Chapter 18 The Western Frontier

1.Subsidies are government grants. The government gave subsidies to companies to build railroads. 2.The Central Pacific and Union Pacific competed to build the transcontinental railroad. 3.The railroad companies created time zones so that people could catch the trains on time.

4.Boomtowns grew up around mines. The railroads were important because they helped transport the minerals from the west to the east. 5. Colorado and California had gold rushes. This helped them become states. Miner working the Comstock mine A boomtown

6. Vaqueros were Spanish ranchers. Cattle ranchers wore wide- brimmed hats and often carried lariats. They raised longhorn cattle and went on long drives to get them to the railroads in cow towns.

7. Farmers were nicknamed sodbusters because they had to break through thick layers of sod to plant crops. The railroad was important to farmers in the west because they could send crops east.

8. Many people moved west because of the Homestead Act. This gave free land to people who moved west and lived on the land for 5 years.

9. Many thousands of buffalo were killed by men who were hired by the railroads. The buffalo got in the way of trains. They fed the buffalo to the workers and sold the hides for profit. Buffalo Bill claimed to have killed 4,00 buffalo in less than 18 months

10.The U.S. federal government ordered Native Americans onto reservations. Reservations are areas of land set aside for Native Americans. Native Americans were forced to live on areas of land called Reservations

11. The government had promised the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Sioux. General George Armstrong Custer heard there was gold there, so he and a group of army men went to investigate. 12. Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and their men killed Custer and their army. The Sioux were then forced off of the land. Chief Sitting Bull George Armstrong Custer

13. In the battle of Wounded Knee, 200 unarmed Soiux were killed. After this the Native Americans didn’t fight any more against the settlers. Painting “Ride to Wounded Knee”