Transcontinental Railroad Colonization

 

Railroad colonization led to prosperity for the Americans while many Native Americans lost their livelihoods and lives. Military officers viewed the railroad as a method of transporting troops to various locations to take control of or exterminate Native Americans. Railroads gave them the upper hand. The buffalo had to move to avoid railroad construction which interfered in the lives of the Plains Indians. The acquisition of horses made hunting buffalo and other large animals easier. They depended upon the buffalo for food, clothing, trade, shelter, and so much more. Some tribes, such as the Lakota, looked towards buffalo as a way of guiding their lives. Buffalo carcasses lay rotting on the plains when white men decided to kill the honorable beasts for pelts and out of spite to hurt the Native Americans. Federal laws forced the railroad companies to construct the railroad tracks with time constraints no matter who lived on the property. Treaties laid the groundwork for the decimation of tribal lands. Cultural and language barriers also fed the destruction of the lives of Native Americans. Railroad tracks lined the terrain along the eastern coast since the 1830s with further expansion to the west at a later date. President Lincoln strongly supported the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad and put into place the Pacific Railroad Act to ensure its completion. The Transcontinental Railroad encouraged colonization of western territories by facilitating new settlements on Native American lands.

Before the completion of the transcontinental railroad a trek to the western part of the country meant dangerous crossings over rivers, deserts, and mountains or the traveler(s) would venture around Cape Horn, sail to Central America or cross the Isthmus of Panama while they risked deadly diseases such as yellow fever or malaria. The thought of uniting the country by rail held the interest of many since the locomotive was invented.

            By the 1840s the railway networks extended throughout the East, South, and Midwest. The drive to extend the railway to the Pacific gained momentum. The gold rush and the annexation of California after the Mexican/American War led to even more interest in extending the railway westward. Andrew Jackson supported a railway route that would run through Texas and other southern states. He believed there was less harsh terrain in the southern states. Political parties split concerning their beliefs about a southern or northern railway network.

            During the 1850s Congress ordered surveys to be conducted to determine the best route for the transcontinental railroad. Theodore Judah, a civil engineer who helped build the railroad in California, came on board and promoted a route that went through Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range posed a problem. Daniel Strong, a storekeeper, provided Judah with a better route that only involved a gradual rise, a summit and only one mountain. Next investors were sought and this was when the land which the Native Americans lived and hunted came into question (Linda Hall Library, 2012)

            Greenville Dodge, a railroad engineer and later a Union General, met with Lincoln, an aspiring politician, to discuss the building of a transcontinental railroad. Lincoln queried Dodge about possible routes to the west coast. Dodge suggested the railroad should run from Omaha, along the Platte Valley to the Rocky Mountains, over the mountains to join with the railroad coming east from California. Dodge and Lincoln initiated the ultimate construction project of the 19^th century. Dodge and Lincoln (until his assassination) continued their support and involvement with the building of the Transcontinental Railroad throughout its completion.

Slavery and then the transcontinental railroad served as Lincoln’s driving force for the country.  During a campaign speech for Illinois state legislature he announced “no other improvement… can equal in utility the railroad” (Ambrose, 2000, page 27).

Four wealthy men agreed to finance a portion of the railroad: Collis P. Huntington and his partner Mark Hopkins (dry goods merchants); Charles Croker and Leland Stanford (wholesale grocers and latter soon to be governor). They paid Judah to survey the route for the railroad. Judah provided a presentation to Congress in October of 1861. The southern states were not privy to the venture because of the Civil War was well underway. President Lincoln vehemently supported the construction of the railroads and convinced a leery Congress to come on board. They felt the expensive venture had the potential to fail due to the mountains and other difficult terrain and waterways. Lincoln sought to make the Transcontinental Railroad a reality by implementing the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 (Linda Hall Library, 2012).

