Settlement & Homesteading
This 1862 act encouraged Western settlement by offering free land to settlers who farmed it.
What is the Homestead Act?
This 1864 massacre in Colorado left hundreds of Cheyenne and Arapaho dead.
What is the Sand Creek Massacre?
Farmers who plowed the tough prairie soil were often called this nickname.
What are sodbusters?
This invention ended the open range and led to conflicts between farmers and ranchers.
What is barbed wire?
This political movement gave a voice to farmers and laborers in the late 1800s.
What is Populism?
To keep their homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter, many settlers built houses made of this.
What is sod?
This 1876 battle, also known as “Custer’s Last Stand,” was a victory for the Sioux and Cheyenne.
What is the Battle of Little Bighorn?
These wind-powered devices helped farmers pump water from the ground.
What are windmills?
This 1869 event connected the eastern U.S. with California by rail.
This 1869 event connected the eastern U.S. with California by rail.
This organization, founded by Oliver Hudson Kelley, helped farmers organize for fair prices.
What is the Grange?
Many settlers rushed west after this 1889 event opened former Native lands in Oklahoma to the public.
What is the Oklahoma Land Rush?
This 1890 event marked the end of Native American resistance in the United States
What is the Wounded Knee Massacre?
Insect swarms, drought, and harsh winters all made this type of life extremely difficult.
What is homesteading or farming on the plains?
These fast-growing Western communities often disappeared when nearby mines ran dry.
These fast-growing Western communities often disappeared when nearby mines ran dry.
Populists wanted money to be backed by both gold and silver, a policy known as this.
What is bimetallism or free silver?
Many settlers moved west because they believed owning land would bring this.
What is independence or opportunity?
This 1887 law attempted to force Native Americans to adopt white farming practices.
What is the Dawes Act?
Many settlers joined together for barn raisings, quilting bees, and harvests because of this challenge of frontier life.
What is isolation or loneliness?
The growth of the cattle industry was fueled by high demand for this product in the East.
What is beef?
This famous Populist leader delivered the “Cross of Gold” speech in 1896.
Who is William Jennings Bryan?
Name one major environmental challenge that made life difficult for settlers on the Great Plains.
What is drought, wind, grasshoppers, or isolation?
Native Americans were relocated to these government-controlled lands, often far from their homes.
What are reservations?
This misleading slogan claimed that rainfall would increase if settlers plowed the land.
What is “Rain follows the plow”?
Name one major impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on the United States.
What is increased trade, faster travel, or the growth of new towns?
Who is William Jennings Bryan?
What are income tax, direct election of senators, or railroad regulation?