Chapter 8
Settling the West
Chapter Review
What valuable metals brought the first waves
of settlers that populated the mountain
states of the West?

Gold, Silver, and Copper
Type of mining in which deposits of ore could
be extracted mostly by hand.
Placer Mining.
Type of mining which required corporations
to dig deep beneath the surface.
Quartz Mining
He staked a claim in Six-Mile Canyon,
Montana. The blue-gray mud there turned
out to be nearly pure silver ore.
Henry Comstock
Law enforcement which consisted of selfappointed volunteers who would track
down and punish wrongdoers.
Mining town where Samuel Clemens accepted
a job as a reporter for a local paper and
began using his pen name “Mark Twain.”
Virginia City, Nevada.
True or False?
The Pikes’ Peak strike was really a hoax; there
really was no gold in the area.
This city, a supply point for mining areas,
became the second largest city in the West
after San Francisco.
Denver, Colorado
Congress admitted these three states of the
northern Great Plains in 1889 after enough
miners, ranchers, and ranchers moved into
the area.

North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana

What breed of cattle had adapted to living
on the Great Plains?

The Texas Longhorn.

A vast area of grassland owned by the
government. This area covered much of the
Great Plains and provided land where
ranchers could graze their herds free of
charge.

The open range.

Who introduced ranching in the Southwest
before these areas became part of the U.S.?

Mexicans.

Why was ranching impractical before the
Civil War? List two!


Beef prices were low, and
Moving the cattle to the eastern markets
was not practical.
What two developments changed this?


The Civil War and,
The construction of the railroads

Moving cattle long distances to a railroad
depot for fast transport and great profit.

The Long Drive

Stray calves with no identifying symbols.

Mavericks

This invention enabled hundreds of square
miles of open range to be fenced off cheaply
and easily. It also ended the long drives.

Barbed wire.

Region of the U.S. that extends westward to
the Rocky Mountains.

The Great Plains

Law passed by Congress in 1862 to
encourage settlement in the Great Plains.

The Homestead Act

How much land could a homesteader claim
under this act?

160 acres.

How long did a homesteader have to live
there before receiving a title to that land?

5 years.

Homes on the Plains were constructed using
this “material”.

sod

Farming technique where seeds were
planted deep in the ground where there was
enough moisture for them to grow.

Dry Farming

Name given for the people who plowed the
soil on the Plains.

Sodbusters

What were three technological innovations
in agriculture?



Mechanical reapers,
Binders, and
Threshing machines

Before the Sand Creek massacre, the
Cheyenne had come to Fort Lyon to




A. Negotiate
Surrender
Attack
Defend their land

A) negotiate

Why would the government encourage
white hunters to kill the buffalo?

To force Native Americans onto
reservations.

Large ranches that could cover several
hundred acres and yielded massive profits.

Bonanza farms

What contributed to troubled times for
wheat farmers in the 1890s?


Competition from other wheat-producing
nations caused prices to drop,
Prolonged drought destroyed crops and
farms.

Payments by the government to those who
lived on the reservations.

Annuities.

Dakota chief who asked traders to provide
his people food on credit. He led the Dakota
Sioux uprising in Minnesota.

Chief Little Crow

He was a religious leader as well as a war
chief who lured the U.S. troops into an
ambush in Wyoming in 1866.

Crazy Horse

What name was given for this battle?

Fetterman’s Massacre

Leader of the Cheyenne who was massacred
at Sand Creek.

Black Kettle

U.S. commander who attacked the Cheyenne
at Sand Creek.

John Chivington

Lakota Sioux chief killed at Wounded Knee.

Sitting Bull

Formed by Congress in 1867, it proposed
creating two large reservations on the
Plains, one for the Sioux and another for
southern Plains Indians.

Indian Peace Commission

Commander of the 7th Calvary. He
underestimated the fighting abilities of the
Lakota and Cheyenne.

Colonel George A. Custer

A ritual important to the Lakota. It
celebrated a hoped-for reckoning when
settlers would disappear, the buffalo would
return, and Native Americans would reunite
with their deceased ancestors.

Ghost Dance.

To be absorbed into American society as
landowners and citizens.

Assimilate; assimilation

This act gave 160 acres of reservation land
for farming.

Dawes Act