US DQ 22: Taming the Frontier

Which group seemed to benefit the LEAST from the migration to the Great Plains?

• the Miners

• the Cowboys

• the Indians

• the Farmers

Because of the competition for resources, the ranchers were most often at odds with:

• the Indians

• the Farmers

• the Cowboys

• the Miners

Which groups of people were the most common migrants to the west?

• urbanites from the North Eastern U.S. looking for adventure

• Southerners and African Americans trying to rebuild lives

• immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe

• immigrants from Northern and Western Europe

Which of the following statements about the American cowboy is FALSE?

• cowboys were paid well for their services

• cowboys were multicultural, with an array of ethnic diversity

• cowboys lives were full of drudgery and dangers of the environment

• life was marked by long cattle drives, as they took the cattle to markets

Which of the following was NOT one of the inventions and purposes which assisted farmers in the West?

• Steel windmill—to pump water from the ground for irrigation

• Barbed Wire—so farmers could separate their fields from their neighbors' fields

• Steel plow—to make planting more efficient

• Mechanical Reaper—to assist in harvesting crops

Railroads facilitated (brought about) western settlement in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

• railroads provided jobs for Americans and immigrants in the west

• railroads would pay their workers with plots of land

• railroads provided transportation to the West

• railroads were granted large pieces of land from the government, which they sold to settlers

The Homestead Act:

• was only partially successful—as there was much corruption and speculation

• would give people 160 acres of land if they would work on it for 5 years

• was designed to convince people to move to the west’

• all of the above were true of the Homestead Act

The primary purpose for people to migrate to the West was:

• economic opportunity through farming

• to escape from increasing immigrants

• looking for gold

• looking for adventure

Western settlement into the Great Plains intensified primarily after:

• World War I

• the Louisiana Purchase

• the Mexican War

• the Civil War

What was the primary cause for the demand in cattle in the West?

• the newly developed bovine species which provided better meat

• the rise of railroads and the workers who needed to eat

• there was a shortage of pork due to a strange disease among livestock

• the rise of the populations in the cities