Life on the Plains

NCSCOS Goal 4Page 29

gNative American Removal opened up this land for my family…but was it justified?

Answer the following questions under your objective

1. What were some reasons settlers moved out West?

2. Which battle ended Native American resistance on the plains

3. What was the goal of the Dawes Act?

4. How was Helen Hunt Jackson similar to Harriet Beecher Stowe (not 3 names either)

Check yourself Review

Homestead Act

Passed in 1862 -to encourage settlement of the

Plains area-gave 160 acres of land to settlers if

they improved the land and lived on it

• To any citizen or intended citizen who was the head of household

• Must farm the land for 5 years-land speculators• People who use land for profit-Oklahoma giveaway, 1889• One day land-grab of 2 million acres

that formerly belonged to the Natives“Boomers” and “Sooners”

-people continued to come for the cheap lands and opportunity

55 Indian nations had been forced into Indian Territory, which contained the largest unsettled farmland in the U.S. (about 2

million unassigned acres). During the 1880s, squatters overran the land, and Congress agreed to buy out the Indian claims to

the land. On the morning of April 22, 1889, tens of thousands of homesteaders lined up at the territory’s borders. At the stroke of noon, bugles blew, pistols fired, and the eager hordes surged

forward, racing to stake a claim.

By sundown, these settlers, called

boomers, had staked claims on almost 2

million acres. Many Boomers discovered

that some of the best lands had been

grabbed by Sooners, people who had

sneaked past the government officials earlier to mark their

claims. Under pressure from

settlers, Congress created the Oklahoma Territory in 1890. In the following years,

the remainder of Indian Territory was open to settlement.

New Technology

-Morrill Land Grants• Gave federal land to the

states to organize agricultural colleges

• Led to farming innovations

-Railroad expansiontranscontinental railroad, 1869 Could transport farm equipment and farm goods between East and West

New Technology

• Farming very difficult at first, but technology makes it easier

-deeper wells• Less chance of water in the

wells evaporating

-steel plows

-better farm equipmentreaper, harvesters

Life on the Farm

-sod houses• blocks of prairie turf• Warm in winter, cool in

summer• Small, poorly lit, haven for

snakes and insects-weather extremes• Droughts, floods, fires,

blizzards, tornadoes, locust drought

• No rain/very dry climate• Decline in farm production-isolation• Miles from other settlers

“I think…it took more to live twenty-four hours at a time,

month in and out, on the lonely and lovely prairie, without giving

up to loneliness.” ~Esther Clark Hill, Kansas

Sod Houses on the Frontier

Sod Houses on the Frontier

Decline of Farming

-Rise of industry• Big businesses growing and

offering jobs, many move East

-Urbanization• Growth of cities pulls many

back East to work in factories

-End of the frontierFrederick Jackson Turner“Frontier Thesis”

• Claimed that frontier captured American spirit and made America unique

“Now…the frontier has gone and with its going has closed the first

period of American history.” ~Frederick Jackson Turner

Life on the Homestead

Directions: Using the website link for Library of

congress, read through a few excerpts from the Oblinger letters.

You will then write your own letter expressing your content or

discontent with life on the plains.

Must include the following topics1. Motivation for moving2. What are the positives3. What are the negative hardships4. What new technology do you use

to help you5. Fictional events to write home

about

• Growth of cities pulls many back East to work in factories

-End of the frontierFrederick Jackson Turner“Frontier Thesis”

• Claimed that frontier captured American spirit and made America unique

Ideas to think aboutHomestead Act

Morrill Land Grant ActNative Americans

Steel PlowWind millSod HouseScare treesRailroads

LocustsBonanza FarmsWagon Trains

Mechanical reaperDroughtsLand Rush

American Dream160 acres

liberty

Decline of Farming

- Great debts• Farm machinery expensive

= debt• Drought and low market

prices = Less money

-Railroad charges• Railroads charging Western

farmers more because there is no competition

“No other system of taxation has borne as heavily on the people

as those extortions and inequalities of railroad charges.”

~Henry Demarest Lloyd, 1881

Atlantic Monthly