Deck 25: The Conquest of the West

Question 1

Identify and state the historical significance of Helen Hunt Jackson.

Answer 1

Massachusetts children's book author who exposed atrocities toward Indians through a series of books.

Question 2

Identify and state the historical significance of Nez Perce.

Answer 2

Indian tribe displaced from northeastern Oregon to Kansas.

Question 3

Identify and state the historical significance of 100^th Meridian.

Answer 3

The line that defines the eastern boundary of the United States.

Question 4

Identify and state the historical significance of Sitting Bull.

Question 5

Identify and state the historical significance of the Cheyenne.

Question 6

Identify and state the historical significance of James B. Hickok.

Question 7

Identify and state the historical significance of the Fetterman massacre.

Question 8

Identify and state the historical significance of Chief Joseph.

Question 9

Identify and state the historical significance of George A. Custer.

Question 10

Identify and state the historical significance of Comanches.

Question 11

Identify and state the historical significance of the Apaches.

Question 12

Identify and state the historical significance of the Arapahoes.

Question 13

Identify and state the historical significance of William J. Fetterman.

Question 14

Identify and state the historical significance of Frederick Jackson Turner.

Question 15

Identify and state the historical significance of John Wesley Powell.

Question 16

Identify and state the historical significance of Sioux.

Question 17

Identify and state the historical significance of Geronimo.

Question 18

Identify and state the historical significance of William F. Cody.

Question 19

Identify and state the historical significance of reservation system.

Question 20

Identify and state the historical significance of J. M. Chivington.

Question 21

Identify and state the historical significance of the Treaty of Fort Laramie.

Question 22

Identify and state the historical significance of Sand Creek, Colorado.

Question 23

Yellowstone

Question 24

Identify and state the historical significance of the Dawes Severalty Act.

Question 25

safety-valve theory

Question 26

Identify and state the historical significance of the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Question 27

The Buffalo Soldiers were

A) U. S. Army units who survived on the plains by killing buffalo.
B) African American cavalry and soldiers who served in the frontier wars.
C) soldiers who sought to defeat the Indians by depriving them of their primary food supply.
D) soldiers who were killed in the Fetterman massacre.
E) soldiers who were court martialed for assisting Plains Indians with food and other provisions.

Question 28

Identify and state the historical significance of Dodge City, Kansas.

Question 29

The Indians battled whites for all the following reasons EXCEPT to

A) rescue their families who had been exiled to Oklahoma.
B) avenge savage massacres of Indians by whites.
C) punish whites for breaking treaties.
D) defend their lands against white invaders.
E) preserve their nomadic way of life against forced settlement.

Question 30

Identify and state the historical significance of the Sooner State.

Question 31

In the warfare that raged between the Indians and the American military after the Civil War,

A) the Indians were never as well armed as the soldiers.
B) the U.S. army was able to dominate with its superior technology.
C) there was often great cruelty and massacres on both sides.
D) Indians proved to be no match for the soldiers.
E) Indians and soldiers seldom came into face-to-face combat.

Question 32

Identify and state the historical significance of the mining industry.

Question 33

Identify and state the historical significance of A Century of Dishonor.

Question 34

In post-Civil War America, Plains Indians surrendered their lands ONLY when they

A) chose to migrate farther west.
B) received solemn promises from the government that they would be left alone and provided with supplies on the remaining land.
C) lost their mobility as the whites killed their horses.
D) were allowed to control the supply of food and other staples to the reservations.
E) were defeated militarily by the U.S. Army in various Indian wars.

Question 35

Identify and state the historical significance of Comstock Lode.

Question 36

Identify and state the historical significance of the Battle of Wounded Knee.

Question 37

Identify and state the historical significance of the Ghost Dance.

Question 38

Identify and state the historical significance of the Homestead Act.

Question 39

For white American treaty makers, Indian tribes were

A) revered as having the authority to organize and lead scattered Native Americans.
B) considered as an appropriate and efficient way to organize Native American scattered over thousands of miles.
C) a fiction of the white imagination.
D) a better alternative to the scattered bands that they had had in the past.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 40

Identify and state the historical significance of the Long Drive.

Question 41

As a result of the Battle of Little Bighorn

A) the government sent extensive military reinforcements to the Dakotas and Montana.
B) the government signed another Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, abandoning the Bozeman Trail and guaranteeing the Sioux their lands.
C) the government adopted a policy of civilizing the Indians rather than trying to conquer them.
D) white settlers agreed to halt their expansion beyond the 100^th meridian.
E) the conflict between the U.S. army and the Sioux came to a peaceful end.

Question 42

The Nez Perce Indians of Idaho were goaded into war when

A) the Sioux began to migrate onto their land.
B) gold was discovered on their reservation.
C) the federal government attempted to force them onto a reservation.
D) the Canadian government attempted to force their return to the United States.
E) the U.S. government reneged on a treaty agreement to permit the Nez Perce to keep their native lands.

Question 43

A Century of Dishonor (1881), which chronicled the dismal history of Indian-white relations, was authored by

A) Harriet Beecher Stowe.
B) Helen Hunt Jackson.
C) Chief Joseph.
D) Joseph F. Glidden.
E) Chief Black Elk of the Ogala Sioux.

