c. 1865-1890:
The Western Frontier
Essential Questions
- How did the pressures of westward expansion impact Native Americans?
- What economic and social factors changed the West after the Civil War?
- What led to the rise of the Populist movement, and what effect did it have?
Learning Objectives
You will learn:
- How and why aridity, availability of land and new land laws influenced the westward migration and settlement of various groups, such as homesteaders
- How the development of transportation and communication technologies impacted patterns of western migration and settlement during the 19th Century
- How and why the birth of the cattle industry led to the era of the American cowboy and new patterns of migration and settlement in the southwestern United States
- How and why the federal government encouraged the westward growth of the railroad industry and how the industry’s growth and movement impacted the settlement, daily lives and fortunes of various groups
- How and why the expansion of the cattle industry led to conflict between settled farmers and cattle ranchers
- How westward settlement and expansion impacted various ethnic groups during the 19th Century
- How westward migration and Manifest Destiny impacted perceptions of the frontier and the American Dream
- How westward settlement and expansion impacted the roles of women, their contributions and relationships
- How and why southern African American Exodusters moved westward after the collapse of Reconstruction in the South
- How American Indians viewed the westward migration of American settlers, their own movement to reservations, and government and public attempts at Americanization
- How social and governmental policy pushed diverse American Indian groups to the Great Plains and contributed to the establishment of reservations
- How the platform and leaders of the Populist Party influenced the presidential election of 1896 and early 20th Century American politics
Native Americans
Tom Torlino, a member of the Navajo Nation, entered the Carlisle Indian School, a Native American boarding school founded by the United States government in 1879, on October 21, 1882 and departed on August 28, 1886. Torlino’s student file contained photographs from 1882 and 1885. Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center.
Edward S. Curtis, Navajo Riders in Canyon de Chelly, c. 1904. Library of Congress.
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Native Americans Quizlet
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Burial of the dead after the massacre of Wounded Knee. U.S. Soldiers putting Indians in common grave; some corpses are frozen in different positions. South Dakota. 1891. Library of Congress.
Western Settlers
Cowboys like the one pictured here worked the drives that supplied Chicago and other mid-western cities with the necessary cattle to supply and help grow the meat-packing industry. Their work was obsolete by the turn of the century, yet their image lived on through vaudeville shows and films that romanticized life in the West. John C.H. Grabill, “The Cow Boy,” c. 1888. Library of Congress.
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American frontierswoman and professional scout Martha Jane Canary was better known to America as Calamity Jane. A figure in western folklore during her life and after, Calamity Jane was a central character in many of the increasingly popular novels and films that romanticized western life in the twentieth century. “[Martha Canary, 1852-1903, (“Calamity Jane”), full-length portrait, seated with rifle as General Crook’s scout],” c. 1895. Library of Congress.
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While bison supplied leather for America’s booming clothing industry, the skulls of the animals also provided a key ingredient in fertilizer. This 1870s photograph illustrates the massive number of bison killed for these and other reasons (including sport) in the second half of the nineteenth century. Photograph of a pile of American bison skulls waiting to be ground for fertilizer, 1870s. Wikimedia.
Buffalo Soldiers, the nickname given to African-American cavalrymen by the native Americans they fought, were the first peacetime all-black regiments in the regular United States army. These soldiers regularly confronted racial prejudice from other Army members and civilians, but were an essential part of American victories during the Indian Wars of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. “[Buffalo soldiers of the 25th Infantry, some wearing buffalo robes, Ft. Keogh, Montana] / Chr. Barthelmess, photographer, Fort Keogh, Montana,” 1890. Library of Congress.
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Railroads made the settlement and growth of the West possible. By the late nineteenth century, maps of the Midwest were filled with advertisements touting how quickly a traveler could traverse the country. The Environment and Society Portal, a digital project from the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, a joint initiative of LMU Munich and the Deutsches Museum.
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Populism
The banner of the first Texas Farmers’ Alliance. Source: N. A. Dunning (ed.), Farmers’ Alliance History and Agricultural Digest (Washington D.C.: Alliance Publishing Co., 1891), iv
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Conservative William McKinley promised prosperity to ordinary Americans through his “sound money” initiative, a policy he ran on during his election campaigns in 1896 and again in 1900. This election poster touts McKinley’s gold standard policy as bringing “Prosperity at Home, Prestige Abroad.” “Prosperity at home, prestige abroad,” [between 1895 and 1900]. Library of Congress,.
