Societies Of The Far West

The Societies of the Far West

1.Southwestern Pueblos lived as farmers (corn being a major crop), with elaborate forms of irrigation to water these crops. They made adobe houses as forms of shelter, established alliances with the Spanish against the Apaches, Navajos, and Comanches. The Pueblos also developed an elaborate caste system with the Spanish. The Plains Indians contained several groups of diverse tribes with different languages. Professions ranged between farming and nomadic hunting, with close family networks and an intimate relationship with nature. Plains Indians strived in warfare with each male class being a "warrior" class.

2.Most all Plains tribes shared cultures which were based on close and extended family networks and on an intimate relationship with nature. Most tribes were divided into "bands" with a population of up to 500 men and women. Each band had its own governing council. Many tribes subsisted through the hunting of buffalo.

3.Diseases such as Smallpox decimated tribes such as the Pawnees and many other Californian tribes, resulting in a huge disadvantage in any long-term battle, especially battles against an economically and industrially advanced people.

4.The Plains Indians' weaknesses included their inability to unite against the white oppression, many tribes's inability to culturally construct a military civilization. Many tribes also had conflicts amongst each other, not just the whites themselves. Lastly, the Indians were tragically vulnerable to infectious diseases such as smallpox, resulting in numbers being a major problem in any battle.

5.Acquired in the 1840's, the US eventually imposed a military rule upon New Mexico due to internal conflicts occurring during that time. The slowly populating

Anglo-Americans that populated most of New Mexico helped establish a "territorial ring" that resulted in the gaining control of over 2 million acres of land . This ring also broke the power of the oppressive and offensive Indian tribes that bordered New Mexico.

6.In Spanish California, most cultures consisted of heavy Christian worship with many missions to accompany it. As many as 50,000 Indians were baptized as a result of this. These missionaries created and developed largely self sufficient economies with animals such as horses, sheep, and goats; professions included brickmakers, blacksmiths, weavers, and farmers. Many californios were pushed out due to a large influx of Anglo-Americans; missions collapsed due to a replacement of a secular Mexican aristocracy which controlled a chain of large estates. Nearly all Calfornios lost their land through business deals or force, as well as jobs.

7.Most Chinese immigrants during the 1860's-1890's worked as gold miners, prospectors, farmers, and, in desperate situations, fruit pickers. Many of the Chinese communities were named "Chinatown" due to their overwhelming populations of the urban area at the time. Life for the Chinese immigrant was hard, with many people having unskilled factory hands and many jobs to compete with.

8.The Chinese came to be a major percentage of the Californian population, with competition for jobs becoming increasingly hard due to these people, enraging several Anglo-Americans and Anglo-Europeans. The Anglos eventually created Anti-Chinese groups with their main objectives being to put a ban on Chinese employment as well as a major boycott on products made with Chinese Labor. These movements resulted in the Chinese Exclusion Act, passed by Congress in 1882 that banned Chinese immigration into the United States for 10 years and prevented any Chinese that were already in the country from becoming naturalized citizens. This all reflected the growing fear of unemployment and labor unrest throughout the nation and the belief that excluding "an industrial army of Asiatic laborers" would protect "American" workers and help reduce class conflict.

9.In the late nineteenth-century, there was a major Western migration boom due to many settlers being attracted to the gold and silver deposits. Other reasons include shortgrass pastures for cattle and sheep, and ultimately by the sod of the plains and the meadowlands of the mountains, which they discovered were suitable for farming or ranching. Finally, the completion of the transcontinental railroad encouraged much of the western settlement occurring at the time.

10.The Homestead Act was formed as a progressive measure; it gave a free farm to any American that needed one. It would be a form of government relief to people who otherwise might have no prospects. And it would help create new markets and new outposts of commercial agriculture for the nation's growing economy. For many homesteaders, 160 acres became too much to handle due to the amount of work needed to keep the farm running, and it also became too little due to the amount of land needed for grazing and grain farming of much of the Great Plains.

11.In the west during the late 19th century, many states were accepted into statehood. Among those are Kansas, Washington, New Mexico, Utah, and Nebraska. Utah was denied at first due to its large occupation of mormans; it wasn't until later that the morman leader convinced Congress that Utah was polygamy-free. States such as New Mexico and Arizona were excluded because their white populations remained minorities in the territories, their politics were predominantly Democratic in a Republican era, and because they were unwilling to accept admission as a single state.

The Changing Western Economy

12. In the West, the number of unemployed whites and anglos grew due to Chinese competition and tasks that eventually left the employed unemployed. This resulted in communities of the jobless and people who owned no land became highly mobile, going from place to place searching for jobs. Where there was work, there was a highly multiracial class that contained African Americans working alongside whites, along with immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Other races included Chinese, Filipinos, Mexicans, and Indians. The whites occupied the upper tiers of employment: management and skilled labor. The lower tiers- people who did unskilled and often arduous work in the mines, on the railroads or in agriculture- consisted of overwhelmingly nonwhites.

13.Principal gold and silver booms occurred in Pike's Peak, California (gold), Denver, Colorado (gold), Leadville, Colorado (silver) Washoe, Nevada (gold), and the Comstock Lode, Nevada (silver). Copper also became an important mineral in the West.

14.Boomtown life was hectic, not only because of the heavy rush to "strike it rich" but also