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 chips
Fencing- 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 29 th
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) Indians
2) 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 29 th
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.