Deck 2: The Contested West, 1865-1900

Question 1

What happened to the Sioux after their victory at the Battle of the Little Big Horn?

A) They continued to pose a military threat to American invaders.
B) They were hunted down by the American army.
C) Sitting Bull led the united Sioux in establishing an independent settlement.
D) They begrudgingly accepted the loss of the Black Hills.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What was the outcome of the second Treaty of Fort Laramie?

A) The Sioux and Cheyenne agreed to the completion of the Bozeman Trail.
B) The treaty convinced Sioux chiefs,including Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull,to accept reservation lands.
C) The treaty was violated by the U.S.government after gold was discovered in the Black Hills.
D) The treaty led to the extinction of the Sioux Indians.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which group or groups decimated the buffalo herds on the Great Plains in the late nineteenth century?

A) Native Americans who regularly slaughtered the animals as part of their rituals
B) Railroads and irresponsible hide hunters
C) The U.S.army,which killed them to feed the troops
D) Chinese and Irish work gangs who were desperate for food

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which fleeing Indian tribe was hunted down by the U.S.army just 50 miles from Canada in 1877?

A) Nez Percé
B) Shoshoni
C) Apache
D) Crow

Question 5

Who was Geronimo?

A) A Sioux warrior and chieftain who regularly defeated the U.S.army on the Great Plains
B) The Nez Percé leader who said,"I will fight no more forever."
C) A Cheyenne warrior and chieftain who led pitched battles against both Mexican and U.S.armies
D) An Apache warrior and chieftain who led raiding parties and burned ranches on both sides of the Mexican border

Question 6

The portraits of Indian students in "The Assimilation of Sioux Students at Carlisle Indian School" illustrate what goal of Indian schools?

A) To help Indian students maintain ties to their heritage
B) To erase signs of students' Indian heritage
C) To educate Indian students as well as their white counterparts
D) To encourage patriotism to the United States among Indian students

Question 7

In what manner did William Tecumseh Sherman successfully defeat the Comanchería?

A) Using the scorched-earth policy he'd perfected during his March to the Sea
B) Committing the largest mass execution in American history
C) Creating the U.S.Bureau of Indian Affairs
D) Herding the Comanche onto the reservation at Fort Sill

Question 8

What occurred under the "outing system" of the 1880s?

A) Young children from rural areas were sent to live with families in cities.
B) Indian children were forced to live with white families over summer vacation.
C) Indian children who did not succeed at school were returned to their tribes.
D) White men who had taken Indian wives were asked to leave the reservation.

Question 9

What was the Ghost Dance?

A) A religious ritual that was supposed to lead to the destruction of whites and the return of the buffalo.
B) A ritual performed by the Paiutes in an effort to contact their great spirit leaders for guidance.
C) A signal that Native Americans of the Great Plains had resigned themselves to white domination.
D) A ritual that the Sioux men performed as they were preparing for battle against white Americans.

Question 10

Which statement describes life on the Indian reservations?

A) The government allowed Indians to maintain their cultural practices.
B) Poverty and starvation stalked Indian reservations.
C) The government assaulted Indian culture but did give Indians sufficient rations.
D) Indians were able to establish their own independent governments.

Question 11

What occurred after Geronimo surrendered to General Miles in 1886?

A) The U.S.government resettled the Apaches in Mexico.
B) The Apache warriors were tried as war criminals and executed.
C) The Apaches were allowed to remain on their ancestral land in the Southwest.
D) The government sent nearly five hundred Apaches to prisons in the South.

Question 12

Which statement describes the U.S.government's Indian policy during the middle of the nineteenth century?

A) The government was more willing than ever to grant Indians the rights enjoyed by whites.
B) The government cleared Indian land for white settlement but lived up to most of the promises it made to the Indians.
C) The government pushed Indians off their lands and into reservations.
D) The government attempted to prevent white settlers from taking more Indian land.

Question 13

What did historian Frederick Jackson Turner argue about the importance of the western frontier in American history in 1893?

A) It made the United States different from Europe.
B) It provided a focus for American imperialism.
C) It promoted conflict between the North and the South.
D) It disproved Buffalo Bill's version of American history.

Question 14

Who led the Great Sioux Uprising in 1862?

A) Sitting Bull
B) Little Crow
C) Red Cloud
D) Crazy Horse

Question 15

According to Map 17.2: Western Mining,1848-1890,in which state did the most "gold bonanzas" occur?

A) California
B) Arizona
C) South Dakota
D) Colorado

Question 16

What happened at the Sand Creek Massacre in November 1864?

A) Colonel John M.Chivington butchered 270 Indians.
B) Black Kettle defeated Chivington's American forces.
C) The Americans executed five Indians who refused to surrender.
D) Chivington scalped and mutilated Indian men but spared women and children.

