American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 16: THE CONQUEST OF THE FAR WEST

Primary Sources

1
At the Medicine Lodge Council of 1867 representatives of the Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Plains Apache tribes met with a United States delegation including the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, a U.S. senator, and various generals and other officials. Over 7,000 Indians were gathered along Medicine Lodge Creek in southern Kansas just outside Indian Territory. Several chiefs spoke eloquently of their anguish at having to give up territory. The excerpt below comes from the statement of Kiowa Chief Satanta. Consider the following questions: Did all the land south of the Arkansas River really belong to the southern Plains tribes? Was there a realistic way for Satanta's vision to have been granted by federal policy?

Kiowa Chief Satanta

2
The Atlanta Constitution was one of the leading Bourbon voices of the postwar South, especially during the editorship of Henry Grady (1879-1889). The following editorial, written before Grady's period, celebrates the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. Consider the following questions: How does the editorial reveal the psychological importance of the transcontinental railroad to the American sense of nationhood? How does it show that the railroad would lead to the end of the frontier? What does the writer reveal about Southern jealousy of Northern industrial accomplishment and Southern resolve to advance economically?

Atlanta Constitution

3
Here are the Homestead Act, Pacific Railway Act, and Morrill Act, all passed during the Civil War and all of which had a profound effect on the course of western development. What does each of these acts propose? And what do they tell us about the role of the federal government in the development of the West, particularly in regards to railroads, agriculture, and commerce?

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=31&page=transcript

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=32&page=transcript

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=33&page=transcript

4
This is the notorious Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. What developments precipitated the passage of this act, and what are its provisions? How does the act (briefly) justify the restrictions imposed?

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=47&page=transcript

5
The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 represented a turning point in American policy towards Native American peoples. How does the Dawes Act reconceptualize the relationship of the Indian to the United States? What events preceded and perhaps influenced the passage of this act?

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=50&page=transcript

Glencoe Online Learning CenterSocial Studies HomeProduct InfoSite MapContact Us

The McGraw-Hill CompaniesGlencoe

Please read our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice before you explore our Web site. To report a technical problem with this Web site, please contact the Web Producer.