The West Project

  • Bureau of Indian Affairs

    Bureau of Indian Affairs
    The Bureau of Indian Affairs mission is to inhance the quaity of life, promote economic opportunity and to carry out the responsibillity to protect and improve the trust assets of American Indians, Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives
  • Indian Removal Act

    Indian Removal Act
    Was a law passed by Congress during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. It authorized the president to negotiate with Indians tribles in the Southern United States for their removal to federal territory west of mississippi River for exchange for their homelands.
  • Indian Appropriations Act

    Indian Appropriations Act
    The indian Appropriations Act estabished that the tribes were no longer recongized as their own nations so therefore, the US was not obligated to make treaties with the Native Americans in order to obtain land.
  • Fort Laramie Treaty

    Fort Laramie Treaty
    Agreement between the U. S. and Sioux. Also was one of the last treatie signed between the U.S. government and Plains Indians.
  • Comstock Lode

    Comstock Lode
    was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States. After the discovery it sparked a silver rush of propectors to the area, scrambling to make their claim.
  • Little Crow's War

     Little Crow's War
    Little Crow had a huge part in Dakota War by ledding it.
  • Homestead Act

    Homestead Act
    Several United States federal law that gave an applicant ownership of land at little or no cost.
  • Cheyenne Uprising

    Cheyenne Uprising
    Cheyenne let Fort Wise Treaty move on Sand Creek Reservation. Land was poor and many were challenged to find food or die from starvation.
  • Sand Creek Massacre

    Sand Creek Massacre
    Sand Creek Massacre happened because of a 700-man force of Colorado Territory Militia attacked and destroyed a peaceful village of cheyenne and Arapaho. It killed 70-163 Indians, including two thirds of whom were woman and children.
  • Red Cloud's War

    Red Cloud's War
    The war was fought over the control of the Powder River Country in north-central Wyoming. The Indians were victorious. They gained legal control of the Powder River country although it was only for eight years until another war broke out.
  • Fetterman Massacre

    Fetterman Massacre
    The Fetterman Massacre was a battle against Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. The battle led to an Indian Victory and the withdrawel of the United States from the war.
  • Completion of Trans-Cont R.R.

    Completion of Trans-Cont R.R.
    Railroad was a 1,907 mile contiguous railroad line constructed between 1863-1869 across western U.S. to Pacific coast. The railroad established a mechanized transcontinental transportation netweork that helped the settlement and economy of the American West by bringing these western states and territories firmly and profably into the Union and making good transportation much quicker, cheaper and much more flexible from coast to coast.
  • Camp Grant

    Camp Grant
    was an attack on Pinal and Aravaipa Apaches who surrended to the US Army at camp Grant, AZ. The massacre led to series of battles and campaigns fought between the Americans the Apache and their Yavapi Allies.
  • Battle of Litte Bighorn

    Battle of Litte Bighorn
    The battle was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapho tribes against the seventh cavalry regiment of the US Army. THe Indians last armed efforts to perserve their way of life.
  • The Lakota War

    The Lakota War
    Known as The Great Sioux War or Black Hill War. Battle that Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne were fighting against the U.S.
  • Desert Land Act

    Desert Land Act
    The Desert Land Act was passed to promote the development of arid western lands. The act allowed settlers 640 acres of public land at a cost of .25 cents an acre in return for settlers' promise to irrigate the land within 3 years.
  • Capture of Nez Perce

    Capture of Nez Perce
    Was an armed conflix between several bands of the nez Perce trible. They fought because of the refusal of several bands of the nez Perce "non-treaty Indians" to give up their ancestral lands in Pacific Northwest and move up to Indian Reservation in Idaho.
  • Battle of Lincoln

    Battle of Lincoln
    It was a five day long firefight. The largest aarmed battle of the Lincoln County war. It was the climax of that conflict taking place in America's wild west in New Mexico.
  • A Century of Dishonor by Heen Hunt Jackson

    A Century of Dishonor by Heen Hunt Jackson
    the book was written to let the Congress know what was going on. Her book brought light to the moral injustices enacted upon the Native Americans as it chronicled the ruthlessness of white settlers in the their greed of land, wealth and power.
  • Chinese Exclusion Act

    Chinese Exclusion Act
    was a federal law signed by President Arthur. It was the most significant restictions for free immigration in US History, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers.
  • Cattle Drivers

    Cattle Drivers
    It was a major economic activity in the American west when 20 million cattle were herded from Texas to railheads in Kansas for shipments to stockyards in Chicago and points east.
  • Bill Cody's WIld West Show,

    Bill Cody's WIld West Show,
    Known as the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show that toured in U.S and Europe. A great show that was made by William F. Cody that shown horseback riding and marksmansship on big scales.
  • Capture of Geronimo

    Capture of Geronimo
    A leader to Apache tribe of Native Americans. A great hunter, when wife, kids and mother were killed by Mexican soldiers he went to kill them.
  • Dawes Act

    Dawes Act
    An act to provide for the lands of severalty to Indians on the various reservations and to extend the protection of laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians.
  • Edmund-Tucker Act

    Edmund-Tucker Act
    The act was passed in responsive to dispute between the United States Congress and The Church of Jesus Christ regarding polygamy.
  • Pratt Boarding School

    Pratt Boarding School
    was the first founded off-reservationIndian boarding school. It was founded on the principle that Native Americans were equal of European-Americans and Native -American children immersed in mainstream Euroo-American culture would learn skills to advance in society.
  • Wounded Knee Massacre

    Wounded Knee Massacre
    Lakota Sioux chief demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening a fight broke out between Indians and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired. A massacre follwed by killing 150 Indians and the cavalry lost 25 men.
  • Forest Reserve Act

    Forest Reserve Act
    Is a law that allowed the President of the United States to set aside forest reserves from the land in the publc domain.
  • Turner Thesis

    Turner Thesis
    Argument advanced by historian Fredrerick Jackson Turner. The importance was to shape American character influenced the interpretation found in thousands of scholoary histories.
  • Carey Act

    Carey Act
    The act allowed private companies in the US to erect irrigation systems in the western semi-arid states and profit from the sales of water.