| Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the West (1860-1898) |
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Sections:- Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
- Pun Chi: Appeal to Congress to Protect the Rights of Chinese (c. 1860)
- Harper’s Weekly: “At Frisco” (March 20, 1880)
- Thomas Edison, Inc.: “Parade of Chinese” (1898)
- Fort Laramie Treaty (April 29, 1868)
- The Dawes Severalty Act (1877)
- President Chester A. Arthur: First Annual Message to Congress (December 6th, 1881)
- African American Homesteads in Nebraska (1888)
- Benjamin Singleton: Testimony Senate Select Committee investigating the “Negro Exodus from the Southern States” (April 17, 1880)
- Promoting African American Migration: Nicodemus, Kansas Circulars (1877)
- Mattie V. Oblinger to Thomas: A Letter: Family Life on the Plains for Women: (November 24, 1874)
- Mary Ann Hafen: Reflects Upon Her Experiences: Life in Utah for a Mormon Woman
- Elfido Lopez: An Autobiography: Childhood in Rural Colorado in the 1870s
- Lesson Plans
- PowerPoint Presentations
- Historiography
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| The first immigrants from China came to California during the gold rush in 1849. By 1870 there were nearly 50,000 Chinese in California. Some Americans saw the Chinese as a threat, especially during the economic slowdown of the mid 1800s. Their willingness to work for low wages under poor conditions created intense prejudice. In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Questions to consider:
1. How long did the act exclude Chinese from migrating to the United States?
2. What would happen to a person providing false certifications to or transportation for Chinese immigrants?
3. Could Chinese migrants return to the United States if they left the country?
4. What would happen to illegal Chinese immigrants?
5. What exceptions were stipulated in the act?
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| Translated and published by William Speer in 1870.
Chinese migration to the United States was encouraged in the 1840s and early 1850s by officials and business owners hoping to benefit economically from Chinese immigration. As the Chinese population grew, an anti-Chinese movement developed throughout the country, especially in the West. Through statutes and court rulings the rights of Chinese immigrants were being limited. Pun Chi, the author of this paper, was a young Chinese merchant appealing to Congress seeking help against the growing tide of Anti-Chinese attitudes. A Presbyterian minister in San Francisco’s Chinatown, William Speer, published Pun Chi’s plea for assistance in 1870.
Questions to consider:
1. Why is Pun Chi concerned about the rights of Chinese immigrants?
2. What examples of prejudice and discrimination are given by Pun Chi?
3. Why did Pun Chi decide to appeal to the United States Congress?
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| As Chinese immigration grew in the mid 1800s, Anti-Chinese sentiment increased throughout the United States. Congress responded by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which forbade Chinese immigration for ten years. In 1892 the law was extended ten more years. In 1902 Chinese immigration was suspended indefinitely. Chinese men already living in the United States were not allowed to send for their families. Harper’s Weekly was a weekly political magazine based in New York City that was printed from 1857 until 1916.
Questions to consider:
1. Who do the two characters in the cartoon represent?
2. What message is the cartoonist conveying in the cartoon?
3. What is the caption of the cartoon stating?
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| Taken at the Golden Jubilee in San Francisco, California in 1898. This clip shows a procession by some of the Chinese residents of San Francisco. (0:32)
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| The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 was signed between several bands of the Sioux Nation, the Arapaho and the United States government. In 1868 the Indians were negotiating from a position of strength. The fighting in Red Cloud’s War led to the treaty. The war had centered near the forts built along the Bozeman Trail. After years of skirmishes, the United States government finally conceded.
Questions to consider:
1. What were the boundaries of the reservation as outlined in the treaty?
2. What promises were made by the Indian tribes signing the treaty?
3. What promises were made by the US Government in this treaty?
4. Where was the unceded Indian land referred to in the treaty?
5. According to the treaty, what had to take place for the contract to be amended?
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| The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, otherwise known as the General Allotment Act, was designed to encourage the breakup of Indian tribes and promote assimilation of Indians into American Society by independent farming. The Dawes Act was the major Indian policy of the national government until the 1930s.
Questions to consider:
1. Why did the national government promote the development of agriculture among Indians?
2. Did the act include funding for equipment/material needed for agriculture?
3. How long would Native Americans have to live on the land before they would receive title to the land?
4. How did the Dawes Act address citizenship for Native Americans?
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| One of the topics addressed by President Arthur in his first annual message to Congress dealt with Native Americans. Arthur described what he felt were the failures of past national government policies toward Native Americans. Arthur offered suggestions to Congress to help address the task of assimilating Indians into the American culture.
Questions to consider:
1. How did Arthur feel the government had failed in its Indian policy?
2. What did Arthur believe the Congress should do to ease the “Indian Problem?”
3. How did Arthur view the role of education in the assimilation of Native Americans?
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| Exodusters were former slaves looking to escape the social and economic hardships faced by many African Americans in the South during Reconstruction. At first, many exodusters settled in Kansas. In 1879 there were nearly 800 African Americans living in Nebraska. By 1890 there were approximately 8,900 African Americans residing in the state. The Jerry Shores family claimed a homestead next to his brothers, Moses Speese and Henry Webb in Custer County, Nebraska.