            The Act authorized land grants and governmental bonds which in the beginning amounted to $16,000 for flat land, $32,000. per mile for difficult terrain and $48,000 per mile for mountain construction. The government doled out bonds for every 40-mile increment (Cox, 2015). Deadlines were set and broken concerning the amount of track to be laid in a certain amount of time. Two companies, the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad, were involved in the construction of the transcontinental railroad. The federal government set up a portion of the land to be granted to the railroad companies and the rest was allotted to the federal government. The land was divided into townships and the railroad companies were granted the odd number of plots, which resembled a checkerboard. The land granted to the railroads could be sold to white settlers to pay off their debt. Upon sale of said land, the railroads still had mineral rights to the land (Ambrose, 2000). Land that did not belong to them, land that was inhabited by Native Americans. Numerous western tribes faced various hardships such as genocide and depravation because of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad such as the Lakota, Pawnee and Cheyenne.

 

Lakota:

 

            The movement of the buffalo guided the Lakotas’ whereabouts on the Plains. They sought to stay near the buffalo and believed the buffalo taught them how to live life in an honorable and wise way.  The Lakota depended on them for everything from food to clothing. The Lakota lived on the land with a reciprocal relationship formed by the expansiveness of the location itself. It was not like moving from one strange home to another, wherever they were they were at home.

            Over hunting and trapping of beaver led in the drop in value of the beaver pelts and a corresponding switch to the buffalo robe trade. Lakota women supplied furs for the trade. Lakota men rode into buffalo herds and made individual kills. Any claim on a buffalo or something taken from a buffalo occurred through relationships with women. Lakota women’s skills and creative work existed between the Native American expansiveness and the pressures of the global fur trade. White settlers and entrepreneurs killed many buffalo for their skins and left the rest of the buffalo rotting on the Plains. The white settlers killed millions of buffalo for the fur trade.

            The Treaty of Horse Creek established a smaller area on the Plains for the Lakota and the U.S. government granted themselves an area south of the Missouri River, east of the Rockies, and north of New Mexico and Texas. These land allotments gave the federal government the right to construct railroads, military forts and other forms of infrastructure in the above area. As a result of this infringement, the Lakota and American military fought to hold onto their land holdings which went against the Lakota expansiveness techniques of setting up their home wherever the buffalo settled. Angered by the boundaries set regarding their territory they had access to which involved territory at the Platte River, they argued that they needed to hunt as far south as Republican Fork of the Kansas River and the Arkansas River. The federal government ignored their complaints and set up trading posts and military forts throughout the area. The Lakota geared up for battle by moving north and they resupplied their arms by trading with the Red River Metis (Karuka, 2019).

            The land allotted to Native Americans contradicted the land grants to the Union Pacific. “To honor the property claim is to abrogate treaty obligations to honor the treaties would be to dissolve capital claims on territory and resources” (Karuka, 2019, page 67). President Lincoln signed into law the Pacific Railroad Act on July 1, 1862. This act represented a set of property claims that did not reflect reality. U.S. sovereignty served as the basis for the land claims for the railroad. The Union Pacific Railroad Company was financed by 100,000 shares valued at $1,000. The shares reflected Congress’ sovereign claims over lands deemed necessary for the transcontinental railroad which authorized Native American lands as public lands in which the Union Pacific constructed the railroad. The railroad was granted 200 feet on each side of the line for stations and buildings. The law stipulated that the failure of constructing 100 miles of track within two years after the law’s passage with a further requirement of constructing 100 miles each additional year led to the forfeiture of the Union Pacific’s assets.

            A legislative flag was placed on Lakota land on August 17, 1862. Lakota’s eastern relatives rose up against the famine and intrusion in Minnesota and fought to hold onto their land. They surrendered on September 26 and were treated as war criminals. Women, children and elders were held in a concentration camp at Fort Snelling in which approximately 300 people died at this camp. Remaining Lakotas were transported to Davenport, Iowa to be imprisoned. More than a third died while at the prison. Four months later President Lincoln ordered an execution of 38 Lakota men in Mankato, Minnesota which was the largest public execution in the history of the U.S.  Six days after the execution, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. An end to slavery occurred while the U.S. government entertained a corrupt territorial expansion which involved theft, occupation and genocide.