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Assignments and Readings
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1876
| 1876.pdf |
| 1876_questions.pdf |
Dances With Wolves
| dances_with_wolves.pdf |
Farmers Crossword
| farmers_crossword.pdf |
Groups of the West Chart
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Populism Documents
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Sand Creek Massacre
| sand_creek_massacre.pdf |
Primary Sources
Chief Joseph on Indian Affairs (1877, 1879)
A branch of the Nez Percé tribe, from the Pacific Northwest, refused to be moved to a reservation and attempted to flee to Canada but were pursued by the U.S. Cavalry, attacked, and forced to return. The following is a transcript of Chief Joseph’s surrender, as recorded by Lieutenant Wood, Twenty-first Infantry, acting aide-de-camp and acting adjutant-general to General Oliver O. Howard, in 1877.
William T. Hornady on the Extermination of the American Bison (1889)
William T. Hornady, Superintendent of the National Zoological Park, wrote a detailed account of the near-extinction of the American bison in the late-nineteenth century.
Chester A. Arthur on American Indian Policy (1881)
The following is extracted from President Chester A. Arthur’s First Annual Message to Congress, delivered December 6, 1881.
Frederick Jackson Turner, “Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893)
Perhaps the most influential essay by an American historian, Frederick Jackson Turner’s address to the American Historical Association on “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” defined for many Americans the relationship between the frontier and American culture and contemplated what might follow “the closing of the frontier.”
Frances Densmore and Mountain Chief (1916)
American anthropologist and ethnographer Frances Densmore records the Blackfoot chief Mountain Chief in 1916 for the Bureau of American Ethnology.
A branch of the Nez Percé tribe, from the Pacific Northwest, refused to be moved to a reservation and attempted to flee to Canada but were pursued by the U.S. Cavalry, attacked, and forced to return. The following is a transcript of Chief Joseph’s surrender, as recorded by Lieutenant Wood, Twenty-first Infantry, acting aide-de-camp and acting adjutant-general to General Oliver O. Howard, in 1877.
William T. Hornady on the Extermination of the American Bison (1889)
William T. Hornady, Superintendent of the National Zoological Park, wrote a detailed account of the near-extinction of the American bison in the late-nineteenth century.
Chester A. Arthur on American Indian Policy (1881)
The following is extracted from President Chester A. Arthur’s First Annual Message to Congress, delivered December 6, 1881.
Frederick Jackson Turner, “Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893)
Perhaps the most influential essay by an American historian, Frederick Jackson Turner’s address to the American Historical Association on “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” defined for many Americans the relationship between the frontier and American culture and contemplated what might follow “the closing of the frontier.”
Frances Densmore and Mountain Chief (1916)
American anthropologist and ethnographer Frances Densmore records the Blackfoot chief Mountain Chief in 1916 for the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Slideshows
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Populism from Dave Phillips |
Videos
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Digital History Textbook
Closing the Western Frontier
In 1860, most Americans considered the Great Plains the “Great American Desert.” Settlement west of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Lousiana averaged just 1 person per square mile. The only parts of the Far West that were highly settled were California and Texas. Between 1865 and the 1890s, however, Americans settled 430 million acres in the Far West--more land than during the preceding 250 years of American history.By 1893, the Census Bureau was able to claim that the entire western frontier was now occupied.The discovery of gold, silver, and other precious minerals in California in 1849, in Nevada and Colorado in the 1850s, in Idaho and Montana in 1860s, and South Dakota in the 1870s sparked an influx of prospectors and miners. The expansion of railroads and the invention of barbed wire and improvements in windmills and pumps attracted ranchers and farmers to the Great Plains in the 1860s and 1870s. This chapter examines the forces that drove Americans westward; the kinds of lives they established in the Far West; and the rise of the "West of the imagination," the popular myths that continue to exert a powerful hold on mass culture.
