The American Frontier
Name: ______Period: ______Date: ______
The American Frontier
Westward Expansion and Native Americans
The Settlement of the Frontier:
•Frontier—line separating areas of settlement from ______wilderness territory.
•Line between where Native Americans live and where Americans had settled.
•Since the arrival of the colonist, the “frontier” has shifted ______.
Predict what obstacles Americans will face as they continue to migrate West.
Forced to Adapt:
•At the end of the Civil War most Native Americans lived west of ______.
•Many different tribes forced to live together in close proximity
•Early 1800s – U.S. government carried out a policy of moving the Native Americans westward.
•Example – President Andrew Jackson and the______– Cherokees
•Government policy generally changed when valuable ______were found on Native American land so they would be pushed farther west.
•Example –______, ______, ______
• Want of a Transcontinental Railroad also played into this.
•By the late 1860s many Native American tribes had been placed on______, specific areas chosen by the government for Indian settlement and use.
PULL Factors of Westward Expansion- Abundant and cheap land
- Discovery of valuable minerals
- Dream of creating an intercontinental rail system
- Manifest Destiny
- Overcrowding in the cities
- Abolition of slavery
- Religious and ethnic persecution
Cheap Land:
•After Civil War, start passing laws that encourage westward ______.
•Homestead Act (1862) – stated any citizen could occupy ______acres of government land. If you “______” the land after 5 years ______.
•______granted land under the Act.
•Free Blacks known as the ______ travelled west to claim land – the “Promised Land”
Mineral Mining:
•______- 1896:
•Californian and two Native Americans found a gold nugget near Canada’s ______.
•Set off one of the wildest gold rushes in history.
•______gold seekers set out to strike it rich.
•Many didn’t make it all the way but ______started springing up.
•Minerals run out:
•______.
•Larger mining companies take over.
Railroads:
•______(completed in 1869) reduced journey time from New York to San Francisco ______months to ______days!
•More and more railroads built
•More railroads = ______settlers in the West.
•Settlers can now ______by rail to Eastern markets.
•CREATES THE ______.
•______Immigrants worked on the______side. Paid $26-$35 a month for 12 hour days, 6 days a week!
Other Threats to Native Americans
•White settlers brought ______that Native populations were not used to (______)
•The ______populations were destroyed.
•Killed for their hides by hunters and then the rest was left to rot!
•People traveling on trains would kill them for sport.
•Plains Indian populations depended on the buffalo –______!
Government Policies Change
•Assimilation – ______the ______and civilization of the society you are surrounded by.
•Americanization – ______
•Dawes General Allotment Act (1887) – Native Americans given ______acres if they left the reservation and started their own farm.
•Had to own it for ______to become a citizen.
•______were also a part of assimilation efforts – Native American children sent to live and learn the rules of culture in “white” America.
HOW DO WE SEE ASSIMILATION OCCURRING TODAY?
The Cattle Industry:
•Large longhorn cattle herds in Great Plains of______.
•“______”
•Northwards from Texas to Kansas railroad lines shipped to Chicago to be ______ meat shipped to cities in the ______.
•Cattle grazed on grasses of the open range (un-fenced lands) and fattened up.
•Cowboys kept herds moving northwards.
•1 in 5 cowboys were ______.
•By 1886 ______had killed most of the grass and herders had purchased most of the open-range and fenced it in with ______.