APUSH - Unit 7

Philanthropy

Philanthropy was the love of humanity, it was especially shown in donations to charitable and socially useful causes. Examples of Philanthropist were John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Rockefeller donated around $500 million to the poor people, a better education, and better life's. Andrew Carnegie invested in the Bessemer process, which allowed steel to be process faster. Meaning railroads would be more efficient, and people would have better transportations. The Gospel of Wealth, a book written by Carnegie that described the responsibility of the rich to be philanthropists. This book softened the harshness of Social Darwinism as well as promoted the idea of philanthropy. J.P. Morgan was also considered a philanthropist of the 19th century.

Menlo Park

Menlo Park was a research laboratory set-up by Thomas Edison in New Jersey. A team of experts refined Edison's ideas and translated them into practical inventions. Edison established this laboratory for the purpose of inventing new technologies. He protected his innovations with patents, in which the 1990s there were 1,119.220 patents.

Homestead Act 1862

The Homestead Act of 1862, was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862. Anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government (including freed slaves and women), was 21 years or older, or the head of a family, could file an application to claim a federal land grant. Enacted on May 20, 1862, this landmark piece of legislation granted to settlers ownership of 160 acres of land merely by living on it and working it for five years. It proved one of the most important government incentives in settling the vast territory of the American West and provided economic opportunities to thousands of Americans and newly arrived immigrants. This Homestead Act was a way to attract new people to the West and made them live there. Many people saw this a new an opportunity to live, for a new life so they immigrated to the South under this conditions.

Immigration Restrictive League

The Immigration Restrictive League was created during the Gilded Age. They believed that immigrants should be screened to separate them between desired and undesired. This league was founded by 5 Harvard alumni. He league they believed that immigrants should be screened through literacy tests and other standards designed to separate the desirable from the undesirable.

Long Drive

The Long Drives took place in the 1880's in the Western plain states .Cattle ranchers needed a way to easily transport their cattle to eastern cities. Cowboys would round up a lot of cattle and "drive" them to areas near railroad stations. Most of these drives went from southern Texas up to Kansas. Men as wild and tough as the longhorns were hired to round-up and drive these ownerless Texas cattle on the "long drive," the slow, dangerous journey to the stations. During the decades following the Civil War, over 40,000 men were employed to herd cattle in the West. These "Cowboys" were usually in their twenties and came from many backgrounds. Black, white, Mexican, and Indian cowboys tended and protected the wild herds, while riding cowponies that were often only slightly less scrawny and wild than the longhorns

proprietorship

The Lords proprietors were the king's court favorites who were granted an expanse of land ribboning across the continent to the pacific. A business structure in which an individual and his/her company are considered a single entity for tax and liability purposes. A proprietorship is a company which is not registered with the state as a limited liability company or corporation. The owner does not pay income tax separately for the company, but he/she reports business income or losses on his/her individual income tax return. The owner is inseparable from the proprietorship, so he/she is liable for any business debts.

Vertical Integration

The vertical integration was another method of consolidated organizations that rose in 1890.This type of integration was the taking over of all the different businesses of which a company relied for its primary function. Carnegie Steel, which came to control not only steel mills, but mines, railroads, and other enterprises, was an example of vertical integration. This type if method was where a single company owns and controls the entire process from raw materials to the manufacture and sale of the finished product. This type of integration formed part of Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company, and impacted the economy of the United States.

Sod

Sod is he surface of the ground, with the grass growing on it. Sod were used to make house , like a log cabin, but on the prairie( made out of sod from prairie grass).Sodbuster were name given to Great Plains farmers because they had to break through so much thick soil, called sod, in order to farm. Sod was the material used for the immigrants that went to the West to build their houses.

Reasons for immigration from 1880-1920

The "new immigrants" had many reason to come to America. They wanted to escape unemployment and poverty that was caused by farm mechanization. They also wanted to get out of the urban overcrowding and the religious persecution (mostly Jews), which occurred through pogroms. The "new immigrants" came to America because they seeked economic opportunity, which was offered by free land and jobs. Additionally, they wanted religious and political freedom, and wanted cheaper steamship fures.

Acres of Diamonds/Russell Conwell

Acres of Diamond was a lecture written by Russell Conwell that advocated Social Darwinism. It justified the rich being rich and the poor being poor and, it called people not to help the poor since it was their fault. Therefore promoting Social Darwinism and the idea of laissez faire. The Acres of Diamonds was repeated thousands of times; Conwell's theme was that people earn their lots in life, either good or bad.

consolidation/combination

Consolidation/combination is the process of combining. It was designed to combat the enemies of waste, inefficiency, and instability cause by competition. The goal was standardization, stability, and order in which it produced monopolies. There were two types of consolidation, Horizontal and Vertical Integration. Vertical Integration included producing, processing, transportation, and marketing (Andrew Carnegie).Horizontal Integration was monopoly of specific aspect of an industry, such as refineries (John Rockefeller).

Conspicuous Consumption

Conspicuous consumption is the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power—either the buyer's income or the buyer's accumulated wealth. Sociologically, to the conspicuous consumer, such a public display of discretionary economic power is a means either of attaining or of maintaining a given social status. This theory was developed by economist Thorstein Veblen, it stated that much spending by the affluent occurs primarily to display wealth and status to others rather than from enjoyment of the goods or services. In the social and historical context, the term "conspicuous consumption" was narrowly applied to describe the men, women, and families of the upper class who applied their great wealth as a means of publicly manifesting their social power and prestige, be it real or perceived.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt was a symbol of the nation's economic power concentrated in individual hands. Vanderbilt was the railroad magnate and expressed the attitude of many corporate tycoons with his question of why he couldn't have his own. He was the railroad owner who built a railway connecting Chicago and New York. Vanderbilt popularized the use of steel rails in his railroad, which made railroads safer and more economical. This man was one of the few railroad owners to be just and not considered a "Robber Barron". Vanderbilt was a great impact in the economy of the United States.

