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ALL AMERICAN WEST ACTS - Coggle Diagram
ALL AMERICAN WEST ACTS
Fort Laramie Treaty 1851
Reasons for tensions between settlers and Plains Indians:
- pressures on food supply
- increased conflicts between tribes
- rapid increase in white migration across the Plains
- white fears of attack
- discovery of gold in California (1848)
- Plains Indian concerns about impacts on resources
- demands made to the US government to provide protection
- Fort Laramie Treaty 1!851)
Significance of the Fort Laramie Treaty (1851):
- Territories set out for Plains Indian tribes - which led to reservations
- White settlers allowed into Indian territories and railroad surveyors and military posts in Indian territories: led to white settlement of the Plains
- tribes to receive resources from the US government led to loss of Indian independence
Terms: The Plains Indians tribes involved in the Treaty agreed to its terms in return for an annuity (yearly payment) of $50000. This annuity became a lever for the US government to use against the Indians, and had the consequence of starting to encourage dependence of some Plains Indians on the government for food, resulting in a loss of Indian independence
US Government priorities: they prioritised the needs of white settlers over previous commitments made with Indian lands in the Indian Trade and intercource Act of 1834, white settlement in the West increased since the Treaty allowed for safe passage of white settlers along the Oregon Trail, no longer a permanent Indian frontier
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1834 Indian Trade and Intercourse Act
sets out the frontier between the
USA and Indian Territory,
Homestead Act 1862
US government wanted to encourage the settlement of the West by individual family farmers so that they could develop the land and pay taxes.
Land was available cheaply. Most American citizens could file a claim for land. Homesteaders had to be able to prove they had lived on the land and improved it. Homesteaders weren't allowed more than one claim.
Consequences: 6 million acres homesteaded by 1876, 80 million acres homesteaded by end of act (1930), the promise of free land was an important pull factor for immigration to the USA, significant in encouraging white settlement of the Plains: especially Nebraska: half all settled land in Nebraska was homesteaded
Limitations: There was a high dropout in homesteading: 60% claims not 'proved up' because of problems farming, government gave 300 million acres to railroad companies who sold it to settlers which was more influential than the Homestead Act itself, rich landowners found ways to buy up land
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Timber Culture Act 1873: government allowed homesteaders to claim another 160 acres if they plant trees on 40 acres: if you plant more than 80 acres you get more land
Desert Land Act 1877: settlers could claim 640 acres of land cheaply in areas where lack of rainfall was a big problem, encourages and promoted economic growth in arid lands of western states, irrigate land and after 3 years they could buy it for 1 dollar an acre
1887 Dawes Act - each Plains Indian allocated a 160 acre homestead from their reservation land, any leftover land freed up for white settlers to buy. Aimed to break up power of the tribe by encouraging individual families to farm for themselves rather than relying on tribal structure. Aimed for Plains Indians to be more self-sufficient and more like white-Americans and free up more land for white settlers.
Peace Policy 1868: 'peaceful' but aimed to assimilate Plains Indians replaced corrupt Indian Agents (Gov officials who ran reservations) with Christian men with morals, us gov provided protection from white attacks on the reservations but also gave power to attack anyone who refused to stay on the reservation
Fort Wise Treaty 1861: Cheyenne agreed to move onto a reservation much smaller than the reservation agreed in the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty. A minority of chiefs signed and 'dog soldiers' were angered and refused to live on the reservation: this led to the Sand Creek Massacre