Whose Land Is It Anyway?
Unlike white settlers who believed owning and improving land gave them a stake in the country, Native Americans believed land could NOT be this.
What is privately owned (or owned)?
These fast-growing settlements sprang up practically overnight wherever prospectors struck gold or silver.
What are boomtowns?
Passed in 1862, this federal law offered 160 acres of free public land to any head of household willing to farm and improve it for five years.
What is the Homestead Act?
Joseph Glidden patented this cheap fencing material that transformed prairie farming and brought an end to the open range.
What is barbed wire?
Supported heavily by farmers, "bimetallism" meant backing paper currency with gold AND this metal.
What is silver?
This major technological system brought thousands of settlers west, destroyed buffalo herds, and disrupted traditional Native ways of life.
What is the Transcontinental Railroad?
This simple technique used a long wooden trough to separate gold from gravel.
What is sluicing?
This biblical nickname was given to African Americans who migrated from the post-Reconstruction South to Kansas in the late 1870s to own land and gain freedom.
Who are Exodusters?
Name TWO specific factors that caused the cattle industry to boom in the years following the Civil War.
What are (1) Rising demand for beef in eastern cities, (2) Seizing Native American grazing land, or (3) Destruction of the buffalo leaving open grass?
Northeastern bankers and business owners who wanted paper currency backed solely by gold were called by this insect-themed nickname.
Who are "Gold Bugs"?
At this 1876 battle—also known as "Custer’s Last Stand"—Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne forces led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse completely defeated Colonel George Custer and his 7th Cavalry.
What is the Battle of Little Bighorn?
Panning is the most famous example of this type of surface mining, where gold is found in loose sand and gravel.
What is placer mining?
Oklahoma earned this official state nickname because eager settlers illegally snuck onto public land before the official start time during the 1889 Land Rush.
What is the "Sooner State"?
Name TWO environmental or economic factors that caused the cattle industry to decline in the late 1880s.
What are (1) Overgrazing of the land, (2) Barbed wire fencing off the open range, or (3) Extreme weather patterns (harsh winters & dry summers)?
In his famous 1896 speech, William Jennings Bryan declared: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of..."
What is gold? (The "Cross of Gold" speech)
Desperate Sioux performers adopted this religious ritual in hopes of bringing back the buffalo, restoring Native lands, and making white settlers disappear.
What is the Ghost Dance?
This dangerous mining method required miners to dig deep underground tunnels along rock veins to break up ore.
What is hard-rock mining?
This 1862 law made history by being the first time the federal government provided financial assistance for higher education through land grants for state colleges.
What is the Morrill Act?
Railroad companies and corporate investors built these massive 15,000 to 50,000-acre single-crop spreads.
What are bonanza farms?
Supported by business owners and Gold Bugs, this Republican candidate won the presidential election of 1896.
Who is William McKinley?
Identify TWO major cultural differences between Native Americans and white settlers on the Great Plains regarding land or lifestyle.
What are (1) Communal land use vs. private land ownership, and (2) Nomadic buffalo hunting vs. settled farming/mining/fencing?
Highly destructive to rivers and hillsides, this method used water under extreme high pressure to blast away dirt to expose minerals underneath.
What is hydraulic mining?
Name THREE distinct social or environmental hardships faced by pioneer homesteaders living on the Great Plains.
What are (1) Extreme weather conditions (blizzards/heat/tornadoes), (2) Severe social isolation and loneliness, and (3) The threat of raids?
Explain why bonanza farms collapsed during late-1880s droughts while smaller farmers survived.
Why is because bonanza farms had massive machinery debt and were too inflexible, whereas small farmers were more flexible in adapting their crops?
Name TWO political or economic reforms demanded in the Populist Party platform.
What are (1) Direct election of U.S. senators, (2) Secret ballot, (3) Graduated income tax, (4) Government ownership of railroads, or (5) 8-hour workday?