01:512:104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Prior-Appropriation Water Rights, Conservation Movement, Newlands Reclamation Act
13 May 2018
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Chapter 17 - The Development of the West, 1877-1900
I. Introduction
Between 1870 and 1890, the population of the trans?Mississippi West
expanded to nearly 17 million people. Nevertheless, much of the United
States remained unsettled, providing Americans with the faith that they could
always move on to another opportunity.
II. The Economic Activities of Native Peoples
A. Subsistence Cultures
Western Indians had distinct cultures, but they all lived in subsistence
economies. On the Plains, buffalo provided the basis for survival, while the
southwestern tribes depended on livestock and those of the Northwest on
salmon.
B. Slaughter of Buffalo
White hunters slaughtered millions of buffalo, thus contributing to a complex
combination of circumstances that doomed the bison and destroyed the
economic and social foundations of the Plains tribes.
C. Decline of Salmon
Commercial fishing in the Northwest was one of several factors that led to the
decline of the salmon population.
III. The Transformation of Native Cultures
A. Violence
Most of those who migrated to the West in the late nineteenth century were
young males who had few qualms about using their weapons against animals
or humans who got in their way.
B. Lack of Native Unity
The Indians of the Southwest and Northwest were separated by some two
hundred languages and dialects, making it difficult for them to unite against
white intruders.
C. Territorial Treaties
Most treaties that recognized Indian territory were violated.
D. Reservation Policy
From the 1860s to the 1880s, the federal government pursued a policy of
placing Indians on reservations.
E. Native Resistance
Tribes reacted against white encroachment in a variety of ways.
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Document Summary
Chapter 17 - the development of the west, 1877-1900: introduction. Between 1870 and 1890, the population of the trans?mississippi west expanded to nearly 17 million people. States remained unsettled, providing americans with the faith that they could always move on to another opportunity. The economic activities of native peoples: subsistence cultures. Western indians had distinct cultures, but they all lived in subsistence economies. On the plains, buffalo provided the basis for survival, while the southwestern tribes depended on livestock and those of the northwest on salmon: slaughter of buffalo. White hunters slaughtered millions of buffalo, thus contributing to a complex combination of circumstances that doomed the bison and destroyed the economic and social foundations of the plains tribes: decline of salmon. Commercial fishing in the northwest was one of several factors that led to the decline of the salmon population.
