From Creating America: Beginnings through World War 1
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Growth in the West (1860-1900)
LESSON 19-1: Miners, Ranchers and Cowhands, pgs. 557-561
OBJECTIVE(S): For the student to be able to:
1) explain how mining in the West led to settlement
2) describe the cattle industry
3) analyze how law and order was established in the West
VOCABULARY, TERMS AND NAMES TO UNDERSTAND FOR THIS LESSON:
frontier(557)- the unsettled or sparsely populated area at the center of the country
settled mainly by Native Americas
Great Plains(557)- area from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains
boomtown(558)- a town that has a sudden burst of economic or population growth
long drives(560)- cattle drives to cow towns along the railways
vaqueros(560)- Spanish term for cowhands or cowboys
vigilantes(561)- citizens who took the law into their own hands
Complete the following items.
Geography and Population of the West
1. About how many Native Americas lived in the Great Plains area in the middle 1800s? 300,000 [558]
Mining in the West and The Rise of the Cattle Industry
2. As the section titles suggest, what were two economic opportunities that drew large numbers of people to the West
beginning in the 1860s? [558-559]
a. mining
b. ranching - raising cattle
3. TRUE / FALSE: Most independent miners made a fortune panning and sluicing for gold. [suggested 559, most
became workers for larger mining companies]
The Rise of the Cattle Industry
4. TRUE / FALSE: Making use of the railroads connecting the central states with the east coast cities made ranching a
profitable business in the late 1800s. [559-560]
The "Wild West"
5. TRUE / FALSE: Since the cow towns developed and grew quickly, many of them did not have formal law officers.
This lawlessness contributed to making the west "wild". [560]
6. As the towns became larger and more organized they would elect/appoint a... sheriff
or request a federal law officer called a... federal Marshal [561]
End of the Long Drives
7. What three events/developments brought an end to the boom in the cattle industry by around 1886? [561]
a. drop in cattle prices ($30 to $7)
b. barbed wire (ended open range)
c. winter of 1886-1887
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From Creating America: Beginnings through World War 1
LESSON 19-2: Native Americans Fight to Survive, pgs. 562-567
OBJECTIVE(S): For the student to be able to:
1) describe Native American life on the plains
2) explain how the Plains tribes responded to white attempts to take away their land
3) identify the outcome of Native American resistance efforts
4) evaluate the impact of the Dawes Act on the Plains tribes
VOCABULARY, TERMS AND NAMES TO UNDERSTAND FOR THIS LESSON:
reservation(562)- land set aside for Native American tribes
Sand Creek Massacre(564)- killing of more than 150 Cheyenne men, women and
children by the Colorado Militia in 1864
Sitting Bull(565)- Native American chief of the Sioux tribe who together with chief Crazy Horse united their people to
fight the federal troops
George A. Custer(565)- Lieutenant Colonel who led his men in battle and defeat against the Native Americans at the
Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876
Battle of Little Big Horn(565)- an 1876 battle in which the Sioux and the Cheyenne wiped out an entire force of U.S.
troops
Wounded Knee Massacre(566)- 1890, the massacre by U.S. soldiers of 300 unarmed Native Americans at Wounded
Knee Creek, South Dakota, in 1890
Dawes Act(567)- a law, enacted in 1887, that distributed reservation land to individual owners
Complete the following items.
A Clash of Cultures
1. How did federal government policy toward Native Americans change as white settlers moved to the
West?
[563-564] land ceded to Native Americans by treaty was taken from them for white settlement, and they were
forced onto reservations
A Way of Life Ends
2. List four ways that the destruction of the buffalo herds affect Plains peoples. [563, 566]
a. food source
c. shelter building material
b. clothing material
d. important aspect of their religion
3. TRUE / FALSE: The Wounded Knee Massacre was a turning point in relations between Native Americans and the
government as it ended the armed resistance by the Native American people of the West. [566]
The Dawes Act Fails
4. TRUE / FALSE: The Dawes Act (1887) successfully helped most all Native Americans to become assimilated into
American culture by helping them become independent farmers. [566, many Native Americans did not have the
training or equipment to become farmers - many didn't want to farm; land was sold off cheaply]
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From Creating America: Beginnings through World War 1
LESSON 19-3: Life in the West, pgs. 568-571
OBJECTIVE(S): For the student to be able to:
1) describe the challenges and opportunities for women in the west
2) analyze the reasons for growth in western cities
3) explain how Mexicans were affected by American settlement
VOCABULARY, TERMS AND NAMES TO UNDERSTAND FOR THIS LESSON:
homestead(568)- land to settle on and farm
Mexicano(570)- a person of Spanish descent whose ancestors had come from Mexico and settled in the Southwest
William "Buffalo Bill" Cody(571)- buffalo hunter turned showman - brought his wild west show to audiences
throughout the United States and Europe
buffalo soldier(571)- a name given by Native Americans to African Americans serving in the U.S. army in the West
Complete the following items.
