Westward Expansion

The ultimate testament to Manifest Destiny!

Crazy Horse monument, Black Hills, SD

Custer was on sacred land that was given to the Native Americans

• General Custer and his 250 men were looking for gold in the Black Hills (S. Dakota)

• Sitting Bull and his 2,500 men surprised Custer

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1875

The “Ghost Dance” was a ritual that promised Native Americans immunization to bullets

• The Ritual scared white citizens and the government tried to stop it

• 300 Sioux men, women, and children dead

Ghost Dance - 1890

Yellow Bird

Big Foot

The Homestead Act gave farmers 160 Acres free land in the West

• 5 yr commitment• Homesteaders believed that “The Rain

will follow the Plow”• Many lost crops due to weather and

insects• The absence of trees forced

Homesteaders to build homes out of sod

The Promontory Spike was linked the two railroads in 1869

• Promontory, Utah• Chinese Immigrants• Little Regard for safety• Time Zones (1883)