Great+Plains

=__Great Plains__=

toc The Great Plains are in North America. They are also called "The Prairies." The Great Plains extend through the states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. They also are located in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The Great plains cover almost an eighth of the U.S. There are blizzards in the winter that come from Arctic winds and roar through the almost treeless land. Also there is extreme heat in the summer carried up from Mexico. For the American Prairie Indians, the grasslands had been their home and hunting grounds for hundreds and hundreds of years. The invasion of European settlers destroyed their way of life.

The Beginning
In the beginning the Great Plains were mostly populated by Native American tribes, large herds of American Buffalo, donkey-eared jackrabbits, prairie dogs, antelope, and wolf like coyote. It is estimated that twelve million buffaloes called the Plains their home.The Native Americans, or the Plains Indians, lived on the Great Plains for thousands of years before the Europeans settled in America. We know are aware thirty-one Plains tribes. The main tribes in the central plains were the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Sioux tribe lived in the Dakotas and the Pawnee in Western Nebraska. The Apache and Comanche occupied Texas and eastern New Mexico. The Plains Indians depended on the buffalo for survival. When horses were introduced by European settlers, the Plains Indians quickly incorporated them into their way of life. The horses became a necessary for battle, hunting, and to cover great distances more quickly. The usual native American carried a bow and arrows. The Indians were so proficient with bows and arrows that many could shoot thirty arrows in the time it took a man to load and fire one bullet! Whoa, that is a really fast arrow!   The Great Plains on a map. The green area are the Great Plains.

Battles Over the Great Plains
By 1850, an endless stream of European settlers flowed across the Great Plains seeking their fortunes. The United States wanted the Great Plains for their settlers, and wanted the Native American removed. They used an old military strategy called divide and conquer to meet this end. They would get one tribe to agree to live in a particular place, the US would force them to give up their holdings. They conquered each tribe separately. The Fifty-Niners, about one hundred thousand settlers, wanted Arapaho and Cheyenne land. Of course, the Indians fought for their homeland. In 1864, a peaceful Cheyenne camp was attacked without warning by the US Calvary. Even though the Indians tried to surrender, they were scalped, their bodies ripped open, and even the children were clubbed to death. This was called th Chivington Massacre. The Cheyenne responded with equally vicous attacks on settlements. By 1868, the Cheyenne and Arapaho were defeated and forced onto reservations. The Sioux lived in Wyoming and Montana. As prospectors kept coming through these lands believing gold could still be found, the Sioux warned that they would fight to preserve their hunting lands. After repeated attacks, the US Army began building forts. Their were more battles, and in 1868 the Sioux agreed to live ona reservation in the Dakota Territory. The Battle of the Little Big Horn is one of the most famous battles. In 1876, the Sioux territory was once again being invaded. The Siuox fought back. Lieutenant George Armstrong Custer had fought in the Civil War, but he often put his men into dangerous situations. On June 25, 1876, he led 264 men towards what he believed was a small Sioux camp. Instead, he stumbled on thousands of Sioux at the Little Big Horn River. The Indians massacred Custer and his men. This was a great victory for the Sioux, but it only delayed their final defeat. By 1881, the Sioux had to surrender to army units. The Sioux were once again placed in a reservation. The Nez Perce were a peace loving people that lived in the mountains of western Idaho. Their chief, Joseph, believed as other Indians that land could not be owned and therefore could not be sold. Joseph promised his dying father that he would not give in to the white men. He was a skilled orator and his words still resonate today. Unfortunately, there were very few men of fighting age so Joseph had to yield. the Nez Perce were given only a month to move his people to a reservation. The chief decided not to go to the reservation and he and his tribe out witted troops along the border between Oregon and Montana. The Nez Perce stopped to rest only thirty miles from Canada and safety. They were attacked, held out for four days, and finally had to surrender. The Nez Perce were settled on a reservation in Oklahoma. The Battle of Wounded Knee occurred in December, 1890. The 7th Calvary arrested a small band of Sioux were looking for food and shelter.This group was massacred. This marked the end of Indian resistance.  A sketch of a battle on the Great Plains.

Mining
Miners descended upon the mountains of Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming in search of their fortunes. Important strikes included the discovery of gold in California in 1849 and the discovery of gold in Nevada in 1859. News of the 1859 discovery caused 15,000 people to come to the area. By 1872, a railway was built and in use to bring the raw ore to plants in Golden and Denver, Colorado. When strikes were made, boom towns were created. They were crowded towns full of saloons, shops, horses, goods, and people. The populations of these towns included gunfighters, gamblers, and outlaws. Towns did not succeed for long unless they became properly governed. Then descent people could come and put down permanent roots.  Fifty-Niners panning for gold.

Farming
Even though the land was fertile on the Great Plains, farming was difficult. Since there were no trees, homes had to be built out of sod. Barbed wire fences were invented for use on the Plains because it could stand up to the pounding cattle gave it. Farmers needed powerful pumps to get water from the ground, so they used windmills. The biggest problem by far was a lack of rainfall. A technique called dry-farming was developed for use on these lands. Even with this technique, farming remained a very difficult struggle. By the 1880's, farm machinery was widely being used on the Plains. By the 1890's, the Great Plains weren't thought of as a desert, but rather the breadbasket of America, because so much wheat was grown there.  The Great plains on a beautiful day!

End of the Open Range
The so called Cattle Kingdom was established on the Great Plains. Joseph McCoy came up with an original idea so that the Cattle Kingdom could be established and prosper. He chose Abilene, Kansas, as a meeting place for buyers and ranchers. The cattle would be driven to Abilene over the great grass lands. There they would be bought, sold, and shipped to the meat packing plants of Chicago. For this to be successful, the cattle required grass and water. Ranchers fattened their cattle on government land located in the Great Plains. Ranchers found it necessary to buy up all land around water supplies.Although anyone's cattle could eat grass on the open range, only the owner of the water supply allowed his cattle to drink. The cowhand job included rounding up cattle, sorting the cattle by brands, and driving them to market.By 1884, there were too many cattle grazing on the Great Plains. Range wars began breaking out between cattle and sheep ranchers for the grasslands. This period of free grass was drawing to a close. They had to fence in their herds and establish permanent ranches.

[[image:http://www.northernplainsbuffaloproducts.com/members/1615015/uploaded/gathering_of_the_herd.jpg width="626" height="368"]]
 Buffalo on the Range.