1. Ch. 8 – Changes on the Western Frontier (1860 – 1900)
Culture of the Plains Indians
Native Americans saw land as belonging to no one.
Viewed white customs of farming & mining as disturbing the harmony between the natural & spirit world.
Buffalo was vital to survival of Plains Indians (food, clothing, shelter).

2. American Indians are Nomadic people, what do they follow?
Gold & Silver
Longhorns
Setting of the Sun
Buffalo

3. Reasons for American Settlement of the West
1) inexpensive / abundant land 2) hopes of finding gold or silver 3) escape persecution / fresh start (ex: former slaves, Mormons, etc.)
Clash Between Settlers & Indians
Settlers felt they had a right to land b/c Indians hadn’t “improved” it (farming / building).
U.S. govnt changed its Indian policies & restricted Indian land to smaller reservations.
Many Indians ignored govnt. treaties and hunted on old lands anyway, often clashing w/ settlers.

4. All were reasons to move westward except?
Gold & Silver
Free Land
New Indian friends
Lack of persecution

5. Sand Creek Massacre (1864)
Cheyenne Indians were peacefully camped at Sand Creek reservation for winter.
Govnt leaders wanted to see Indians suffer – ordered U.S. soldiers to attack, killing over 150 Cheyenne women & children.

6. The Indians at Sand Creek were of what tribal nation?
Navajo
Cherokee
Alabama-Coushatta
Cheyenne

7. SAND CREEK MASSACRE 1864
Colonel
John
Chivington

8. 5. Battle of Little Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand - 1876)
Sioux, Arapaho, Cheyenne Indians protested whites in Black Hills
Looking for gold
June Little Bighorn
Gen. George Custer & 265 troops met by 2,500 Sioux in Montana.
Within an hour, Indians won battle. Custer & all of his men were dead.
Bloody conflicts between whites & Native Americans led to greater disdain (hostility/disgust) toward Indian culture. *

9. Custer’s last stand was located where?
Yellowstone National Park
Great Smokey Mountains
Bighorn Montana
Wounded Knee South Dakota

10. (above) George Armstrong Custer's Camp prior to the Battle of Little Bighorn, photo courtesy Library of Congress.
(above) Soldier and non-human remains. Soldier’s bodies were stripped and mutilated.
(left) The Battle of the Little Bighorn, painting by Charles Russell, 1903

11. 6. U.S. Government Adopts Indian Assimilation Policy (1880s – 1900)
Govt. hoped teaching “white” culture would lead to peace.
Assimilation –Native Americans would give up their beliefs & way of life to become part of American “white”culture.
7. Dawes Act (1887)
Goal to “Americanize” Indians.
Provided $ for Indian schools
(teach English, Christianity,
white culture, etc.)
Divided Reservations into 160 acre farms for each family.
Instead of helping N.A., it nearly destroyed Indian culture

12. What are some of the things that cultures don’t lose during assimilation?
Language
Ethnicity
Appearance
Religion

13. 8. Destruction of Buffalo (1800 – 1900) Native American -buffalo
End of N.A. lifestyle
Tourists & fur traders shot buffalo for sport.
Buffalo population of 65 million in 1800 dropped to only a few hundred by 1900. *

14. What did the Indians use buffalo for within their culture?
Food
Shelter/Clothing
Teams to pull wagons
Fuel
Farm stock
A,C,& E
A,B,& D
B,D,& E

15. Native American boys sent to Indian School (Before) (After)*

16. Battle of Wounded Knee (1890)
Sioux Indians continued to suffer poverty & disease. Thousands of Native Americans turned to a prophet, who promised that if Indians performed a ritual called the Ghost Dance, their lands & way of life would be restored.
Ghost Dance movement spread. Alarmed U.S. Calvary opened fire on over 300 unarmed Native Americans camped at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
Battle of Wounded Knee brought Indian Wars – and an entire era – to and end.

