Settling the West

The Homestead Act encouraged people to move West because it..

• established ranching towns for cattle drivers.

• offered free land to those willing to farm it.

• offered land to gold prospectors.

• promised protection from Native Americans.

Native Americans living on the Great Plains relied on which of the following to meet many of their basic needs?

• Cotton

• Deer

• Bison

• Gold

Settlers moving west did not think the Great Plains were fit for farming because..

• only the Spanish and DNative Americans had settled there.
• the area recieved little rainfall and had few trees.
• the region was home to many dangerous wild animals.
• most of the land was too far from existing towns.

One of the primary purposes of the Dawes Act was to..

• turn Native Americans into farmers.

• rebuild the Native American nations.

• restore the tribal ownership of land.

• encourage the Native American population to increase.

During the late 1900's reservations set aside for Native Americans to live on were located _____.

• along the major rivers of the Midwest

• near large cities in the the Northwest

• in sparsely populated areas of the West

• east of the Mississippi

___________ played a major role in the mining and cattle industry for transporting. It also connected the east to the west.

• wagon trains

• railroads

• trucks

• tractors

Which of the following factors contributed to the demise of the open-range system and the need for cowboys?

• The use of sod for houses

• The invention of barbed wire

• The development of railroads

• The disappearance of big mining companies

Settlers were able to claim 160 acres in the Great Plains as a result of the

• Homestead Act
• Civil Rights Act of 1866
• Dawes Act
• Wounded Knee Treaty

Which technological innovation allowed homesteaders to turn the soil on the Great Plains?

• Barbed wire

• Steel plows

• Drilling equipment

• Harvesters

Besides giving them farmland, the Dawes Act gave Indians ____ .

• citizenship

• money

• freedom

• food