A system of messengers on horseback that carried messages west. They were replaced by the telegraph.
What is the Pony Express?
100
This act gave government owned land to small farmers.
What is the Homestead Act?
100
This military leader led his troops to their deaths in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Who is George Armstrong Custer?
100
This treaty was the first with the Plains Indians and allowed the US government to build roads and forts through Indian land.
What is the Treaty of Ft. Laramie?
200
The richest gold and silver strike in the nation.
What is the Comstock Lode?
200
A railroad that crossed the continent and connected the East and West. It was helped by the Pacific Railway Acts.
What is the Transcontinental Railroad?
200
This act gave 17 million acres of federal land to states. They had to sell it to raise money to build colleges.
What is the Morrill Act?
200
This Apache warrior battled the US Army for many years. He avoided capture until he surrendered in 1886. Sometimes kids yell this when they jump from a high place.
Who is Geronimo?
200
Federal land set aside for Native Americans.
What is a reservation?
300
The Great Plains from Texas to Canada, where many ranchers raised cattle in the late 1800's.
What is the Cattle Kingdom?
300
Most workers for the Union Pacific where from this foreign country.
What is China?
300
This group of African Americans headed West in hopes of new opportunities and to escape the discrimination of the South.
Who were the Exodusters?
300
This Sioux leader protested US demands for more land.
Who is Sitting Bull?
300
The Sioux leader who ambushed and killed 81 cavalry troops and helped defeat Custer.
Who is Crazy Horse?
400
Two parts:
Long journeys where cowboys herded cattle to market.
One of the most popular routes that ended in Abilene, Kansas.
What is cattle drive and Chisholm Trail?
400
This was the place where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific met.
What is Promontory Point, Utah?
400
This group of people were given this nickname because they broke up the tough ground of the prairie.
Who were the Sodbusters?
400
This woman was impressive. She founded a town in California and worked to get women the right to vote (suffrage) and end drinking (temperance).
Who is Annie Bidwell?
400
The Navajo were forced to march 300 miles to their new reservation in New Mexico.
What is the Long Walk?
500
Give at least one reason the Cattle Kingdom ended.
What is barbed wire, harsh winters, and no more prairie grass?
500
The object that signified the finish of the Transcontinental Railroad.
What is the Golden Spike?
500
Planting crops that did not need very much water.
What is dry farming?
500
He was a Democrats nominated him for President, but he lost. He was supported by the Populist Party. He favored free coinage of silver.
Who was William Jennings Bryan?
500
This group of people rode on horseback and patrolled the West. They often had to fight with Indians or stop bandits. It is also a great song ;-)