The Pacific Railroad Expedition surveys provided Congress and the public a wealth of information about the West, including images and descriptions of many American Indian nations, such as the Assiniboines. American Indians were helpful to the surveyors, but the completion of the transcontinental railroad proved devastating to Native Americans’ former ways of life.
Art by John Mix Stanley, lithography by Sarony, Major & Knapp
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Chromolithograph, "Fort Union and Distribution of Goods to the Assinniboines [Assiniboines]," U.S. Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys, ca. 1855
A Railroad to the Pacific
Settlement of the western territories in the 1850s increased the need for efficient rail transport to the Pacific Coast, but members of Congress could not agree on what route it should follow. Northern members wanted a northern route; southern members sought one advantageous to their region's interests. To inform this debate, in 1853 Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to survey four potential rail routes. Intense sectionalism blocked further legislation until southern states seceded. In 1862, a northern-controlled Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act.
The Pacific Railroad Expedition surveys provided Congress and the public a wealth of information about the West, including images and descriptions of many American Indian nations, such as the Assiniboines. American Indians were helpful to the surveyors, but the completion of the transcontinental railroad proved devastating to Native Americans’ former ways of life.
Art by John Mix Stanley, lithography by Sarony, Major & Knapp
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
