West Quiz 1

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.

The Homestead Act encouraged people to move West because it

• established ranching towns for cattle drivers.

• offered land to those willing to farm it & pay a small fee.

• offered land to gold prospectors.

• made rules for railroad companies to protect farmers.

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.

How did the Transcontinental Railroad change life for people in the United States?

• It allowed the US government to claim more land from Mexico

• It made it possible to ship goods from the North to the South

• It made settlers more likely to travel by wagon to the West

• It became much easier to travel and send goods from the East to the West

Railroad owners wanted more people to settle on the Great Plains because...

• farmers would use the railroads to ship products to markets in the cities
• they needed more people to build railroad tracks
• they needed sharecroppers to farm the land owned by the railroads
• settlers would grow cotton and ship it to the south

Why did the government support homesteading?

• to encourage trade with Canada

• to encourage settlers to farm the western land

What new technology helped farmers plant their crops more easily?

• the steel plow

• barbed wire

As settlers moved onto the Great Plains in the 1800s, they needed to build shelters. One way that many settlers met this need was by building sod houses. Why did many settlers build houses made out of sod?

• Sod houses would typically last longer than houses made out of other materials.

• Sod houses cost little to build because sod was widely available.

• Sod houses were more fashionable than other types of buildings

• Sod houses were better suited for cold weather than other buildings.

These photographs are of the same student at Carlisle Indian School during the late 19th Century.

Which world best explains the changes shown in these photographs?

• Immigration

• Assimilation

• Nullification

• Nativism

The primary objective of the Dawes Act was to --

• promote cultural assimilation of American Indians

• turn American Indian reservations into corporate farmland

• end warfare between American Indians and the US military

• promote American Indian investment in private industry