Ellis Islands

Ellis Island was an Asian immigration center in 1892.The new arrivals had to pass more rigorous medical and document examinations and paying entry tax before being allowed into the United States. Ellis Island, located in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, and has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990.

George Westinghouse

George Westinghouse developed better brakes for the nation's railroads, and from his work emerged his most famous invention, the air brake. However, Westinghouse ranked among the pioneers in electricity as well and patented many other devices. Westinghouse used high voltage currents to transmit electricity over long distances. He was the inventor of the air brake for trains who developed the first alternating-current system in 1886, which allowed electric currents to cover long distances, and manufactured the equipment through the Westinghouse Electric Company. This allowed the efficiency of better railroads, which benefited the economy of the United States.

7 factors of industrialization

Industrialization had 7 main factors. Those included technology, demand, and the role of the government, venture capital (investment) and natural resources. Also, it included transportation, which divided up to trunk lines and feeder lines. Another main factor industrialization was labor forces, which divided up to immigration and farmers.

Looking Backward/Edward Bellamy

Looking backward was a novel written by Edward Bellamy. Looking Backward, a utopian novel, published in 1888, it described the experiences of a young Bostonian who went into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and awoke in 2000, finding a new social order in which want, politics and vice were unknown. The society had emerged through peace and evolution, and all of the trusts of the 1800\u2019s joined together form one government controlled trust, which distributed the abundance of the industrial economy equally among all people. This book envisioned a utopian socialist society where the government owned the means of production and distributed wealth equally among all citizens. Competition was irrelevant. The book inspired the creation of hundreds of Bellamy discussion clubs.

Mark Twain

Mark Twain- Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel". Mark Twain became the first realist author. His classic, the adventures of huckleberry Finn revealed the greed, violence, and racism in American society.

Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism was a social theory of the late nineteenth century. It was based on the application of Charles Darwin's laws of evolution and natural selection among species to human society. Just as only the fittest survived in the process of evolution, so in human society only the fittest individuals survived and flourished in the marketplace. Social Darwinism appealed to businessmen because it seemed to legitimize their successes and confirm their virtues. It insisted that all attempts by labor to raise wages by forming unions and all endeavors by government to regulate economic activities would fail( law of competition).Also, Social Darwinism coincided with the law of supply and demand(define by Adam Smith), which seemed to justify business practices and business dominance

Bessemer process

The Bessemer Process was a process that converted iron into much more durable and versatile steel. It consisted of blowing air through molted iron to burn out the impurities. The Bessemer process also relied on the discovery by the British metallurgist Robert Mushnet that ingredients could be added to the iron during conversion to transform it into steel. This process was later supplanted by the open-hearth process, invented by Abram Hewitt. The Bessemer process allowed the production of steel in great quantities and large dimensions, for use in the manufacture of locomotives, steel rails, and girders for the construction of tall buildings.

The Breakers

The Breakers were people who had a knack for punishing the most strong willed of slaves. Basically Breakers were slave drivers who employed the lash to brutally "break" the souls of strong-willed slaves. In other terms, many immigrants were used as strikebreakers to help the unions. They got together and protested for better wages and better working conditions.

Burlingame Treaty

The Burlingame Treaty took place during the Gilded Age. This treaty with China was ratified in 1868. It encouraged Chinese immigration to the United States at a time when cheap labor was in demand for U.S. railroad construction. It doubled the annual influx of Chinese immigrants between 1868 and 1882. The treaty was reversed in 1882 by the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Cross of Gold Speech

The Cross of Gold Speech was a famous speech given by William Jennings Bryan. He gave it in support of bimetallism, Bryan spoke of the gold standard as a burden (like the cross).It was an impassioned address by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic Convention, in which he attacked the "gold bugs" who insisted that U.S. currency be backed only with gold.

Homestead Strike

The Homestead Strike, which was part of the American Federation of Labor took place during 1892.The causes was that there was a 20% cut of steel workers at a Carnegie Mill. The result was the use of the lockout, Pinkertons, and strikebreakers broke the union. President Harrison called in the federal troops. In the end it killed unionism in the steel industry until the 1930s.

National Banking Act 1863

The National Banking Act was passed during the Gilded Age. It was a United States federal law that established a system of national charters for banks. It encouraged development of a national currency based on bank holdings of U.S. Treasury securities. This was to establish a national security holding body for the existence of the monetary policy of the state. The Act, together with Abraham Lincoln's issuance of "greenbacks," raised money for the federal government in the American Civil War by enticing banks to buy war bonds

Horizontal Integration

The horizontal integration was a consolidated organization. It was the combining of a number of firms engaged in the same enterprise into a single corporation. The consolidation of many different railroad lines into one company was an example. This type of integration formed part of Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company, and impacted the economy of the United States.

Turner's Frontier Thesis

Turner's thesis was written by Frederick Jackson Turner. The historian Frederick Jackson Turner argued that the frontier was the key factor in the development of American democracy and institutions. He maintained that the frontier served as a "safety valve" during periods of economic crisis. He was American historian who said that humanity would continue to progress as long as there was new land to move into. The American frontier was the line of most rapid "Americanization" and the place where democracy flourished. He also concluded that the "American frontier" had closed.

A Century of Dishonor

29. A Century of Dishonor- a Century of Dishonor is a non-fiction book by Helen Hunt Jackson first published in 1881 that chronicled the experiences of Native Americans in the United States, focusing on injustices. Jackson wrote A Century of Dishonor in an attempt to change government ideas/policy toward Native Americans at a time when effects of the 1871 Indian Appropriations Act (making the entire Native American population wards of the nation) had begun to draw the attention of the public. Jackson attended a meeting in Boston in 1879 at which Standing Bear, a Ponca, told how the federal government forcibly removed his tribe from its ancestral homeland in the wake of the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation. After meeting Standing Bear, she conducted research at the Astor Library in New York and was shocked by the story of government mistreatment that she found. She wrote in a letter, "I shall be found with 'Indians' engraved on my brain when I am dead.—a fire has been kindled within me which will never go out." Written by Helen Hunt Jackson, it detailed the injustices made to Native Americans during US expansion and assimilation of them. The book exposed the U.S. governments many broken promises to the Native Americans. For example the government wanted Native Americans to assimilate, i.e. give up their beliefs and ways of life, that way to become part of the white culture.

corporation

A Corporation was created by shareholders who had limited liability function on the selling of stocks .This was because of many reasons, corporations are seen as very attractive. Money invested into a corporation which was used to fund its endeavors was called a stock. With its success the money invested by stockholders was reciprocated as a profit. There were corporations that created pool arrangements, trusts and holding companies (this change the way that money was managed and in cases created monopoly).

