HIS 1053 Westward Migration Lecture Notes

Westward Migration
Effect on Native Americans


I. Reasons for Westward Migration
o gold and silver
o for land (homestead act)
o flee persecution: African americans running from white aristocracy, religious
persecution too
o railroad unified west to east, transported crops

II. Justification for Westward Migration: “Manifest Destiny”
o Fredrick Jackson turner
 Frontier was like a safety valve
 West was a cradle of democracy
 Thesis
o John L. O’ Sullivan
 Coined the term promoting the annexation of Texas
 Mission from god
 Like puritans and their city upon the hill
o Bad assumption that no humans existed here before

III.How to Solve the Native American Question:

A. Relocating the Indian:
 Trail of Tears
o Andrew Jackson had a policy of Indian removal
o Forced several tribes off land in Georgia and Tennessee
o Ended at the great plains
 Breaking of Treaties
 Destruction of the Buffalo
o Forced natives to relocate bc they used it as a necessity
 Reservations

B. Destroying the Indian: (Battles):
 Sand Creek Massacre
o 1864, a group of American militiamen slaughtered a village of Cheyenne
natives
 Resistance
o Custer’s Last Stand
 Battle of big horn
 Treaty of fort Laramie 1868 between general Sherman and Sioux
Indians
 1874 gold was found in Missouri river
 Treat violated
 One of the most famous Indian victories