Miners used simple equipment like picks,shovels and pans to mine shallow deposits of ore (silver, gold,or copper) above the surface by hand.
What is placer mining?
100
This breed of cattle could survive the harsh climate of the Great Plains. They are the reason so many cattle ranches were built on the Great Plain after the Civil War.
What is the Texas longhorn?
100
He explored the Great Plains with an army expedition in 1819 and called it the "Great American Desert".
Who is Major Stephen Long?
100
This area began at the eastern edge of the Great Plains and includes the Dakotas and the western parts of Nebraska and Kansas.
What is the Wheat Belt?
100
People who move from place to place in search of food. This is what the Native Americans of the Great Plains were.
What are nomads?
200
In 1859, he staked a claim for a silver mine in Six-Mile Canyon, Nevada.
Who is Henry Comstock?
200
A vast area of grassland owned by the federal government where cattle raisers could graze their herds free of charge and without boundaries.
What is an open range?
200
Farmers who plowed the soil on the Great Plains.
What are sodbusters?
200
The Dakota Sioux agreed to live on a small reservation in Minnesota for this and it was taken from them by American traders who lied about debt.
What an annuity?
300
Crime was a serious problem. People formed ___________________ to track down criminals. The only problem was that sometimes, the criminals got away and innocent people were punished.
What are vigilance committees?
300
This happened in 1866 when cattle rancher moved cattle across the Great Plains to the railroad in Sedalia, Missouri. This proved cattle could be driven north to the railroad and sold for 10 times the price they could get in Texas.
What is the long drive?
300
This business/company provided easy access to the Great Plains and sold land along the rail lines at low prices and provided credit.
What is the railroad business/company?
300
This crop could withstand drought better than other crops and became the most important crop on the Great Plains.
What is wheat?
300
Congress formed this group who proposed the creation of two large reservations on the Plains, one for the Sioux and another for the Plains Indians.
What is the Indian Peace Commission?
400
This major route for moving cattle went from Texas to Abilene, Kansas.
What is the Chisholm Trail
400
This act was passed in 1862 and for a $10 registration fee, a settler could get up to 160 acres of land and receive the title of it after living there five years.
What is the Homestead Act?
400
New technology helped to harvest wheat during the 1860's and 1870's and contributed to growth of the Wheat Belt.
What are mechanical binders, reapers and threshing machines?
400
The Lakota Sioux and the Cheyenne defeated Colonel George A. Custer, commander of the Seventh Calvary during this battle which was led by Sitting Bull. Custer and all of his soldiers were killed.
What is the Battle of (Little Bighorn)?
500
When the cattle drives came to an end, this was used to fence off the open range.
What is barbed wire?
500
On April 22, 1889, the government opened for settlement the land that became the state of Oklahoma and within hours 10,000 people raced to stake claims.
What is the Oklahoma Land Rush?
500
Wheat farms that were larger than singe family farms and covered up to 50,000 acres. These farms brought farmers large profits.
What are bonanza farms?
500
This act wanted to assimilate Native Americans into white society and break up reservations into allotments in which adults received 160 acres, single adults received 80 acres and children received 40 acres. The land left was sold to settlers and the money was placed in a trust fund for Native Americans. Unfortunately, it didn't not work.