Monopoly

A monopoly is a corporation that has bought out all of its competition and therefore is the exclusive commodity in that particular area of business. Monopolies are not good for the American people. By elimination competition they control commerce; prices can rise and the manufactured product could not be the best however it is the people's only choice so they have to buy it anyway. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was a federal law against monopolies. Monopolies and trusts were huge in American industry in the 19th Century. President Cleveland did not like monopolies and trusts, as he viewed them as repressive to citizens.

Black Hills

A rush in this area from 1874-'76 occurred when an army under Col. George Armstrong Custer went to prove there was no gold in this area for the Sioux's sake but ended up finding massive amounts. Gamblers, miners, desperados, and prostitutes flocked to Deadwood, the camp. Black Hills Indian Reservation in South Dakota, whites invaded the Indians' lands and drove them on the warpath. The war culminated in June 1876, when Colonel George A. Custer and all his men were killed by Sioux Indians at the Battle of Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand) in southern Montana. The Black Hills Custer announced that he discovered gold there, causing hordes of gold seekers to rush into these Sioux lands (despite treaty guarantees). It was the holy ground for the Sioux people & so the Sioux rise against Custer & fight back, causing Custer to win more battles until the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

14th Amendment

According to the Court, these sponsors had sought to centralize "in the hands of the Federal Government large powers hitherto exercised by the States". They did this by converting the rights of the citizens of each State at the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment into protected privileges and immunities of United States citizenship. This interpretation would have allowed business to develop unimpeded by state interference by limiting state laws "abridging" these privileges. During the Gilded Age many factories encouraged their workers to vote to help the parties (Democratic or Republican).

Charles Graham Sumner

Also known as William, Sumner was an advocate of Social Darwinism claiming that the rich were a result of natural selection and benefits society. He, like many others promoted the belief of Social Darwinism which justified the rich being rich, and poor being poor. This American, believed that on must compete, we will either succeed or fail. He also believed that the weak would die out and in extreme laissez-faire( no tariffs),

Klondike Gold Rush

An attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region of the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold. Some miners discovered very rich deposits of gold and became immensely wealthy. However, the majority arrived after the best of the gold fields had been claimed and only around 4,000 miners ultimately struck gold. Ended in 1899, after gold was discovered in Nome, prompting an exodus from the Klondike.

Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant who had worked his way up from the modest beginnings and in 1873 opened up his own steelworks in Pittsburgh. Soon he dominated the industry, and his methods were much like those of other industry titans. He cut costs and process by striking deals with the railroads and then bought out rivals who could not compete with him. Ultimately, Carnegie controlled the processing of his steel from mine to marker. He financed his undertakings not only out of his own profits but out of the sale stock. Carnegie developed the U.S. steel industry; his is a rags-to-riches story as he made a fortune in business and sold his holdings in 1901 for $447 million. He spent the rest of his life giving away $350 million to worthy cultural and educational causes.

Captain of Industry/Robber Barron

Captains of Industry were business leaders whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributes positively to the country in some way. This may have been through increased productivity, expansion of markets, providing more jobs, or acts of philanthropy. An example of a Captain of Industry was John D. Rockefeller, he donated around $500 million towards society in many different ways. Robber Barons were a term used to describe a business leader using political means to achieve their ends. Robber Baron were the industrialists or big business owners who gained huge profits by paying their employees extremely low wages. They also drove their competitors out of business by selling their products cheaper than it cost to produce it. Then when they controlled the market, they hiked prices high above original price.

Chief Josef

Chief Josef was a leader of Nez Perce. Fled with his tribe to Canada instead of reservations. However, US troops came and fought and brought them back down to reservation. Chief Joseph led many of them past American troops, towards Canada, to avoid retribution. Just short of Canada they were stopped and Joseph surrendered the fight. Chief Joseph was a Nez-Perce Indian chief who lived from March 3, 1840 - September 21, 1904. He is known mostly for his resistance to General Oliver Howard's forceful removal of Indians to a reservation in Idaho. This was part of the Dawes Severalty Act He was born Hinmuuttu-yalatlat which means "Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain", in the Wallowa of northeastern Oregon, he was known as Young Joseph during his childhood because his father had the same name. He was initially hospitable and kind to the region's white newcomers, his father, Joseph the Elder, grew cautious when settlers wanted more Indian lands. Tensions grew as the settlers appropriated and encroached on traditional Indian lands for farming and grazing livestock.

craft union/mass union

Craft Unions were skilled labor organizations, such as those of carpenters and printers that were most successful in conducting strikes and raising wages. Mass union was more diverse. It included skilled and unskilled labor. The National Labor Union and Knights of Labor were based on Mass Unions. While on the other hand, the craft union took place in the American Federation of Labor.

frontier

During the presidential election of 1960, John F. Kennedy presented a program for reform, called the New Frontier, that would foster the development of capitalism and Americanization in foreign countries and enact such significant domestic policies as new civil rights legislation; more comprehensive welfare, social security, and health insurance; and urban development and renewal. Only after Kennedy's assassination in 1963 did his successor Lyndon B. Johnson drive through Congress some of these programs, mostly because of the country's grief over the president's death. The Transcontinental Railroad was an essential artery for rapid development of the frontier. Americans from the east headed west in record numbers to seek a new start, while immigrant settlers from nearly every country of Europe, the Near East, and Asia were represented among the people who came to live, work, and raise their families on the American frontier.

