1. Chapter 7
Changes on the Plains

2. Lesson 1 Link East to West
Timeline:
Vocabulary: transcontinental, prejudice
Main Ideas: Telegraph made it faster to send messages over long distances.
Transcontinental railroads made traveling and shipping easier and faster.

3. Samuel Morse
Created Morse Code making messages normally sent by horse or boat easy and fast
Telegraph is a machine that sends electric signals over wire lines
Morse Code is a series of dots and dashes that represent letters (see page 222)
Reporters, bankers, war generals, family and friends used Morse Code and the telegraph

4. Railroad
Settlers were searching for gold on long, dangerous expensive trips
Transcontinental railroad linked the east to the west
Pacific Railway Act-law allowed government money to be loaned to the Union Pacific and to the Central Pacific
1869 Promontory Point, Utah the two railroads were joined with spikes of gold and silver
1,800 miles of railroad was announced using the telegraph
Parades and celebrations were in honor of the finale

5. Effects of the Railroad
First of several railroads across the U.S.
Easier and faster to move people and goods
Helped settlers earn money by transporting goods
Gave immigrants jobs by building the railroad
Connected east to west permanently
Summary: Improvements in communication and transportation helped unite the country and made the economy grow.

6. Lesson 2 Great Plains Timeline: 1862-1890
Vocabulary: homestead, exodusters, drought, sodbuster
Main Ideas: Large numbers of settlers moved onto the Great Plains and started farming.
Settlers had to learn new ways of farming the Great Plains.

7. Life on the Plains Middle of the country with flat grassy land
1862 Homestead Act-offered 160 acres of land to adults-had to pay small amount and farm the land for 5 years-then they owned the land
Europeans also wanted to farm the Plains – Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands
African Americans in the south wanted to farm the Plains- exodusters-trying to find a place to be free

8. Difficulties on the Plains
Harsh climate-drought is a long period of time without rain
Cold winters
Floods
Fires
Grasshoppers killed crops
Water and food were scarce
Many homesteaders thought life on the Plains was too difficult and they moved away

9. How did they adapt?
Sod homes since there was little wood-sodbusters cut through the thick roots (see page 236)
Finding crops that would grow in the hot dry climate- Europeans brought wheat seeds that grew well
Carried or irrigated water from streams
New and improved farming machines like plows
Summary: Sodbusters turned the Plains into large fields of wheat.

10. Lesson 3 Cattle Ranchers
Timeline:
Vocabulary: demand, supply, railhead, barbed wire
Main Ideas: Ranchers in Texas raised and sold longhorn cattle.
Cowhands led cattle to railroads where they were shipped everywhere.

11. Supply and Demand Vaquero-Mexican cowhand skilled at herding cattle
1845 Texas became part of the U.S. instead of Mexico
Supply and demand- Many cattle in Texas with few people to buy them made cattle cheap ($4) but when shipped away to places that cattle were in demand made the same cattle more expensive ($40)
As supply increases, demand decreases and vice versa (see chart on page 239) When demand is high, prices go up; when supply is high, prices go down.

12. Cattle Drives
Ranchers would transport cattle to areas where they sold for more money-used the railhead-town where railroad begins or ends-railheads were usually far away from each other
Cowhands led cattle to railhead on cattle drives
Drives took weeks or months to complete and were very dangerous, boring, and dirty
Cowhands spent hours a day on horseback
Stampedes may cause them to loose cattle which meant loosing money
Slept on ground and were sometimes robbed

13. End of the Drive Lasted about 20 years
Ended because of barbed wire, growth of the railroads/railheads, baron ranges, freezing temperatures killed cattle
Summary: Still today, when people think of the west, they think of wild wild west and cattle drives.

14. Lesson 4 Conflicts on the Plains
Timeline:
Vocabulary: reservation, habitat, extinct, assimilate
Main Ideas: American Indians and soldiers fought on the Great Plains.
U.S. government tried to force American Indians to change their way of life.

15. War As settlers travelled west, they built towns and dug mines
Government built railroads on this land to help settlers
Tried to convince Plains Indians to sell land and move on reservation where they could farm
But Indians were nomads that followed buffalo and didn’t want to farm
So fighting began……

16. Battle of Sand Creek
1864- Colorado-U.S. soldiers attacked Indians in their sleep despite the surrender white flag
Peace was no where in sight
Battle of Little Bighorn-1876-South Dakota and Wyoming- George Custer found gold but Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull killed most of the soldiers (see page 252)
But within a few years, most American Indians were forced onto reservations

17. Wounded Knee
Ghost Dance-religious activity by Indians but government feared they were preparing for war
Huge battle on creek called wounded knee where soldiers killed men, women and children
Life on the reservation was not the same

18. Reservations Railroads killed buffalo habitat and Indian lives
Government tried to assimilate or change the culture of the Indians by making Ghost Dance/religious ritual illegal, by sending kids to schools where they couldn’t dress or speak their native language
Dawes Act of 1887-Law to split land and make American Indians farmers on poor land
The Indian was forced to depend on the government for food and survival
Today, traditions are preserved on Indian reservations.

19. Test Time
Complete the review on page 254, study workbook pages and know vocabulary
I EXPECT A’S 