What was the first settlement in the Great Plains?
European Settlement of the Great Plains. The main settlement of the Great Plains occurred after the 1840 migrations to Oregon and the 1849 Gold Rush to California. Environmental historian William Cronon has interpreted the history of the Great Plains in terms of narrative.
What happened to the Great Plains after European settlement?
European Settlement of the Great Plains. The overgrazed Plains were depleted of the perennial grasses that had supported one steer on every two acres and were seeded with less nutritious annuals that supported one steer per 5 to 10 acres. As perennials declined, wind and water erosion increased and topsoils were lost.
What is the narrative of the Great Plains history?
Environmental historian William Cronon has interpreted the history of the Great Plains in terms of narrative. The grand narrative of America, Cronon argues, is a story of progress.
How did the Native Americans get to the Great Plains?
Humans entered the North American continent in waves of migration, mostly over Beringia, the Bering Straits land bridge. Historically the Great Plains were the range of the bison and of the culture of the Plains Indians, whose tribes included the Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and others.
Why was settlement of the Great Plains difficult?
Before 1860, few people moved west to try to settle on the Great Plains. The poor soil and harsh climate discouraged them - along with the fact that the Plains were officially Indian territory - land was expensive to buy, and anybody wanting to go west faced a long, dangerous and uncomfortable journey.
What problems did people face as they settled on the Great Plains?
Water shortages – low rainfall and few rivers and streams meant there was not enough water for crops or livestock. Few building materials – there were not many trees on the Great Plains so there was little timber to use for building houses or fences. Many had to build houses out of earth.
What caused the Great Plain to have problems?
During the Dust Bowl period, severe dust storms, often called “black blizzards,” swept the Great Plains.
Why was settlement of the Great Plains slow?
Why was settlement of the Great Plains slow to come with settlers passing it by for California and the west coast? The regions dry climate, lack of trees, and tough grassland sod made land unfit for farming.
How did settlers on the Great Plains overcome those challenges?
How did people adapt to life on the Great Plains? They lived in sod houses (packed dirt), used steel plows to cut through thick sod and grew new strains of wheat with dry-farming techniques and windmill-powered pumps; they used barbed wire fences to protect their fields from grazing cattle.
Why did Americans settle in the Great Plains?
1) Manifest Destiny: The US Government wanted settlers to move onto the Plains as they needed the land to be settled and farmed and for communities and towns to grow up and expand. This was needed if the USA was to be a rich and successful country. The government therefore promoted the idea of Manifest Destiny.
What happened to the Great Plains?
The Great Plains were long inhabited by Native Americans, who hunted the teeming herds of buffalo (see bison) that roamed the grasslands and, due to wholesale slaughter by settlers and the U.S. army, were nearly extinct by the end of the 19th cent. The region was explored by the Spanish in the 17th cent.
Why are the Great Plains so empty?
The population decline has been broadly attributed to numerous factors, especially changes in agricultural practices, rapid improvements in urban transit and regional connectivity, and a declining rural job market.
How have humans affected the Great Plains?
Urban sprawl, agriculture, and ranching practices already threaten the Great Plains' distinctive wetlands. Many of these are home to endangered and iconic species. In particular, prairie wetland ecosystems provide crucial habitat for migratory waterfowl and shorebirds.
What were the 5 reasons for westward expansion?
What were 5 reasons for westward expansion?free land railroad gold and silver adventure and opportunity cattleWhat were some challenges the cowboys faced on the long drive?Violent storms, wind, rain, moving rivers, stampedes, rustlers, hot sun, discrimination, and 15 hours on the saddle38 more rows
What were four reasons settlers moved west?
Suggested Teaching InstructionsGold rush and mining opportunities (silver in Nevada)The opportunity to work in the cattle industry; to be a “cowboy”Faster travel to the West by railroad; availability of supplies due to the railroad.The opportunity to own land cheaply under the Homestead Act.More items...
