Note to Readers The terms Native North Americans and North American Indians are used interchangeably to represent those people who lived in America prior to European set tlement For brevity when it is clear that the text is referring to one or more Native North American tribes the term Indians is used to refer to all these
Time Line 20 000 YEARS AGO 142 1519 176 First Native Amerians come to North America Columbus comes to the New World horses and attle come he America on Spanish ships LS becomes independent from led Kingdom US Dis 103 Louis Territo France FUR TRADE ERA ISS 13 121 Hanselves as allow believes in Oregon wagon trains Spain gives up Lewis and Clark lead Melia the Coney IRIU that is earlier going to New Spain which Corps of Discovery US Gold discovered comes Oregon Washington the Oregon becomes Mexico to the Pacific Ocean In California Male and part of Montana Country 161 WAGON TRAIN ERA MY 180 13 IBD Homestead CM war ends Slavery Railroads aross Cattle business only 200 buttals End of the At signed wer thousands the continent booms in the west on the plains trailers go west a Ha Ha Ha mora Ra Ra Ra R
EARLY HISTORY OF THE WEST What would you do if your parents told you that your family was going to leave your home behind and walk 2 000 miles through searing deserts and over mile high mountains That they were only taking food blankets and a few changes of clothing That the trip would take almost a year That vicious wild animals and blizzards poisoned water and starvation would all be possible What if they added that they didn't even have a map to where you would be going Whew Now you know how someone like you might have felt in the 1800s when people began heading into the American West Two hundred years ago most people thought the West was as far away as the moon Only a few had been to the West and their tales of vast deserts empty plains soaring mountains and hot water gey sers seemed unbelievable People said the land was worthless the North American Indians were fierce and grizzly bears were everywhere Few people thought it would be an interesting place to visit let alone a place to live And few could go even if they wanted The western part of North America belonged to foreign countries Spain owned what is now most of
Texas and New Mexico half of Colorado all of Ari zona Utah Nevada and California Britain con trolled the Oregon Country now Oregon Washington Idaho and part of Montana Russia owned Alaska and Hawaii was an independent nation called the Sandwich Islands To travel to any of these territories required a passport and special permission of the U S and territorial governments Maybe the state where you live was once part of a foreign empire If history had gone differently you might be speaking a very different language today There were native people already living in the West and when the first settlers came to their lands they were welcomed North American Indians looked forward to trading goods selling horses and learning new things from the newcomers But so many people moved into the West so quickly that the Indians lives were changed forever The settlers took up the land and farmed or fenced it They killed the buffalo and wild animals for food or skins The Indians became angry and unhappy They moved farther west too to get away from the masses of newcom ers Tribes fought with each other over land as the Sioux left Minnesota and the Blackfeet who had been called Algonquian moved from the East Every one fought over the land but that didn't stop them from going
