The contributions and responses of Native Americans to the building of the Transcontinental railroad have been the subject of an increasing amount of recent scholarly research. We provide a short list of resources to consult to learn more about these interactions in the building of the railroad and the complex and destructive impacts on these indigenous peoples. Importantly, a major symposium focusing on this topic will take place in Omaha, Nebraska, in September, 2019 titled Railroads in Native America: Reflections on the 150th Anniversary of Transcontinental Construction.
Native Americans at Reno Depot on the CPRR. Alfred Hart, stereo view. Courtesy of the Department of Special Collections, Stanford Libraries.
Illustration of the Ghost Dance of the Sioux Indians in North America, 1891. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.After the completion of the railroad, conflict against Native Americans continued to escalate, culminating in several massacres. However, Native Americans were not silent bystanders to what they considered to be an invasion of their geographic and intellectual territory. Deeply disturbed by these events, a Paiute man named Wodziwob, who lived on a reservation in Nevada, began a movement called the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance was part religious ritual and part cultural production that celebrated the commonalities between Native cultures, and it promised a return to life before white Americans settled the West. Wodziwob’s followers used the railroad to spread this intertribal movement all over the continent, using the technology that had caused them so much distress to promote and disseminate information about this cultural phenomenon. The 1870s Ghost Dance lasted only about three years, but twenty years later, a second Ghost Dance movement spread across the United States. This illustration shows individuals practicing the second iteration of the movement, which in 1890 culminated in the Wounded Knee Massacre, when U.S. troops opened fire on Native American men, women, and children, killing nearly 150.
Andrew J. Russell, American, 1829–1902 Union Pacific photographer Andrew J. Russell photographed this group of Shoshone Indians as he documented the line before and after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University American Indians mostly resisted the railroad’s construction to defend their independence and way of life. There were, however, tribes who worked on or offered support for its construction, including the Paiute for the Central Pacific and the Pawnee for the Union Pacific. Exacerbated by 30 years of mass overland migration, dozens of settlements pushing westward, and the presence of the U.S. Army, the Union Pacific and the U.S. Government benefited from long-held inter-tribal conflicts (between the Pawnee, the Sioux, and other tribes) by hiring hundreds of Pawnee, who protected the road’s construction along with the U.S. Army. During the 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Spike 150 Commission acknowledges the impact and suffering of those American Indians, displaced in the building of this railroad.
Alfred A. Hart, American, 1816–1908 On the Humboldt Nevada plains, Alfred A. Hart photographed Shoshone Indians studying the Central Pacific locomotive while railroad workers look on. Courtesy of the Union Pacific Museum Alfred A. Hart, American, 1816–1908 On the Humboldt Nevada plains, Alfred A. Hart photographed Shoshone Indians studying the Central Pacific locomotive while railroad workers look on. Courtesy of the Union Pacific Museum
During the late 1800’s, many settlers were expanding to the West and the Transcontinental Railroad helped them move from the East to the West. Some wanted to gain 160 free acres of land known as the Homestead Act. The Transcontinental Railroad connected the East and the West. The Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad were the companies that built the Transcontinental Railroad; however, the companies were run by greedy men and felt no guilt as they asked the government to pass special bills for them. The railroad cut through many lands and affected the Native Americans in a perilously way. Furthermore, many resources, such as buffalo were slaughtered and were almost made extinct, and Native Americans lost their land to American settlers, as well as these resources.Therefore, the Transcontinental…show more content… |
What effect did the railroad have on native americans?
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