Native American Dispossession

Question 1

Why was the Lewis & Clark Expeditions significant?

Answer 1

• It was the first big step in the United States’ westward expansion.
• This was the first time the full impact of colonisation was felt by the Indigenous people of the west.

Question 2

What was significant about The Oregon Trail?

Answer 2

-It was the trail that the settlers took to go west across towards California.
- This frontier opened across the traditional lands of the Plains and South West Native Americans.

Question 3

What was the result of The Oregon Trail? What were the signs of colonisation?

Answer 3

Larger cattle ranches.
Silver/gold rushes.
Railway lines.
Telegraph lines.
Towns and fences.

Question 4

As Europeans moved West along the Oregon Trail, what did they destroy along the way?

Answer 4

1. The land
2. The buffalo, which sealed the fate of the Native American’s way of life.

Question 5

What was the Indian Removal Act?

Answer 5

In 1830, the government forced them from what little lands they had left and made them go into reservations.

Question 6

What was life like on the reservations?

Answer 6

1. Land was isolated from settlements and transport routes.
2. Land was infertile, which meant they had to rely on the government.
3. Children were taken to boarding schools to assimilated.
4. They couldn’t live traditionally.

Question 7

What was The Trail of Tears?

Answer 7

1838 - 15,000 Cherokee walked west from Georgia to Oklahoma under government gunpoint.
Over 4000 members of the community died from starvation and disease along the way.

Question 8

What were the consequences of the Native American dispossession?

Answer 8

1. Conflict due to different tribes having to live together.
2. Violence and open warfare.
3. Disease.
4. Loss of land and traditional way of life.