Lesson 8: A Home in the West
A brief study is made of the white people who first crossed the Plains westward before the major migration began. This is followed by an in-depth look at what it takes to become a homesteader on the Plains, the mishaps they endured, and the types of homes they build. This lesson also presents an insight into starting a western town. The various types of people that inhabited these western towns are explored—both the good and the bad. On the Southern Plains, Mangas Coloradas is murdered and the Chiricahau and Mimbres Apaches go on the warpath.
Red Cloud visits Washington, resulting in a reservation for the Sioux. Hundreds of Oglalas Sioux gather under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse’s leadership, hoping for one last fight with the whites.
Introduction
In a span of years that are seemingly few, thousands of people crossed the Plains westward. Forts were built across the Great Plains. Some were abandoned, but others were erected. They were constructed across this vast, wind-swept prairie and manned by soldiers to protect those who came west. Some folks came up from Texas, driving great herds of wild longhorns to the railheads. But this historic episode was just a brief period compared to the stories of the people who came to this big open land to plow the earth, build their homes, and raise their families.
Not all the people who inhabited the planes were upstanding types. There were outlaws and lawmen as well, the latter often becoming the former, and the other way around just as often. There were gunslingers and prostitutes. But there were also preachers, schoolteachers, and those who wanted to see towns built.
For the most part, people came to the Plains after the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened Indian Territory to settlement and the Homestead Act gave them free land. But before anyone had any idea of settling on the Plains, others came before them. These brave and adventuresome people traveled up the Missouri River.
Missouri River
Then they passed over the Rocky Mountains that fur trappers learned to call The Shining Mountains just as the Indians did.
Rocky Mountains
Some of them stayed to collect the fur of the beaver in the crystal clear streams. Others crossed the Cascade Range and the Blue Mountains, then went on to settle beside the beautiful Willamette River in Oregon Country.
Cascade Mountains
And still, others trekked beyond the Cascade Range then took the watery trail south and westward down the mighty Columbia River.
Columbia River
They passed the locale where the Snake and Yakima Rivers still course their bounty into the Columbia and then, at last, they stood on the pounding shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Snake River
At a later date some folks, who also crossed the Plains to the Far Western shore, met their plight in the snowy Sierra Nevada. A portion of them, the Donner Party, got no farther and their memory is a devastating chapter in western history. Yet, others were more blessed and at last stood on the golden shores of California. But they all came, and for many different reasons.
The plight of the Donner Party can be learned at:
How About Those Donners By Janice Oberding http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/ghos... The weak and the sick were dying. Snow was piling up at an ungodly rate, and there was no end in sight. Members of the party looked around and knew they would all die if something weren't done. So they made the terrible decision that would forever stigmatize the Donner Party. They would survive on the flesh of their dead friends and relatives.
