◄ Wagon train to the West
On April 9, 1853, Amelia Stewart Knight left Iowa with her family to join a wagon train headed for Oregon. Her diary describes many of the hazards of the five-month trek, from extreme heat or cold to poisonous water. It also reports encounters—some cordial and some tense—with Native Americans. In one entry, Knight wrote:
“After looking in vain for water, we were about to give up as it was near night, when husband came across a company of friendly Cayuse Indians about to camp, who showed him where to find water, half mile down a steep mountain, and we have all camped together, with plenty of pine timber all around us…. We bought a few potatoes from an Indian, which will be a treat for our supper.”
—Diary of Mrs. Amelia Stewart Knight, 1853
Reading Skill: Identify Main Ideas Outline the main ideas relating to westward migration.
Why It Matters Since colonial times, Americans seeking economic opportunity had looked westward. By the 1840s, migrants were crossing the Rocky Mountains to Oregon and California. In time, these and other western lands would become part of the United States, helping the nation grow in both wealth and power. Section Focus Question: What were the causes of westward migration?
In 1830, what is now the U.S. Southwest was the Mexican North. Like the former British colonies in the East, this region had a long colonial history, one that dated back to the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
Founded in 1598, New Mexico was the oldest colony along New Spain’s northwestern frontier. Yet, by 1765, only about 9,600 Hispanics lived in New Mexico, half of them in the two major towns of El Paso and Santa Fe. The rest lived on farms and ranches scattered through the long Rio Grande valley. One factor discouraging further settlement was the threat of war with nomadic Native Americans in surrounding areas. Colonists depended for protection on an alliance with local Pueblo Indians. But disease steadily reduced the Pueblo population, from about 14,000 in 1700 to about 10,000 in 1765.