Morrill Tariff 1862

Early in 1861, after enough antiprotection southern members had seceded, congress passed the Morrill Tariff Act, suspending the low tariff of 1857. It increased the existing duties some five to ten percent , about the same level as the Walker Tariff of 1846. The rates later increased due to necessities of the war. The increase was designed to raise additional revenue and to provide more protection for the prosperous manufacturers who were being plucked by internal taxes . A protective tariff thus became identified with the Republican party.

economies of scale

Economies of scale where large companies that produced a cheaper product and thus put even more pressure on the "little guy"/the worker. Economies of scale were productive systems that allowed mass production. The cheaper the product was the more is was bought by the costumer and therefore more profit would be made (since they had to make a lot).This economic scale was greater in production of goods which means it lowered the cost per unit (buy in bulk).It was a better deal for both producer, and consumer.

Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer was a strong representative and coined the term of Social Darwinism. He believed in competition of "survival of the fittest" and on natural selection. Spencer opposed all social programs, and opposed taxes. Spencer developed the survival-of-the-fittest theories with William Graham Sumner. He coined the phrase "survival of the fittest," not Darwin. This social thinker emphasized the rigidity of natural law, while occasionally borrowing evolutionary jargon to engage contemporary audiences. He said: "These millionaires are a product of natural selection. What do social classes owe each other? Nothing."

holding company

Holding Company- A holding company was a central corporate body that would buy up the stock of various members of the Standard Oil trust and establish direct, formal ownership of the corporations in the trust. The reason of their creation was to establish uniform policies for an entire industry. Their objections often led to a monopoly. The methods of the government under which they controlled was the prosecution under Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890.

Horatio Alger

Horatio Alger was an American .He believed that hard work will equal success and wealth, and also emphasized individualism. Alger was the writer to the books known as "Rags to Riches". He believed the people's role was luck and pluck. Horatio wrote more than a hundred volumes of juvenile fiction that sold over 100 million copies; his stock formula was that virtue, honesty, and industry are rewarded by success, wealth, and honor- a kind of survival of the purest, especially nonsmokers, nondrinkers, non-swearers, and non-liars; implanting morality and the conviction that there is always room at the top.

Transcontinental Railroads

In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, and tasked them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. Over the next seven years, the two companies would race toward each other from Sacramento, California on the one side and Omaha, Nebraska on the other, struggling against great risks before they met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. By early 1869, the companies were working only miles from each other, and in March the newly inaugurated President Ulysses S. Grant announced he would withhold federal funds until the two railroad companies agreed on a meeting point. They decided on Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake; some 690 track-miles from Sacramento and 1,086 from Omaha. On May 10, after several delays, a crowd of workers and dignitaries watched as the final spike was driven linking the Central Pacific and Union Pacific. Telegraph cables immediately went out to President Grant and around the country with the news that the transcontinental railroad had been completed.

Joseph Glidden

Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire in 1874. His invention helped end the open range grazing of the cattle industry in the mid-1880s. This new technology was a part of the Real head and it helped settle the conflicts between farmers and vaqueros. No longer did the farmers have to worry about the cattle running over their crops, or the vaqueros eating it, it was not protected.

3 components of mass production

Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially assembly lines. With job production and batch production, one of the three main production methods is produced. It was the rapid manufacture of large numbers of identical product. The mass production had an impact on the economic scale of the United States. The three components of mass production were land, labor and capital.

Ways the government encouraged industrialization

Industrialisation (in British English) or industrialization (in American English) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one. It is a part of a wider modernization process, where social change and economic development are closely related with technological innovation. The government wasn't much help during the Gilded Age. When private railroad promoters asked the United States government for subsidies to build their railroads they gave all of the following reasons: it was too risky without government help, too costly without government help, private investors would not accept initial financial losses, and impossible to serve military and postal needs without government help.

interlocking directories

Interlocking directorates were a process of placing men from your company on the board of directors of other competing companies to gain influence and reduce competition. A process of buying out competition and placing officers from one's own banking house on their boards of directors. They were a group of bankers who are members of different corporate boards of directors. It was created to establish uniform policies for an entire industry. Their objections often led to a monopoly. The methods of government control were prosecution under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890.

J.P. Morgan

J. P. Morgan was a business man and was a great banker of Ney York .He refinanced railroads during depression of 1893 and also built intersystem alliance by buying stock in competing railroads. Morgan marketed US government securities on large scale. He emerged as the most famous investment banker of his age when corporations wanted to grow but lacked the money to purchase new equipment and expand production. Morgan facilitated the union between finance and industry by channeling European capital into the U.S. Morgan became one of the first to, for a share of the profits, would loan a corporation such great amounts of money for expansion.

J.J. Hill

James J. Hill was the most efficient and public-minded of the early railroad-building industrialists. He also assisted farmers in the northern areas served by his rail lines. Hill was a Canadian-American who was probably the greatest railroad builder of all. Hill created the Great Northern railroad and believed that prosperity of the railroad depended on prosperity of the area surrounding it.

John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller had begun as a clerk in Cleveland commission house and worked his way up in society. He organized Standard Oil Company in Cleveland in 1870. Through ruthless competition and superb organization, the Standard Oil Trust controlled 90 percent of oil refining in the United States by 1879.The Standard Oil Company was a great combination of both horizontal, and vertical combination and was the most celebrated corporate empire in the 19th century. Rockefeller launched a refining company shortly after the Civil War, and immediately tried to eliminate his competition. He built his own barrel lines, terminal warehouses, and pipelines. He established such dominance within the petroleum industry that so much of the nation he served as the leading symbol of monopoly. Rockefeller was a great change in the U.S. economy.