Question 44

The bitter conflict between whites and Indians intensified

A) during the Civil War.
B) as mining operations receded in the West.
C) when big business took over the mining industry.
D) as the mining frontier expanded.
E) after the Battle of Wounded Knee.

Question 45

Arrange the following events in chronological order: (A) Dawes Severalty Act is passed; (B) Oklahoma land rush takes place; (C) Indians are granted full citizenship; and (D) Congress restores the tribal basis of Indian life.

A) A, B, C, D
B) B, A, C, D
C) A, D, B, C
D) D, C, A, B
E) C, B, D, A

Question 46

To assimilate Indians into American society, the Dawes Act did all of the following EXCEPT

A) dissolve many tribes as legal entities.
B) try to make rugged individualists of the Indians.
C) wipe out tribal ownership of land.
D) promise Indians U.S. citizenship in twenty-five years.
E) expand recognized tribes' collective land ownership holdings.

Question 47

All of the following are true statements about Indians who ended up on reservations in the 1870s and 1880s EXCEPT

A) they were fed meagerly by the U.S. government and not annihilated by the U.S. Army.
B) they were forced to eke out an existence.
C) they became wards of the U.S. government.
D) they felt protected and well-provided for by the U.S. government.
E) many died from diseases.

Question 48

The 19^th-century humanitarians who advocated kind treatment of the Indians

A) had no more respect for traditional Indian culture than those who sought to exterminate them.
B) advocated improving the reservation system.
C) opposed passage of the Dawes Act.
D) understood the value of the Indians' religious and cultural practices.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 49

The Dawes Severalty Act was designed to promote Indian

A) prosperity.
B) annihilation.
C) assimilation.
D) culture.
E) education.

Question 50

The United States government's outlawing of the Indian Sun (Ghost) Dance in 1890 resulted in the

A) Battle of Wounded Knee.
B) Sand Creek massacre.
C) Battle of Little Bighorn.
D) Dawes Severalty Act.
E) Indian Reorganization Act.

Question 51

A new round of warfare between the Sioux and U.S. Army began in 1874 when

A) the U.S. Army decided to retaliate for the Fetterman massacre.
B) Sioux Chief Crazy Horse began an effort to drive all whites from Montana and the Dakotas.
C) Colonel George Custer led an expedition to Little Big Horn, Montana.
D) Colonel George Custer discovered gold on Sioux land in the Black Hills.
E) the federal government announced that it was opening all Sioux lands to settlement.

Question 52

The Plains Indians were finally forced to surrender and end their resistance to losing their lands

A) because they were decimated by their constant intertribal warfare.
B) when they realized that agriculture was more profitable than hunting.
C) after such famous leaders as Geronimo and Sitting Bull were killed.
D) when the government extended a better offer to relocate the Plains Indians to unoccupied, large Western lands.
E) by the coming of the railroads and the virtual extermination of the buffalo.

Question 53

Large numbers of Europeans were persuaded to come to America to farm on the Northern frontier by

A) railroad agents who offered to sell them cheap land.
B) churches and other nonprofit organizations.
C) the offer of free homestead land by the U.S. government.
D) European governments.
E) All of these choices are correct.

Question 54

Which of these is NOT a true statement about women on the frontier?

A) Women worked as prostitutes on the frontier.
B) Some women made money running boarding houses.
C) Women were voluntary participants in the saloon drinking and culture of the frontier West.
D) Frontier women got the right to vote much later than women in the East.
E) Women found a variety of opportunities in the West.

Question 55

The largest single source of silver and gold in the frontier of the West was discovered in 1859 in

A) Montana.
B) the Black Hills of South Dakota.
C) California.
D) New Mexico.
E) Nevada.

Question 56

All of the following are true statements about the Homestead Act EXCEPT

A) it was consistent with previous government public land policy designed primarily to raise revenue for government.
B) about a half million families carved out new homes in the 40 years after its passage.
C) ten times more of the public land ended up in the hands of land speculators than farmers.
D) thousands of people didn't last the five years required by the Homestead Act.
E) the standard 160 acres provided to farmers proved to be inadequate on the rain-scarce Great Plains.

Question 57

The buffalo were nearly exterminated

A) as a result of being overhunted by the Indians.
B) when their grasslands were turned into wheat and corn fields.
C) when their meat became valued in eastern markets.
D) by disease.
E) through wholesale butchery by whites.

Question 58

Helen Hunt Jackson's novel, Ramona, was centered around

A) the cruel mistreatment of Indians in California.
B) the cheating of Indians by federal agents on the reservations.
C) the efforts of Christian reformers to prevent the killing of Indians.
D) an Indian girl's attempt to retain her culture in an Indian boarding school.
E) the last Indian wars between the U.S. army and the Apaches in the Southwest.

Question 59

Match each Indian chief below with his tribe.