            The federal government with the help of the military sought genocide of the Lakota. Wherever the Lakota went when they followed the buffalo, the U.S. army followed them and attacked. William T. Sherman proved to be an ally to the Union Pacific Railroad. Sherman’s interests consisted of having the railroad as a means of military occupation. The military mapped the sites of the Lakota winter camps, in which the army attacked and killed the Native Americans while they were the most vulnerable. They held a multitude of successful campaigns against the Lakota people during the winter months. They were able to do so because they moved troops in subzero temperatures due to the railroad. (Karuka, 2019).

             Reports indicated Native American resistance and theft. Approximately a thousand warriors led by Red Cloud ran away with railroad stock along the Platte River. Greenville Dodge, a military leader, referred to the Union Pacific as an extension of the army. “At any moment I could call into the field a thousand well officered” (Karuka, 2019, page72). The main goal of the military was not management of labor or competition with the Central Pacific Railroad, but the colonization of the lands occurred where the Union Pacific Railroad was located. Captured Confederate soldiers assisted with defending the Union Pacific construction. Sherman believed the railroad served as a threat and destruction of the Lakota tribe. He hoped to move more troops out west to take care of the “Indian Problem.”  Sherman also believed the destruction of the buffalo would destroy the Lakota people (Karuka, 2019).

Red Cloud had different ideas about what he wanted to see for the country. He voiced his hopes by comparing the past to the present. “...the country was filled with traders instead of military posts” (Karuka, 2019, page 77).  He wanted relationships based on reciprocity instead of domination. Instead more treaties were put into place which gave authority to the U.S. government to take even more of their land and place more military posts on their territory. The treaties also encroached on hunting rights. The 1868 Treaty negotiations involved the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad which went through Lakota lands. Sitting Bull did not take the infringement on their rights to the invasion of their land lightly. His leadership led to the halting of the railroad’s progress. Treaties, Acts and military actions created havoc and ruined the lives of the Lakota. They did not take it laying down. They put up a fight. However, the U.S. military’s mighty fire power, treachery and numbers got the best of the Lakota.

           

Pawnee

 

            The Pawnee resided on amazing and fertile land where farmhouses, barns, and fields filled with wheat, oat, and corn crops existed. The Pawnee managed to maintain their communal relationships based on cooperation in which they extended to the military presence in their territory. Pawnee men served as scouts for the U.S. military and fought against hostile tribes to protect the railroad construction. They also worked on the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. White settlers also conducted commercialized farming on their land which interfered with their cultural practices. The Pawnee tribe were involved in treaty implementation in which they were promised trade regulation and protection. The Pawnee women, a generous and caring people, kept caches filled with harvested vegetables made available to the village and any neighboring villages if needed which represented the Pawnee mode of relationship. At first, the Pawnee viewed the U.S. army as a powerful ally that could help them fight their long-standing enemies. However, the U.S. government kept taking more and more from them such as land and other resources.         

            The Union Pacific Railroad started laying track from Omaha, Nebraska in 1865. The territory in which Kansas and Nebraska are currently located served as the homeland of the Pawnee people. They numbered at approximately 20,000 when the Transcontinental Railroad was being constructed. Every year the Pawnee traveled up to 500 miles to hunt buffalo on the plains. The Pawnee returned to their villages to harvest their crops and spend the winter. American settlements continued to expand through Pawnee territory and the tribe lost its homeland in Nebraska and were moved to a reservation in Oklahoma (Rex-Atzet, ND).

           

            Grandparents provided vital instruction and guidance to their grandchildren as part of their generational cultural practices. In 1857, in an effort to enhance colonialism, the U.S. government enforced the Pawnee to reside on a reservation through one of the treaties. The Pawnee were subjected to giving up even more of their territory. As part of the treaty negotiations Pawnee children were forced to attend schools. “In order to improve the condition of the Pawnees, and teach them civilized life, the United States agreed to found two manual labor schools, and would potentially open an additional two schools if it found them necessary. The curriculum at these schools would be directed by the U.S. federal government, and would include the various branches of a common-school-education, as well as the arts of agriculture and of their own. All Pawnee children between seven and eighteen years old shall be kept constantly at these school for, at least nine months in each year, and parents or guardians would have their annuities deducted in an amount equal to the value, in time, of the tuition thus lost” (Karuka, 2019, page 111). The federal government stepped in to control the relationship between caregivers and their children. The children, not allowed to participate in the hunting parties or the annual harvest, lost valuable opportunities to learn valuable lessons. The children were forced to live at reservation schools (Karuka, 2019).