Joseph McCoy

Joseph McCoy was a livestock owner who realized railroads could send meat to populated eastern cities by transporting longhorns and other bovines north through the railroad. He also built large cattle pens called stockyards. In 1867 he conceived the idea of establishing a shipping depot for cattle at some point in the west and knew that the railroad companies were interested in expanding their freight operations. He soon selected Abilene, Kansas, and opened the Trail through Indian Territory from Texas. McCoy advertised extensively throughout Texas to encourage cattle owners to drive their cattle to market in Abilene and by 1868, about 75,000 cattle were shipped from Abilene. By 1870 thousands of Texas longhorn cattle, which were ideal for cattle trails due to their long legs and hard hoofs, were being driven to the shipping center at Abilene. By 1871 the number had increased to 600,000 or more than and as many as 5,000cowboys were being paid off during a single day. Abilene soon became known as a rough town in the Old West. McCoy lived in Abilene, where he served as mayor, until 1873. When rival railroad terminal towns began to be developed father west, this soon diverted the trade from Abilene and McCoy moved to Kansas City, Missouri. McCoy authored a book entitled Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest, which was first published in 1874.

Laissez-faire

Laissez-faire is a French expression meaning to let people do as they choose, it became prominent in the 19th century, although the idea was first popularized in the late 18th century by economist Adam Smith. In general, a laissez-faire policy implies that businesses and individuals are free to act with minimal interference from the government. Many Americans who were skeptical of the laissez-faire ideas of the Social Darwinism adopted more drastic approaches to reform. Some dissenters found a home in the Socialist Labor Party, founded in 1870s and led for many years by Daniel De Leon. Laissez-faire capitalism is the environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies.

Lester Frank Ward

Lester Frank Ward was a sociologist who wrote Dynamic Sociology in 1883 and other books, in which he argued that civilization was not governed by natural selection but by human intelligence. He said that it capable of shaping society as it wished, and he believed that an active government engaged in positive planning, which was societies best hope. Frank Ward attacked social Darwinism in his book, Dynamic Sociology. Along with Edward Ross, he urged by applying the scientific method to the solution of social and political problems.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Sherman Anti-Trust Act was an act that banned any formations that would restrict trade, not distinguishing between bad and good trusts. The act was a hamper on worker unions, but it showed that the government was slowly moving away from laissez faire ideals. This act, which was passed by Congress in 1890, was a way of government control. It was the first law to limit monopolies in the United States. This wanted to create a fairer competition in the workforce and to limit any take-over's of departments of merchandise.

Little Big Horn

Little big horn was a battle between Custer's Seventh Cavalry and the Sioux, Custer's Seventh was decimated. This battled occurred in 1876. General Custer and his men were wiped out by a coalition of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. This victory was the last battle that the Native Americans won. The battle of Little Bighorn occurred in 1876 and is commonly referred to as "Custer's Last Stand". The battle took place between the U.S. Cavalry and northern tribe Indians, including the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho. Prior to the battle of Little Bighorn in Montana, the tribal armies, under the direction of Sitting Bull, had decided to wage war against the whites for their refusal to stay off of tribal lands in the Black Hills. In the spring of 1876, Sitting Bull and his tribal army had successfully battled the U.S. Cavalry twice. The U.S. Cavalry was attempting to force the Indians back to their reservations and divided into three columns to attack. One of the columns was led by Lt. General George Custer, who spotted a Sioux camp and decided to attack it. However, Indian forces outnumbered his troops three to one, and Custer and his troops were forced to reorganize. While waiting aid from the other Cavalry forces, another group of Indian forces, led by Crazy Horse, effectively trapped Custer and his men. In a desperate attempt to hold off the Indian warriors, Custer ordered his men to short their horses and stack their bodies to form a barricade to protect them from the Indians.

Oklahoma Land Rush

Oklahoma was the last great land rush in US history (1889 - opening) Sooners snuck over the border before the state opened and stated their claims (cheated.)The 1889 opening of the unassigned lands of Indian Territory in western Oklahoma to white settlement was the first of several land runs that lured hundreds of thousands of prospective settlers to stake claims on 160-acre farmsteads. Each land opening had its squatters, or "Sooners," illegal settlers who resisted removal, and "Goners," who moved on from disputed tracts in search of more free land. The U.S. government acquired the former Indian territories in the western half of Oklahoma in March 1889. Acting under the Homestead Act of 1862, President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed the area open to white settlement and declared the land up for grabs at noon on April 22, 1889. That announcement resulted in a charge of some 50,000 homesteaders rushing to be the first to settle on the tracts. The newly settled area became a territory of Oklahoma in May 1890. The twin territories of Oklahoma were governed separately until 1907, when Congress joined them as they entered the union of states. As more tribal lands were acquired between 1891 and 1895, some 2 million acres of land were opened for free settlement. In 1891, the Iowa, Sauk, Fox, and Shawnee-Potawatomi lands were opened. The Cheyenne and Arapaho lands were opened in April 1892; the Cherokee Strip, Tonkawa, and Pawnee lands were opened in September 1893; and the Kickapoo lands were opened in May 1895. The final opening of Oklahoma Indian lands occurred in 1906, when the "Big Pasture Lands" of the Comanche, Apache, Kiowa, Wichita, and Caddo and tribes were auctioned to qualified homesteaders. All the land runs were marred by violence, and in 1901, when the Kiowa-Comanche lands were opened for white settlement, the government distributed the land by lottery to avoid bloodshed.

Pool

Pools were informal agreements among various companies to stabilize rates and divide markets (arrangements that would be later called cartels).But pools did not work very well. If even a few firms in an industry were unwilling to cooperate (as was almost always the case), the pool arrangements collapsed. The failure of the pools led to new techniques of consolidation resting less on cooperation than on centralized control. Pools were created to divide business among several corporations. Their objections were to eliminate competition and fix rates and prices.

Differential freight rates

Price charged by transportation carrier for moving an item or commodity from point A to point B. Actual amount charged varies based on weight of object being moved, type of commodity being moved, and distance traveled. During the Gilded age different freight rates were imposed onto railroads when the Interstate commerce Act was passed by Congress. Many of these freight rates affected farmers, and were discriminatory towards them.

