We continued with presentations today.
Settlers Push Westward -
The settlers culture and Native Americans views were very different. Native Americans didn't believe that the land should be owned, but the settlers thought the land should be owned.
Silver and Gold -
Mining camps and tiny frontier towns had filthy, ramshackle houses. Women tried to work as miners, laundresses, and freight haulers. Virginia City, Nevada, and Helena, Montana, originated as mining camps of Native American land.
Bloody Battles Continues -
Red River War was between Kiowa and Comanche harassed each other for six years. Workers were told to go to the Black Hills.
Government Supports Assimilation -
People were trying to "Americanize" the Native Americans. General Sheridan claimed that the hunters were destroying the plain Indians food, shelter, fuel, and clothes, by killing the buffalo.
Battle of Wounded Knee -
December 28, 1890. It was the last battle between the Native Americans and US Soldiers.
Cattle Becomes Big Business -
The Native Americans were forced onto smaller reservations when the buffalo disappeared, but the horses and cattle flourished.
Cowboys and Vaqueros -
The American settlers never had never managed large herds on the open range, but they learned how to be cowboys from the Mexican Vaqueros. Cowboys weren't a huge demand until the railroads reached the Great Plains.
Beef Demand -
Due to the growing cities after the Civil War, beef was in high demand.
Settlers Move West to Farm/Railroads Open in the West -
The railroad gave land grants to people to build railroads. The first five transcontinental Railroads were from Sacramento to Omaha, Kansas to Los Angeles, New Orleans to Los Angeles, Chicago to Seattle, and St. Paul to Seattle.
Homestead Act -
Allowed people to file for land in the West. Only 10% of the people were Homesteaders, and the other 90% went to the Railroads and government people.
Settlers Meet the Challenges of the Plains -
The frontier settlers face droughts, floods, fires, blizzards, locust plagues, and occasional raids by outlaws and Native Americans.
Dugouts and Soddies -
Most settlers built their homes out of dirt. Trees were scarce. There were fireproof, and offered littler air or light. The sod houses were small. When it rained, it would leak rain.
Women -
Women would work alongside the men in the West. You worked in the fields, plowed, harvested, sheared sheep, carded wool, canned fruits and vegetables, were skilled doctors, and built schools and churches.
Technical Inventions for Farmers -
Steel plow, barbed wire, etc.
Class dismissed.
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