Question 17

Which of the following explains why the U.S.army gunned down unarmed Sioux at Wounded Knee Creek,South Dakota in 1890?

A) It was rumored that the Indians were waiting to ambush the troops.
B) American soldiers feared an uprising provoked by a militant interpretation of the Ghost Dance religion.
C) The Sioux had refused to sign a new treaty that relinquished land surrounding the Creek.
D) Troops had been ordered to wipe out all Native Americans in the area.

Question 18

What was the Comstock Lode?

A) A vein of gold discovered by prospector Henry Comstock
B) The richest vein of silver ore found on the North American continent
C) A complicated piece of machinery designed to extract silver from mines
D) The largest mining company ever formed in the American West

Question 19

Why did the Plains Indians sign the Treaty of Fort Laramie,which ceded some of their land to allow the passage of wagon trains?

A) They depended on trade with white settlers.
B) They wanted to protect their favored status with the U.S.government.
C) They believed it would help them to displace weaker tribes.
D) They hoped to preserve their culture in the face of white onslaught.

Question 20

What was the outcome of the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887?

A) Expansion of the area covered by the reservation system to include all Native Americans
B) Division of reservations and allotment of individual plots of land to Native Americans
C) Prohibition of white settlement in Oklahoma
D) Restoration of much of the land in the Southwest to Native Americans

Question 21

For what reason did hundreds of thousands of Americans migrate to the West in the three decades after 1870?

A) To find work in the steel industry
B) To own their own land
C) To secure territorial appointments in government
D) To earn wages in the expanding agribusinesses

Question 22

What did the Homestead Act of 1862 promise to potential migrants to the West?

A) 160 acres to any southerner who promised to defect from the Confederacy and move West
B) 160 acres free to any citizen or prospective citizen who settled on land west of the Mississippi River for five years
C) Free agricultural implements and enough money to live for one year to all citizens willing to cultivate land west of the Mississippi River
D) 160 acres to any citizen or prospective citizen at a guaranteed price of $2 an acre

Question 23

How did the Utah legislature counter the criticism of polygamy in 1870?

A) It outlawed the practice.
B) It gave women the right to vote.
C) It ignored its critics.
D) It successfully petitioned for statehood.

Question 24

Which of the following is true of labor unions in the western mining industry?

A) They formed early and held considerable bargaining power.
B) They did little to help workers in the event of an accident or sickness.
C) They held little appeal for workers.
D) They had no success organizing in the West.

Question 25

Which of the following describes the impact of the wealth produced in the Nevada mining industry?

A) It enriched speculators in San Francisco.
B) It remained in the state's rapidly expanding mining towns.
C) It funded local education and construction projects.
D) It discouraged immigrants from migrating to the region.

Question 26

According to Map 17.2: Western Mining,1848-1890,in which state was lead available?

A) California
B) Nevada
C) Wyoming
D) Oregon

Question 27

What were the "chips" that served as the most prevalent form of fuel used for cooking and heating in the plains in the latter half of the nineteenth century?

A) Coal that had spilled from railroad cars
B) Charred wood leftover from Indian bonfires
C) Twigs,old corncobs,and sunflower stalks
D) Chunks of dried cattle and buffalo dung

Question 28

Which of the following describes how life in the agrarian West compared to life in the mining West?

A) Slow paced
B) Free of hardship
C) Equally exploitative
D) Free of economic competition

Question 29

How did the landscape of the trans-Mississippi West change between 1870 and 1900?

A) The region proved to be a haven for family farming.
B) It was populated predominantly by former slaves.
C) Mining made it the country's largest industrial region.
D) Family farms gave way to commercial farming.

Question 30

Which of the following characterizes life for women on the western frontier in the late nineteenth century?

A) They usually had servants to help them with their household work.
B) They worked only within the physical confines of their homes.
C) They were forced to work hard to accomplish even the simplest tasks.
D) They tended to live quite well while expending little physical effort.

Question 31

Which of the following terms best characterizes Virginia City,Nevada,and other mining centers in the late nineteenth century?

A) Lawless outposts
B) Homogeneous small towns
C) Sprawling industrialized communities
D) Short-lived settlements

Question 32

Which of the following describes women in Virginia City by 1870?

A) They were still outnumbered by men at a ratio of ten to one.
B) They complained about the city's filth,lawlessness,and disorder.
C) They worked primarily in dancehalls,saloons,and brothels.
D) They worked primarily as housekeepers.

Question 33

Which was the largest ethnic group in the western mining district of the United States in the late nineteenth century?