Progress & Poverty/ Henry George

Progress and Poverty was a book written by Henry George(a California writer and activist) in 1879.This angrily eloquent book ,Progress and Poverty, became one of the bestselling nonfiction works in American publishing history. He blamed social problems on the ability of a few monopolists to grow wealthy as a result of rising land values, and that the increase in the value of the land was an unearned increment, produced by the growth of society, and that the profits belonged to the community. This book was famous for advocating social reform through the imposition of a "single tax" on land. Henry George was a controversial reformer whose book Progress and Poverty advocated solving problems of economic inequality by a tax on land. His solution was to impose a single tax on the "unearned increment". This increased the value of land because of its location, and meant the owner didn't do anything about the new wealth. Henry George was a journalist-author and an original thinker. He saw poverty at its worst in India and wrote the classic Progress and Poverty. George believed that the pressure of a growing population with a fixed supply of land pushed up property values.

Rebates

Rebates were a deduction from an amount to be paid, or money back. Rockefeller, the oil boss, employed spies to find the amount to be paid of railroads and forced the railroads to pay him it on the bills of his competitors. Basically, a rebate was a return of a portion of the amount paid for goods or services. Rebates were business tactics used by American companies in the late 19th century. In 1886, the government passed the Interstate Commerce Act in an effort to regulate the railroads requiring them to provide rates that were "reasonable and just.

Red Cloud's War

Red Cloud's War (the First Sioux War) - The First Sioux War was also referred to as the Bozeman War or the Powder River War. It was an armed conflict between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho and the United States in the Wyoming Territory and the Montana Territory from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the Powder River Country in north central present day Wyoming. European Americans had built the Bozeman Trail through it, which was a primary route to the Montana gold fields. The trail was used by an increasing number of miners, emigrant settlers and others, who competed with the Cheyenne and Lakota for resources and encroached on their traditional territory.

Sutter's Mill

Sutter's Mill was a sawmill owned by 19th-century pioneer John Sutter in partnership with James W. Marshall. It was located in Coloma, California, at the bank of the South Fork American River. Sutter's Mill is most famous for its association with the California Gold Rush. The rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill, California. News of the discovery brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. Of the 300,000, approximately half arrived by sea and half walked overland. Sutter's Mill was the location where gold was discovered in California in 1848, setting off the gold rush.

Great American Desert

The "Great American Desert" was the term applied to the land west of the Missouri River and east of the Rocky Mountains. The landscape had no trees, little rainfall and tough prairie sod. This land seemed like a desert to the many who passed through this unexplored area on their way to the Pacific Coast and that is how it came to be known.Atlantic settlers referred to the Great Plains and the Pacific Coast as the "Great West." A less-optimistic name for this region was the "Great American Desert," so-named because of a lack of available water sources and soil that did not respond to Atlantic farming methods.

American Federation of Labor

The American Federation of Labor was craft union with skilled labor only; no unskilled labor, blacks, women, or recent immigrants were allowed; they had 1,750,000 members and were founded by Samuel Gompers. This group sought practical economic gains instead of social reform. They wanted an 8 hour day, higher wages, better working conditions, and advocated use of a closed shop. Their methods of doing this was by seeking acceptance of collective bargaining, boycotting, and striking. Their achievement was that they became the world's largest labor union.

Chinese Exclusion Act

The Chinese Exclusion Act placed a ban on all new immigrants from China. When this happened then came restrictions on the immigration of the "undesirable" persons (those convicted of criminal acts or diagnosed as mentally incompetent). Act followed revisions made in 1880 to the US-China Burlingame Treaty of 1868, revisions that allowed the US to suspend Chinese immigration. The act was initially intended to last for 10 years, but was renewed in 1892 and made permanent in 1902. It was finally repealed by the Magnuson Act on December 17, 1943).

Comstock Lode

The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims. Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity, which became bustling centers of fabulous wealth. In 1859, A great amount of gold and silver was discovered in Nevada. The "fifty-niners" rushed to Nevada in their own hopes of getting rich, which caused Nevada to become a state. It provided three electoral votes for President Lincoln.In 1859, A great amount of gold of gold and silver was discovered in Nevada.The "fifty-niners" rushed to Nevada in their own hopes of getting rich, which caused Nevada to become a state.It provided three electoral votes for President Lincoln. The Comstock Lode was discovered by a guy named Henry Comstock. The site is located near the western border of Nevada, based around Virginia City. After the discovery was made public in 1959, prospectors rust to the area and scrambled to stake their claims. Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity, which became bustling centers of fabulous wealth.

Assimilation/Dawes Act

The Dawes Act was a federal law intended to turn Native Americans into farmer & landowners by providing cooperating families with 160 acres of reservationland for farming or 320 acres for grazing. In the eyes of supporters, this lawwould "civilize" the Indians by weaning them from their nomadic life, bytreating them as individuals rather than as members of their tribes, and byreadying them for citizenship. Although generally well intentioned, the lawundermined Indian culture, in part by restricting their hunting rights onformer reservation lands. Much of the best reservation land eventuallypassed into the hands of whites. The Dawes Act outlawed tribal ownership of land and forced 160-acre homesteads into the hands of individual Indians and their families with the promise of future citizenship. The goal was to assimilate Native Americans into white culture as quickly as possible. As it turned out, the Dawes Act succeeded only in stripping tribes of their land and failed to incorporate Native Americans into U.S. society.

Dillingham Commission

The Dillingham Commission took place during 1911. It was a Congressional commission set up to investigate demands for immigration restriction. It was formed in response to growing political concern about immigration in the United States.The Dillingham Commission, which began its work in 1907, had concluded by 1911 that immigration from southern and Eastern Europe posed a serious threat to American society and culture and should therefore be greatly reduced. The movement for immigration restriction that the Dillingham Commission helped to stimulate culminated in the National Origins Formula of 1929, which capped national immigration at 150,000 annually and barred Asian immigration altogether.

Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance A dance was a cult that tried to call the spirits of past warriors to inspire the young braves to fight. It was crushed at the Battle of Wounded Knee after spreading to the Dakota Sioux. The Ghost Dance led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. This act tried to reform Indian tribes and turn them into "white" citizens. It did little good, it angered whites even more and some states made it illegal to dance the "Ghost Dance". An Indian tribe that accepted the reservations, but were upset when the government asked for even more of their land. They took part in Ghost Dances, which were sacred ceremonies the Indians performed to try and remove whites from their territories and bring back the buffalo. The Ghost Dances terrified white settlers who saw this as abnormal. The Ghost Dance, a nonmilitant, quasi-religious movement among many Indian tribes during the late 19th century, had a reverse effect on the Lakota Sioux. Militant leaders among the Sioux, angered by the plight of their people who were suffering from hunger and sickness, capitalized on the Ghost Dance fervor by preaching the overthrow of the white man and his rule. They promised that the sacred ghost shirt would protect them from soldiers' bullets.

Knights of Labor

The Knights of labor was a mass union that had skilled and unskilled labor. They had organized women, men, and blacks; they excluded non producers, and had about 700,000 members (1869-1886).This labor union was founded by Uriah S. Stephens & Terence Powderly. They had a social restructuring of America, wanted the abolition of child labor, supported prohibition and public ownership of utilities. They opposed trust and monopolies, wanted and 8 hour day, worker's co-ops and wanted to eliminate the wage system. They did this through advocating the formation of worker's co-ops, sought change though arbitration, sought change though involving in political parties, and membership used strikes against wishes of union leadership. One of their achievement was that their early strikes resulted in higher wages.

Gilded Age

The Gilded Age, which was named by Mark Twain occurred from 1865 to 1900, the same time as Reconstruction and the Far West were taking place. During this period of time industrialization increased the standard of living, and the opportunities of most Americans. Some of the characteristics of the Gilded Age included inventions, workforce, and corruption. Others were urbanization, immigration &assimilation, erratic economic growth, rise of big labor, and concentration of wealth. Additionally, industrialization was one of the main ones, including the rise of big businesses and the rise of corporations.

The Grange

The Grange is the more common name of the Patrons of Husbandry. This organization was formed in 1867 as a support system for struggling western farmers. The Grange was an educational and social organization, but under the leadership of Oliver Kelley, this organization began to lobby state and federal governments for legislation that would protect farmers from the effects of big business. It was a farmers' movement involving the affiliation of local farmers into area "granges" to work for their political and economic advantages. The official name of the National Grange is the Patrons of Husbandry the Granger movement was successful in regulating the railroads and grain warehouses.

Great Railroad Strike

The Great Railroad strike occurred during 1877.The labor union it belong to was the American Railway Union. The causes of this strike was that the Eastern railroads announced a 10% wage cut. The result was a general strike was called by all eastern railroads. The rioting occurred in most eastern cities and President Hayes called out federal troops to put down the strike. It marked America's first national labor conflict in an increase national economy. It illustrated the depth of resentment of many American workers toward their employers and the government. The failure of the strike weakened unions.

Haymarket Riot

The Haymarket Riot took place during 1886.On of the causes was that it began as a general strike for an 8 hour day for all trade unions in Chicago. After 3 days of peaceful demonstrations, a crowd at an outdoor meeting was told to disperse. A bomb was thrown killing seven policemen and four workers. The result was that eight anarchist were tried and convicted and there was 4 hanged. Americans concluded the union movement was radical and violent. The Haymarket Riot killed the Knights of Labor Union.

Wabash vs Illinois

The Wabash v. Illinois was case that took place during the Gilded Age. This 1886 case overturned the earlier Munn vs. Illinois case. In this case, the Supreme Court severely limited the right of states to regulate businesses that dealt with interstate commerce. This meant only the federal government had a power that had been granted to the states. Farmers responded to this case with increased political organizing, and Congress responded by creating the first real business regulatory body: the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Interstate Commerce Act

The Interstate Commerce Act (1887) was a congressional legislation that established the Interstate Commerce Commission. It compelled railroads to publish standard rates, and prohibited rebates and pools. Railroads quickly became adept at using the Act to achieve their own ends, but the Act gave the government an important means to regulate big business. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates. It also required that railroads publicize shipping rates and prohibited short haul or long haul fare discrimination, a form of price discrimination against smaller markets, particularly farmers. The Act created a federal regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which it charged with monitoring railroads to ensure that they complied with the new regulations.

Morrill Land Grant

The Morrill Act of 1862 was also known as the Land Grant College Act. It was a major boost to higher education in America. The grant was originally set up to establish institutions is each state that would educate people in agriculture, home economics, mechanical arts, and other professions that were practical at the time. The land-grant act was introduced by a congressman from Vermont named Justin Smith Morrill. He envisioned the financing of agricultural and mechanical education. He wanted to assure that education would be available to those in all social classes. There were several of these grants, but the first passed in 1862. This bill was signed by Abraham Lincoln on July 2. This gave each state 30,000 acres of public land for each Senator and Representative. These numbers were based on the census of 1860. The land was then to be sold and the money from the sale of the land was to be put in an endowment fund which would provide support for the colleges in each of the states.

Munn vs Illinois

The Munn vs. Illinois was a case that took place during the Gilded Age. The Supreme Court ruled that an Illinois law that put a ceiling on warehousing rates for grain was a constitutional exercise of the state's power to regulate business. It said that the Interstate Commerce Commission could regulate prices. This case ended up allowing states to regulate businesses within their borders. This case was a success.

Pacific Railways Act 1862

The Pacific Railroad Act was act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes. Also, this Act called for the building of the Transcontinental Railroad to stretch across America connecting California and the rest of America. The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 created the Union Pacific Railroad and authorized it, in conjunction with the Central Pacific Railroad, to build railway and telegraph routes connecting the eastern portion of the United States to the Pacific Ocean. The act also granted land to the railway companies and provided for the financing of the project. To the east, construction began at the rail terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska—the westernmost point in the rail network that linked most of the eastern United States. In the west, the Central Pacific began construction at Sacramento, California.

