• Buffalo Soldiers
• Buffalo Hunters
• Hydraulic Miners
• Cattle Ranchers
• Homesteaders
• Transcontinental RR Laborers

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Basic Set Up
Your group may choose to be more creative (HINT HINT*)
Hydraulic
Miners
Cattle
Ranchers &
Cowboys
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Buffalo
Soldiers
The West
Group member names
Homesteaders
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Buffalo
Hunters
RR
Laborers
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• Mining using water hoses to move rock and dirt
• Individual miners gave way to large corporations
• Changed natural habitats, streams are polluted and muddy

• Almost wiped out
• Average hunter killed over 100 a day
• Had to remove to expand cattle industry

• Non fenced property
• Cattle branded
• Development of refrigerated railroad cars allow for more money to be made (beef does not spoil)

• Black Calvary soldiers
• Native Americans gave the name b/c of their skin color and their curly hair that looked like the buffalo
• Job was to keep NA on land for them
(reservations)

• Chinese & Irish immigrants
• Encouraged immigration, workers were recruited
• Chinese workers were punctual, wellbehaved, and cheap (perfect workers)

• 150 acres of gov’t land given to homesteaders
• Had to be the head of a household and 21 years old
• The RR’s hope that homesteaders would be able to ship their crops and livestock
(very productive)

answer the questions and draw a picture
1. Why did Sitting Bull get into a war with the U.S. Army in
1874?
2.
Describe the “ceremony” Sitting Bull performs during the fighting? Why did he do this?
3. Where did Sitting Bull go after defeating the army? Why did he return? What did the US gov do when he returned?
4.
How did Sitting Bull react to “white culture?”
5. How did Sitting Bull die?

answer the questions and draw a picture
1. What were the qualifications to qualify for the
Homestead Act?
2. Describe all the types of people moving west as
“homesteaders” and what they were doing.
(Include: first wave, farmers, Europeans, African
Americans)
3. What is the impact of the Homestead Act

answer the questions and draw a picture
1. Who were buffalo soldiers?
2. What was their reputation? Did they face discrimination?
3.
Why did they get their name “buffalo soldiers?”
4. What were some of their jobs?
5. What was their goal in regards to the Native
Americans on the lands out west?

answer the questions and draw a picture
1. Who lived in mining towns?
2. How did the hydraulic miners get the gold out of the mountains?
3. What is a bad effect of hydraulic mining? (3 things)
4. With all of the bad effects, why do people still use this form of form of mining?

Cattle Ranchers and Cowboys: answer the questions and draw a picture
1. Why were the new longhorn cattle not valuable?
2. Define open range system.
3.
People were given the job to “round up” cattle and called cowboys – who were the people that made up this group?
4. What invention saved the beef industry making it very profitable? Explain.

Railroad Laborers: answer the questions and draw a picture
1. Who paid for and planned the building of the RR?
2. What groups built the railroad?
3. Why were Chinese workers favored?
4. What did the Chinese drink instead of water and why?

Buffalo Hunters: answer the questions and draw a picture
1. What were buffalo skins and bones used for?
2. Why did white settlers want to remove the buffalo from the Great Plains?
3. Summarize the quote from John Fire Lame Deer about the value of the buffalo to the natives.
4. What was the purpose of the military policy to kill the buffalo?