Revision Summary for Sections 5 - 7.

Answer the questions from the text to start with. When you have done that once go through them without

any prompts.

What made homesteading on the

Plains so difficult?

No wood for fuel or housing, extreme climate, no water,

hard land, fires and insects.

What were the special features of dry

farming?

Turkey Red Wheat, wind pumps, the Sodbuster plough and ploughing in

rain or snow.

Discuss the technological advances that helped the Plains

homesteaders.

Corn planters, wind pumps,

barbed wire and Deere’s plough. Later gangs of labourers with steam driven

machines.

Wood was scarce on the Plains. Give three

uses for wood and explain the alternatives used by homesteaders.

Building-Sod houses

Fuel- Cattle chipsFencing- barbed

wire

Why did the railway companies encourage

homesteaders?

They wanted customers for their

trains.

How did the railway companies solve their

labour problems?

They used Chinese worker.

Discuss the ethnic mix of Plains

homesteaders?

Freed slaves,religious and economic migrants,demobilised soldiers & a small number of Indians.

Where and when was the East-West railway

line completed?

Promontory Point, Utah in 1869.

What event led to the breeding of the Texas

Longhorn?

The Americans taking Texas from

the Mexicans.

What happened to the cattle population of

Texas during the Civil War?

It expanded very quickly; one man’s herd went from180

to 5,000 for example.

Name one man who benefited from the explosion in cattle population and explain how he cashed in on his good fortune.

The man in the previous answer

was Goodnight. He blazed a trail to the cattle towns

and made a fortune.

What piece of technology led to the

great cattle drives and the Beef Bonanza?

The railway

Who made his fortune by building up Abilene? What was special about

Abilene?

Joseph McCoy, created Abilene as

the first cattle town in 1867.

Discuss the reasons for conflict between Cattle

men and Homesteaders.

Cattle crossed land with crops on, and

homesteaders fenced off water.

What was ‘Texas Fever’? Why was it a

problem for homesteaders and not

cattle men?

A cattle tick (insect) it affected

homesteaders cattle but not the

Longhorn.

How did John Iliff change the cattle business?

He cross bred Longhorns with Herefords for

hardy cattle with more meat.

Would you really like to be a cowboy or

cowgirl? Explain your answer.

You would say yes because….. And list several features of the life (and myth) that are attractive, and no

because….. And list the less pleasant features of life.

Use the “Fred can shout…” mnemonic from the Indian questions

in sections 1 & 2.

What special features of the American

quarter horse made it especially good as a

cowboy’s mount?

Sturdy and compact. It

manoeuvred well and could travel long distances.

Why was the Peacemaker a better

pistol than the Dragoon carried during the Civil

War?

The brass cartridges of the peacemaker were more reliable than the cap and ball of

the dragoon.

Outline at least three factors that brought an

end to the long trail drives of the Beef

Bonanza.

Markets declined.The cattle

overgrazed the range.

Hard winters and droughts killed

many cattle.

To what extent was there peace on the Plains before the

arrival of the Whites?

Indian tribes had always fought each

other.

How had the Cherokees tried to fit into

European ways in Georgia and Texas, and how were they repaid?

They used farming, houses and

writing. They were forced out to

Oklahoma, and many died on the

‘trail of tears’.

Why did the Indian numbers drop in

California from 100,000 in 1846 to 30,000 in

1851?

Partly due to fighting but mainly

disease.

Discuss the medium and short term causes

of the Santee Sioux war of 1862.

Medium term was mainly starvation due to the shortages caused by the

Civil War.Short term was the murder of 5

settlers for a dare and the Little Crow raid.

Describe the events at Sand Creek on 29th

November 1864 and what led to them.

Causes- Starvation led the Cheyenne to raid for food. They mutilated corpses, which outraged whites.

Events- Chivington attacked Black Kettle at Sand Creek. They

massacred and mutilated 300 bodies, but few were warriors.

Custer was not the only officer to get himself

and his men massacred by underestimating the Indians. Name another

and describe the circumstances.

In 1866 Capt. Fetterman’s force

was destroyed while they were trying to build forts on Indian

land to protect settlers.

Why was the Bozeman Trail important to 1) Indians2) Whites?

It crossed the main hunting ground of the

Sioux.It joined the River

Platte with the mining towns in

Montana.

The second Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868

amounted to the army’s surrender to red

Cloud. Describe the events leading to this

rare victory for the Indians.

After Fetterman’s defeat the

Government gave up fighting Indians for a while. It was too costly. They abandoned the forts, which the Indians burnt.

Why was reservation life so hard for the

Indians?

They could not hunt properly, they

were not given enough food and

were treated badly by the land agents.

Name two southern and two northern tribes

involved in the Indian Wars.

Southern-Apache & Comanche

Northern-Sioux & Cheyenne

Who commanded the army forces in the Sioux campaign in

1876?

Sitting Bull was the political leader and

Crazy Horse was the military commander.

What happened at the Little Bighorn?

Custer and 225 of his men were massacred.

Name three cavalry commanders who

learned their trade in the Civil War.

Custer, Sherman and Sheridan.

What effect did the Civil War have on the

Indians and the treatment of the

Indians by Whites?

It had little direct effect, although whites tried to involve them.The shortages caused

by the war led to starvation of the

Indians by reservation agents.

Compare the Ghost Dance cult of Wovoka with the similar cult of the 1870s and 1880s.

Wovoka’s cult was similar to earlier ones, but he was

non-violent while the others preached

extermination of the whites.

Were the events of Wounded Knee of 29th

December 1890 a battle, a massacre or

an act of incompetence?

A battle because both groups were armed and did fight, a

massacre because a superior white force, that was looking for

trouble wiped out a peaceful group made up mainly of women

and children and incompetent because the incident was not intended by either leader and

could have been avoided.

Pick a cowboy film and discuss its relationship to some of the factual

events you have studied.

If you do this use words like stereotype, myth, heroic, bias and entertainment. Look at who the film was made by and what for.

Check the detail of the film against what you know from

your study.

Well done! Getting this far is quite an

achievement. You have got through the American

West Unit.

If you haven’t done the Medicine one try that now. If you have then it is time to go through some of our other revision resources, or maybe

even try a question or two from past papers.