This document summarizes key events in Native American and Western history between 1865-1890. During this period: 1) Native Americans lost control of most of their lands as settlers pushed westward in search of land and gold, destroying the buffalo herds many tribes depended on. 2) Conflicts like the Sand Creek and Wounded Knee massacres resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed Native Americans by the U.S. army. 3) The government attempted to assimilate remaining Native Americans onto reservations and break up tribal structures. By 1932, two-thirds of lands committed to Native Americans had been seized.

1. 1865-1890

2.  Land was communal – no one person or tribe
could own land
 Buf falo was central to life

4.  The buffalo were
destroyed by settlers
and tourists who shot
them for sport

7.  Viewed Native American land as unsettled
 Advanced to claim land
 Gold intensified the rush for land

8.  1834 – all of Great
Plains set aside as
“Indian Lands”
 1850s – Policy shift –
native get smaller
amounts of land

9.  Sand Creek Massacre – U.S. army attacks
 150 native women and children killed

10.  Colonel Custer and
infantry reach Little Big
Horn
 Crazy Horse and Sitting
Bull lead Sioux tribe
 Outflank and crush
Custer’s troops

13.  December 1890- 7th Cavalry (Custer’s old
regiment) rounded up 350 Sioux and took
them to Wounded Knee, SD
 7th Cavalry slaughtered 350 unarmed Natives
 The corpses were left to freeze

15.  Attempted to assimilate natives
 Would break up reservations and introduce
natives into American life – farming, etc
 By 1932 2/3rds of the land committed to
Natives had been taken

17.  After the Civil war the
demand for beef rose
sharply
 Urbanization and the
rise of the railroad
contributed to this
 Chicago Union Stock
Yards

18.  Thousands of cattle
driven from Texas to
Kansas
 Abilene, KS – place
where trail met the
railroads

19.  Overgrazing, bad weather, and the invention of
barbed wire led to the end of the cattle drive

20.  Homestead Act – federal land policy
 Gave 160 free acres to any “head of household”
 Had to live on and farm land for 5 years

21.  African Americans – moved from South to
Kansas
 Took advantage of land deals in West

22.  In a less than a day 2 millions acres of
government land being given away was claimed
by settlers
 Some took possession of the land before the
government officially declared it open – thus
Oklahoma became known as the “Sooner
State”

23.  Droughts, floods, fires, blizzards, locust
plagues, bandits
 No neighbors nearby

24.  Homes were built from the land itself
 Dug out of the sides of ravines or hills
 If land was flat made homes out of dirt

25.  Despite these hardships, the number of people
living west of the Mississippi grew from 1% of
the nations population to 30% by 1900

26.  1837- John Deere steel
plow – slice through
heavy soil
 1847 – reaper –
invented by Cyrus
McCormick

27.  More people moved west and the railroads
were born
 Government gave land grants to the railroads to
help it grow

28.  Completed in 1890 with help from Chinese
workers

29.  The Morrill Acts of
1862 and 1890 gave
federal land to states
to help finance
agricultural colleges

30.  In the late 1800s,
many farmers were
struggling
 Crop prices were
falling, debt
increased
 Mortgages were
being foreclosed by
banks

31.  Between 1867 and
1887 the price of a
bushel of wheat fell
from $2.00 to 68
cents
 Railroads conspired
to keep transport
costs artificially high
 Farmers got caught
in a cycle of debt

32.  1867 – Oliver Hudson
Kelley - Grange
 Fought for farmer’s
rights

33.  Populism – the
movement of the people
– 1892 – Populist Party
started
THIS POLITICAL CARTOON
SHOWS A POPULIST
CLUBBING A RAILROAD
CAR

34.  economic - increase
money supply
(bimetallism - gold and
silver standard), a rise
in crop prices, lower
taxes, a federal loan
program
 Political - direct election
of senators, single
terms for presidents
 for an 8-hour workday
and reduced
immigration

35.  In the 1892
Presidential election,
the Populist
candidate won
almost 10% of the
vote
 In the West, the party
elected 5 senators, 3
governors and 1,500
state legislators
James B Weaver

37.  The central issue of
the 1896 Presidential
campaign was which
metal would be the
basis of the nation’s
monetary system
 Bimetallism (those
who favored using
both) vs. those that
favored the Gold
Standards alone

38.  Republicans favored the
Gold standard and
nominated William
McKinley
 Democrats favored
Bimetallism and
nominated William
Jennings Bryan
 Despite Bryan’s stirring
words, “You shall not
crucify mankind upon a
cross of gold,” McKinley
won the 1896 election
BRYAN’S CROSS OF
GOLD SPEECH

39.  With McKinley’s election
victory, Populism
collapsed,
 2 Legacies
 1) the downtrodden can
organize and be heard
and
 2) An agenda of reforms,
many of which would be
enacted in the 20th century
THE PEOPLE’S PARTY WAS
SHORT-LIVED BUT LEFT AN
IMPORTANT LEGACY