American History 2: Primary Sources Unit 1: The Great West and Rise of Populism

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1 All the soldiers were now killed, and the bodies were stripped. After that no one could tell which were officers. The bodies were left where they fell. We had no dance that night. We were sorrowful... Next day four Sioux chiefs and two Cheyennes and I, Two Moons, went upon the battlefield to count the dead. One man carried a little bundle of sticks. When we came to dead men, we took a little stick and gave it to another man, so we counted the dead. There were 388. There were thirty-nine Sioux and seven Cheyennes killed, and about a hundred wounded Two Moons (McClure s Magazine (September, 1898) 1. What can be inferred from the above eyewitness account of the Battle of Little Big Horn? 2. What was the significance of the Battle of Little Big Horn? Stripped of the beautiful romance with which we have been so long willing to envelope him, transferred from the inviting pages of the novelist to the localities where we are compelled to meet with him, in his native village, on the war path, and when raiding our frontier settlements and lines of travel, the Indian forfeits [give up] his claim to the appellation [name] of the "noble red man. We see him as he is, and, so far as all knowledge goes, as he ever has been, a savage in every sense of the word; no worse, perhaps than his white brother would be similarly born and bred, but one whose cruel and ferocious nature far exceeds that of any wild beast of the desert. -- George Armstrong Custer (1874) 3. How does Genera Custer view Native Americans? What reason does he give for their behavior or condition? Turning Hawk: These people were coming toward Pine Ridge agency, and when they were almost on the agency they were met by the soldiers and surrounded and finally taken to the Wounded Knee Creek, and there at a given time their guns were demanded.... there was a crazy man, a young man of bad influence and in fact a nobody, among that bunch of Indians [who] fired his gun, and of course the firing of a gun have been the breaking of a military rule of some sort, because immediately the soldiers returned fire and indiscriminate killing followed... Spotted Horse: This man shot an officer in the army... As soon as this shot was fired the Indians immediately began drawing their knives, and they were exhorted from all sides to desist, but this was not obeyed.... American Horse: There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce, and the women and children of course were strewn all along the circular village until they were dispatched. Right near the flag of truce a mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still nursing, and that especially was a very sad sight. The women as they were fleeing with their babes were killed together, shot right through, and the women who were heavy with child were also killed... Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1896) 4. According to the above accounts, what was the cause of the conflict at Wounded Knee Creek? 5. What was the significance of the Battle of Wounded Knee? The history of the Government connections with the Indians is a shameful record of broken treaties [agreements] and unfulfilled promises. The history of the border white man s connection with the Indians is a sickening record of murder, outrage, robbery, and wrongs committed by the former [whites], as the rule, and occasional savage outbreaks and unspeakably barbarous deeds of retaliation by the latter [Native American], as the exception Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor (1881) 6. According to Helen Hunt Jackson, how did the U.S. government push Native Americans to the Great Plains and into reservations?

2 7. What federal policy or piece of legislation led to this advertisement for Indian land? Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect all rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. ---Nez Perce Chief Joseph, Washington, D.C., What government policies did Chief Joseph oppose?