Building the Transcontinental Railroad
The Great American Desert
The Comstock Lode and the Mining Frontier
The Cattle Frontier
The Farming Frontier
Water and the West
Black Gold: The Oil Frontier
Closing the American Frontier
The West of the Imagination
Biography
Tragedy of the Plains Indians
The 250,000 Native Americans who lived on the Great Plains were confined onto reservations through renegotiation of treaties and 30 years of war. This chapter examines the consequences of America's westward movement for Native Americans.
A Thirty Years War
The Sand Creek Massacre
The Battle of the Little Big Horn
Nez Perce
Wounded Knee I
Wounded Knee II
Kill the Indian and Save the Man
Native Americans at the Turn of the Century
The Political Crisis of the 1890s
The 1880s and 1890s were years of turbulence. Disputes erupted over labor relations, currency, tariffs, patronage, and railroads The most momentous political conflict of the late 19th century was the farmers' revolt. Drought, plagues of grasshoppers, boll weevils, rising costs, falling prices, and high interest rates made it increasingly difficult to make a living as a farmer. Many farmers blamed railroad owners, grain elevator operators, land monopolists, commodity futures dealers, mortgage companies, merchants, bankers, and manufacturers of farm equipment for their plight. Farmers responded by organizing Granges, Farmers' Alliances, and the Populist party. In the election of 1896, the Populists and the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan for president. Bryan 's decisive defeat inaugurated a period of Republican ascendancy, in which Republicans controlled the presidency for 24 of the next 32 years.
Panacea's for the Nation's Ills
Henry George
Looking Backward
William Hope Harvey
The Depression of the Mid-1890s
The Farmers' Plight
Populism
The Election of 1896
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Populist Crusade and Restrictions on African Americans
In 1860, most Americans considered the Great Plains the “Great American Desert.” Settlement west of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Lousiana averaged just 1 person per square mile. The only parts of the Far West that were highly settled were California and Texas. Between 1865 and the 1890s, however, Americans settled 430 million acres in the Far West--more land than during the preceding 250 years of American history.By 1893, the Census Bureau was able to claim that the entire western frontier was now occupied.The discovery of gold, silver, and other precious minerals in California in 1849, in Nevada and Colorado in the 1850s, in Idaho and Montana in 1860s, and South Dakota in the 1870s sparked an influx of prospectors and miners. The expansion of railroads and the invention of barbed wire and improvements in windmills and pumps attracted ranchers and farmers to the Great Plains in the 1860s and 1870s. This chapter examines the forces that drove Americans westward; the kinds of lives they established in the Far West; and the rise of the "West of the imagination," the popular myths that continue to exert a powerful hold on mass culture.
Building the Transcontinental Railroad
The Great American Desert
The Comstock Lode and the Mining Frontier
The Cattle Frontier
The Farming Frontier
Water and the West
Black Gold: The Oil Frontier
Closing the American Frontier
The West of the Imagination
Biography
Tragedy of the Plains Indians
The 250,000 Native Americans who lived on the Great Plains were confined onto reservations through renegotiation of treaties and 30 years of war. This chapter examines the consequences of America's westward movement for Native Americans.
A Thirty Years War
The Sand Creek Massacre
The Battle of the Little Big Horn
Nez Perce
Wounded Knee I
Wounded Knee II
Kill the Indian and Save the Man
Native Americans at the Turn of the Century
The Political Crisis of the 1890s
The 1880s and 1890s were years of turbulence. Disputes erupted over labor relations, currency, tariffs, patronage, and railroads The most momentous political conflict of the late 19th century was the farmers' revolt. Drought, plagues of grasshoppers, boll weevils, rising costs, falling prices, and high interest rates made it increasingly difficult to make a living as a farmer. Many farmers blamed railroad owners, grain elevator operators, land monopolists, commodity futures dealers, mortgage companies, merchants, bankers, and manufacturers of farm equipment for their plight. Farmers responded by organizing Granges, Farmers' Alliances, and the Populist party. In the election of 1896, the Populists and the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan for president. Bryan 's decisive defeat inaugurated a period of Republican ascendancy, in which Republicans controlled the presidency for 24 of the next 32 years.
Panacea's for the Nation's Ills
Henry George
Looking Backward
William Hope Harvey
The Depression of the Mid-1890s
The Farmers' Plight
Populism
The Election of 1896
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Populist Crusade and Restrictions on African Americans