“Old West”

Myth & Legends v. Reality Key Western Figures

Key Indian Leaders Outlaws

Why is this period of time in our history, so familiar to all

generations of Americans?

Alexis De Tocqueville

Tocqueville

(July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859) was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies.

Tocqueville

The Americans of the United States, more humane, more moderate, more respectful of right and legality, never bloody, are more profoundly destructive; and it is impossible to doubt that before a hundred years [have passed] there will no longer be in North America, not just a single nation, but a single man belonging to the most remarkable of the Indian races. ...

Tom Torlino “Reforming Process”

Dawes Act

Dawes Act

[Congressman Henry Dawes, author of the act, once expressed his faith in the civilizing power of private property with the claim that to be civilized was to "wear civilized clothes...cultivate the ground, live in houses, ride in Studebaker wagons, send children to school, drink whiskey [and] own property."]

Helen Hunt Jackson

How did her book a Century of Dishonor impact the American People?

Is there any other literary works this book compares with?

Why is the author so unknown in today’s day and age?

Helen Hunt Jackson

Greatest athlete of the 20th Century

Jim Thorpe

“Old West”

....

In the Name of ProgressWhite Man’s Perspective Homestead Act- 1862 160 acres of land How many years did the Homesteader

have to live on the land for ownership? Five years

Key points: $1.25 an acre Total $ 200.00 Improvements to the land Created a land ownership society

Homestead Act

Homestead Act

Railroad

Pacific Railway Act of 1862

All earth, stone, timber and other materials are the property of the rail company for the purposes of building the rail line.

All Indian land claims will be extinguished as soon as possible.

Five miles of land on each side of the tracks is under the control of the rail company.

Transcontinental Railroad

Union Pacific tracks joined those of the Central Pacific Railroad.

May 10, 1869 Promontory Point, Utah

– Golden Spike– Location where it linked up to connect the

East with the West

Golden Spike

                                                                                                              

          

Trains meeting at Promontory Summit, Utah, 1869, on the completion of the first

Golden Spike

Golden Spike

Inventions

Barbed Wire-Joseph Glidden Steel Plow-John Deere Steel Wind Mills Reaper-Cyrus McCormick How do these Inventions change

the West?

Joseph Glidden - Impact

Steel Plow- John Deere

McCormick Sail Reaper

Reaper

Water pumping wind mill

Farm Products

Wheat Corn Potatoes Barley Flax Oats Sugar beets

Bread Basket of the World

Exodusters

Dances with Wolves

Buffalo

“We Kill the Golden Goose” What is the Golden Goose? Millions wiped out Who is Buffalo Jones? Caught seven buffalo calves and

saved the buffalo from extinction Statistics: 1873-1.5 million/1874- 158,583/six

million

www.texasbeyondhistory.net/kids/buffalo.html

lewisandclarktrail.com/buffalo.htm

Buffalo Hunt

Buffalo

Buffalo

Buffalo

Fort Laramie Treaty

Citation: Treaty with the Sioux-Brule, Oglala, Miniconjou, Yanktonai, Hunkpapa, Blackfeet, Cuthead, Two Kettle, San Arcs, and Santee-and Arapaho, 4/29/1868; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives.

In this treaty, signed on April 29, 1868, between the U.S. Government and the Sioux Nation, the United States recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people.

Legends & Outlaws

Key Bad Guys John Wesley Hardin Jesse James

More Outlawswww.legendsofamerica.com/we-

outlaws.html Billie the Kid Henry Starr

Indian Leaders

Military Leaders

Military Leaders

Causes of Indian Wars:

Discovery of gold Land taken by miners, farmers,

railroads Broken promises/treaties promises

of resources Killing buffalo … Indians food source Reservation system a failure

“Custer’s Last Stand”

Montana The Little Bighorn River, called the

Greasy Grass by Native Americans, was the site of the 1876 battle known as "Custer's Last Stand," when troops of the Seventh Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer were destroyed while attempting a surprise attack on Lakota chief Sitting Bull's encampment.

“Custer’s Last Stand”

Montana

Montana

John Wayne “The Duke”

“Buffalo Bill” Cody

General George A. Custer

Battle of Little Bighorn

Colonel John M. Chivington

During the early morning hours of November 29, 1864, he led a regiment of Colorado Volunteers to the Cheyenne's Sand Creek reservation, where a band led by Black Kettle, a well-known "peace" chief, was encamped. Federal army officers had promised Black Kettle safety if he would return to the reservation, and he was in fact flying the American flag and a white flag of truce over his lodge, but Chivington ordered an attack on the unsuspecting village nonetheless. After hours of fighting, the Colorado volunteers had lost only 9 men in the process of murdering between 200 and 400 Cheyenne, most of them women and children. After the slaughter, they scalped and sexually mutilated many of the bodies, later exhibiting their trophies to cheering crowds in Denver. Military inquiry why children had been killed, one of the soldiers quoted Chivington as saying, "NITS MAKE LICE." 

Massacres

Sand Creek massacre Wounded Knee

Stereotypes