3 The white man, who possesses this whole vast country from sea to sea, who roams over it at pleasure, and lives where he likes, cannot know the cramp we feel in this little spot, with the underlying remembrance of the fact, which you know as well as we, that every foot of what you proudly call America, not very long ago belonged to the red man. The Great Spirit gave it to us. There was room enough for all his many tribes, and all were happy in their freedom. But the white man had, in ways we know not of, learned some things we had not learned; among them, how to make superior tools and terrible weapons, better for war than bows and arrows; and there seemed no end to the hordes [huge numbers] of men that followed them from other lands beyond the sea. And so, at last, our fathers were steadily driven out, or killed, and we, their sons, but sorry remnants of tribes once mighty, are cornered in little spots of the earth all ours of right cornered like guilty prisoners, and watched by men with guns, who are more than anxious to kill us off. Nor is this all. The white man s government promised that if we, the Shoshones, would be content with the little patch allowed us, it would keep us well supplied with everything necessary to comfortable living, and would see that no white man should cross our borders for our game, or for anything that is ours. But it has not kept its word! The white man kills our game, captures our furs, and sometimes feeds his herds upon our meadows. And your great and mighty government Oh sir, I hesitate, for I cannot tell the half! It does not protect us in our rights. It leaves us without the promised seed, without tools for cultivating the land, without implements [tools] for harvesting our crops, without breeding animals better than ours, without the food we still lack, after all we can do, without the many comforts we cannot produce, without the schools we so much need for our children. Chief Washakie of the Shoshone tribe from a speech to Governor John W. Hoyt of the Wyoming Territory, According to this document, what were two criticisms that Chief Washakie had against the white man and/or the federal government? The history of the Government connections with the Indians is a shameful record of broken treaties [agreements] and unfulfilled promises. The history of the border white man s connection with the Indians is a sickening record of murder, outrage, robbery, and wrongs committed by the former [whites], as the rule, and occasional savage outbreaks and unspeakably barbarous deeds of retaliation by the latter [Native American], as the exception Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor (1881) 10. According to Helen Hunt Jackson, how did the U.S. government push Native Americans to the Great Plains and into reservations? 11. The above photos are of the same man. What federal legislation is most likely responsible for these photos?

4 To assume it would be easy, or by any one sudden stroke of legislative policy possible, to undo the mischief and hurt of the long past, set the Indian policy of the country right for the future, and make the Indians at once safe and happy, is the blunder [mistake] of a hasty and misinformed judgment. The notion which seems to be growing more prevalent [widespread], that simply to make all Indians at once citizens of the United States would be a sovereign [supreme]and instantaneous [immediate] panacea [solution] for all their ills and all the Government's perplexities [problems], is a very inconsiderate [thoughtless] one. To administer complete citizenship of a sudden, all round, to all Indians, barbarous and civilized alike, would be a grotesque blunder as to dose them all around with one medicine. Nevertheless, it is true that. "So long as they are not citizens of the United States, their rights of property must remain insecure against invasion. The doors of the federal tribunals [courts] barred against them while wards [children] and dependents." All judicious [careful] plans and measures for their safety and salvation must embody provisions for their becoming citizens as fast as they are fit. ----Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor (1881). 12. According to the above excerpt, what does Jackson say caused Indians to be insecure about not being citizens? Congressman Henry Dawes of Massachusetts sponsored a landmark piece of legislation, the General Allotment Act (The Dawes Severalty Act) in It was designed to encourage the breakup of the tribes and promote the assimilation of Indians into American Society. It will be the major Indian policy until the 1930s. Dawes' goal was to create independent farmers out of Indians give them land and the tools for citizenship. Reactions to Senator Dawes' Act were quite varied. Alice Fletcher, an Eastern woman who was a leader of a group called "Friends of the Indians," was one of the architects of the new law. "The Indian may now become a free man; free from the thralldom [bondage] of the tribe; freed from the domination of the reservation system; free to enter into the body of our citizens. This bill may therefore be considered as the Magna Carta of the Indians of our country." Alice Fletcher A Nez Perce Indian expressed a quite different reaction. "We do not want our land cut up in little pieces..." Congressman Henry Dawes expressed some rather starling views in the following statement. "... 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." While Senator Dawes may have been well meaning in his intentions, the results were less than satisfactory for the Indians. It provided for each head of an Indian family to be given 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land. The remaining tribal lands were to be declared "surplus" and opened up for whites. Tribal ownership, and tribes themselves, were simply to disappear. The story would be much the same across much of the West. Before the Dawes Act, some 150 million acres remained in Indian hands. Within twenty years, two-thirds of their land was gone. The reservation system was nearly destroyed. Standing Bear, Tibbles, and other who participated in the lecture to the East to gain support for the Ponca cause specifically, and the Indian cause in general, did not foresee the problems that legislation like the Dawes Act would create. Land allotted to individual Indians was soon controlled by non-indians. Indians lost much of their land and received very inadequate payment for the land they gave up. Indians, who received compensation for giving up their land, also quickly spent the money. They were not used to managing money. Few contemporary historians would judge the allotment policy of acts like the Dawes Act, successful. 13. What was the purpose of the Dawes Act according to Dawes and Fletcher? What was the effect according to the Nez Perce Indian?

