Westward Expansion (Quiz May 8)

Question 1

Push-Pull Factors

Answer 1

Events or conditions that either force (push) people to move elsewhere or attract (pull) them to do so.

Push: land, new locations for business, ethnic/religious repression, shelter for outlaws
Pull: U.S. Government gave away public land/sold it cheaply to encourage migration to West

Question 2

Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864

Answer 2

US Government gave land to Union Pacific & central Pacific Railroads (175 million acres)

Question 3

Homestead Act of 1862

Answer 3

Settlers could have 160 acres for small fee; led to 372,000 farms being created (Mostly white families at first)

Question 4

Exodusters

Answer 4

The Exodusters were black Americans who, led by Ben Singleton, migrated west. Over 50,000 moved, although Native groups were already living in those lands.

Question 5

Great Plains

Answer 5

“Indian Problem” to the settlers is a life-or-death battle to the Natives who occupied the vast grasslands between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Settlers brought the concept of owning land instead of sharing it.

Question 6

Conditions of Homestead Act of 1862

Answer 6

• 21 years old or head of household
• citizen or filing for citizenship
• build 12’ by 14’ house
• live there for 6 months per year
• farm the land there for 5 years in order to gain ownership

Question 7

Native Life

Answer 7

Native people in the West were generally nomadic farmers, hunters, and gatherers. Buffalo were essential to their survival as a food source and material source for supplies and weapons. The introduction of the horse into their lives led to more warfare and a decline in village life as different groups raided each other.

Question 8

Reservations

Answer 8

The government set aside land specifically for Natives, mostly so they could shove them on there and leave them to rot while committing cultural genocide and stripping away their few rights. Reservations generally had poor conditions. Between the US and the different Native tribes were unfair treatment and treaties. US agents used bribery, intentional misleading, and other such tactics to gain the upper hand over the Natives.

Question 9

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Answer 9

This was a government organizations meant to handle delivering supplies and such to reservations, but goods were often mishandled or stolen before ever reaching the actual reservations. The US declared that they would no longer make treaties with the Natives in 1871.

Question 10

Frontier Army

Answer 10

Acts of violence on both sides led to a cycle of revenge, mostly comprised of small hit-and-run attacks. The FA was supposed to protect the reservations, escort mail service, stop gunfights, prevent robberies, and more, but it lacked supplies and was scattered. Soldiers often pitted Native groups against each other. It was mostly made of Civil War veterans who received poor pay and were generally apathetic.

Question 11

3 Major Conflicts

Answer 11

Sand Creek Massacre, Battle of Little Bighorn/Custer’s Last Stand, Wounded Knee Massacre

Question 12

Sand Creek Massacre (1864)

Answer 12

Cheyenne occupied plains in Colorado Territory and lead wagon raids east of Denver. The Colorado governor took advantage of Cheyenne leader Black Kettle’s peace campaign. When ordered to meet at Sand Creek, the Native people followed peacefully. There, they were slaughtered by Colonel John Chivington and his forces. 150-500 Natives were killed, mostly women and children. Many Cheyenne agreed to move onto reservations after this incident.

Question 13

Sioux

Answer 13

Large native group living in the North Plains (Dakota, Wyoming, Montana). They strongly resisted US expansion.

Question 14

Bozeman Trail, 1864

Answer 14

The US tried to build the Bozeman Trail railroad through Sioux hunting grounds (Bighorn Mountains), leading to a two-year war. It ended with the Fort Laramie treaty, and the US abandoned the trail.

Question 15

Red Cloud

Answer 15

Sioux leader who fought against US expansion, especially against the Bozeman Trail (2-year war). He later came to speak in the capital about how the US treated his people unfairly and begged for the citizens to speak out on the Natives’ behalf. He got a standing ovation.

Question 16

Battle of Little Bighorn

Answer 16

Rumors of gold in the Black Hills reservation (Sioux, South Dakota) made the US want to buy those lands. Sioux leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were understandably angry. Driven by greed and arrogance, Lieutenant Colonel George Custer invaded native land in search of this gold. He led a force of 200 men in a frontal assault against the Sioux (1000-2000 people) despite orders telling him to stay put. The Sioux slaughtered Custer and his forces (except for a single half-native scout).

Newspapers in the east romanticized Custer and incensed the public. The government sent half the nation’s army to hunt down and kill/relocate the Sioux.

Crazy Horse was killed; Sitting Bull fled to Canada.

Question 17

Ghost Dance

Answer 17

Wovoka (a Sioux prophet) promised a return to traditional life if people practiced the Ghost Dance (join hands and whirl in circle). Followers believed that the world would soon end and that Native people and their dead ancestors would inherit the earth. The Teton Sioux in particular practiced this with Sitting Bull’s encouragement.

Some natives believed that shirts blessed by Ghost Dance prophets would become bulletproof. This encouraged a new wave of resistance against US expansion.

The army disliked this and felt that it riled up the natives. They tried to arrest Sitting Bull, but he was shot and killed in the process.

Question 18

Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

Answer 18

200 of Sitting Bull’s followers were led to Wounded Knee creek and murdered by the US army.

Question 19

Helen Hunt Jackson

Answer 19

She was one of few Americans disgusted by how the US treated Native people. She wrote “A Century of Dishonor” in 1881.

“record of history with Indians; every page and every year has its dark stain”

Question 20

Assimilation

Answer 20

In this case, it refers to native people adopting white American ways.

In 1887, federal law dismantled the Natives’ concept of shared land in a community and forced them to use private property. As a result, 2/3 of Native land ended up in white squatters’ hands. Congress bought out Native claims to the region.

Question 21

Dawes Act

Answer 21

It divided reservation land into individual parts. It promised that if natives agreed to partake in it, they would be granted US citizenship and 160 acres of land for a single family unit. This, along with boarding schools meant to “civilize” native children (not optional and essentially led to brainwashing and abuse) led to cultural genocide.

Question 22

Boomers

Answer 22

took 2 million acres of land in the race westward. These were actually mainly Chinese, black, Filipino, and Mexican families.

Question 23

Sooners

Answer 23

staked out & took the best land by sneaking past government officials early to mark claims. The remaining 1/3 of the territory was open to settlement.

Question 24

Railroads

Answer 24

They were quintessential to westward expansion because they gave people the comfort of knowing that they could return East if necessary, and made commerce far easier.