If you lived in 1840’s what would you have done? You may have gone looking for gold, building railroads, or even farming on 160 acres of free land. Though there was also some downsides like pushing Native Americans of their land and forcing them onto dry useless land in reservations.

In the year of 1848 gold was found at Sutter’s Mill by James Marshall and news of this spread like wildfire, which lead to the gold rush. The miners became known as 49er’s for the year they came.  Each miner hoped to find gold and “strike it rich.”  Whenever gold was found a boom town popped up very quickly full of people who wanted to take the gold. After gold was found somewhere else people would get up and move leaving a ghost town in their wake. If you were a miner during this time would you move in an out of a town quite often as gold was discovered in other places? Why or why not? Very few miners found gold, but ended up happy in the west. Would you be willing to go west to find gold even if the chance of it was small? Explain.

                                 

    Later people looked around the Great Plains and saw a land of opportunity. They began to farm under the Homestead Act of 1862. The act said that if you farmed on 160 acres of land for 5 years you could have all the land for free. That means if you moved off the land after 4 years you would lose all of it. Would you have taken 160 acres of free land and farmed it for 5 years or keep looking for gold? Explain.  As people kept taking land in the Great Plains, Native American were forced off their land. I bet you can tell what happens next. The Natives got angry and fought back. Then treaties were made that said people would stop moving onto Indian land and and the Indians wouldn’t fight back. It took a long time for news to get around in during this time, so settlers kept moving in.  The settlers either didn’t know about the treaty or just didn’t care. The Natives anger turned into hatred as they were pushed farther and farther of the land they had for generations. They lashed out at the settlers and fought many battles such as the Battle of Little Bighorn. General George Custer and all his men were killed by the natives being lead by Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. However, this was the last big victory for the Indians before they were forced onto reservations by greedy white men.  In the end the army came and slaughtered Tenton men, women, and children. After that most Native Americans, in shock, went to reservations.If you were a Native American at this time would you have fought to keep the land you and your people had live on for centuries or give in to reservations? Please explain.

                                        

          When white people took the land in the west, Native American land, they decided to build a transcontinental railroad. That means settlers could link goods from the east to the west. This created a lot of jobs for many people to make railroads. Thousands of people had to work day and night to finish the job. Finally, the two railroads, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, were complete. They connected at Promontory Point, UT where the governor of CA was to drive a golden spike into the ground to symbolize the linked railroads. The first swing he missed completely but the second hit perfectly. Everybody in the USA cheered.  Would you have cheered for the linked railroads? Why or why not? From then on the East and West  were able to send goods back and forth.

          If you decided to move west during this time what role would you have played?  Would you be a miner, rancher, or farmer?  Would you be an American soldier trying to help move the Native Americans to reservations?  Please explain.