5 That the person applying for the benefit of this act shall, upon application to the register of the land office in which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before the said register or receiver that he or she is the head of a family, or is twenty-one years or more of age, or shall have performed service in the army or navy of the United States,...and that said entry is made for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation... Provided, however, That no certificate shall be given or patent issued therefore until the expiration of five years from the date of such entry Homestead Act (1862) 14. What were some of the requirements of the Homestead Act? Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there be granted to the several States, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, an amount of public land, to be apportioned to each State a quantity equal to thirty thousand acres for each senator and representative in Congress to which the States are respectively entitled by the apportionment under the census of eighteen hundred and sixty: Provided, That no mineral lands shall be selected or purchased under the provisions of this Act......by each State which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts Morrill Act (1862) 15. What was the purpose of the federal government giving land to the states? 16. Why did the federal government pass the Homestead and Morrill Land-grant Act? 17. According to the above chart, what did the federal government give the Union Pacific Railroad Company to help them construct the railroad and the telegraph line?

6 Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" Background: Historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented this paper to a special meeting of the American Historical Association at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. His assessment of the frontier's significance was the first of its kind and revolutionized American intellectual and historical thinking. This brief official statement marks the closing of a great historic movement. Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development. Behind institutions, behind constitutional forms and modifications lie the vital forces that call these organs into life and shape them to meet changing conditions. Now, the peculiarity of American institutions is the fact that they have been compelled to adapt themselves to the changes of an expanding people; -- to the changes involved in crossing a continent, in winning a wilderness, and in developing at each area of this progress out of the primitive economic and political conditions of the frontier into the complexity of city life. American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character. The true point of view in the history of this nation is not the Atlantic Coast; it is the Great West..The fact is that here is a new product that is American. At first, the frontier was the Atlantic coast. It was the frontier of Europe in a very real sense. Moving westward, the frontier became more and more American. Thus the advance of the frontier has meant a steady movement away from the influence of Europe, a steady growth of independence on American lines. And to study this advance, the men who grew up under these conditions, and the political, economic, and social results of it, is to study the really American part of our history. What does suggest about the frontier "If you proceed any farther west," said the captain, "you will be instantly shot." "Wherefore?" inquired the pilgrims. "You are damned Mormons!" "We are law-abiding Americans, and have given no cause of offence." "You are dammed Mormons. That's offence enough. Within ten days every Mormon must be out of Missouri, or men, women, and children will be shot down indiscriminately. No mercy will be shown. It is the order of the Governor that you should all be exterminated; and by God you will be." ---Haun s Mill Massacre (1838) 18. Why were the Mormons harassed and persecuted? To me, homesteading is the solution of all poverty's problems, but I realize that temperament has much to do with success in any undertaking, and persons afraid of coyotes and work and loneliness had better let ranching alone. At the same time, any woman who can stand her own company, can see the beauty of the sunset, loves growing things, and is willing to put in as much time at careful labor as she does over the washtub, will certainly succeed; will have independence, plenty to eat all the time, and a home of her own in the end. Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader 19. How would characterize the lifestyle of female Homesteader?

7 20. How did the growth of the Railroad and Mining Industries impact the settlement, daily lives and fortunes of the Chinese? 21. What issues concerning crop production and crop prices can you see in the chart above?

