1. Settling the west

2. Sub-Units
Miners and Ranchers
Farming
Native Americans

3. Mining and Ranching
Trace the growth of the mining industry in the West.
Describe the ways that new technology changed the open-range ranching.
Analyze how heavy investment in the cattle industry affected economy of the United States.

4. Mining rich deposits of silver, gold, and copper prospectors
placer mining
quartz mining
Comstock Lode
Henry Comstock
Silver ore
Virginia City, NV
boom towns
crime
vigilance committees
Bonanza
“Pike’s Peak or Bust”
Denver

5. Ranching Texas longhorn Long drive Range wars adaptation open range
cowhands
beef prices
Long drive
mavericks
dime novels
Range wars
barbed wire
ranch hand

6. Review Questions
How did the mining industry affect towns and cities in the West?
How did the invention and use of barbed wire affect the cattle industry?

7. Farming the Plains
Explain why and how people began settling the Plains.
Identify the geographic features created obstacles to the settlement of the Great Plains.
Analyze the relationship between private property rights and settlement of the Great Plains.
Evaluate why some people feel that the closing of the frontier was the end of an era.

8. Geography rainfall and timber “Great American Desert” Settlement
railroad
“rain follows the plow”
Homestead Act (1862)
obstacles

9. Wheat Belt inventions and farming techniques “Wheat Belt”
dry farming
seed drills & threshing machines
sodbusters
“Wheat Belt”
bonanza farms

10. Closing of the Frontier
Oklahoma Land Rush
Oklahoma Boomers
Oklahoma Sooners
Census Bureau Report 1890
“safety-valve of social discontent”
ability to make a fresh start

11. Questions What is the geography of the Great Plains?
How did the railroads and the federal government help settle the Great Plains?
Why did much of the Great Plains region become the Wheat Belt?
Why was the Census Bureau’s report of 1890 disturbing to some people?

12. Native Americans
Discuss conflicts that arose between the Plains Indians and American settlers.
Explain the proposal the Indian Peace Commission offer the Plains Indians.
Analyze the effect Helen Hunt Jackson’s book had on the United States government.

13. Culture
nomadic
extended family networks and close relationship to nature
roles and tasks

14. Pressure first major clash on the Plains began in 1862 Dakota Sioux
small reservations
annuities
Little Crow
exiles
Lakota Sioux
patrols
Fetterman’s Massacre
Sand Creek Massacre
Indian Peace Commission

15. Native American wars buffalo Black Hills Gold Rush of 1876
Battle of Little Bighorn
George A. Custer
Custer’s Last Stand
Nez Perce
Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890)
Ghost Dance
Sitting Bull
Dawes Act
assimilation

16. Questions What was the culture of the Great Plains Indians?
What events led to the formation of the Indian Peace Commission?
Why did many Native Americans leave their reservations?
Why was the idea of assimilation of the Native Americans a failure?