People moved from the East of America West to California and Oregon at first and then later to settle

on the Great Plains.

In the middle of America are the Great Plains where there is lots of grassland and the Buffalo live. The Indians and the settlers fought hard over this land.

These people settled on the Great Plains to farm the land they were given by the government. The land was not good for farming and the people struggled to survive. Homesteaders and Indians fought over land.

Most Indians at the time lived on the Great Plains where they lived nomadically (moved around) and hunted the Buffalo. They fought the settlers for land. The biggest tribe were the Sioux.

Europeans who moved to America early and trapped animals for fur to send back to Europe. Often lived rough in the Rocky and Sierra mountains.

When people moved West at first they used to travel in long wagon trains with lots of other people. These journeys were dangerous and many people died. Dangers included Indian attacks, bad weather, illness and deep rivers.

Gold Miners went to mine gold in the West mostly during the Gold Rush. They used to fight with the Indians since they were mining gold on land sacred to the Indians.

Mormonism was a religion founded by Joseph Smith after he said he found some gold plates with angelic writing on them. Mormons were persecuted in most places so moved to Salt Lake and founded Salt Lake City where they could live in peace. Brigham Young took over the Mormons after Joseph Smith died, he decided to go to the Great Salt Lake.

The idea that the white settlers were supposed to live in all parts of America and be in charge of all of it. Manifest Destiny was part of why people moved West to live in the empty parts of the country.

Huge trainlines that went all over America from East to West. Made it much easier to move people, goods and cattle to different parts of the country. Land around the railways became valuable, people wanted to live there and be connected to the rest of the country.

Huge farms on the Great Plains full of cattle. Cattle could be sent on a drive with Cowboys to the East to be sold. Later the cattle were sent by the railroads and were slaughtered and butchered in cow towns like Abilene.

Economic = money situation Depression = in a bad way In 1837 the stock markets at Wall Street crashed. This led to many losing money and high unemployment (no jobs). People moved West to find a better life away from money troubles.

The Indians and the white settlers went to war many times over land in the Great Plains. Battle of Little Bighorn - Indians won. Sand Creek Massacre - whites killed Indian women and children. Wounded Knee - another massacre which was the end of Indian fighting.

A man standing on a pile of Buffalo skulls

The whites wanted to destroy the Indians way of life and did this by destroying all their culture. They starved them into Reservations by killing all the Buffalo which the Indians hunted.

The Indians were sent to live on Reservations which were to small to hunt Buffalo from. They depended on the government to give them food and supplies. The government wanted to stop their culture and punished them if they had their own religion and sent their children to boarding schools.

It was difficult to police the areas on the Plains that were so far apart. Sheriffs and Judges were the official lawmen. Vigilante groups made up of ordinary people would sometimes try to enforce the law and kill criminals.

When taking cattle from the ranches to be sold Cowboys used to take trails that had been used over and over. The Goodnight-Loving Trail was one of the first main trails and was used for many years. It was an easy way to get across the country.

Ranches used to be so huge they did not need fences and the Plains were open. When more ranches opened up and competed with Homesteaders they needed to build barbed wire fences. This meant the end of the Open Range.