History Ch. 11

Some people believed that the existence of unoccupied land at the frontier had provided a ________, the idea that Americans could always make a fresh start

"Safety-value of social discontent"

Between 1867 and 1871, cowboys drove ________ up the Chisholm trail

1.5 million cattle

______ of the Cherokee nation died on the ____

1/3, trail of tears

A homesteader could claim up to ________ acres of public land and could receive _______ to that land after living there 5 years

160, title

Over night, virginia city, nevada went from a town of ______ to almost ________

A few hundred, 30,000 people

Indians were moved to reservations because

Gold and silver were found on their land

The _______ eventually led to the civil war conflict with Indians

Growing sectional conflict

________ staked a claim in ___________ that turned out to be nearly pure silver ore

Henry comstock, six-mile canyon

_________ were the majority of the population in New Mexico

Hispanics

The government supported settlement in the Greta plains region by passing the ____________

Homestead act

One of the richest strikes occurred in the late 1870s in _________

Leadville

Cattle from the east could not survive on tough prairie grasses, but the _______ could survive in harsh climates

Longhorn

Large landholders invested in ________ and _______ which made it easier to harvest a large crop

Mechanical reapers, steam tractors

In 1866 ranchers drove about 260,000 cattle to _______ where they sold it for __________ more than they could in Texas

Missouri, 10x

A glut of wheat on the world market caused prices to drop, and some farmers tried to make it through these periods by _______ their land

Mortgaging

Dawes act

Must live on the land for 15 years and make improvements

Spanish speaking immigrants to southwestern cities settled in neighborhoods called _______

Barrios

________ covered up to 50,000 acres and yielding big profits

Bonanza farms

In mining, ___________ was repeated throughout the west

Boom to bust

For centuries this open country has been home to vast herds of __________ that grazed of prairie grass

Buffalo

Settlers began raising _______ on the ______ after the civil war

Cattle, Great Plains

The wheat belt encompassed ....

Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas

____________ was a method of planting seeds deep in the ground where there was enough moisture

Dry farming

Why go west?

Eastern cities were growing rapidly, air pollution and poor conditions, the American dream, avoid war, encourage western settlement, homestead act

After the civil war, the country was booming with _________

European immigrants

___________ was a process that removed large pieces of earth

Hydraulic mining

The meridian is an .......

Imaginary line running north and south from the central dakotas to western Texas

The Dawes act failed because

Indians were often scammed and the Americans and Indians didn't trust each other

Mining spurred in ...

Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, Dakota, and Montana

The ___________ covered much of the Great Plains and provided land where cattle ranchers could graze their herds free of charge

Open range

The farthest regions of the US were

Pennsylvania and the Ohio river (1800), Mississippi River (1830), California (1840)

__________ was a process that used picks and pans

Placer mining

The country was caught up in _____

Pre-civil war debates over slavery

The Great Plains region extended westward to the __________ from around the 100th meridian

Rocky Mountains

Most of the plains settlers built their first homes out of _____

Sod

Many ______ eventually lost their homesteads because of drought, wind erosion, and the overuse of land

Sodbusters

Cattle ranching grew in part because of vast areas of grassland owned by ______

The federal government

The census bureau reported that....

There was no longer a true frontier left in America

_________ taught American cowhands their trade and enriched the English language with words of Spanish origin.

Vaqueros

When law enforcers were scarce, self appointed volunteers sometimes formed __________ to track down and punish wrongdoers

Vigilance committees

Andrew Jackson sent Cherokees _________ when they broke a treaty and took their land to give to Americans

West across the Mississippi