Chapter 5/Section 1

Native American Cultures in Crisis

Key Idea

Pursuit of economic opportunity leads settlerswestward.

Native Americans of the Great Plains followed away of life centered on the horse and buffalo.

  • Buffalo provided food, clothing, and shelter.
  • The Plains attractedthousands of white settlers who wanted to ownland.
  • Colorado—gold discovered in 1859.
  • TheHomestead Act offered cheap land to farmers who would work the land for five years.
  • Earlier the government had granted the entirePlains to Native Americans.
  • The government made newtreaties restricting this land.

Conflict between white settlers and Native Americans erupted.

  • In Colorado in 1864, the military attacked a camp of Cheyenne, killing 200,mostly women and children—the Sand Creek Massacre.
  • Red Cloud protested settlers moving to South Dakota.
  • Sitting Bull led those Sioux who refused to live on areservation.
  • In 1874, Colonel George Armstrong Custerreported that S. Dakota held gold.
  • Custer and his soldiers were all killed in the Battleof the Little Bighorn in 1876.

The Dawes Act of 1887 tried to promote theNative Americans’ assimilation of white culture.

  • Ittried to make Indians into farmers, and educated youth in the ways of the whites.
  • The policyfailed.
  • More devastatingto the Plains tribes was the killing ofbuffalo.
  • In the 1880s, the Sioux turned to a ritualcalled the Ghost Dance, which promised to bringthe buffalo back and restore Sioux lands.
  • In 1890, the army killed about 300 unarmed Sioux inthe Battle of Wounded Knee—the final defeat of the Native Americans on the frontier.

Chapter 5/Section 2

The Growth of the Cattle Industry

Key Idea

The cattle industry thrives as a new worker—the cowboy—appears.

Herds of cattle replaced buffalo.

  • Native Americans were the first cowboys.
  • Ranches in Texas and theWest held huge herds.

After the Civil War, demand for beef rosesharply in the growing Easterncities.

  • Cattle were driven on the ChisholmTrail from Texas to Kansas.
  • Abilene, Kansasbecame a major shipping point to Chicago meatpacking plants.

More than 50,000 cowboys worked the herds.

  • One quarter were AfricanAmericans and 12 percent were Mexican.
  • Cowboys worked long days and feared stampedes.
  • Cowboys led animals on the longdrive to Kansas.
  • Overgrazing and badweather struck in the late 1880s.
  • In an 1887 blizzard, ranchers lostmost of their herds.
  • Ranchers began to use barbedwire to fence in their land.
  • This ended the era of the cattle drives and the open range.

Chapter 5/Section 3

Settling on the Great Plains

Key Idea

The promise of cheap, fertile land draws settlers westward seeking their fortunes as farmers.

Building the transcontinental railroad helped promote settlementon the Plains.

  • 1867 - The CentralPacific built east from Sacramento andthe Union Pacific west from Omaha.
  • Irish andChinese immigrants did much of thework.
  • In 1869, the two railroads met at Promontory Point, Utah.

The railroads sold some of their land at lowprices to farmers.

  • Some states offered free land as well.

The government preservedsome wilderness.

  • In 1872, YellowstoneNational Park was established.

The settlers in the Plains had to endure hardships.

  • People builthomes in hillsides or out of sod, often called soddies.
  • Womenworked in the fields, tendedthe children, ran the house, cooked, did laundry…
  • The farmers used machines to harvest, the Plains became productive

The farmers were plagued by bad weather and debt.

  • Machines cost money, which they had to borrow.
  • When grain prices fell, they could not repay theirloans.
  • They resented how much they had topay railroads to ship their crops.

Chapter 5/Section 4

Farmers and the Populist Movement

Key Idea

Farmers band together to address their economic problems, giving rise to the Populist movement.

Farmers were plagued by changing economicconditions.

  • After the Civil War, the supplyof money shrank, making each dollar in circulationworth more—deflation.
  • This hurt farmers who had torepay their loans in more expensive dollars.
  • Theyurged more money printed—“cheap money” or inflation.
  • They wanted the amount ofsilver coins to be increased—bimetallism.

The Grange, a farmers’ social group, pushed forlaws to regulate railroads.

The farmers’ movement led to the formationof the Populist Party (or People’s Party) in 1891. They met in Omaha and developed the Omaha Platform

  • Economic Policies—
  • government control of the railroads •cheap money
  • lower interest rates on loans•graduated income tax
  • Political reforms—
  • the directelection of senators•8-hour work day
  • secret ballot•immigration restrictions
  • initiative and referendum•term limits
  • The party got 10 percent of thevote in the 1892 presidential election and wonmany local contests.
  • Democrats ranWilliam Jennings Bryan for president in 1896.
  • Hecampaigned for cheap money.
  • Populists nominated Bryan aswell.
  • Urban voters feared cheap money wouldmean rising prices.
  • RepublicanWilliam McKinleywon the election over Bryan.

The Populist Movementdied but laid the groundwork for the Progressive Movement (1900–1917).43