James Lincoln Collier - Indians, Cowboys, and Farmers: 1865 - 1910

T HE D RAMA OF A MERICAN H ISTORY

INDIANS, COWBOYS, and FARMERS
and the Battle for the Great Plains

18651910

Christopher Collier

James Lincoln Collier

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The authors wish to thank Elliott West, Professor of History, University of Arkansas, for his careful reading of the text of this volume in The Drama of American History series and his thoughtful and useful comments. The work has been much improved by Professor West's notes. The authors are deeply in his debt, but, of course, assume full responsibility for the substance of the work, including any errors that may appear.

Photo research by James Lincoln Collier.

COVER PHOTO: Courtesy of the Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art

PICTURE CREDITS: The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of:

Chapter I: New York Public Library : army encampment, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Assiniboin encampment, George Catlin painting an Indian's portrait, hunting buffalo on horseback, battle between Blackfeet and Sioux, two young Indians enduring pain, lacrosse game.

Chapter II: Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art, Fort Worth, Texas : "counting coup." The National Archives : dead buffalo, body of Big Foot. Corbis/Bettmann : Sitting Bull, George Armstrong Custer, Custer's Last Stand.

Chapter III: Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art, Fort Worth, Texas : cowpunching, cowboys coming into town. Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas : Charlie Russell's depiction of cowboy life, The Fall of the Cowboy .

Chapter IV: New York Public Library : Cincinnati, Chinese laborers, completing the Union Pacific. California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento : The Last Spike .

Chapter V: New York Public Library : typical sod house, advertisement for a planting "drill." Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas : village near a railroad line.

Chapter VI: Corbis/Bettmann : advertisement for canned meat, grain elevator, meeting of Grangers, Grange poster, Uncle Sam & a farmer, William McKinley; Corbis/Bettmann - UPI : wheat shipment.

2001 Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holders.

First ebook edition 2012 by AudioGO. All Rights Reserved.

Trade ISBN 978-1-62064-523-9

Library ISBN 978-0-7927-9581-0

INDIANS, COWBOYS, and FARMERS
and the Battle for the Great Plains

18651910

C ONTENTS

P REFACE

OVER MANY YEARS of both teaching and writing for students at all levels, from grammar school to graduate school, it has been borne in on us that many, if not most, American history textbooks suffer from trying to include everything of any moment in the history of the nation. Students become lost in a swamp of factual information, and as a consequence lose track of how those facts fit together and why they are significant and relevant to the world today.

In this series, our effort has been to strip the vast amount of available detail down to a central core. Our aim is to draw in bold strokes, providing enough information, but no more than is necessary, to bring out the basic themes of the American story, and what they mean to us now. We believe that it is surely more important for students to grasp the underlying concepts and ideas that emerge from the movement of history, than to memorize an array of facts and figures.

The difference between this series and many standard texts lies in what has been left out. We are convinced that students will better remember the important themes if they are not buried under a heap of names, dates, and places.

In this sense, our primary goal is what might be called citizenship education. We think it is critically important for America as a nation and Americans as individuals to understand the origins and workings of the public institutions that are central to American society. We have asked ourselves again and again what is most important for citizens of our democracy to know so they can most effectively make the system work for them and the nation. For this reason, we have focused on political and institutional history, leaving social and cultural history less well developed.

This series is divided into volumes that move chronologically through the American story. Each is built around a single topic, such as the Pilgrims, the Constitutional Convention, or immigration. Each volume has been written so that it can stand alone, for students who wish to research a given topic. As a consequence, in many cases material from previous volumes is repeated, usually in abbreviated form, to set the topic in its historical context. That is to say, students of the Constitutional Convention must be given some idea of relations with England, and why the Revolution was fought, even though the material was covered in detail in a previous volume. Readers should find that each volume tells an entire story that can be read with or without reference to other volumes.

Despite our belief that it is of the first importance to outline sharply basic concepts and generalizations, we have not neglected the great dramas of American history. The stories that will hold the attention of students are here, and we believe they will help the concepts they illustrate to stick in their minds. We think, for example, that knowing of Abraham Baldwin's brave and dramatic decision to vote with the small states at the Constitutional Convention will bring alive the Connecticut Compromise, out of which grew the American Senate.

Each of these volumes has been read by esteemed specialists in its particular topic; we have benefited from their comments.

C HAPTER I: B EFORE THE W HITE M AN

THE SETTLING OF the American West is a classic story that has captured the imagination of people everywhere. Even while it was going on, stories of cowboys and Indians were being read by boys and girls in England and Russia as well as the United States. Some of the most famous of all movies, like Shane and High Noon , draw on this great romantic story. "Cowboy" songs, like "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie," are still sung by Americans. The heroes of this story, like Buffalo Bill, Geronimo, Wild Bill Hickok, Sitting Bull, and George Armstrong Custer, are as well known to us as biblical names or the heroes of our Revolution. Needless to say, much of what we learn from stories and movies is myth and legend. Still, when the legends are peeled away, the story of the contest for the West among Indians, cowboys, sheepherders, railroad barons, ranchers, and farmers is filled with high drama. That dramatic story is the subject of this book.

Actually, when we speak of the "West" in this manner, we are really talking about the area known as the Great Plains, which lies, roughly, between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. The lands farther west, including the present states of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Washington, and Oregon, have different stories. (We have told the story of California and the Southwest in the volume in this series called Hispanic America, Texas, and the Mexican War .) This story, then, is about the battle for the Great Plains.