Rabourn Notes On Conquering the West

**aqalieh95** Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:35 pm

Conquering the West

Conquering the West occurred from the Civil War up until about 1890
There were no people across the Mississippi except in California from Asian immigration and Texas because of Mexicans
There were a lot of American Indian tribes in the area however
There was a wide range of geography and a tribe to match
The Native Americans hunted buffalo and used every single part of it.
The diseases that came from the old World like smallpox weakened the Indians, and the army used it to their advantage
The army made fake treaties with the Indians and ended up moving them to reservations anyways
During 1860-1890 there was constant war between the U.S. government and the Native Americans
In the massacre of Sand Creek, the U.S. military kills 400 innocent Native Indians
In the massacre of Little Big Horn, the Native Americans retaliate and kill Custer and his troops.
To win against the Indians, the U.S. army kills large amounts of buffalo to deprive them of their food supply
2 Indian tribes tried to resist: the Sioux were led by Chief Sitting Bull, and the Apache were led by Jeronimo
Eventually, all the tribes were either exterminated or pushed onto reservations
Native Americans were highly susceptible to alcohol, and could become alcoholics easily and this weakened them a lot
Americans grew in number very quickly due to immigration and high reproduction rates while the Native Americans had constant numbers due to famine, disease, and war.
The Bison were almost completely exterminated because Americans liked to hunt Buffalo for sport and for their hides
The Dawes Severalty Act 1887 dissolved the right that Indian tribes had as legal entities, which caused the tribes to fracture and have many more internal conflicts about land
Americans came to teach them English and preach Christianity to civilize them

Occupations

Mining first started with individuals that took the easy to get ore, and then big businesses moved into the ghost towns and took the rest that was harder to get
Cowboys herded cows to train stations, which was called the Long Drive, and was a tough job
Farming was popular because the Homestead Act of 1862 gave 160 acres of land, but most people bought their land from the railroads anyways, and had a hard time because of the Dust Bowl in years of drought