Chapter 17

The quickest population growth went to California for what reason?

Gold Rush

What NFL team was named after the Gold Rush? Why?

San Francisco 49ers; the gold rush happened in 1849

What other reason did the West begin to boom?

Hunting bison for their hides

What was the consequence of this American bison slaughter?

Population plummeted from over ten million at midcentury to only a few hundred by the 1880s. Bison replaced by cattle on the grasslands.

Which religious group moved west to flee from persecution?

Mormons; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Who was the leader of this church following the death of Joseph Smith?

Brigham Young

Even including the bison and gold rush, what was the largest pull factor to move out west?

Land

What law did Congress pass in 1862 that allowed male citizens to claim 160 acres of federally owned lands in the West?

Homestead Act of 1862

Why did this act exclude women?

They were considered legal dependents of their husbands

What was the division of labor in most farm households?

Men worked in the fields, women managed the home and kept the family fed.

Why did many Scandinavian migrants move to the West?

Second or third sons in Scandinavia founded farm communities in Minnesota because they did not inherit land back home

How did US and Native American culture differ in their moving patterns?

US settlers go to a place and stay, build more permanent structures and railroads, and extract materials and resources from the land; Native Americans moved often, rotated land cyclically to hunt buffalo, raid enemies, and trade goods.

Which was the earliest of the “Indian Wars,” started during the Civil War in 1862?

Dakota War

What is a common theme amongst the cause of most Indian Wars?

American settlers illegally move onto Native lands, making their hunting and farming practices unsustainable, pushing the Native Americans to a breaking point.

While Cheyenne chief Black Kettle and his followers went to Denver to negotiate a peace treaty, Colorado militia leader John M. Chivington ordered 700 militiamen to move on a Cheyenne camp, slaughtering 200 men, women, and children in 1864, in an atrocity known as what?

Sand Creek Massacre

What study was created by Congress in 1868 to decry earlier American actions towards Indigenous peoples and galvanize support for reformers?

Indian Peace Commission

What advisory body was created by Congress in 1869 to oversee Indigenous affairs and prevent the further outbreak of violence?

Board of Indian Commissioners

The Board of Indian Commissioners handed control over to whom, in an attempt to find “religiously minded men” as agents to manage reservation life?

Protestant churches

How did female Christian missionaries hope to reeducate Indigenous women?

Redefining their gender norms; have women do more “housework” rather than their traditional jobs of fieldwork and controlling the products of labor

What was the viewpoint of most Americans about Indigenous peoples on reservations?

“Lazy” and “inferior” in their way of life

Which region did the US military focus on “freeing” following the Civil War?

Southern Plains

Which Indigenous groups were in this area and held the power and alliances?

Comanche and Kiowa

What was the misunderstanding that took place at the peace negotiations at Medicine Creek Lodge in the fall of 1867?

Comanche believed they were given vast lands to hunt and herd buffalo, while US believed they had accepted reservation life

Who was the famed war leader who led the Comanche raiding against the US military in fall 1874?

Quanah Parker

What war between the Comanche and US military led to the defeat of the Comanche in the Texas Panhandle, and they were eventually moved to reservation lands in southwestern Oklahoma?

Red River War (1874)

What reservation on the northern Plains was created after a Sioux victory in Red Cloud’s War and the ensuing Treaty of 1868?

Great Sioux Reservation

What was found that led to many treaty violations by US citizens?

Discovery of gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota

How did US federal officials respond to the treaty violations?

Pressured the western Sioux into signing a new treaty, transferring control over Black Hills to the United States, while moving troops into the region.

During which battle were General George Custer and 268 of the men in his 7th Cavalry were killed?

Battle of Little Bighorn

Due to the fall of Custer, there were many military expeditions sent out to crush the Sioux. Who brought the first group to surrender in May 1877?

Crazy Horse brought the Oglala Sioux

Who pushed Indigenous populations away from the northern Great Basin in the 1850s and 60s?

