Native American Leaders & Events
Laws & Policies
Westward Expansion & Settlers
Cattle & Ranching
Mining & Boomtowns
100

Who was the Sioux leader who fought at Little Bighorn and resisted U.S. control?

Sitting Bull

100

What 1862 law gave railroad companies land and loans to help build the first transcontinental railroad?

Pacific Railway Act

100

Why did settlers and miners rush west during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush and Comstock Lode?

To find gold and silver

100

What hardy breed of cattle, developed in Texas, survived on little water and grass?

Texas Longhorns

100

What term describes towns that grew quickly near mines during gold and silver rushes?

Boomtowns

200

What 1864 attack in Colorado killed about 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho, many of them women and children?

Sand Creek Massacre

200

What 1862 law gave settlers 160 acres of free land if they farmed it for five years?

Homestead Act

200

What nickname was given to African Americans who moved west after the Civil War to escape racism?

Exodusters

200

Who were the workers that managed cattle herds on the open range?

Cowboys

200

What 1858–59 gold rush in present-day Colorado drew thousands of settlers west?

Pikes Peak Gold Rush

300

What 1890 massacre marked the end of Native armed resistance in the Plains?

Wounded Knee

300

What 1862 law gave land to states to build colleges teaching agriculture and mechanical skills?

Morill Act 

300

Who encouraged African Americans to move west to Kansas and became known as the “Father of the Exodus”?

Benjamin  Singleton

300

What was Large areas of unfenced land where cattle grazed freely before fencing and private property rules.

Open Range

300

What 1859 silver discovery in Nevada caused a mining boom and created Virginia City?

Comstock Lode

400

What religious movement, started by Wovoka, promised the return of buffalo and ancestors

Ghost Dance

400

What 1887 law broke up tribal lands into family farms to force Native Americans to adopt European-American farming culture?

Dawes Act

400

Which author wrote about life on the Great Plains in novels  

Willa Cather

400

What invention by Joseph Glidden ended the open range and led to range wars?

Barbed Wire

400

What mining method used high-pressure water jets to blast hillsides but caused flooding and destroyed farmland?

Hydraulic Mining

500

Who was the Cheyenne chief that raised a U.S. flag at Sand Creek to signal peace, but was still attacked?

Chief Black Kettle

500

What federal department was created in 1862 to support farmers with research, education, and services?

U.S. Department of Agriculture

500

Why was the U.S. purchase of Alaska in 1867 called “Seward’s Folly”?

Many Americans thought the land was useless frozen wilderness, though it later proved valuable for resources.

500

Why was the work of cowboys often dangerous and difficult?

They faced stampedes, river crossings, extreme weather, long hours, and low pay.

500

Why did small miners often lose out to big mining companies by the 1880s?

Big companies had the equipment and capital to mine efficiently, while small miners couldn’t compete.

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