American West Flashcards
What is the most vital animal to Plains Indians?
- Buffalo
- Bisons
What different ways were the buffalo used?
- Tipis
- Clothing
- Weaponry
- Food storage
What is a tribe?
- Group of bands
What is a band?
- Subgroups of tribes
- 30 to 200 people
What does a band consist of?
- Chief
- Warrior society
- Council of elders
What style did the Plains Indians live in?
- Nomadic
- Constantly moved around
Why did the Plains Indians live a nomadic lifestyle?
- Follow migrations of buffalo
- Escape harsh weather
- Forage for new food
What were Plains Indians men called?
- ‘Braves’
What were Plains Indians women called?
- ‘Squaws’
What did the men do within a band?
- Hunting
- Protecting
- Defending
- Taught children survival skills
What did the women do within a band?
- Cooking
- Housework
- Clothing
- Taught children survival skills
What did the Plains Indians believe in?
- Unowned land
- Mother Nature
- Spirits
- Visions
What animals were considered sacred?
- Buffalo
- Eagle
- Lives only taken when necessary
How was war different for Plains Indians?
- Flee than fighting
- Scalping
- Counting coup
What is counting coup?
- Touching an opponent without being harmed
- Killing them
What was the climate of the plains like?
- Extreme weather conditions
- Prairie grass
- Strong winds all year
Why did people migrate West?
- Economic depression
- Government encouragement
- Homestead Act 1862
- Manifest Destiny
- Gold Rush
- Mormons escaping persecution
What is the Oregon Trail?
- 3200 KM
- Independence Missouri to Oregon City
Who were the Donner Party?
- Group of 87
- Took a shortcut from Oregon Trail
- Cannibalism
- 41 died
What were the consequences of the Donner Party failure?
- Discouraged migration
How was Mormonism founded?
- Joseph Smith
- Translated golden plates in his garden
Why were the Mormons persecuted?
- Belief of polygamy
- Anti slavery
How were Mormons led to Utah (Salt Lake City)?
- Joseph Smith’s death from a mob
- Brigham Young led migration
- Followed Oregon Trail
Why was Brigham Young’s plan to migrate West successful?
- Travelled in Spring
- Irrigation systems
- Assigned land
- Invited skilled people to settle
- Left food and crops by fresh water
- Church owned land to keep order
What was the Indian Removal Act?
- 1830
- Moved Plains Indians to the west of Mississippi River
What was the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act?
- 1834
- Defined Plain Indians territory
What was the Fort Laramie Treaty?
- 1851
- No hurting white settlers
- $50k a year to remain on reservations
- Railroads on the Great Plains
What was the Indians Appropriations Act?
- 1851
- Forced onto reservations
What are reservations?
- Government controlled areas
- Enclosed space for Plain Indians
What were problems that were faced when farming the plains?
- Low rainfall
- Droughts
- Low timber
- Climate extremes
What were used to resolve problems when farming the plains?
- Windmill to pump water underground
- Dry farming (plough after rain)
- Sod buster (steel plough)
- Sulky plough
- Barbed wire
What does the term ‘Federal territory’ mean?
- Above the state
- Entirety of America
- Overrides state laws
What is the ‘Wild West’?
- Lawlessness
- Towns had laws but weren’t enforced
What are factors of lawlessness?
- Behaviour
- Low population
- Slow reaction
- Shortage of reliable officers
- Corruption
- Poverty
What are vigilantes?
- Enforces the law by breaking the law
- Drove criminals away
Why were sheriffs unreliable?
- Poorly trained
- Took bribes
- False accusations
- Low payment
What were the punishments of crimes in mining towns?
- Whipped
- Hanging
- Lynching ( hanging without trial )
What is claim jumping in the West?
- 10 square feet assigned to individuals
- Selling claims littered with gold
- Form of scam
What is the Homestead Act?
- 1862
- Selling $10 for 160 acres of land
- Must farm for 5 years
- Pay $30 to confirm payment
What were some features of the Homestead Act?
- 60% dropout rate
- 300 million acres in railroad
- 6 million acres sold in total
- Nebraska
- Encouraged west migration
What is the Timber Culture Act?
- 1873
- Additional 160 acres of land
- 40 acres used for trees
Why was the Timber Culture Act a success?
- 16 million acres assigned
- Reduced failure rate
- Provided crop shelter from wind
Why was the Timber Culture Act a failure?
- Third didn’t grow
- Struggled for survival
- Loopholes and exploitation
Which companies built the transcontinental railroad?
- Union Pacific Railroad ( West, Chinese immigrants )
- Central Pacific Railroad ( East, Irish and ex slaves )
- Met in middle
What are the consequences of the transcontinental railroad?
- Increased tensions with Plains Indians
- Killed buffalo to feed workforce
- 12,000 deaths
- 5000 soldiers for protection
- $16,000 per mile
- $48,000 per mountain mile
What is Abilene?
- Cow town
- Kansas
- 500 to 7000 population after railroad
- 1870 jail torn down by cowboys
Who were the town marshals of Abilene?
- Thomas Smith 1870
- Boxed cowboys
- Banned carrying guns
- Enforced law
- Shot and killed
- Wild Bill 1871
- Did not enforce law
- Respected but fired
- 1871 cowboys banned from Abilene
What are cowboys?
- People who sold cows from barns
- Gun fights
- Gamblers and con men ( scammers )
What did lawless towns usually consist of?
- Brothels ( prostitution )
- Casinos
- Saloons
Who were the Reno Gang?
- Train robbers
- Civil war outlaws
- 1866 to 1868
- Pinkerton National Detective Agency
- Vigilantes lynched them after being caught