            The Pawnee men were given the opportunity to apprentice in blacksmith, tinsmith, and gunsmith shops along with working in grain and lumber mills. The United States government set up the above opportunities along with reservation farms which served the outlying white settler communities. Provisions in the treaty included, “Pawnees agree to prevent the members of their tribe from injuring or destroying the houses, shops, machinery, stock farming utensils, and all other things furnished by the Government, and if any such shall be carried away, injured, or destroyed, by any of the members of their tribe, the value of the same shall be deducted from the tribal annuities” (Karuka, 2019, page 111). Pawnee workers answered to the Pawnee agent, not to their tribal leadership. One of the articles in the treaty provided four Pawnee men with horses and money for an expedition against the Cheyennes in hope of securing more Pawnee scouts (Karuka, 2019). More treaties were put into place that involved further annuities which would make the life of the Pawnee women easier. They were provided brass kettles, hoes, butcher knives and needles. Their lives were changed drastically.

           

            In 1864, some of the Pawnee men graded four miles of railroad track because the Union Pacific Railroad contractor could not secure workers. The commissioner of Indian Affairs (name unknown) suggested the railroad be renamed the “Pawnee and Pacific Union Railroad” due to the Pawnee assistance with the construction of the railroad through their protection and labor. In June 1864, he requested 100 rifles be given to the Pawnee men because of their land was reduced greatly which impeded their mobility. On a scout campaign in 1864, Pawnee men provided their own horses, their wages were supposed to reflect the care of their horses, which it did not. Pawnee men chose to fight but after hearing rumors about possibly being forced to fight in the Civil War, they took off on a winter hunt instead.

           

Measles and diphtheria ran rampant through the reservation schools which led to many children dying. The administration decided to only accept the healthiest of the children into the schools instead of making the necessary changes to ensure the children’s health needs were met. The school officials found out that the Pawnee parents took their children on a summer hunt and the school officials adamantly stated that the school must have authority over the children and not the parents.

 

In January 1867, John Becker, a Pawnee agent, informed the U.S. government that the Union Pacific Railroad had driven the buffalo from the Pawnee hunting grounds at the Platte River Valley. Part of his report included Pawnee women who continued to farm near their villages. The federal government moved the land they could farm on further away from their homesteads, which went against their cultural tradition of maintaining caches. The work Pawnee women did during the past before U.S. government interference, provided the lifeline for the Pawnee communities. Their importance was being eliminated. Part of the breaking of family cultural practices involved complete isolation of Pawnee children from their families to enforce the learning of the English language. The federal government made an effort to enforce a complete withdrawal from their traditional cultural practices (Karuka, 2019).

 

The Union Pacific workers depended on the Pawnee scouts for protection, however, the Pawnee questioned what type of people they were. To prove their disapproval, they disappeared from their scouting duties because the workers appeared to be pathetic men covered in mud as they buckled under the weight of the heavy rails. The Pawnee provided an example of a suitable camp for the white workers. They constructed a lodge of cut wooden poles and took the covers off the wagons and stretched them over the poles. Grass was placed under the structures and a fire was built to dry out clothing and to warm the workers. Younger men tended the horses. They demonstrated how the various generations worked together.

            In January of 1869 Frank North enlisted a new company of Pawnee scouts. A previous group of scouts, who had been discharged from their duties, had been attacked by U.S. military. The soldiers had been encouraged to attack the Pawnee men by white settlers who lived in the area, near Mulberry Creek. The Pawnee said the men who were attack-ed had traveled to trade with southern nations by old trade routes. Nine Pawnee veterans were murdered. An army surgeon dug up their graves and beheaded them. Their skulls were sent to the Army Medical Museum in which they remained until 1995 (Karuka, 2019).

