Closing the Frontier Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

The Homestead Act of 1862

A

Granted a quarter section of the public land free to any household head who lived on the land for at least five years and improved it.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

The Morrill Act of 1862

A

Created colleges for the scientific study of soil, grain, and climate conditions.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Oklahoma Land Rush

A
  • The conclusion of Worcester v. Georgia and the Indian Removal Act.
  • Required five major native American nations known as the “Civilized Tribes” (Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks) to relocate to Oklahoma.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

April 22nd, 1889 (Oklahoma Land Rush continued)

A
  • Settlers poured into Oklahoma, known as “Sooners.”
  • These settlers were homesteaders, land companies, and those dispossessed by warfare/economic hardship in the South.
  • Natives were once again, forcibly removed from their land.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Curtis Act

A
  • Abolished tribal jurisdiction over all Indian territory.
  • Forced members of Indian nations to dismantle their governments and abandon their estates.
  • Subjected them to federal law.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Grant’s Peace Policy

A
  • Grant wanted to either relocate Natives to reservations or assimilate them to U.S. customs, traditions, and citizenship.
  • Federal Government wanted to make schools and establish a new economy for Native Americans to “Americanize” them.
  • Hired Quakers to government positions to help educate Native Americans.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Indian Territory & Reservation Policy

A
  • Reservations were lands granted to Native American nations that would be ran by the tribal nation under the supervision of the Department of Indian Affairs rather than the state.
  • They would receive funding from the Federal government, like a state would, however the funding throughout the 19th century was routinely insufficient which often led these tribal communities malnourished and ill-supplied.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862, 1864, & 1867

A
  • Allowed for funding of America’s Transcontinental Railroad which was completed in 1869.
  • Connected San Francisco, California, to Omaha, Kansas, and hooked-up with other railways back east.
  • Allowed for goods and people to move faster throughout the country than ever before.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Farming Improvements

A
  • Refrigerated rail cars
  • John Deere’s Singing Plow (turned grass in the great plains into soil)
  • The harvester
  • The reaper
  • Farms became more like factories
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Impacts of mass farming

A
  • Because farms acted like factories, a low-paying workforce was necessary.
  • Chinese and migrant farmers were used.
  • Animals like grizzle bears, wolves, and buffalo died off.
  • More and more water was needed to supply farms (led to irrigation systems which would dry-up the nearby lakes/streams).
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

The Forrest Reserve Act of 1891

A

Gave the President the power to establish forest reserves to protect watersheds against the threats posed by lumbering, overgrazing, and forest fires.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

The Sand Creek Massacre

A
  • As the 1850s and 1860s progressed, more miners were moving into Colorado to search the Rocky Mountains for gold.
  • In November of 1865, U.S. troops attacked a village of Native Americans consisting of Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes in Colorado.
  • Violated the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851 (lands in Colorado were promised to both the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Black Kettle

A
  • Cheyenne chief who negotiated new deals with the U.S. Government from 1851-1864.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

The Sioux Wars (1850s-60s)

A
  • Sioux and Cheyenne forces led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, two Sioux chiefs, began attacks on forts from Utah all the way to Montana.
  • Conflict between the Sioux people and U.S.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

A
  • Sioux and Cheyenne forces agree to leave the forts, and stop raiding U.S. forces/towns.
  • U.S. troops would allow Sioux and Cheyenne forces to live peacefully throughout the area.
  • These tribes were still forced off of the land as the Transcontinental Railroad brought more and more people westward.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867

A

Promised Southern Cheyenne, Comanche, Arapaho, and Kiowa (all nomadic tribes) lands south of the Arkansas River for purpose of hunting buffalo.

17
Q

The Red River War

A
  • After the Medicine Lodge Treaty, Hostilities were settling down from the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado.
  • Commercial buffalo hunters began wiping out the population of buffalo, which led to a smaller food source for the Native American tribes.
  • Federal Government also failed to provide enough food, weapons, and materials for housing that was promised from the treaty.
  • The Comanche organized war parties to go to war against the Federal troops
  • Comanche were defeated and forced to surrender at Fort Sill, in Oklahoma.
18
Q

The Sioux Wars (1870s-80s)

A
  • The discovery of gold in the Black Hills mines of Wyoming and South Dakota brought more and more people (miners) to the area.
  • With more and more people encroaching on Native American lands, the Sioux Wars once again erupted between the Sioux/Cheyenne and the Federal government.
19
Q

Colonel George B. Custer

A
  • A very enthusiastic and colorful characters in the Sioux Wars.
  • Renowned for his bravery.
  • Was given orders to scout the Sioux tribes at Little Bighorn, but ended up leading an attack against overwhelming Sioux forces.
  • In the East and West, Custer was viewed as a martyr.
  • Public perception of Native Americans reached an all-time low.
20
Q

The Massacre at Wounded Knee

A
  • December 29th, 1890, Federal troops surrounded the Lakota and opened fire, on a group consisting mostly of women, children and the elderly over 250 people were killed.
  • Only about 50 children survived.
  • The surviving children were put in the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.