I. Subjugating Native Americans
  A. Tribes and cultures
    1. Throughout the West, Native Americans had adapted their lifestyles and cultures to the environment. The most numerous groups lived on the Great Plains and the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Comanches were the largest.
    2. All tribes stressed community welfare over individual interest.
    3. White and Native American values were     incompatible.

  B. Federal Indian policy
    1. In the 1830s, the federal government policy was to separate whites and Indians, moving Native Americans west of the Mississippi River.

In 1830, the Indian Removal Act passed Congress, calling for relocation of eastern Indians to an Indian territory west of the Mississippi River. Cherokees contested it in court, and in 1832, the Supreme Court decided in their favor, but Andrew Jackson ignored the decision. From 1831-39, the Five Civilized tribes of the Southeast were forcibly relocated to the Indian Territory. The Cherokee "Trail of Tears" took place in 1838-39.
    2. Expanding white settlement devastated the Native Americans who already were competing with each other for limited resources on the Plains.
    3. By the early 1850s, white settlers sought to occupy Indian territory and the land for the railroad further cut into Indian land.

In 1862, the Homestead Act opened up Indian land in Kansas and Nebraska to white homesteaders, who are deeded 160-acre plots after inhabiting them for five years.

    4. The federal government implemented the reservation system to relocate tribes, promising annual provisions in return.
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851
Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867

  C. Warfare and dispossession
    1. Larger tribes resisted the U. S. government plan and warfare swept the West from the 1850s to the 1880s.
    2. White aggression sometimes led to the massacres.
1864 - Sand Creek Massacre
1866-68 - War for the Bozeman Trail
    3. The Treaty of Laramie in 1868 was one of the few times Native Americans forced whites to retreat.
1868-69 - Southern Plains War
attack along the Washita River
1876-77 War for the Black Hills
Battle of the Little Big Horn
1877 - flight of the Nez Perce
1878-79 - flight of the Northern Cheyenne
    4. The coming of the railroad triggered another war and the destruction of the buffalo laid waste to the food supply of many Native American tribes.
    5. The defeat of the Sioux and the Nez Perce in the 1870s and the Apaches in the 1880s largely ended Indian resistance in the West.
Chronology of Western Conquest    
 
  D. Life on the reservation: Americanization
    1. Taking Native American land was considered the first step in requiring Native Americans to adopt white ways. Education and religion were the vehicle for this change often supplemented by military force.
    2. In 1884, a criminal code made it illegal for Native Americans to practice their tribal religion.
    3. Off-reservation boarding schools isolated Indian children as they were taught white ways.
    4. The Dawes Act of 1887 divided tribal lands among individuals with disastrous results.

II. Exploiting the Mountains: The Mining Bonanza
  A. Rushes and mining camps
    1. Migrants to the West sought wealth by exploiting the region’s natural resources. Mining was the first stage of development and often was characterized by rushes.
    2. As prospectors flocked to areas where gold or silver had been found, ramshackle mining camps emerged with an overwhelmingly male population.
    3. The few women in the camps had limited employment options with prostitution being the largest source of jobs.
    4. Saloons were prevalent in mining camps. Violence was frequent and often associated with ethnic and racial differences.

  B. Labor and capital
    1. New technology made mining a complex, expensive operation.
    2. Corporate mining devastated the environment and transformed miners into wage workers who worked under hazardous conditions for low pay.
    3. Miners organized unions for protection. The unions functioned as benevolent societies, helped establish hospitals, set up union halls that served as social and education centers, and lobbied for mine safety laws.
    4. Mining companies tried to crush unions and labor relations often turned violent as strikes and union busting occurred.

III. The Cattle Kingdom
  A. Cattle drives and cow towns
        Joseph McCoy - Abilene
    1. After the Civil War, industrial expansion and the railroad enlarged the market for Texas beef. Texans drove their cattle up the Chisholm Trail to Abilene, Kansas. Between 1867 and 1870, one and one-half million cattle reached Abilene.
    2. The cattle trade simulated urban development in cow towns, but not all thrived.
  B. Rise and fall of open-range ranching
    1. Indian removal and the extension of the railroad expanded cattle ranching to much of the West. Ranchers used open range for grazing but high profits attracted corporate ranchers.
    2. Large companies quickly dominated the cattle industry. 
    3. Overgrazing causing environmental damage, droughts, and blizzards destroyed the open-range cattle industry. Joseph Glidden - barbed wire
  C. Cowhands and capitalists
    1. The work of the cowboy was hard, dirty, seasonal, tedious, often dangerous, and paid low wages.
    2. Many early cowboys were white Southerners who did not return to the South. About 15 - 20 percent of the cowboys were Mexican. About 10 - 12 percent of the cowboys were blacks. Mexicans developed most of the tools, trapping, and techniques of the cowboy trade.
    3. The rise of corporate ranching led to permanent employment, but traditional cowboy rights often disappeared. (mavericking)
    4. Cowboys responded to change by forming unions and striking.

IV. Exploiting the Earth: Homesteaders and Agricultural Expansion
  A. Settling the land
    1. The Homestead Act of 1862 stimulated agricultural settlement. But restrictions limited access to public land and most settler in the Great Plains purchased their land.
    2. Western settlement was promoted by newspapers, land companies, steamship companies , and, most importantly, railroad advertising and promotional campaigns.
    3. Migrants flooded into every area of the West. Various ethnic groups established ethnic communities in specific areas.
    4. In the Southwest, the large infusion of Anglos undermined traditional Hispanic society.
Map: Population Density and Agricultural Land Use
  B. Home on the range
    1. The environment of the Great Plains presented challenges to settlers.
    2. Women’s work included transporting water, often over long distances. Some women farmed the land themselves. Married women operated the family farm when their husbands worked elsewhere.
    3. Plains settlers, especially women, experienced isolation and loneliness. As the local population grew, women worked to form communities by organizing social activities and institutions.

  C. Farming the land
    1. To develop the agricultural potential of their land, farmers had to make substantial adjustments that required using scientific, technological and industry advances.
    2. Barbed wire shielded crops from livestock.
    3. Dry farming helped alleviate the aridity of the West, while mechanization and technological innovation allowed large-scale farming practices to develop.
    4. Western commercial farmers depended on the high demand of the outside markets. But conditions varied making farming problematic and led to foreclosures and farmer protests.


V. Conclusion
•    In a few decades, millions of people migrated to the West, transforming the region at the expanse of Native Americans.
•    The new conditions stimulated discontent and reflected the fact that western developments connected to national urban and industrial processes.