Questions to consider?
1. What similarities exist between the two photographs?
2. Why did families such as the Shores decide to homestead?
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| During and after the Reconstruction Era of the 1860s and 1870s, a migration of African Americans took place from the South to the Great Plains. These migrants were known as Exodusters. On April 17, 1880, Benjamin Singleton appeared before the Senate Select Committee investigating this phenomenon. Singleton, an African American, had established several settlements in Kansas following the Civil War.
Questions to consider:
1. Why did the Senate hold hearings on the African American migration following the Civil War?
2. Why was Benjamin Singleton asked to testify?
3. What information did Singleton share with the committee that was probably unknown to the committee members?
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| During the 1870s over 26,000 African Americans migrated to Kansas. The migration of former slaves to other regions of the country took place because of the social and economic conditions confronting African Americans in the South during and after the Reconstruction Era. Many African American settlements were established throughout the Plains, the first settlements being in Kansas. Information about the settlements was promoted by both word of mouth and by circulars distributed throughout the southern states. In the 1870s one of the most famous settlements for exodusters was Nicodemus, Kansas.
Questions to consider:
1. Why did Nicodemus send out circulars promoting the town?
2. What aspects of Nicodemus were promoted in the circular?
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| Uriah and Mattie Oblinger were homesteaders in Fillmore County, Nebraska in the 1870s. The Oblingers had migrated to Nebraska from Indiana. Uriah claimed the homestead in September 1872 and Mattie joined him in Nebraska in the spring of 1873. The Oblingers and their three children worked on the homestead for seven years before Mattie, at the age of 36, died giving birth to their fourth child in 1880. Uriah, unable to support the children by himself, sold almost all of the family possessions and migrated to Minnesota. In the letter dated November 24, 1874 Mattie is writing to her family in Indiana.
Questions to consider:
1. What was daily life like for Mattie Oblinger?
2. What illness is Mattie concerned about in the community?
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| Mary Ann Hafen, a Mormon, lived in Utah and Nevada most of her life. Her family emigrated from Switzerland when she was six years old. Hafen’s fist husband died when she was twenty years old. She would eventually remarry. In the excerpts from her reflections, Hafen has remarried and recounts when she moved from Utah to Nevada with her polygamous family.
Questions to consider:
1. Why did the family move from Utah to Nevada?
2. Why did Mary Ann Hafen have little contact with her husband?
3. How did the family survive in the small town of Bunkerville, Nevada?
4. What assistance did Mary Ann have in giving birth to her children?
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| Elfido Lopez, born in Colorado, recalls his childhood growing up in rural southern Colorado. For most of Lopez’s childhood he lived on a homestead. For several years, though, he lived in a small town as his father worked on the railroad.
Questions to consider:
1. What are Lopez’s fondest memories of growing up in rural Colorado?
2. What are some examples of members of the community working together?
3. Why was flour a rare but vital food source?
4. How did Lopez assist his family when they moved to Red Rock?
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| The Omaha Experiment: Analyzing Federal Allotment Policy
This lesson plan is designed for high school students. As a result of this lesson, students will understand the impact of the Dawes Act upon Indian reservations. Throughout the lesson students will use geography to interpret history as well as analyze primary sources. Between three and five class periods will need to be allotted for this lesson.
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| The Western Frontier: Challenges and Conflicts on the Plains
The PowerPoint presentation focuses upon the challenges and conflicts faced by homesteaders, ranchers and Native Americans living on the Plains in the 1800s. The presenter notes portion of the presentation includes primary sources for the instructor to use in the class.
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| | The following book is an in depth biography of Calamity Jane from her youth in Missouri through her death in South Dakota in 1903. McLaird, James D. Calamity Jane: the Woman and the Legend. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. The next book is based on the diaries of the author's great-great grandmother, describes how Jean Rio, a recent widow and mother of seven, lured by the promises of Mormon missionaries, embarked on a long and difficult journey to Utah, where she found disillusionment, zealotry, violence, the loss of her wealth, and the repellent practice of polygamy. Denton, Sally. Faith and Betrayal: A Pioneer Woman's Passage in the American West. New York: Knopf, 2005. In the following book, the author addresses racial minorities in the American West and the opportunities and disadvantages that met them there. De León, Arnoldo. Racial Frontiers: Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans in Western America, 1848-1890. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002. The final book presented here addresses the development of a uniquely Chinese-American identity in the American West as the frontier was evolving. Wong, Kevin Scott and Sucheng Chan. Claiming America: Constructing Chinese American Identities During the Exclusion Era. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. The first article presented below discusses the role of women in the American West as they related to preservation of the environment. Riley, Glenda. "'Wimmin Is Everywhere': Conserving and Feminizing Western Landscapes, 1870 to 1940." The Western Historical Quarterly. 29(1): 4-23. This next article addresses two minorities in the American West; it discusses the interplay between Chinese Immigrants and Native Americans on the frontier. Liestman, Daniel. "Horizontal Inter-Ethnic Relations: Chinese and American Indians in the Nineteenth-Century American West." The Western Historical Quarterly. 30(3): 327-349. |
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