8 Munn v. Illinois, (1877), case in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the power of government to regulate private industries. The case developed as a result of the Illinois legislature s responding in 1871 to pressure from the National Grange, an association of farmers, by setting maximum rates that private companies could charge for the storage and transport of agricultural products. The Chicago grain warehouse firm of Munn and Scott was subsequently found guilty of violating the law but appealed the conviction on the grounds that the Illinois regulation represented an unconstitutional deprivation of property without due process of law. The Supreme Court heard the appeal in Chief Justice Morrison Remick Waite spoke for the majority when he said that state power to regulate extends to private industries that affect the public interest. Because grain storage facilities were devoted to public use, their rates were subject to public regulation. Moreover, Waite declared that even though Congress alone is granted control over interstate commerce, a state could take action in the public interest without impairing that federal control. Munn v. Illinois, one of the Granger cases, was a watershed in the struggle for public regulation of private enterprise. Later court decisions, however, sharply curtailed the government s power to regulate business. 22. Why did the state of Illinois sue the firm of Munn and Scott? 23. What was the decision in Munn v. Illinois? Wabash v. Illinois (1886) This case overturned the ruling made in the case of Munn v. Illinois in The case of the Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific Railroad Company vs. Illinois severely limited the right of the state government and legislature to control interstate commerce. This overturned the decision made earlier in the case of Munn v. Illinois as the states no longer had the right to regulate interstate commerce. However, this case led to the establishment of the first regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which watched over the activities of railroads and other private businesses. It was also one of the first times when the federal government assumed responsibility for the economy that had been delegated to the states at an earlier time. The opinion was written by Justice Samuel Miller, on a vote of 6 to 3. We must, therefore, hold that it is not, and never has been, the deliberate opinion of a majority of this court that a statute of a State which attempts to regulate the fares and charges by railroad companies within its limits, for a transportation which constitutes a part of commerce among the States, is a valid law. 24. How did Wabash v. Illinois overturn Munn v. Illinois? 25. What was the effect of the Wabash v. Illinois decision?

9 You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in this country...having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them: you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. -- William Jennings Bryan, What did Bryan hope would happen as a result of his Cross of Gold speech? The violence began on Thursday, November 10th in the predominantly African American city of Wilmington, North Carolina, at that time the state s largest metropolis. Statewide election returns had recently signaled a shift in power with Democrats taking over the North Carolina State Legislature. The city of Wilmington, however, remained in Republican hands primarily because of its solid base of African American voters. On November 10th, Alfred Moore Waddell, a former Confederate officer and a white supremacist, led a group of townsmen to force the ouster of Wilmington s city officials. Waddell relied on an editorial printed in the African American-owned Wilmington Daily Record as the catalyst for the riot. Alex Manly, the editor of the Daily Record, had published an editorial in early November arguing that poor white men are careless in the matter of protecting their women. Paraphrasing articles by Ida B. Wells on the subject of lynching, Manly opined that our experiences among poor white people in the country teaches us that women of that race are not any more particular in the matter of clandestine meetings with colored men than the white men with the colored women. Manly s public discussion of the taboo subject of interracial sex exposed the reality of sexual exploitation of black women by white men and challenged the myth of pure-white womanhood. Forty-eight hours after Manly s editorial ran Waddell led 500 white men to the headquarters of the Daily Record on 7th Street. The mob broke out windows and set the building on fire. Manly and other high profile African Americans fled the city; however, at least 14 African Americans were slain that day. An eyewitness later wrote that African Americans fled to the swamps, or hid in the African American cemetery at the edge of town. When their criminal behavior resulted in neither Federal sanctions nor condemnation from the state, Waddell and his men formalized their control of Wilmington. The posse forced the Republican members of the city council and the mayor to resign and Waddell assumed the mayoral seat. Over the next two years North Carolina passed the grandfather clause, as one in a series of laws designed to limit the voting rights of American Americans. 27. What was the cause of the Wilmington Race Riot? 28. What was the purpose of passing the Grandfather Clause leglislation?