How many people migrated out of the Great Plains?
The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history. By 1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of the Plains states; of those, 200,000 moved to California.
What obstacles did settlers to the Great Plains face quizlet?
Receiving inferior land and inadequate tools made farming unsuccessful. What obstacles did settlers to the Great Plains face? Small farming, which was central to Jefferson's republican vision of the West, was difficult or impossible to pursue.
When settling the Great Plains in the late 1800s what obstacle did settlers face?
The frontier settlers faced extreme hardships—droughts, floods, fires, blizzards, locust plagues, and occasional raids by outlaws and Native Americans. Yet the number of people living west of the Mississippi River grew from 1 percent of the nation's population in 1850 to almost 30 percent by the turn of the century.
What challenges did farmers on the plains face?
As settlers and homesteaders moved westward to improve the land given to them through the Homestead Act, they faced a difficult and often insurmountable challenge. The land was difficult to farm, there were few building materials, and harsh weather, insects, and inexperience led to frequent setbacks.
How have humans affected the Great Plains?
Urban sprawl, agriculture, and ranching practices already threaten the Great Plains' distinctive wetlands. Many of these are home to endangered and iconic species. In particular, prairie wetland ecosystems provide crucial habitat for migratory waterfowl and shorebirds.
Why is the movie "The Great Plains" so controversial?
It has since become part of an enduring historical debate about the past and the future development of the Great Plains.
What was the controversy about the movie "The Great Plains"?
The heart of the controversy about the film, then and now, was the interpretation by Lorentz and other New Deal farm experts that much of the Great Plains was unsuited for agriculture. While soft music plays in the background and scenes of acres of lush, billowy grassland appear on the screen, the film's narrator explains how beautiful ...
How much did the Plow that Broke the Plains cost?
The twenty-eight-minute film, which cost $19,260 to produce, included a highly emotional musical score by Virgil Thomson and was narrated by Thomas Chalmers. Although the movie industry complained about competition from a government-produced film, The Plow That Broke the Plains was shown in independent theaters, school auditoriums, ...
What was the Plow that broke the Plains?
View larger. In May 1936, as the people of the Great Plains battled against the combined effects of over-production, drought, and depression, the federal government released The Plow That Broke the Plains. The film was part of a massive campaign by the federal government ...
Why was the film The Plains important?
The film's critics insisted that the Plains was suitable for agriculture in spite of the dust storms and that prosperity would return to the farm economy with the return of rain . It can be argued that the most important impact of the film was that it focused discussion on the future of the Great Plains and underscored the need for ...
What was the message of the Great Plow Up?
Still, the message of the film was clear: the great plow-up was a terrible mistake. At the end of the film, as thousands of refugees flee the Plains, the narrator concludes that 40 million acres of land have been totally ruined and another 200 million acres badly damaged. The film ends with a troubling question: "What is America going to do about it?"
How many acres of land were destroyed in the Great Plow Up?
Still, the message of the film was clear: the great plow-up was a terrible mistake. At the end of the film, as thousands of refugees flee the Plains, the narrator concludes that 40 million acres of land have been totally ruined and another 200 million acres badly damaged.
Who were the first people to settle on the Great Plains?
The first Peoples ( Paleo-Indians) arrived on the Great Plains thousands of years ago. Historically, the Great Plains were the range of the Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and others. Eastern portions of the Great Plains were inhabited by tribes who lived at Etzanoa and in semi-permanent villages of earth lodges, such as the Arikara, Mandan, Pawnee, and Wichita. The introduction of corn around 800 CE allowed the development of the mound-building Mississippian Culture along rivers that crossed the Great Plains and that included trade networks west to the Rocky Mountains. Mississippians settled the Great Plains at sites now in Oklahoma and South Dakota .
When was the Great Plains first used?
The term "Great Plains", for the region west of about the 96th and east of the Rocky Mountains, was not generally used before the early 20th century. Nevin Fenneman's 1916 study Physiographic Subdivision of the United States brought the term Great Plains into more widespread usage.
