Chapter 3 Section 1: Settling the West

Vocabulary:

Placer mining: method of extracting mineral ore by hand using simple tools such as picks and pans
Quartz mining: method of extracting minerals involving digging beneath the surface
Henry Comstock: prospector who staked a claim in Six-Mile Canyon, Nevada. Found silver ore
Vigilance committees: self-appointed volunteers that tracked down and punished wrongdoers
Great Plains: region from the central Dakotas through Texas and westward to the Rocky Mountains
Open range: vast area of government-owned grassland
Long drive: driving cattle long distances to a railroad for fast transport and great profit
Homestead Act: offered up to 160 acres to anyone who paid $10 and lived on the land for five years
Homestead: a tract of public land available for settlement
Wheat Belt: region from Great Plains to Dakotas where wheat was the main agricultural product
Indian Peace Commission: committee which proposed creating two large reservations, run by the Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA), on the plains, one for the Sioux and one for southern Plains Indians.
Sitting Bull: Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to
United States government policies.
Ghost Dance: ritual that celebrated a hoped for day of reckoning
Assimilate: to be absorbed into a culture
Dawes Act: A federal law intended to turn Native Americans into farmers and landowners by providing
families with 160 acres of reservation land for farming.

Growth of the Mining Industry

The Big Strike in Nevada

o When mineral deposits were found, settlers swarmed the region, creating boomtowns that turned to
ghost towns when the deposits dried up.
Ex: When Henry Comstock found the Comstock Lode in Nevada
o Crime was an issue, so vigilance committees were formed
o Towns first composed mainly of men, but later women came
Other Bonanzas
o Pikes Peak-1858
Miners came, inspired by Pikes Peak or Bust but left complaining of Pikes Peak hoax
o Leadville-late 1870s
In Colorado Mountains,One of most famous boomtowns
Deep deposits of lead with silver
Spurred building of railroads and transformed Denver into second largest city
o Black Hills-1870s
Led to rapid development of northern Great Plains
Railroads builtfarmers and ranchers came
Congress divided Dakota territory, admitted new states

Ranching the Plains

Longhorn Cattle
o Breed descended from Spanish cattle
o Evolved from Texas cattle and Mexico cattle that were free roaming
o Lean and rangy, could easily survive in harsh Plains climate
o Cattle ranching industry grew due to open range land

o Mexicans taught Americans the trade

Civil War and Construction of Railroads
o Worth lots of money to round up cattle and move them east
o If cattle are brought north to railroad, can be sold for huge profit and shipped east to market
o First Long Drive
1866
Driven to Missouri
Sold for 10x more than in Texas
More trails opened up from Texas to other towns

Farming Becomes Big Business

People thought the Plains were like a desert, but after settlers came, rain started to fall
Homestead Act encouraged more settlers to come
o A lot of people had difficulty adjusted to the harsh weather
Farming was highly profitable
o Used new technology like reapers and threshers
o Started Wheat Belt
Helped US become worlds larger exporter of wheat

Native Americans

Close relationships with nature, extended family networks, most members had a say in decisions, hunted
buffalo
Women: domestic tasks like cooking, rearing children, preparing hides
Men: hunting, trading, supervising military life
Religion: based on natural world
Cultures Under Pressure
o Deprived of hunting grounds due to white settlers
o Occasionally went to war against settlers
o Congress proposed Indian Peace Commission
The plan failed
Conflict and Assimilation
o They shunned the reservations
o Sitting Bull tried to resist going back to reservations and went to Canada
o Lakota performed Ghost Dance, though told not to by a gov. agent
Agent blamed Sitting Bull, who he tried to arrest
Wounded Knee
Dec. 29, 1890
US gov. tried to disarm Native Americansbattle at the creek
o People thought situation would improve if Natives became more like Americans
Dawes Act in 1887
Many sold allotments
Doomed because buffalo herds were wiped out cant sustain life
Did not want to abandon culture and become American