American West: Transcontinental Railroad, Indian Wars, and Frontier Development

When the Civil War ended, what fabled line was the frontier still wavering toward that defines the eastern boundary of the West?

100th Meridian

Once the South seceded, what route did Congress authorize for the railroad?

Northern route

What act did Lincoln sign authorizing the transcontinental railroad? EC: What date?

Pacific Railway Act, July 1, 1862

What two railroad companies received liberal loans and generous donations of land?

Union Pacific and Central Pacific

What did frontier villages that were bypassed by the railroad often become?

Ghost towns

From what city did the Union Pacific thrust westward?

Omaha, Nebraska

What nickname was given to the mostly Irish Union Pacific construction gangs?

Paddies (Patricks)

What were the tented towns of the railroad workers known as?

Hells on Wheels

What railroad laid rail from the California end?

Central Pacific

What snow-clogged mountain range did the Central Pacific have to push through?

Sierra Nevada

What were the four self-made owners of the Central Pacific called?

The Big Four

Which member of the Big Four was an ex-governor of California?

Leland Stanford

How many Chinese workers toiled for the Central Pacific?

15,000

What was the 1869 joining of the two railroads celebrated as? EC: Near what city?

Wedding of the rails, Ogden, Utah

What new invention allowed ranchers to cheaply enclose the once wide-open plains?

Barbed wire

What vast livestock-trading empire dominated the heart of the continent by the mid-19th century?

Comanche empire

The Plains tribes' horses were descended from those loosed during what late 17th-century event?

Pueblo Revolt

At what two forts were treaties signed in 1851 and 1853 to control the Plains Indians?

Fort Laramie (1851), Fort Atkinson (1853)

These treaties marked the beginnings of what system in the West?

Reservation system

In the 1860s, what reservation in Dakota Territory were the Plains Indians herded into? EC: What other territory?

Great Sioux Reservation, Indian Territory (Oklahoma)

What were African American soldiers dubbed by their Native adversaries?

Buffalo Soldiers

What 1864 massacre saw a Colorado militia butcher more than 200 Cheyenne?

Sand Creek Massacre

Who led the Colorado militia at Sand Creek?

Colonel J. M. Chivington

In 1866, Lakota warriors moved to block construction of what trail? EC: Leading to what goldfields?

Bozeman Trail, Montana

Who was the famed Oglala Lakota strategist who led the 1866 war party? EC: What was his Lakota name?

Red Cloud, Mahpíya Lúta

Whose command of 81 soldiers and civilians was ambushed with not a single survivor?

Captain William J. Fetterman

Who was the buckskin-clad "boy general" of Civil War fame turned Indian fighter?

George Armstrong Custer

In 1874, Custer led a "scientific" expedition into what hills? EC: What did he announce he discovered there?

Black Hills (South Dakota), gold

Who led the aggrieved Lakota warriors? EC: What was his Lakota name?

Crazy Horse, Tasunke Witco

Who was the Lakota's political and spiritual leader? EC: What was his Lakota name?

Sitting Bull, Tatanka-Iyotanka

What is the Battle of Little Bighorn also known as?

Battle of the Greasy Grass

What cavalry unit did Custer lead? EC: Nearly what fraction of them were immigrants?

7th Cavalry, nearly half

About how many of Custer's officers and men were completely wiped out? EC: What year?

250, 1876

What tribe from northeastern Oregon fled in 1877 when the U.S. tried to push them onto a reservation?

Nez Perce

Who led the Nez Perce? EC: What was his Nez Perce name?

Chief Joseph, Heinmot Tooyalakekt

Who was the famously fearless Apache leader? EC: What was his Apache name?

Geronimo, Goyaaɬé

About how many bison grazed the western plains when the Civil War ended?

15 million

Who earned his nickname by killing over 4,000 bison in 18 months? EC: For what railroad?

William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Kansas Pacific

By 1885, fewer than how many buffalo were left alive?

1,000

What state was convulsed by an electrifying gold discovery in 1858?

Colorado

What fabulous lode was uncovered in Nevada in 1859?

Comstock Lode

What were the mining boomtowns that sprouted from the desert sands known as?

Helldorados

What was the first territory to give women the vote? EC: What year?

Wyoming, 1869

What was the seasonal movement of giant cattle herds to railroad terminals called?

Long Drive

What cow town was called "the Bibulous Babylon of the Frontier"?

Dodge City

Who maintained order in Abilene, Kansas as marshal?

James B. "Wild Bill" Hickok

What ghastly winter left thousands of cattle starving and freezing? EC: How cold did it get?

1886-1887, 68 degrees below zero

Who were the "beef barons" who consolidated the cattle industry?

Swifts and Armours

What 1862 act allowed settlers to acquire as much as 160 acres of land?

Homestead Act

What was the heavy iron plow pulled by four yokes of oxen called?

The plow that broke the plains

What were the farmers who poured onto the prairie called?

Sodbusters

What imaginary line separated the well-watered East from the semiarid West? EC: Running from where to where?

100th meridian, the Dakotas to west Texas

Who was the one-armed geologist who warned that agriculture beyond the 100th meridian was impossible without massive irrigation?

John Wesley Powell

What was the title of Powell's 1878 report?

Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States

What delusion did farmers embrace, ignoring Powell's advice?

Rain follows the plow

What new farming technique took root on the Great Plains after the drought? EC: What did it later contribute to?

Dry farming, the Dust Bowl

What policy did President Grant announce in 1869 regarding Native Americans?

Peace Policy

In what year did Congress declare it would no longer recognize tribes as sovereign nations or make treaties with them?

1871

Who wrote A Century of Dishonor in 1881?

Helen Hunt Jackson

What 1887 act dissolved many tribes as legal entities and wiped out tribal ownership of land?

Dawes Severalty Act

In what year was full citizenship finally granted to all Native Americans?

1924

What Pennsylvania school, funded in 1879, taught Native children English and white values?

Carlisle Indian School

What was the Carlisle school founder's motto?

Kill the Indian and save the man

What 1934 act partially reversed the individualistic approach and tried to restore tribal life? EC: What was it nicknamed?

Indian Reorganization Act, Indian New Deal

What religious movement swept through the western tribes beginning in 1889?

Ghost Dance

Where did the U.S. Army bloodily stamp out the Ghost Dance among the Lakota in 1890?

Wounded Knee Massacre

What state joined the Union in 1876 as "the Centennial State"?

Colorado

What were the illegal settlers who jumped the gun into Oklahoma Territory called?

Sooners

In what year did Oklahoma become a state? EC: What was its nickname?

1907, Sooner State

What did the superintendent of the census announce in 1890?

The frontier line was no longer discernible (frontier closed)

Who wrote "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"? EC: What year?

Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893

What was the first national park? EC: What year?

Yellowstone, 1872

What theory held that the unemployed could move west, take up farming, and prosper during hard times?

Safety valve