along the way
Was eaten away at by fencing, and farmers

Texas had largest cattle herd5 million head of cattle

Cattle Industry Needed

Railroads
Cattle trails
Open range
Hard laborcowboys

Summer and Winters of 1885-1887 killed grasslands and decimated the herds with starvation,
fever and illness

Expansion of Cattle industry happened too fast

WOMEN IN THE
WEST
1850250,000 woman owned land in the
west
Woman gained political power in the West
first
Woman won the right to vote in the West
first

DISPERSAL OF
THE TRIBES

White tribal policies

Federal Government viewed tribes simultaneously as independent nations and as
wards of the state
History of the U.S./Indian relationship is one of endless broken promises
Concentration Policy
New reservation policy brought on by white demand for land
1850
Each tribe given its own reservation instead of one big one
Divided the tribes further
Scatters Indians to undesirable locations

INDIAN PEACE
COMMISSION

1867

Composed of soldiers and civilians

Plan moved all Plaines Indians into 2 large Reservations

Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
Dakotas

Commission tricked and bribes tribal leaders to agree

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Poorly managed, poorly trained, much corruption
Government did not respect Indian life style
Agents of the Bureau focus on white needs

DECIMATION OF
THE BUFFALO
Starting in the 1850s whites begin killing buffalo at a rapid rate
to feed westward expansion
After the civil war Buffalo hides became a fashion statement and
phenomenon
Professional hunters killed for hides and for railroads to clear
them out of their way
By 1875 the Southern Herd of eliminated
186515 million buffalo in the US
1875fewer than 1,000 buffalo in the United States

THE INDIAN WARS

1850s-1880s constant fighting between whites and Indians
US Army and Cavalry became involved in protecting the White
people of the West
Conflict between US forces and the Indians insued
Indian Hunting
White vigilanties start hunting Indians for sport
Bounty hunters kill notorious Indians
California Indian population before the Civil War: 150,000
after: 30,000

DAWES
SEVERALTY ACT
1887
Congress abolished the practice where tribes owned their
reservations communally
Split the tribal lands into private ownership within the tribe
160 acres to each head of the household
80 acres to a single adult
40 acres to each dependent child
Act pushed assimilation
Christianity forced into reservations

THE RISE AND DECLINE OF

THE WESTERN FARMERS

Farmers moved into Plaines region challenging Dominance of Ranchers

Conflict ensued

1870 farmers

1870s-80s farmers flourished

Farmers started producing too much food, prices fell and the market declined

The Surge
Railroads opened supply chains to farmers, opened markets, and speed, made new
areas accessible
Railroad companies became important landowners in the West
Subsidiary lines spread through the West opening expansion and creating many
cities and towns

FARMING IN THE
WEST

Fencing
Farmers begin fencing off the west to control free grazing and identify their property
Very expensive
Creates barbed wire

Irrigation
Water sources other than rainfall
Very expensive

Falling Crop Prices

Credit was easy to obtain but bad crops could leave farmers deeply endebted

COMMERCIAL
AGRICULTURE

Late 1880s independent farmers replaced by commercial farming

Industrial agricultural owned by corporations

Cash crops
Sold one crop just money
Farms were not self-sufficient
Made farmers dependent on Bankers, railroads, and markets

World Wide over production created a long period of economic decline for agriculture in
the 1870s-1880s

By 1900 most farmers were business men who sold their product on the world market
which were highly unstable.