Women in the West
1. List three ways that women’s contributions to the West were recognized by Western lawmakers? [569]
a. gained property ownership/rights
b. voting rights
c. control over their money
The Rise of Western Cities
2. List factors (more than one) that led to the growth of such Western cities as Denver, Omaha, and San Francisco?
gold and silver strikes, railroad links, growth of meat-processing center, and regional markets [569-570]
Mexicanos in the Southwest
3. How did the arrival of Anglo-Americans change life for Spanish-speaking residents of the Southwest?
Mexicans lost economic and political power as more whites moved into the region [570]
The Myth of the Old West and The Real West
4. America's fascination with the West was fueled by book and plays featuring white settlers as heroic characters.
How were the Native Americans and African Americans often portrayed in novels and plays?
Native Americans -
villains
African Americans -
most often not mentioned [570-571]
5. While many white settlers did accomplish courageous things, what positive roles did people of other ethnic
backgrounds have in the formation of the west?
Native Americans -
helped with cattle drives
African Americans -
helped with cattle drives, served as army soldiers "buffalo soldiers" [571]
Mexicans -
first cowhands/cowboys (the vaqueros)
Chinese immigrants -
help build the railroads
6. TRUE / FALSE: While Native Americans were often portrayed in fictional writings as groups attacking white
settlers, many of the conflicts that did occur we the result of broken treaties with the government. [566]
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From Creating America: Beginnings through World War 1
LESSON 19-4: Farming and Populism, pgs. 574-579
OBJECTIVE(S): For the student to be able to:
1) explain how the U.S. government encouraged western settlement
2) describe farming life on the Great Plains
3) analyze the rise of the Populist Party
VOCABULARY, TERMS AND NAMES TO UNDERSTAND FOR THIS LESSON:
Homestead Act(574)- 1862, law offered 160 acres of land free to anyone who would live on and improve the land for
five years
Exoduster(575)- an African American who left the South for the West and compared himself or herself to Biblical
Hebrews who left slavery in Egypt
sodbuster(575)- term for a farmer on the frontier
Grange(577)- formed in 1867, the Patrons of Husbandry tried to meet the social needs of farm families but later began to
form cooperatives
cooperative(577)- an organization owned and run by its members; a group business venture to reduce costs
Populist Party(577)- also known as the People’s Party and formed in the 1890s, this group wanted a policy that would
raise crop prices
gold standard(577)- a policy under which the government backs every dollar with a certain amount of gold
William Jennings Bryan(578)- politician supported by the Democratic party and the Populist party; spoke out in support
of using "free silver" in addition to the gold standard to put more money into circulation
Complete the following items.
U.S. Government Encourages Settlement
1. In what two ways did the federal government encourage and support settlement of the Plains?
a. by passing the Homestead Act [574]
b. giving public land to the railroads to promote expansion [575]
2. What groups of people began to settle in the Plains?
a. African Americans - Exodusters [574]
b. European immigrants - Germans, Norwegians, Ukrainians and Russians [575]
Life on the Farming Frontier and The Problems of Farmers
3. Because trees were scarce on the plains, what were the early settlers forced to use to build with or use for fuel?
sod for building; corn cobs and "cow chips" manure for fuel [575]
4. TRUE / FALSE: Blizzards, fires, drought and swarms of grasshoppers were problems faced on the plains. [597]
5. TRUE / FALSE: As American farmers became more efficient and were able to grow more food crops, the price of
crops increased with America's growing population. [577-578, price steadily dropped as more food became available]
6. TRUE / FALSE In order to off-set the low grain prices as well as the high prices of shipping and storing grain
farmers began to group together to form cooperatives. They purchased their own elevators and worked together to
raises food prices. [577]
The Closing of the Frontier
7. By what year was all the available land in the country's center taken, bringing an end to the idea of the frontier?
1889 - ended with the Oklahoma land rush [578]
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