The Homestead Act (1862)

Simon ShumChapter 17 MCQ’sMay 4, 2003

(Eco)

1)The Homestead Act (1862):

1. encouraged Western settlement.
2. protected the former Confederate lands.
3. provided 160 acres of free land.
4. provided land if households would improve upon it.

(A)I only

(B)I, II, and III only

(C)I and III only.

(D)I, III, and IV only.

(E)I, II, III, IV.

(Pol)

2)The initial policy established the federal government towards the Great Plain Indians articulated that:

(A)the Indians should be confined to large reservations.

(B)the Indians should be induced to accept permanent residence on small reservations.

(C)the Indians would be better off living individual parcels of land than communal tribes.

(D)the Indians are allowed to keep the away because it is an arid area anyway.

(E)the Indians are subhuman and should be exterminated.

(Eco)

3)The end of the open range cattle industry was NOT caused by:

(A)the droughts in the 1880s.

(B)the new farming methods.

(C)the expansion of railroads.

(D)the invention of barbed wire.

(E)the increase in sheep herding.

(Cul)

4)Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis argued that the frontier shaped America by:

(A)killing off many of the most adventurous individuals.

(B)stimulating individualism, nationalism, and democracy.

(C)producing institutions very much like those of Europe.

(D)creating new opportunities for women abroad.

(E)ending the rift between political parties.

(Soc)

5)The Indian point of view of the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876) centers:

(A)the interpretation on the rout and destruction of the American soldiers.

(B)the idea that the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. were against impossible odds.

(C)the belief that General Custer was largely responsible for the loss his militia suffered.

(D)the view held by many Indians that the Americans were after gold and not their land.

(E)the fact that the “Ghost Dances” were ineffective in stopping the advance of the armies.

(Pol)

6)The Dawe’s Severalty Act (1887):

(A)gave small plots of reservation lands to individual Native Americans.

(B)treated the Indian tribes as independent states.

(C)established new and larger reservations for all tribes.

(D)granted full citizenship to all tribal members.

(E)placed power in the hands of the Indians’ traditional leaders or chiefs.

Chapter 17 Answer Key

1)D (529)

The Homestead Act encouraged Western settlement from government incentives. It also provides 160 of free lands to households if they would improve upon it.

2)D (517)

At first the government thought that the Indians should be allowed to stay on the Great Plains cause it was a desert anyway. However, with the mining and cattle bonanzas, the U.S. decided to relocate them.

3)C (543)

The expansion of railroads did not cause the end of cattle industries. The droughts destroyed agriculture for cattle. Barbed wire also was responsible for reducing the need for cattle.

4)B (544)

The Turner thesis stimulated individualism, nationalism, and democracy to the U.S. The frontier’s values helped shaped America as it was at that time. Government officials took his thesis in a more conservative way however.

5)A (522)

The Indians saw at this battle the many casualties of American soldiers. They believed that they had defeated a U.S. army. However, this event outraged the U.S. government and soon after, they crushed the Sioux Indians in the Great Plains.

6)A (523)

The Dawes Act gave small plots of land to Indians in the hopes of making them individual landowners. They wanted to remove them from communal tribes.