Pendleton Act

The Pendleton Act of 1883 was the federal legislation that created a system in which federal employees were chosen based upon competitive exams. This made job positions based on merit or ability and not inheritance or class. The Pendleton Act also created the Civil Service Commission. It changed the economy during the Gilded Age.

Populists

The Populist Party advocated broad based economic, political, and social change. The Populist Party was made up of farmers, greenbacks, laborers, grangers. They based their ideas on the Omaha Platform 1892, where the government owned rails and telephone, where they would have unlimited coinage of silver and a graduated income tax on wealth. Also they wanted a sub-treasury to store farm goods with loans given to keep farmers in business, an 8 hr. workday and a restriction on immigration. They had an initiative, referendum, secret ballot, and direct election of senators.

Pullman Strike

The Pullman Strike took place during 1884 a belonged to the American Railway Union. The causes of this strike was that there was a 25% pay cut for railroad workers. There was also a failure to reduce rents in Pullman's company town. The result was that Railroad traffic in and out of Chicago east and west was stopped for 2 months affecting 27 states. Company owners granted an injunction; workers were in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. In the end, President Cleveland calling in the Federal troops.

Sand Creek Masacre

The Sand Creek Massacre was an attack on a village of sleeping Cheyenne Indians by a regiment of Colorado militiamen on 29 November 1864 that resulted in the death of more than 200 tribal members. In Colorado territory in 1864, U.S army colonel John M. Chivington led a surprise attack on a peaceful Cheyenne settlement along Sand Creek River. The Cheyenne under Chief Black kettle tried to surrender. First he waved the America Flag and the White flag of surrender. Chivington ignored the gestures. The U.S army killed about 200 Cheyenne during the conflict. This an attack on a village of sleeping Cheyenne Indians by a regiment of Colorado militiamen on 29 November 1864 that resulted in the death of more than 200 tribal members.

Scientific management/Taylorism

The Scientific management were principles that rose with the changes in production. Those principles were often known as "Taylorism", after their leading theoretician, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Taylor's ideas were controversial during his lifetime and have remained controversial since. It was argued that scientific management was a way to manage human labor to make it compatible with the demands of the machine age. However, it was also a way to increase the employer's control of the work place, to make working people less independent. Taylor claimed, workers using modern machines could perform simple tasks at much greater speed. This meant that there would be an increase in productive efficiency.

Farming Technology

The bane of the plains farmer was the weather. Temperature and moisture varied tremendously from year to year, and wind and hail could wipe out crops in an instant. Prairie fires and swarms of locusts added to the farmer's burden. Unlike eastern farmers, the farmers of the West might not get a crop every year, and they had to be prepared to hang on and live a subsistence sort of life in the lean years. These brutal facts discouraged all but the hardiest pioneers. Transportation to haul produce to market was expensive, and interest rates on loans and mortgages were high. Special plows and new machinery such as threshers and hay mowers all allowed a farmer to produce more, but the expense of the devices often put him into debt. As more grain was produced, prices fell, adding to the woes of the farmer.

Gospel of Wealth

The gospel of wealth was an equal self-serving idea .It was brought by businessmen that attempted to temper the harsh philosophy of Social Darwinism. People of great wealth, advocates of this idea argued, had not only great power but great responsibilities. The Gospel of weather was written by Andrew Carnegie in 1901, here he wrote that the wealthy should consider all revenues in excess of their own needs as "trust funds" to be used for the good of the community. It also stated that the person of wealth was the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren. This book helped establish the idea of philanthrophisism, which would help the poor.

Old immigrants vs New immigrants

The old immigrants came to America from 1800 to 1870.They came from Northern and Western Europe. Most of them were protestants, literate, skilled and were from the middle class. The "new immigrants" came from Southern and Eastern Europe, most of them were catholic/Jews, illiterate, unskilled, and poor. About 40% of those "new immigrants" returned to their home country after they had made some money.

reasons strikes failed & what they are

There were four major strikes during the Gilded Age. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the Haymarket Riot of 1886, the Homestead Strike of 1892, and the Pullman Strike of 1884.Most strikes failed because the government sent out the military to support the businesses. Many of the Presidents like Cleveland, sent federal troops right away to stoop them.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison was an American inventor and business man. Due to his phenomenal success in industrial laboratory in Menlo Park, New York, dozens of corporations were establishing laboratories of their own. Edison developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric bulb. His inventions held 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Thomas Edison's inventions impacted the electric light and power utilities, sound recording, and motion pictures , and mass communications.

William Jennings Bryan

William Jennings Bryan was the leader of the Populist Party. He became the presidential democratic nominee at an age of 36. This Democratic candidate ran for president most famously in 1896 (and again in 1900). His goal of "free silver" (unlimited coinage of silver) won him the support of the Populist Party. Though a gifted orator, he lost the election to Republican William McKinley. He ran again for president and lost in 1900. Later he opposed America's imperialist actions, and in the 1920s, he made his mark as a leader of the fundamentalist cause and prosecuting attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial.

William McKinley

William McKinley was the Republican candidate that defeated William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 presidential election. As a supporter of big business, he pushed for high protective tariffs. Under his leadership, the U.S. became an imperial world power. He was assassinated by an anarchist in 1901.

Wounded Knee

Wounded Knee was a massacre in 1890 that started when Sioux left the reservation in protest because of the death of Sitting Bull. The US army killed 150 Sioux at Wounded Knee; last major incident in the Great Plains. The Wounded Knee Massacre, also known as The Battle at Wounded Knee Creek, was the last major armed conflict between the Lakota Sioux and the United States, subsequently described as a "massacre" by General Nelson A. Miles in a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Wounded Knee Incident began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The protest followed the failure of an effort of the Oglala Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) to impeach tribal president Richard Wilson, whom they accused of corruption and abuse of opponents. Additionally, protestors attacked the United States government's failure to fulfill treaties with Indian people and demanded the reopening of treaty negotiations.