A) The Chinese
B) The Swiss
C) Hungarians
D) The Irish

Question 34

For what reason were African American troops,known as Buffalo soldiers,serving in the West during the Indian Wars?

A) The first black regiment to come west originated in Buffalo,New York.
B) Native Americans thought their hair resembled that of the bison.
C) They were as scarce as the buffalo on the Great Plains of the late 1800s.
D) They were the soldiers primarily responsible for the extinction of buffalo herds.

Question 35

Which of the following describes the changes experienced by the Californios between 1850 and 1880?

A) Their numbers increased from 19 percent to 82 percent of the state's total population.
B) They solidified their claim to historic land.
C) Their percentage of the state's population fell by more than 60 percent.
D) They began their steady assimilation into American life.

Question 36

Along with the Homestead Act of 1862,which factor helped stimulate the land rush in the trans-Mississippi West?

A) The transition from large commercial farming to smaller family farms
B) Frederick Jackson Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"
C) The availability of essential resources such as water and firewood on the plains
D) The opening of the transcontinental railroad

Question 37

Chinese immigrants made up what proportion of the workforce that built America's first transcontinental railroad?

A) 20 percent
B) 50 percent
C) 90 percent
D) 100 percent

Question 38

Which group or groups composed the population of the area from the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean during the last decades of the nineteenth century?

A) Native-born whites
B) African Americans fleeing the oppression of the South
C) People from various parts of Europe,Asia,and the Americas
D) Waves of Mexican refugees

Question 39

Who eventually replaced Chinese workers,especially in agriculture,after the Chinese Exclusion Act?

A) Japanese workers
B) White southerners
C) Black southerners
D) Mexican workers

Question 40

What was the purpose of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?

A) To respond to Chinese laborers' demands for higher wages and better working conditions
B) To decrease the Chinese population of the American West
C) To limit the number of Chinese immigrants to America for a period of three years
D) To reduce anti-Asian prejudice in California and other areas of the West

Question 41

Of the 2.5 million farms established between 1860 and 1900,homesteading accounted for what proportion?

A) Three-quarters
B) Two-thirds
C) One-half
D) One-fifth

Question 42

How did the invention of barbed wire revolutionize the cattle industry?

A) It helped ranchers separate their herds from one another.
B) It expanded safe grazing areas.
C) It allowed ranchers to fence in their cattle.
D) It prevented disputes over ownership of cattle.

Question 43

What did settlers passing through the western portion of Kansas and Nebraska and the eastern portion of Colorado in the years after 1870 call the area?

A) The Comstock Lode
B) Homestead Act Lands
C) The Great American Desert
D) The Near West Plains

Question 44

What was the outcome of the transformation of agriculture to big business in the South and West during the post-Civil War era?

A) An increasing number of laborers worked land they would never own
B) Agricultural yields fell dramatically overall
C) The widespread use of machinery halved the size of the agricultural labor force
D) The total number of farms fell by more than half

Question 45

By the 1870s,homesteaders discovered that most of the prime land in the West was

A) already set aside for protection by the federal government.
B) held by Native Americans,who refused to relinquish it.
C) already ruined by industrial enterprises seeking mineral wealth.
D) already in the hands of speculators.

Question 46

By the late nineteenth century,farmers were no longer the self-sufficient yeomen anchoring the republic as originally described by which of the following men?

A) Thomas Jefferson
B) George Washington
C) Andrew Jackson
D) James Madison

Question 47

Which of the following describes African American cowboys in the West in the late nineteenth century?

A) They had a substantial presence in the region but not in the fiction of the time.
B) They were prominently featured in the dime novels of the post-Civil War era.
C) They were an insignificant presence,particularly in Texas and California.
D) They were celebrated in popular fiction despite their small numbers in the region.

Question 48

Henry Miller and Charles Lux fit into which of the following categories?

A) Pioneers in the field of agribusiness
B) Small ranchers threatened by the consolidation of the ranching business
C) Enlightened benefactors of migrant laborers.
D) Adherents to the old Republican ideal of the self-sufficient yeoman farmer

Question 49

What did the state and federal governments do to encourage railroad construction in the decades after the Civil War?

A) They gave railroad companies 180 million acres of public land.
B) They gave railroads rights-of-way across homesteaders' land.
C) They sold land to railroad companies at bargain prices.
D) They reclaimed acreage already settled by farmers and sold it to the railroads.

Question 50

Between 1870 and 1900,the population of rural America shrank from 80 percent to 66 percent while the agricultural sector of the economy experienced what change?

A) It benefitted from the steady growth of the diversified family farm.
B) It suffered from the removal of government subsidies for small farms.
C) It grew through mechanization,commercialization,and expanding urban markets.
D) It became the primary source of income for laborers in the Northeast.