            Railroad colonialism and manifest destiny led to the demise of a rich Pawnee traditional culture and they lost most of their land and their traditional cultural practices were seriously impacted. They cooperated with the U.S. government and its military which involved the provision of protection against hostile marauders during the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. They also worked as laborers for the railroad. A people adept at agriculture before the arrival of the Americans were treated as if they were novices. Their children lost the opportunity to learn valuable life lessons by the enforcement of reservation schools. One of their main sources of food was taken from them, the buffalo and the Pawnee culture was thrown off balance.

 

Cheyenne

 

            The Cheyenne left the Great Lakes area and moved to the Tongue River region in Montana and Wyoming and near the Platte River in Wyoming and Nebraska. Eventually they formed two divisions, the Northern and Southern Cheyenne. They expanded to ten bands by the 1800s and were spread all over the Plains. The Cheyenne adopted the use of horses, which became a large part of their culture. They trained the horses to go on buffalo hunts. The Cheyenne adopted the Sun Dance, the tipi, and formed military societies. By the mid-19^th century the Cheyenne’s population totaled approximately 5,000.  The bands split and some stayed near the Black Hills while others remained near the Platte River of central Colorado. The Arapaho and Lako-ta (Sioux) were their allies. By the mid-1800s, they left their agricultural and fishing life along with pottery traditions and switched to a nomadic Plains culture. They used tipis instead of earth lodges and their diets consisted of bison, wild fruits and vegetables. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851forced them to settle down on their first enforced Cheyenne territory in northern Colorado (Grinnell, 1972). White settlers continued to encroach on their lands.

           

            In August of 1867, a group of Cheyenne men who were returning from Pawnee country crossed the railroad tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad near what is now Cheyenne, Wyoming. They saw a railroad crew and decided to wreck a railroad car by laying logs across the tracks. Some of them ran back to the crew and frightened them into speeding up the handcar. The logs tipped the car off the tracks. Sleeping Rabbit suggested they try to derail a train. They cut a telegraph line, pulled out railroad ties and dislocated the track itself. They waited to see what happened. A Union Pacific train was barreling down the tracks at full speed without knowledge of the broken track. The train derailed horribly and there was a lot of wreckage. They entered the train and gathered food, clothing and whatever else they wanted. They returned the next day and found bread and sweet foods, which they ate for lunch. The U.S. army and Pawnee scouts tried to find them. The derailing of trains occurred on many occasions.

            The Cheyenne communities were perceived as a threat to the white settlers and the Union Pacific Railroad. Industrialization and occupation continued to be more pertinent than the rights of Native Americans when it came to the land they resided on. Greenville Dodge received accolades for his management and engineering skills, however, his experience supervising U.S. military operations carried more notable attributes. With military leaders such as Dodge, the railroad became a militarized economy which consisted of men who did not have any relationship to the location they served or to anyone they found on the path they traveled.

            During the fall of 1866, a group of soldiers traveled from Fort Sanders, Wyoming Territory, to escort a Union Pacific engineering company. Dodge requested an additional 20 soldiers to join them to help prepare the winter camp in the Black Hills. The engineers used lumber that was stored at the army posts. The Union Pacific Railroad depended upon the army to protect them and provide them with necessary supplies, if necessary. The army’s resources were stretched to the limit to accommodate the railroad personnel (Karuka, 2019).

            The Cheyenne Dog Soldiers conducted raids to acquire needed and wanted things. Most of their land had been taken away and the wild game was limited due to over hunting by the white settlers. The Dog Soldiers and their allies knew the land well. The military were forced to react to the presence of Indians on their own lands. “An image from the Dog Soldier ledger book shows Big Crow in an attack on a wagon train, in which the wagons are circled, and the teamsters engaged in defensive fire. Another image shows the capture of an Overland Stage Company coach. Attacks on railroad work and engineering parties, on infantry and cavalry details, on army posts, and on wagon trains, give us glimpses of Dog Soldier herding tactics” (Karuka, 2019, page 139). Some of the Cheyenne stood by their belief that the land belonged to them and the white people were intruders.

