Chapter 19 Review Sheet
Look over your organizers and Outline Notes
Vocabulary Words
Comstock Lode: a large deposit of silver found in Nevada
Boom Town/Ghost Town: when minerals were found in the ground, settlements quickly emerged around them (Boom Town); when the mines were empty, the settlements disappeared (Ghost Town)
Cow hand: a worker who tended the cattle on ranches and on long cattle drives
Little Bighorn: “Custer’s Last Stand”; a battle between the Sioux Indians and the US Army in which all US soldiers were killed
Cow town: settlements that grew and the juncture (intersection) of cattle drives and railroads.
Exodusters: African American settlers who moved from the deep South to Kansas, taking advantage of the Homestead Act.
Homestead Act: a law granting 160 acres of free Western farmland to any qualified applicant
Geronimo: An Apache Indian leader who used guerrilla tactics to resist the removal of his tribe to reservations
Chief Joseph: A Nez Perce Indian leader who tried to take his people to Canada rather than be forced onto reservations;promised not to fight anymore.
Sod house: a shelter made on the Great Plains out of dirt, due to the lack of trees.
1.Why did people move west in great numbers in the mid to late 1800s?
Several different industries lured people to move West: the mining industry, the cattle ranching, building railroads, and farming.
2. What was good and what was bad about the mining boom in the west?
When minerals, such as gold and silver, were found, it would make jobs for people, and create huge sums of wealth. However, the land was often taken from Native Americans unfairly, workers could die working in the dangerous conditions, and eventually most of the wealth was controlled by large mining corporations.
3. Which groups suffered from discrimination during the mining boom?
Native Americans, whose land was taken unfairly. Chinese immigrant workers were treated dishonestly, often underpaid and forced to do the most dangerous jobs.
4. Why was cattle ranching an easy way to make money?
Cattle did not require a lot of maintenance; they ate the grasses that were plentiful on the Great Plains.
5. Why did “cow towns” emerge during the 1800s?
Cattle drive trails ended when they met the railroads; at these points, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses were set up to serve the cowboys, and these settlements grew into towns. These were called “cow towns”
6. How did the invention of barbed wire influence cattle ranching?
Farmers and sheep herders decided to fence off their land, using sharp barbed wire. This broke up the long drives that ranchers used.
7. What was the Homestead Act and how did it influence the settlement of the West?
The Homestead Act granted 160 acres of free land to qualified applicants. This law brought hundreds of thousands of settlers to the West, including African-Americans and immigrants. This also served to push the Native Americans off their land faster.
8. What was a “sooner”?
A “Homesteader” who rushed into Oklahoma and claimed land “sooner” than they should have.
9. Why did African Americans leave the South in the late 1800s to start a new life in the West? What were they called?
They were called “exodusters”; they took advantage of the free land and they wanted to escape the racism and persecution in the South after Reconstruction.
- Why was it hard to farm in the West at first?
There was a thick layer of long grasses, with deep roots, that had to be removed before farming could be done.
- List 3 hardships about living as a farmer on the Great Plains?
Dry weather
Loneliness
Tornadoes
Grasshoppers and other pests
Native American attacks
- Why were Native Americans angry?
Their land was being taken by settlers, they were being forced onto reservations, the buffalo were being hunted to extinction, and promises were constantly being broken by the US government
- How did the American government try to “get rid of” Native Americans who were living on valuable land?
They were relocated and told to live in undesirable locations.