How did the fur trade affect the Great Plains?
The fur trade brought thousands of colonial settlers into the Great Plains over the next 100 years. Fur trappers made their way across much of the region, making regular contacts with Indians. The United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and conducted the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804–1806, and more information became available concerning the Plains, and various pioneers entered the areas. Fur trading posts were often the basis of later settlements. Through the 19th century, more settlers migrated to the Great Plains as part of a vast westward expansion of population, and new settlements became dotted across the Great Plains.
How far is the Great Plains from the Rocky Mountains?
The Great Plains consist of a broad stretch of country underlain by nearly horizontal strata extends westward from the 97th meridian west to the base of the Rocky Mountains, a distance of from 300 to 500 miles (480 to 800 km). It extends northward from the Mexican boundary far into Canada.
What is the High Plains?
Before that the region was almost invariably called the High Plains, in contrast to the lower Prairie Plains of the Midwestern states. Today the term " High Plains " is used for a subregion of the Great Plains. The term still remains little-used in Canada compared to the more common, "prairie".
Why are the Great Plains so productive?
From the 1950s on, many areas of the Great Plains have become productive crop-growing areas because of extensive irrigation on large land-holdings. The United States is a major exporter of agricultural products. The southern portion of the Great Plains lies over the Ogallala Aquifer, a huge underground layer of water-bearing strata. Center pivot irrigation is used extensively in drier sections of the Great Plains, resulting in aquifer depletion at a rate that is greater than the ground's ability to recharge.
What is the region that overlaps the Great Plains?
Not to be confused with a southwestern portion of the Great Plains, the Llano Estacado, or another geographic region that overlaps the Great Plains, the Midwest.
Overview
The Great Plains (French: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. It is the southern and main part of the Interior Plains, which also include the tallgrass prairie between the Great Lakes and Appalachian Plateau, a…
Usage
The term "Great Plains" is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division, which covers much of the interior of North America. It also has currency as a region of human geography, referring to the Plains Indians or the Plains states.
In Canada the term is rarely used; Natural Resources Canada, the government department respo…
Extent
The region is about 500 mi (800 km) east to west and 2,000 mi (3,200 km) north to south. Much of the region was home to American bison herds until they were hunted to near extinction during the mid/late-19th century. It has an area of approximately 500,000 sq mi (1,300,000 km ). Current thinking regarding the geographic boundaries of the Great Plains is shown by this map at the Center f…
Geography
The Great Plains are the westernmost portion of the vast North American Interior Plains, which extend east to the Appalachian Plateau. The United States Geological Survey divides the Great Plains in the United States into ten physiographic subdivisions:
• Missouri Coteau or Missouri Plateau (which also extends into Canada), glaciat…
Natural history
In general, the Great Plains have a wide range of weather, with very cold and harsh winters and very hot and humid summers. Wind speeds are often very high, especially in winter.
The 100th meridian roughly corresponds with the line that divides the Great Plains into an area that receives 20 in (510 mm) or more of rainfall per year an…
History
The first Peoples (Paleo-Indians) arrived on the Great Plains thousands of years ago. Historically, the Great Plains were the range of the Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and others. Eastern portions of the Great Plains were inhabited by tribes who lived at Etzanoa and in semi-permanent villages of earth lodges, such as the Arikara, Mandan, Pawnee, and Wichita. The introductio…
Wind power
The Great Plains contributes substantially to wind power in the United States. T. Boone Pickens developed wind farms after a career as a petroleum executive, and he called for the U.S. to invest $1 trillion to build an additional 200,000 MW of wind power in the Plains as part of his Pickens Plan. He cited Sweetwater, Texas, as an example of economic revitalization driven by wind power development.
See also
• 1837 Great Plains smallpox epidemic
• Bison hunting
• Conservation of American bison
• Dust Bowl
• Great American Desert