            Dodge saw the need to maximize an army presence because the raids happened more readily. Union Pacific subcontractors, who resided near Fort Sedgwick, were raided and they took everything. The workers were terrified and refused to go back to work. An engineering company had a mule taken from them. Cheyenne women relied on mules as pack animals. Groups of railroad workers, who made railroad ties, felt threatened and left the area of the Black Hills, and the raiders destroyed their tools. Another engineering party lost two of its members to raids.  Dodge stressed to Sherman that he needed more soldiers to protect the construction of the railroad and was hopeful that more were provided to him.

            Dodge mentioned two threats the Dog Soldiers posed for the railroad: The first one was sabotage and the second was the terror faced by the railroad workers. He feared without military protection the building of the railroad would come to a complete halt. He referred to the area they were working in as the worse and most dangerous Indian country. The military operation also became dependent on the railroad. Dodge sent a telegram in July 1867 to request more soldiers to assist with the completion of the North Platte crossing. Augar, Dodge’s superior, ordered Dodge to divide the cavalry between protecting the workers who were constructing the railroad tracks and at the same time provide protection for the surveyors. Augar ordered the movement of troops from the area to be canceled. And if Dodge could not sufficiently provide protection for the railroad, he was to contact Augar immediately and he would report to Sherman. The railroad served as the first priority for the army.

            Disease ran rampant between the railroad personnel and military. Cholera struck many at Fort Lyons, Ellsworth and Harker. Travelers continued to spread the disease westward (Karuka, 2019).

            In October 1867, southern Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders begrudgingly negotiated the Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek which shrunk territorial Indian land boundaries by half. The treaty served as a huge risk because attempts at peace in the past only led to massacres, encroachments and other maladies due to the occupation of the Americans. They were hopeful that the annuities promised them would guarantee community survival.

            “…tribes party to the agreement… withdraw all pretense of opposition to the construction of the railroad now being built along the Platte River, and westward to the Pacific Ocean; and they will not in future object to the construction of railroads, wagon-roads, mail-stations, or other works of utility or necessity, which may be ordered or permitted by the laws of the United States” (Karuka, 2019, page,143).

            Dodge sent a request to Augar in January 1868 to provide military escorts for railroad parties who worked between Fort Sanders and Green River. He further requested that the Union Pacific construction crews, who worked from Little Laramie to Bitter Creek, needed protection for a distance of approximately 200 miles. The army established nine additional posts throughout the region. Rapid infusion of military presence was implemented. Railroad workers were ordered to carry weapons. The abilities of the Dog Soldiers were put to the test. The U.S. military managed to push the Dog Soldiers out of the Plains and they were forced to relocate to the foothills of the Rockies. The Trans-continental Railroad neared completion. The Cheyenne lost most of their horse herds and wealth which forced them to rely on an annuity economy. They were reduced from a powerful independent tribe to a tribe who was reliant of the U.S. government to address their needs.

 

            The Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869. The Americans viewed the railroad as economic progress while Native Americans saw the Transcontinental Railroad as a threat that destroyed their communities and their cultures. Railroad companies gained millions of acres of land from the U.S. Congress which was aided by a variety of treaties negotiated between the tribes and the U.S. government. President Lincoln coined all land, even land granted to tribes through treaties, as public land, to ensure the railroads had access to land they deemed necessary for the completion of the railroad.  He implemented the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 to ensure the completion of the railroad. Native American resistance to railroad construction was not illegal or savage. The Native American resistance posed risks for railroad investors and railroad contractors. Military presence enforced the progress of the construction of the railroad. Some of the tribes fought diligently to protect their land from the encroachment on their land of the military, railroad companies and white settlers. Others, such as the Pawnee, decided to work with the railroad and military to aid in the construction. In the end, the Transcontinental Railroad finished completion, the tribes lost most of their land and many lost their lives as a result of the American takeover of their land, which resulted in the genocide of many Native Americans as colonialism and imperialism reared its ugly head.