A) A-1, B-2, C-3
B) A-3, B-4, C-1
C) A-2, B-4, C-3
D) A-4, B-3, C-2
E) A-1, B-3, C-4

Question 60

One major problem with the Homestead Act was that

A) the government continued to try to maximize its revenue from public lands.
B) 160 acres were inadequate for productive farming on the rain-scarce Great Plains.
C) Midwestern farmers had to give up raising livestock because of stiff competition with the West.
D) most homesteaders knew little or nothing about farming in the West.
E) it took several years to earn a profit from farming a homestead.

Question 61

The decline of the long drive and the cattle boom resulted from

A) the settlement of homesteading farmers on range land.
B) a series of extraordinarily severe winters.
C) overgrazing and overproduction.
D) the inability to recruit enough veteran cowboys.
E) barbed-wire fencing.

Question 62

Explain the ultimate defeat of the Plains Indians by whites. Select and discuss at least three major reasons for the decline of the Plains culture; then tell which you think was the most important and why.

Question 63

Sooners were settlers who "jumped the gun" in order to

A) pan gold in California.
B) stake claims in the Comstock Lode in Nevada.
C) claim land in Oklahoma before the territory was legally opened to settlement.
D) drive the first cattle to Montana and Wyoming.
E) grab town sites in the Dakotas.

Question 64

Factors eventually leading to the defeat of the Plains Indians included

A) the arrival of the railroads in the West.
B) disease.
C) near-extermination of the buffalo.
D) warfare with the U.S. army.
E) extinction of Indian religious beliefs.

Question 65

Why were the conflicts between federal and state military forces and western Indian tribes exceptionally bitter and cruel?

Question 66

Western cities like Denver and San Francisco did serve as a major safety valve by providing

A) a home for new immigrants from Europe.
B) recreational activities for its inhabitants.
C) a home for economically struggling farmers, miners, and easterners.
D) subsidized and low-cost housing for immigrants from China and Japan.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 67

The Homestead Act was less successful than hoped. Why? Consider the provisions of the law. What were its strengths, its weaknesses, and its loopholes? How did the environmental conditions on the Great Plains affect the Homestead Act?

Question 68

What is the safety-valve theory? Do you find it plausible? Why or why not?

Question 69

A major problem faced by settlers on the Great Plains in the 1870s was

A) the high price of land.
B) the low market value of grain.
C) the scarcity of water.
D) overcrowding.
E) the opposition of miners.

Question 70

Frontier towns where cattle were shipped east after being driven north on the "Long Drive" from Texas included

A) Dodge City, Kansas.
B) Deadwood, South Dakota.
C) Abilene, Kansas.
D) Abilene, Texas.
E) Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Question 71

After exploring much of the West, geologist John Wesley Powell advised in 1874 that

A) the rush of settlers was devastating the western environment.
B) land west of the 100^th meridian could not be farmed without extensive irrigation.
C) damming western rivers for irrigation purposes would damage mountains and forests.
D) mining was the only industry that could sustain the western economy.
E) irrigation was not necessary for farming west of the 100^th meridian because of adequate rainfall and fertile lands in this region.

Question 72

Among the following, the least likely to migrate to the cattle and farming frontier were

A) Eastern city dwellers.
B) Eastern farmers.
C) recent immigrants.
D) blacks.
E) Midwestern farmers.

Question 73

How did the various mining, ranching, and farming stakeholders on the respective frontiers respond to the social and economic challenges and opportunities of the Industrial Revolution? What role did government play in addressing these challenges and opportunities?

Question 74

What do you think was the major technological innovation that influenced life on the Great Plains frontier? Why?

Question 75

In the long run, the group that probably did the most to shape the modern West were the

A) small businessmen that provided products and services to miners, railroad men, and cowboys.
B) miners.
C) railroad men.
D) cowboys.
E) hydraulic engineers.

Question 76

In 1890, when the superintendent of the census announced that a stable frontier line was no longer discernible,
Americans were disturbed because

A) they knew that the Homestead Act would no longer do them much good.
B) they thought that there would be a renewal of Indian warfare.
C) the idea of an endlessly open West had been an element of America's history from the beginning.
D) many of them hoped eventually to migrate to the West.
E) they feared that an influx of new western states would strengthen the Populists and other radicals.

Question 77

If you had lived in the 1880s as a white farmer on the Great Plains, what would you have proposed as a solution to the Indian problem? What would have been your view on concentration, the Dawes Severalty Act, and the savagery of Indian warfare?

Question 78

If you were a farmer in western Kansas in 1887, what would be three or four of your major problems? How would you try to solve them? Would you be likely to seek help? Where? Why? What measures would you adopt to solve these identified problems? Where would you turn to help solve these identified problems? Which political and professional organizations might you turn to help solve these problems?

Question 79

Was the reservation system inherently flawed from the beginning, or might it have worked if the federal government had enabled the Indians to keep more and better land and had treated them more fairly?

Question 80

The safety valve theory that the West dampened class conflict, while exaggerated, did have some validity because

A) free Western land did attract many immigrants to the West who might have crowded urban job markets.
B) Western farmers tended to be politically more conservative than those in the East.
C) wealthy western farmers hired many unemployed laborers from eastern cities.
D) Eastern city dwellers headed west to get free homesteads during depressions.
E) Western cities had less class conflict than those in the East.