The settlement of the West was one of the most dramatic times of the 19th century. In modern times the movement West is romanticized as a time of modernization and a time for great personal growth. In reality the move westward was a move towards Americanization, that crushed a way of life for the Native American Indian and eliminated one of the greatest resources of the Great Plains, the Buffalo. Western expansion was do impart to industrial advances and the influx of immigrants.

From 1820 to the end of the century almost 20 million immigrants poured into the United States. At this time immigration was encouraged by the government to fill the holds of the newly formed steamship companies, to take up homesteads and to supply the man power that American industry needed for the progressive era (Hall, G., lecture). However, their introduction into the country in such large numbers quickly overpopulated the industrial east injuring the job market and forcing people to look west for land and opportunity. Railroads opened up trails to the West making the way for pioneers to drive into Indian and Buffalo lands.

The end of the civil war saw nearly 15 million bison west of the Mississippi

The Dawes Act was similar to the Homestead Act but it only pertained to Indians and reservation lands. Heads of families were allotted 160 acres while others were given smaller lots. Those who accepted the land were given American citizenship. The idea was perceived as humanitarianism, but this was far from the truth. The plan was conceived to turn the nomadic hunters into sedimentary farmers and break up the tribes once and for all. Another blow to the Indians was that the government sold access reservation lands, further reducing their freedom (Major Problems, p. 45 – 46). After the enactment of the Dawes Act life on the reservations deteriorated even further. Although The Indians were given citizenship, poverty, squalor, disease and hopelessness doomed Indian life. Indians were still treated as wards of the state unable to self-govern or make decisions for themselves. The Indian way of life and belief system began to vanish (Hall, G., lecture).

for hours as they moved across the plains (Burns, K., The West – video). The lying of the Union Pacific Railroad divided the herd of the Great Plains in two. Within four years over 3 million bison had been slaughtered and by the close of the century the entire southern herd had been destroyed (Utley, R.M., Social Fabric, p.20). This was due in part to the discovery that bison hides could be used commercially. Every buffalo was now worth between one and three dollars (Burns, K., The West – video). The bison now offered the hunter a tempting opportunity. The hunter not only gained a profit, but he was also doing his part to serve the country by helping the railroads expand and contributing to the commercial interests of the country by killing the buffalo. The hunters had more difficulty killing off the northern herd as they moved farther north becoming more isolated. However, within 10 years this had been accomplished. By 1886 it was reported that only 200 buffalo remained in the northern herd (Utley, R.M., Social Fabric, p.20).

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