AHC: Delay the post-ACW settlement of the US's territories

Prevent/decrease the large influx of settlers to western territiores of the US after the American Civil War.

To add an suggestion is it possible for the Homestead Act of 1862 to have bee repealed?
 
Maybe Sioux uprisings in Minnesota are a lot more successful, drive the frontier back and lead to a much longer war.
Reconstruction isn't as harsh on southerners, so fewer head west after the war.
However, as long as the railroads spread west, settlers will follow in large numbers. Unless something happened to them, little can be done
 
Maybe Sioux uprisings in Minnesota are a lot more successful, drive the frontier back and lead to a much longer war.
Reconstruction isn't as harsh on southerners, so fewer head west after the war.
However, as long as the railroads spread west, settlers will follow in large numbers. Unless something happened to them, little can be done

Reconstruction wasn't harsh on (white) southerners. It being even less harsh than OTL would almost require the US apologizing to the ex-Confederates for winning.

The railroads have headed west by the end of the war, though construction is not complete.

Are you thinking of the so-called Great American Desert, or the western states in general, SPJ?
 
To white southerners it was portrayed as harsh, which matters more than the laws themselves. And maybe it would be that Sherman/other US generals don't lay waste to as much of the south, so fewer desperate families head west
 
Reconstruction wasn't harsh on (white) southerners. It being even less harsh than OTL would almost require the US apologizing to the ex-Confederates for winning.

The railroads have headed west by the end of the war, though construction is not complete.

Are you thinking of the so-called Great American Desert, or the western states in general, SPJ?
Western states in general.
 
To white southerners it was portrayed as harsh, which matters more than the laws themselves. And maybe it would be that Sherman/other US generals don't lay waste to as much of the south, so fewer desperate families head west

That white southerners would fill the history books with lies and exaggerations doesn't mean that Reconstruction was a hard time for white southerners.

SPJ: Something discouraging immigrants moving to places like Minnesota and the Dakotas would be good, though that would take some work.

Not sure what saw people drawn (more than pre-war) to California or Oregon and Washington.
 
SPJ: Something discouraging immigrants moving to places like Minnesota and the Dakotas would be good, though that would take some work.
Like what "Savage Indians","Deadly Outlaws", rough terrain, and deadly diseases wasn't enough for OTL it seems.
 
Like what "Savage Indians","Deadly Outlaws", rough terrain, and deadly diseases wasn't enough for OTL it seems.

Preferably something encouraging them to settle the eastern half the US instead of the west, though. OTL they were definitely encouraged to move to those territories (as in, it was sold as a very good idea by interested groups such as by the Northern Pacific railroad).
 
Preferably something encouraging them to settle the eastern half the US instead of the west, though. OTL they were definitely encouraged to move to those territories (as in, it was sold as a very good idea by interested groups such as by the Northern Pacific railroad).
Any suggestions. The best I can think of is a greater industrial boom in the east which provides labor jobs.
 
Prevent/decrease the large influx of settlers to western territiores of the US after the American Civil War.

To add an suggestion is it possible for the Homestead Act of 1862 to have bee repealed?

The US builds a wall to keep the Native Americans separated from the White Savages? The Congress could formally establish great indian nations/reservations, incorporating the lands of the Dakotahs, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho into a northern nation and OTL Arizona, New Mexico and southern Colorado in a southern nation.

Realistically, probably nothing to prevent. However, it is likely that the West Coast will become established and settlement slowly starts moving eastward from California.
 
Could cattle win out over farming on the Great Plains, and ranchers be more discouraging of setters on their grazing lands?

This might also help the Plains tribes, if the way to 'civilize' them is seen as turning them into cattlemen instead of farmers.

A more direct rail crossing of the Great Plains could also help. Scout it ahead of time, only buy enough land to fit the tracks and the least amount of infrastructure needed.
 
Any suggestions. The best I can think of is a greater industrial boom in the east which provides labor jobs.

That would probably make some impact.

I think the problem is that the idea of "west = opportunity" is well established in the American psyche by this point, so even if things like discovering gold in the Black Hills are delayed there's going to be an incentive for people to look West.
 
That would probably make some impact.

I think the problem is that the idea of "west = opportunity" is well established in the American psyche by this point, so even if things like discovering gold in the Black Hills are delayed there's going to be an incentive for people to look West.
This may be grasping at straws but what about an outbreak of deadly disease in many western colonies like an extremely viral flu pandemic?
 
This may be grasping at straws but what about an outbreak of deadly disease in many western colonies like an extremely viral flu pandemic?

I'm always leery of speculating on disease PODs like that, so I'm not sure what would happen. But at some point it would burn itself out or otherwise end.
 
To white southerners it was portrayed as harsh, which matters more than the laws themselves. And maybe it would be that Sherman/other US generals don't lay waste to as much of the south, so fewer desperate families head west
In which case more desperate Black families from the southern states probably head west, to escape the even-more-dominant-than-IOTL whites, instead.
 
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