Monday-Friday
Why did people move to the Great Plains/west?
- Gold and Silver Mining
- Wanted to me a cowboy
- Farming
- U.S Millitary
- Shepherding
- Homestead Act
- Working on the Railroad
- Hunting/Trapping/Adventure
Cattle Ranching + Cowboys
- Peaked between 1867 - 1880
- Open Range - Area of land where cattle roam free
- Railhead Towns - Towns at the end of the railroad
- Ranchers - People who owned ranches + cattle
- Texas Longhorns - Cross breed of cattle
- Long Drive - herding + moving cattle
- Cattle Barons - Bigger Ranchers (Pushed out smaller ranchers)
- 25% of cowboys were ex-slaves
- Life of a cowboy - Lonely + dangerous (Animal Attacks, Native Americans, etc...)
- Cattle industry feel when the price of beef fell
Omaha Stockyards was the second biggest stockyard right behind Chicago
Why were long drives necessary?
- Cows
Why did they come to an end after only 15-30 years?
- Railroads
- Demand for beef
U.S Native Americans Policies
- Reservations (Moved Native Americans to a certain part of the country)
- Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
- Indian and Oklahoma Territory Merge in 1907 forming State of Oklahoma
- Destructive of Buffalo
- Dawes Act - 1887 (Gave land to Native American families to farm. Ended tribal ownership of land. Those that do this will be granted US citizenship. Goal was to "Americanize" Native-Americans. Native-Americans lost much of their land. Not required by the other option was not good. Ended in the 1930's Indian Reorganization Act)
How did railroads and the Homestead Act help settlers the Great Plains?
- Built towns
Homestead Act
- Gave 160 acres of land to people to live on and farm
- Attracted thousands of people to the Midwest
- Land speculators "stole" much of the land that was set aside for Homestead Act
What challenges did settlers/farmers face on the Great Plains?
- Native American attacks
- Bad weather
- Lonely
- Grasshopper Plagues
- Hard Work
- Lack of trees
- Railroad Prices - Charge farmers high prices due to lack of competition
- Debt - Many farmers mortgaged their farms to buy more seed and supplies
How did settler's/farmers solve some of these problems?
Railroad Prices and Debt
- Railroads charged farmers high prices due to lack of competition
- Many farmers mortgaged their farm to buy more seed and supplies
- Crop Prices fell due to overproduction
- After the Civil War, the amount of money in circulation went down, so money became more valuable with made it harder to pay back debt.
- Farmers wanted more money in circulation (This would cause inflation which would be good for crop prices)
Grange
- The National Grange of the Order of Patrons off Husbandry
- Organization that help farmers
- Started after the Civil War (1867) and is still around today
Granger Laws
- Series of state laws passed in several Midwestern states- Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois - in the late 1860s and early 1870s
- Designed to fight back against railroad abuses
- Wanted railroads and grain elevators to charge for fair prices
- Munn v Illinois - 1877 Supreme Court supported farmers
- Wabash v Illinois (1886) - Supreme Court supported the railroads
Interstate Commerce Act -1887
- Allowed the U.S Government to supervise railroads
- Required railroad rates to be "fair and just"
- Set up Interstate Commerce Commission to carry out law
- Failed to help farmers at first
Populist Movement-Omaha Platform - 1890's
- Help farmers out of debt (They got to keep feeding America)
- Give people a greater voice in government (
- Increase money supply in circulation-Silverites
- Graduated income tax
- Direct election of Senators
- Single terms for President/Vice President
- Secret Ballot
- 8 hour work day
- Restrictions on immigration
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