|
|
|
CHS History Week Cross-Curriculum Project
Project Topic: Westward Expansion after the Civil War
Project Date: Oct 11-15, 2010
Participating Classes
Teachers participating in the project will choose an area from this page that will fit their subject area to support Oklahoma PASS Standard 2 for U.S. History:
"The student will analyze the impact of immigration, the settlement of the American West, and industrialization on American society".
As early as the formation of the United States itself, "American society" has embraced the idea that our country would spread from "sea to shining sea". Expansion of the United States from 1812 to 1860 is often called the Age of Manifest Destiny.
President James Monroe, in 1823, stated that the Western hemisphere was not to be further colonized by European countries. This "Monroe Doctrine" has become one of our country's longest-standing foreign policy positions.
|
Before the Civil War, the Great Plains (between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains) were considered a "treeless wasteland". Those who crossed the Mississippi River generally traveled all the way to the west coast.
- The best known migration "tradedy" was that of the Donner Party (1846-1847).
Watch an online PBS program about the Donner Party.
- The largest "religious" migration was that of the Mormons (1847-1868).
See a photographic exhibit about the Mormon Trail.
Horace Greeley is often credited with the statement "Go west, young man..." in the 1865 New York Tribune. Others attribute the statement to John B.L. Soule in the 1851 Terre Haute Daily Express.
No matter the source of the statement, or whether the statement was even published at all, it represented the view of many who lost so much, or gained their "freedom", through the Civil War. The hardships of emancipated slaves during and after Reconstruction (1865-1877) lead to the Exoduster movement.
|
Click to enlarge
|
|
The Homestead Act - May 20, 1862 - encouraged migration into the Great Plains by providing settlers 160 acres of land. Homesteaders were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land.
Approximately 10% of the continental United States was opened to private citizens through homesteading.
Large-scale immigration into Oklahoma began with the forced resettlement of American Indian groups from the eastern United States, including the "Trail of Tears". Much of Indian Territory was opened to public settlement with several land runs, beginning on April 22, 1889.
|
|
|
The American Frontier gradually moved westward after the establishment of the original 13 Colonies. The "West" was always the area of the continent beyond that boundary.
The term Wild West most often refers to the area west of the Mississippi River during the 1800s.
Because of the touring "shows" of Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill, most people east of the Mississippi thought the Wild West was a glamorous place filled with cowboys and blood-thirsty Indians in colorful costumes.
|
|
Pacific Railroad Act - July 1, 1862 - "an act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes." Both the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad were authorized by this act - for the purpose of building the Transcontinental Railroad.
|
The Central Pacific Railroad began laying track eastward from Sacramento in 1863.
The Union Pacific Railroad started laying track westward from Omaha in 1865.
With the help of Chinese labor in the west, each man earning approximately $28 a month - (Irish workers earned about $35 a month) - the last spike was driven at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869.
Chinese immigrants made a major contribution to the economic development of the West, in spite of the Chinese Exclusion Act, May 8, 1882.
From 1850-1871, the railroads received more than 175 million acres of public land - an area larger than Texas. The railroads sold portions of their land to settlers. Lands closest to the tracks drew the highest prices, because farmers and ranchers wanted to locate near railway stations.
By 1900, the nation had 193,000 miles of track, with five railroad systems spanning the continent.
|
|
Click to enlarge
|
The Pony Express only operated for 18 months, from April 3, 1860 to November 18, 1861. The mail route ran almost 2,000 miles between St. Joseph MO and Sacramento CA.
The delivery schedule was 10 days in summer and 12 to 16 days in winter - about half the time required by stagecoach.
The cross country telegraph was completed on October 23, 1861 (only 112 days after the project began). Two days later, the government stopped using the Pony Express, bringing it to an abrupt end.
|
|
On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter's sawmill in California's Sacramento Valley. Tens of thousands of "forty-niners" flocked to California in the Gold Rush. In 1849, the surface mines in California yielded $10 million, reaching a peak of $81 million in 1852. As the easy surface mining turned into more costly underground mining, gold yield began to decline, dropping to $68 million in 1853-1854 and to $20 million in 1865-1885.
As gold declined, the West's other natural resouces became more important.
|
|
Click to enlarge
|
The Cattle Industry in Oklahoma.
Range Riding in Oklahoma.
Hispanic Pastores in the Oklahoma Panhandle.
Cattle drives were a major economic activity between 1866 and 1886, when millions of longhorns were herded through the open range from Texas and Oklahoma to the railhead in Abilene, Kansas for shipment to stockyards in Chicago and points east. Cattle that cost $5 a head in Texas might bring $100 a head in Chicago.
On average, a single herd would consist of 3,000 herd with a crew of at least 10 cowboys. While cattle could be driven 25 miles a day, they would lose so much weight that they would be hard to sell at the end of the drive. On average, a herd would maintain a healthy weight moving about 15 miles a day. At this pace, a drive could take as long as two months.
|
|
Important cattle trails that passed through Oklahoma's open range were the Shawnee Trail, Chisholm Trail, Western Trail, and Jones and Plummer Trail.
Homesteading brought about the development of barbed wire and windmills, contributing to the demise of the open range.
|
Buffalo Soldiers is the nickname given to the segregated U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment by Cheyenne warriors out of respect for their fierce fighting qualities. The actual translation of the Cheyenne name was "wild buffalo". Soldiers in all African American units, like the 9th Calvalry, wore the nickname with pride through all their years of service.
|
They were sent west in 1867 to protect settlers, cattle herds, and railroad crews from Indian attacks. These unsung heroes took on jobs that no one else in the army wanted, prevailing over some of the most treacherous and inhospitable terrain in North America.
|
Buffalo Soldiers explored and mapped vast areas of the southwest and stretched hundreds of miles of telegraph lines. They built and repaired frontier outposts around which future towns and cities bloomed to life. Buffalo Soldier regiments served in the U.S. Army from the Spanish Americn War to the Korean War. The units were disbanded in the 1950s when all military services were integrated.
|
5 Civilized Tribes:
|
Plains Tribes:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Native Americans were gradually assimilated into the society and became American Citizens.
|
|
|
Agriculture in the West began with the homesteaders - even though many had little or no farming experience. This lack of experience and the harsh conditions of the frontier combined to cause less than half of the original homesteaders to obtain deeds for their land.
Important cash crops included:
Cattlemen often called the homesteaders sodbuster, because they were farmers and often used blocks of sod to build houses. The houses were practical because of the lack of trees on the plains and they were easily repaired with mud.
|
Women pioneers played a major role in the success of the homesteads and building a society in the American West.
Women in the Oklahoma Land Runs.
|
Agricultural mechanization made it possible for Western farmers to manage much larger acreages with less manpower.
America at the turn of the century.
Oklahoma's economy has reflected the Country's economy:
- A period of rapid growth with Westward Expansion, through 1900.
- A period of rapid decline with the Great Depression in 1930.
- A period of adjustment with the first of the major oil shocks in 1973.
- The energy boom and bust of the late twentieth century.
- The financial crisis of the early twenty-first century.
Southeastern Oklahoma is Little Dixie
|
Click to enlarge
|
Participating Classes
Family and Consumer Science − Pioneer Women
Art Class − Mort Kunstler - Images of Reality
English I − The Donner Party
Pre- and Post-Tests
Guest Speakers/Presentations
Staff Development - Summer 2011
|
