Quiz #1 Flashcards
The Plains Indians used the buffalo for:
A. Food
B. Thread
C. Cosmetics
D. All of these
E. Tools
D. All of these
All of the following helped popularize notions of the mythic west EXCEPT:
A. Fredrick Jackson Turner
B. Chief Joseph
C. Owen Wister’s “The Virginian”
D. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show
E. Ned Buntline’s dime novels
B. Chief Joseph
Virginia City, Nevada, experienced all of the following after the Comstock Lode discovery EXCEPT:
A. An orgy of speculation
B. A religious revival
C. Vigilante justice
D. A population boom
B. A religious revival
Why did rancher’s profit decline in the 1880s?
A. Las Gorras Blancas had destroyed many profitable herds
B. Increasing competition made ranching increasingly difficult
C. Americans were eating less beef and more chicken and turkey
D. Overproduction led to lower prices
D. Overproduction led to lower prices
Exp. High profits had swelled the herds, and this overproduction prompted lower prices. Increased international competition further pushed down prices
Where did the Union and Central Pacific railroad lines meet in 1869?
A. at Promontory Summit in Utah
B. in Reno, Nevada
C. in Santa Fe, New Mexico
D. in Tucson, Arizona
A. at Promontory Summit in Utah
Exp. The two lines were finally linked on May 10, 1869, with a golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah.
Which of the following were the largest landholders in the West by the end of the 19th century?
A. Gold miners
B. Railroads
C. Cattle barons
D. Homesteaders
E. Banks
B. Railroads
Why did Custer and other Union army columns charge into Sioux and Cheyenne territory at Little Big Horn in Montana in 1876?
A. to avenge a Native American attack on Custer’s comrade Reno
B. to capture them and send them to a reservation
C. to open the Black Hills to white settlers
D. to convince them to sign a peace treaty
C. to open the Black Hills to white settlers
Exp. Custer spread rumors of gold in the Black Hills to attract white settlers, and when negotiations over the Black Hills failed, Custer received order to attack Native Americans there
What important insight did the census of 1890s provide Americans?
A. Mexicans already made up the majority in California
B. The frontier no longer really existed
C. The West remained a rural and underdeveloped region
D. All territories had been turned into states
B. The frontier no longer really existed
Exp. The superintendent of the census noted in 1890 that the continental United States stretched so far that one could hardly speak of a frontier any longer.
What did Anglo settlers discover as they moved to the Western frontier in the wake of the Civil War?
A. The lands of the Great Plains were far more productive than those in the East
B. Native Americans welcomed their presence
C. Hispanics in the Southwest still owned slaves
D. There were many Western frontiers, not just one
D. There were many Western frontiers, not just one
Exp. Settlers moving westward found that the West was not just one frontier but many, all moving in different directions.
Which of the following was the largest single group of workers on the Central Pacific in the transcontinental railroad construction?
A. Chinese
B. Mexicans
C. Irish Immigrants
D. Civil War Veterans
A. Chinese
Exp. Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific relied on ten thousand Chinese laborers.
In the wake of the Plains Indian wars, U.S. Indian policy changed from a policy of ________ (recognized as a failure by the 1880s) to a policy of ________ (an effort that also failed).
A. removing the tribes to the Great Plains; confining the tribes on reservations
B. promoting individual land ownership; pacifying the tribes by military means
C. defeating Indian war parties on the battlefield; breaking the power of tribal chieftains
D. concentrating tribes onto reservations; trying to integrate Indians into white society as farmers
D. concentrating tribes onto reservations; trying to integrate Indians into white society as farmers
Identify the author or document of the following primary source quote:
“All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.”
A. Chief Joseph, 1879
B. William Gilpin, 1849
C. George Custer, 1876
D. Richard Pratt, 1892
E. Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893
A. Chief Joseph, 1879
Which of the following best characterizes the role of the American West at the turn of the century?
A. The region had become a significant producer of raw materials for the global economy
B. The region had come to resemble the Northeast, with much of its economic activity in the manufacturing
C. The region remained isolated and impoverished because of its aridity
D. The West was a singular haven for small producers, free from corporate greed and the power of big business
A. The region had become a significant producer of raw materials for the global economy
Exp. Westerners became part of a vast network of production and trade that spanned the globe.
What were “bonanza farms”?
A. cattle ranches
B. farms with very high profits
C. farms in California
D. farms of one thousand acres or more
D. farms of one thousand acres or more
Exp. Farms of more than one thousand acres were known as “bonanza farms” and were most common in the wheatlands of the northern plains.
