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US Old West History
(Page 2)
 Contents:
Old
West Pg. 1
| Old
West Pg. 2 | Old
West Pg. 3 |
1890 and beyond
(Cowboy
& Ranching) |
Fiction and non-fiction
Lincoln County War
In Depth: Lincoln County (New Mexico) War
The Lincoln County War (1877) was a conflict between two
entrenched factions in the Old West. The "war" was
between a faction led by wealthy ranchers and another faction led
by the wealthy owners of the monopolistic general store in Lincoln
County, New Mexico.
A notable combatant on the side
of the ranchers was Billy the
Kid, the infamous 19th century
American frontier outlaw and murderer. The Kid is reputed to have
killed 21 men, one for each year of his life, but the figure is
probably closer to nine (four on his own and five with the help of
others).
The James Gang
The criminal Jesse James was infamous for his activities in
the Old West, though he was often cast by the sensationalist media
of the time as a contemporary Robin Hood. James and his
compatriots robbed their way across the Western frontier targeting
banks, trains, stagecoaches, and stores from Iowa to Texas.
Eluding even the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the gang
took thousands of dollars. James is believed to have carried out
the first daylight bank robbery in peacetime, stealing $60,000
from a bank in Liberty, Missouri. While James did harass railroad
executives who unjustly seized private land for the railways,
modern biographers note that he did so for personal gain — his
humanitarian acts were more fiction than fact.
Western Indian Wars
Details:
The Apache and Navajo Wars had Colonel Christopher
"Kit" Carson fighting the Apache around the reservations
in 1862. Skirmishes between the U.S. and Apaches continue until
1886, when Geronimo surrendered to U.S. forces. Kit Carson used a
scorched earth policy in the Navajo campaign, burning
Navajo fields and homes, and stealing or killing their livestock.
He was aided by other Indian tribes with long-standing enmity
toward the Navajos, chiefly the Utes. He later fought a combined
force of Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne to a draw at the First
Battle of Adobe Walls, but he managed to destroy the Indian
village and winter supplies. On June 27, 1874 'Bat' Masterson and
a small group of buffalo hunters fought a much larger Indian force
at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls.
Red Cloud's War was led by the
Lakota chief Makhpyia luta (Red Cloud) and was the most successful
war against the U.S. during the Indian Wars. By the Treaty of Fort
Laramie (1868), the U.S. granted a large reservation to the
Lakota, without military presence or oversight, no settlements,
and no reserved road building rights. The reservation included the
entire Black Hills.
Captain Jack was a chief of the American
Indian Modoc tribe of California and Oregon, and was
their leader during the Modoc War. With 53 Modoc warriors, Captain
Jack held off 1,000 men of the U.S. Army for 7 months. Captain
Jack killed Edward Canby, who was the only general killed during
the Indian Wars (Custer was a lieutenant colonel).
The Black Hills War was conducted
by the Lakota under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. The conflict
began after repeated violations of the Treaty of Fort Laramie
(1868). One of its famous battles was the Battle of the Little
Bighorn, in which combined Sioux and Cheyenne forces defeated the
7th Cavalry, led by George Armstrong Custer.
The end of the Indian Wars came
at the Massacre of Wounded Knee (December 28, 1890) where Tatanka
Iyotake's half-brother, Big Foot, and some 200 Sioux were killed
by the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment. Only thirteen days before,
Tatanka Iyotake had been killed with his son Crow Foot in a gun
battle with a group of Indian police that had been sent by the
American government to arrest him.
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License.