HISTORY 7B Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Great Sioux Reservation, Sand Creek Massacre, Great American Desert
Document Summary
Recap: failure of reconstruction was failure to deploy power of federal government, failure of federal power; not just the ends (kkk overthrows) but also the beginnings (freedmens" bureau- understaffed for massive tasks in the south) But- government that looks weak in one context looks strong in another- usfg very strongly dispossessed native americans in plains wars 1860s-1880s. Goals ambiguous- protect indians from settlers (trail of tears) . Real story not ambiguous- policy was to get indians out of the way of federal expansion. Pre-cw- great plains area was seen by whites as a great american desert: treaties pre-cw said great plains were indian land, offlimits to settlers. Pacific railroad act of 1862 made it viable- talk of transcontinental railroad. Politically impossible pre-cw to pass transcontinental railroad because congress couldn"t agree on route. Union pacific and central pacific would build eastward and westward and met in. 1869 in promontory point, ut: ca route largely built by chinese workers.
