HISTORY 7B Lecture Notes - Sand Creek Massacre, Pacific Railroad Acts, Wounded Knee Massacre
Document Summary
The freedman"s bureau: a govt that looks weak in one context, can look strong in a different context (native americans never saw the govt as weak. This worked because whites weren"t interested: 1862 homestead act. Iowa and nebraska, not yet important in plains because the whites still thought it was worthless because it got very little rain: pacific railroad act. Starting in the 1840s, there was talk of building a cross country railroad. It was impossible to decide on where to build it because congress was split btwn n and s. Transcontinental railroad 1862-1869: vast land grants made to many railroad companies in the 1860s and. 70s 8 transcontinentals were built (huge boom in rr construction: the railroads promoted settlement. Ranching meat-packing: cattle had replaced buffalo, the amazing part of this is that they got farmers, 100th meridian. Rainfall drops off dramatically: gilded age, 1878-1886. Way more rain than usual on the plains.