17. The Sioux Indians used the rain dance to wash away the white settlers.
True
False

18. Crushing the Native American Life
Destruction of Buffalo
Assimilation
Dawes Act
Broke up reservations and gave land to individual Native Americans
Sitting Bull
Custer
Chief Joseph

19. 10. Driving Cattle to Market
· After the Civil War, growing cities in the East increased their demand for beef.
· Texas ranchers began to drive herds of longhorns hundreds of miles north to the railroads, where they were shipped east. –

20. Vaqueros & Cowboys
Between approx. 55,000 cowboys worked the open range.
Cowboy life stemmed from Spanish ranchers in Mexico.
Early cowboys were Mexican. Vaqueros influenced cowboy clothes, food, vocabulary.
25% of cowboys were black. Working as a cowboy appealed to former slaves who were judged on ability, not skin color.

21. The most famous African American Cowboy was?
Tony Dorsett
Roy Rogers
Bill Pickett
Emmitt Smith

22. Abilene, Kansas (late 1800’s)
· Cow towns developed near the railroads, offering cowhands hotels, saloons, and restaurants.
Abilene, Kansas (late 1800’s)

23. Growing Demand for Beef (1860s)
After Civil War, demand for beef grew as cities became larger. The West had abundance of Texas Longhorns – a herd of over 5 million wild cattle originally brought from Spain.
Cattle Ranchers would buy cattle for $3 - $5 a head & drive cows to railheads in Ellsworth or Abiline, Kansas. Cattle then sold for $30 - $50 a head and shipped to Chicago for butchering.

24. The Long Cattle Drive
Cattle drive consisted of about 3,000 cattle, 18 cowboys, one chuck wagon, and a wrangler. Drive began in spring and lasted 2-3 months until reaching Kansas.
End of the Open Range
Overgrazing the land, bad weather, and invention of barbed wire helped to end the cattle / cowboy era.
Winters of & were brutal. Cold temperatures caused cattle to freeze to death. Summer droughts led to grass shortage. By 1887, 80%-90% of cattle dead.
Barbed wire turned open plains into a series of fenced in ranches.

25. Barbed wire ended all of the following except.
Cattle Ranches
Long Drives
Open Ranges

26. Railroads & Western Settlement
U.S. Govnt wanted West settled (manifest destiny).
Offered railroad companies free land as incentive to build a transcontinental line (connect east coast to west coast). Each mile of track = 20sq. miles of land.

27. Building the Transcontinental Line (1862 -1869)
Two major railroad companies competed to lay the most track and receive more government land.
Union Pacific R.R.
Began laying tracks in Nebraska and moved West. Employed Irish-Americans & Civil War veterans. Flat country allowed work to go quickly.
Central Pacific R.R.
Began laying tracks in Sacramento, California and moved East. Employed mostly Chinese – paid less than white workers & endured dangerous conditions blasting through Sierra Nevada mountains.

28. Which groups of immigrants were primary responsible for building the Transcontinental Railroad?
Canadians and Mexicans
Spaniards and Italians
Irish and Chinese
Americans and British

29. Finishing the Transcontinental R.R. (1869)
Crews raced past each other without meeting. May 10th, 1869 Congress forced Union Pacific & Central Pacific to join together at Promontory Point, Utah.
Railroads resulted in growth and new settlement of the West, making travel & transportation easier.

30. Homestead Act (1862 – 1900)
Passed by Congress to settle the West.
Offered 160 acres of free land to any citizen or intended citizen who was head of household. Approx. 600,000 families took advantage of government’s offer.

31. Which was not a requirement to receive land via the Homestead Act?
5 dollar registration fee
Working the land for 5 years
160 acre plot of land
Married with 3 children

32. Farming Inventions that Tamed the Prairie
Settlers used inventions to meet the challenges of farming the West’s harsh terrain.
Barbed Wire (1874) – Prevented animals from wandering off or trampling crops.
Reaper (1847) – Invented by Cyrus McCormick. Sped up harvesting crops & saved crops from bad weather.
Steel Plow (1837) – Invented by John Deere. Could slice through heavy soil, made planting more efficient.