Mormons

Name at least 2 groups that came together and fought throughout the Great Basin and the lands acquired from the Mexican War.

Navajo, Jicarilla Apache, Hopi, Zuni, Utes, Paiutes

Where did General James Carleton move the Navajo to end their threat to US expansion in the Southwest?

Bosque Redondo Valley, a dry and treeless site 300 miles from the Navajo homeland

In 1863, Carleton gave orders to Colonel Kit Carson to round up the entire Navajo population and escort them with threat of being shot if resisted, which began a period of Navajo history referred to as __________.

The Long Walk (August 1863 - December 1866)

Who wrote of the inhumane situation of the Navajo reservation and recommended THIS treaty to move them from the reservation back to their homeland?

William Tecumseh Sherman; Treaty of Bosque Redondo (1868)

In the Pacific Northwest in 1876, which group attempted to flee to Canada in an attempt to avoid relocation?

Nez Perce

Who was their leader, who upon his surrender was supposed to have said, “Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”?

Chief Joseph

Which two major industries fueled the new western economy?

Ranching and railroads

The transcontinental railroad was constructed by the west by what company? From the east?

Central Pacific from the West; Union Pacific from the East

The two roads were linked in Utah in what year?

1869

What legislation was passed that gave subsidies to railroad companies for each mile built and provided land grants, which helped build the transcontinental railroad?

Pacific Railroad Act (1862)

How many miles of railroads were present in the United States in 1850? 1900?

9,000; 190,000

What was the most major railroad hub city of the Midwest?

Chicago

What “world’s fair” in Chicago trumpeted the city’s progress and broader technological processes, highlighted by a huge, gleaming “White City” built to house all the features and needs of the visitors?

World Columbian Exposition (1893)

Why was Chicago noted as the “gateway” between ranch country and eastern markets?

Railroads brought cattle from Texas to Chicago for slaughter, where they were processed then shipped by refrigerated rail to eastern cities.

How would the cattle herders get their cattle to the rails in Texas?

Cattle drives

List two of the trails that the cattle drive could follow.

Chisholm Trail, Western Trail, Goodnight-Loving Trail, Shawnee Trail

What was the heritage of many cowboys that were not white?

Quarter African American; more were Mexican or Mexican-American

Which “cowboy” terms have been adopted from the Mexican vaqueros?

Rodeo, bronco, lasso

Which two women were most famous to have traveled along the drives?

Molly Dyer Goodnight would travel with her husband; Lizzie Johnson Williams helped drive her own herds

What led to the end of the long cattle drives in the 1880s?

Railroad lines ran through the areas, making the drives obsolete

Why did white settlers believe Native people were using their land “inefficiently”?

Rather than farm their land or ranch, Natives preferred nomadic hunting

Why did many Americans fight for legislation to allow the transfer of Indigenous lands to farmers and ranchers?

While making more land available to them, it would also encourage American-style agriculture and put Indigenous people on the path to “civilization.”

What legislation was passed that splintered Native American reservations into individual family homesteads?

Dawes Act (1887)

How much land could be claimed under this act?

160 acres, same as the Homestead Act

What was one major consequence of this act?

Native nations struggled to hold on to tribal sovereignty; upended their lifestyles

Following the Dawes Act, what religious ceremony would Native Americans practice to confront American imperial power?

Ghost Dance

While this was started by Northern Paiute prophet Wovoka, who were the most famous Ghost Dancers?

Lakota Sioux

The Lakota Sioux faced their toughest task when this state was formed out of their land in 1889.

South Dakota

Fearing the Ghost Dance, federal agents began arresting and killing Lakota leaders, such as Chief Sitting Bull, pushing them to try and flee west. An American cavalry unit intercepted a band of 350 Lakota, including over 100 women and children, seeking refuge at the Pine Ridge Agency. The cavalry entered the camp to disarm, tensions flared, and 2 dozen cavalrymen and 150-300 Native men, women, and children were dead after this tragedy.

Wounded Knee Massacre