Identify the author or document of the following primary source quote:
“Kill the Indian, and save the man. . . . It is a great mistake to think that the Indian is born an inevitable savage. He is born a blank, like the rest of us. . . . Transfer the savage-born infant to the surroundings of civilization, and he will grow to possess a civilized language and habit.”
A. George Custer, 1876
B. Denis Kearney, 1878
C. Chief Joseph, 1879
D. Lakota Account of Wounded Knee, 1890
E. Richard Pratt, 1892
E. Richard Pratt, 1892
All of the following are TRUE of the fate of the plains buffalo in the 1870s EXCEPT:
A. Disease wiped out most of the herds
B. The market for buffalo hides in the East exploded
C. Buffalo was nearly eliminated by the early 1880s
D. Railroad lines disrupted buffalo migratory patterns
A. Disease wiped out most of the herds
What was so “un-Native American” about the outlook of Missouri politician William Gilpin?
A. Buffalo were worthless obstructions in the West.
B. Land was property to be employed
C. Water was essential for agriculture
D. Farms had to be corporate in size to be profitable.
B. Land was property to be employed
Exp. Gilpin told an audience in Missouri in 1849 that the most important thing for the nation was cheap land for farms and a railroad in the West. In this view, land was nothing sacred, only property to be employed.
Identify the author or document of the following primary source quote:
“The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development.”
A. Richard Pratt, 1892
B. Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893
C. Denis Kearney, 1878
D. Chief Spotted Tail, 1860s
E. George Custer, 1876
B. Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893
Identify the author or document of the following primary source quote:
“To add to our misery and despair, a bloated aristocracy has sent to China-the greatest and oldest despotism in the world-for a cheap working slave. It rakes the slums of Asia to find the meanest slave on earth-the Chinese coolie-and imports him here to meet the free American in the Labor market, and still further widen the breach between the rich and the poor, still further to degrade white Labor.”
A. Leland Stanford, 1869
B. George Custer, 1876
C. Richard Pratt, 1892
D. Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893
E. Denis Kearney, 1878
E. Denis Kearney, 1878
What did Las Gorras Blancas fight against?
A. racial segregation in the Southwest
B. Anglo-American gold seekers in California
C. Anglo cattle ranchers pushing Hispanics off their land
D. Native American raiders in New Mexico
C. Anglo cattle ranchers pushing Hispanics off their land
Exp. When Anglo cattle ranchers began forcing Hispanics off their lands, near Las Vegas, local residents assembled in a band of masked night riders known as Las Gorras Blancas.
Identify the author or document of the following primary source quote:
“I had just reached the point where I said that the women were killed. We heard, besides the killing of the men, of the onslaught also made upon the women and children, and they were treated as roughly and indiscriminately as the men and boys were.”
A. Lakota Account of Wounded Knee, 1890
B. Denis Kearney, 1878
C. George Custer, 1876
D. Richard Pratt, 1892
E. Chief Joseph, 1879
A. Lakota Account of Wounded Knee, 1890
What had turned many of the Plains Native Americans towards a more nomadic existence in the 1840s?
A. American railroad companies had disturbed their tranquil village life
B. Regular assaults by the Union Army had forced Plains Native Americans to remain on the move
C. A catastrophic dust storm destroyed their villages in the 1830s
D. Their mobility and skills as horseback hunters created larger buffalo-hunting grounds
D. Their mobility and skills as horseback hunters created larger buffalo-hunting grounds
Exp. Cheyenne, Comanche, and Apache tribes had become master riders and hunters, and their new mobility far extended the area in which they could hunt buffalo.
What did the vast majority of prospectors in the gold and silver rushes of the 1840s and 1850s have in common?
A. They were foreign-born
B. They were male
C. They did not know how to mine
D. They were poor
B. They were male
Exp. Almost all prospectors were male, and nearly half were foreign-born.
Which of the following killed most Native Americans in their encounters with Anglo settlers?
A. liquor and disease
B. combat
C. starvation
D. railroad accidents
A. liquor and disease
Exp. War was only one way in which contact with whites turned deadly for Native Americans. Liquor and disease killed more Native Americans than combat did.
Which of the following is true about Native American tribes in the trans-Mississippi West?
A. Tribes were separated by vastly different experiences and values
B. Tribes typically consisted of twenty thousand to thirty thousand people
C. The gap between rich and poor was generally small
D. They were led by authoritarian chiefs who lacked sympathy for their people
C. The gap between rich and poor was generally small
Exp. Although some tribes were materially better off than others, the gap between rich and poor within tribes was seldom large.
