Norton Chapter 17 - Study Guide Answers
Native American Cultures and Activities
1. Explain the two picture of the west depicted by Buffalo Bill Cody and Frederick Jackson Turner.
Buffalo Bill – Indian raids, violent, dangerous
FJT – log cabins and hard working farmers
2. On what four activities did most Native American economies rely?
1. Raising crops 2. Raising livestock 3. Hunting, fishing and gathering 4.Trading and raiding
3. Give one example each of a nomadic Plains Indian tribe and a village-dwelling tribe.
Nomadic – Lakota Village-Dwelling - Pawnee
4. Name on Southwestern Indian Tribe. On what animal did they rely?
Navajo – sheep
5. What animal did the Pacific Northwest Indians use as food?
Salmon
6. Identify three factors that contributed to the decline of the buffalo population.
1. Disease. 2. Increased hunting by native Americans for hides for trading. 3. Drought from 1840-1850 4. American settlements in grazing territory 5. other livestock took over grazing areas
7. Why did the salmon population on the Columbia River dwindle by 1880?
Salmon were over fished by commercial operations, preventing spawning
8. Describe the groups of both Native Americans and Frontiersman that might encounter one another in the late nineteenth century.
Frontiersmen were likely to be single young mobile, men with something to prove
Native American s were likely to be married young men with something to prove but families to protect
9. Why were Native Americans not protected by the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments?
They were not considered citizens of the US
10. Briefly describe the battle between Native Americans and the US military that took place in June 1876.
2,500 Lakota Indians led by chiefs Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Rain-in-the-Face surrounded and killed 256 US troops led by General Custer.
11. Identify two organizations that advocated for the rights of Native Americans. From which social groups did these groups draw their members and what specific rights did they advocate for?
WNIA – Women’s National Indian Association. White women who wanted to use their domestic skills to help people in need. They urged gradual assimilation into US culture.
IRA – Indian Rights Association. Advocated for citizenship and property rights
12. In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act. What were its two main objectives for the Native American population?
First, it distributed Native American lands to individual families. Second, it required native American children to attend boarding schools away from their reservations
13. What was Ghost Dancing? Why did the Native Americans create Ghost Dancing? Briefly summarize the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890.
Ghost Dancing was a tribal ritual in which dancers in a trance-like state visualized the return of their ancestors and the burying of the evils that plagued Native Americans. Although dancers may look fierce while dancing, they were unarmed and entranced. Dancers believed their sacred shirts would repel the white mans bullets.
At wounded knee, Custer’s old regiment was sent to round up a group of Lakota Indians. Instead they killed 300 of them, men women and children.
14. Describe the change in ownership of Native American lands between 1887 and 1930.
1887 - Native American families owned 138 million acres
1930s – Native American families own 52 million acres
Much of the land was lost to US speculators who preyed on Native Americans with various scams.
Extraction of Natural Resources
15. Identify four natural resources that were extracted from the west.
Gold, Silver, Copper, Tin, Zinc, Quartz, Lead, Lumber
16. Where were those resources found?
Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado
17. What piece of legislation opened the west to mining and logging?
Timber and Stone Act of 1878
18. What was oil used for at the time it was discovered in the Southwest?
Lubrication and lighting
19. What role did women play in the west at this time?
Many women provided cooking, laundry and other domestic services. Some women worked in aid societies to help other women, Mormons, and Native Americans, Chinese Immigrants who struggled
20. From which country did a “sizeable portion of the workforce” come before 1881 and 1882 (p. 471, col. 1)?
China
21. Which four non-white races did whites identify to maintain the social structure? Describe the structure of the social system that developed.
Indians, Mexicans, Mongolians, and Blacks. Whites formed the upper layer of the social system garnering as much profits as they could. Mexicans, Irish, Mongolians and Blacks formed the lower layer of the social structure providing the labor. Indians did not participate.
22. What was the first National Park in the US and when was it founded?
Yellowstone
23. Who helped establish Yosemite National Park in 1890?
John Muir
24. Which states were admitted to the Union all at once in 1889?
N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Montana and Washington
Irrigation and Transportation
25. What are “riparian rights”?
God owns the river. Only those who own its banks can divert water for their use and they may not diminish the river in doing so (no dams)
26. What are “prior association” rights?
Whoever got their first owns the river, they can divert it. If folks down stream suffer, they can sue the other person.
27. What was the California system of water rights?
28. What did the 1902 Newlands Reclamation Act do?
The federal government sold federal lands in parcels of 160 acres to individuals
29. How many miles of track did the US railroad have in 1865? In 1890?
1865 – 35,000 1890 – 200,000
30. Identify two ethnic groups responsible for the construction of the railroads.
Irish & Chinese
31. How did the construction and growth of the US railroad differ from European railroads?
US railroads brought development to an area, European railroads connected existing developed areas
32. How extensive were the subsidies given to railroad companies by Congress?
180 million acres
33. What systems required standardization due to the growth of railroads?
Time and gauge
Farming the Plains
34. Describe the growth of farming in the plains.
From 1870-1890 more acres were brought into farming in Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas than in the previous 250 years. In 1860 there were 2 million farms. By 1910 there were 6 million farms. Population growth worldwide made farming very profitable.
35. Describe two difficulties that plains farmers faced that eastern farmers did not.
Little lumber for housing. Water was scarce. The western plains got less than 28” of rain per year, not enough to grow crops. Weather conditions were extreme, hot summers, cold winters. Social Isolation
36. What two services combined to help make good available to rural plains farmers?
Rural Free Delivery from the USPS brought packages directly to mailboxes at the street instead of having to go get them in town. Montgomery Wards & Sears and Roebuck began to offer catalog sales.
37. During the civil war husbands left their farms to go fight and women continued to run the farm. How did they maintain their levels of production, and then increase production after the war?
Mechanization including reapers, seeders, combines, and mowers
38. What did the Hatch Act of 1887 do?
It provided for an agricultural experiment station in every state, further boosting farming in the US
The Ranching Frontier
39. What breed of cattle was most valuable for beef?
Longhorn
40. How were cattle moved from their ranches in Texas to trains bound for butchers in Chicago?
Cattle drives
41. What percentage of those who moved the cattle were black?
25%
42. About how long was the trek from Texas to Kansas and how long did it take?
2-3 months, 1,000 miles
43. By what factor did the cattle population increase from 1860 to 1880?
34 or 35 times bigger
44. What is “open range” grazing?
The practice of allowing your cattle to graze on public lands (or any land they wound up on) and herding them in only twice a year for branding and driving to market
45. What other type of farmers used open range grazing techniques and ran into conflicts with the cattle farmers?
Sheep herders
46. Why did they not settle their land disputes in court?
Often both parties were illegally grazing on the land.
47. What invention in 1873 made it possible for farmers to fence in their crops, protecting them from grazing cattle?
Barbed wire
48. Does you book ever mention cowboys fighting Indians?
No