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WorksheetsReshaping the Nation-Westward Movement
Total questions: 20
Worksheet time: 10mins
A Mexican cowboy that works on a ranch.
ghost town
vaquero
sodbusters
homestead act
reservation
A farmer or farm worker who plows the land.
ghost town
vaquero
sodbusters
reservation
A nearly deserted town usually as a result of the exhaustion of some natural resources.
ghost town
vaquero
sodbusters
reservation
Land set aside that American Indians were forced to live on.
ghost town
homestead act
reservation
sodbusters
An area of public land in the West (usually 160 acres) granted to any US citizen willing to settle on and farm the land for at least 5 years
ghost town
homestead act
reservation
sodbusters
A train route across the United States went from east to west, finished in 1869.
transcontinental railroad
migration
exodusters
Positive factors that motivate people to want to move to another place.
push factors
pull factors
migration
Movement from one part of the country to another.
push factor
pull factor
migration
Name given to African Americans who migrated from the South to the West.
migration
exodusters
pull factors
Negative aspects or conditions that motivates or make people leave a place.
push factor
pull factor
exoduster
migration
What is significant (important) about the points where the Goodnight-Loving Trail and the Chisholm Trail ended?
They both ended in large cities with large markets for cattle.
They both ended in Oklahoma, where cattle herds were processed for western markets.
They both ended in the South, where population density was high.
They both ended at railroads that shipped cattle to eastern cities.
The transcontinental railroad
went only North
went only South
connected the East with the West
was completed in the 1900's
The Transcontinental Railroad
New York merchant Asa Whitney proposed building a transcontinental railroad in 1844. For more than a decade, his idea was ignored.Later, as the United States expanded and people flocked to California to seek gold and silver, the government realized they needed railroads to go out west. So railroad companies were given ten square miles of land next to every mile of track they laid.Leland Stanford and three of his partners in California formed the Central Pacific and won the right to help build a transcontinental railroad. Workers for the Central Pacific laid tracks that stretched eastward from Sacramento, California. Meanwhile, workers for the Union Pacific laid tracks that stretched westward from Omaha, Nebraska.In 1869, those two tracks met a Promontory, Utah. Now people could travel by rail from coast to coast.
What role did Asa Whitney play in the construction of the railroad ?
He was the first person to propose building a transcontinental railroad.
He convinced the government to give companies land for laying railroad tracks.
He planned the route of the railroad from Omaha to Sacramento
His company laid tracks for the western part of the railroad
“If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen (put in a cage) an Indian on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper.”
—Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces, 1879
In this quotation, Chief Joseph is referring to the United States government policy of
Extending railroads through western lands.
The movement of Native Americans onto reservations
The outlawing of Native American ceremonies.
Converting Native Americans to Christianity
“If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen (put in a cage) an Indian on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper.”
In this quotation, Chief Joseph is asking that his listeners
Understand that American Indians being forced to live on reservations is not right and is harmful to their spirit.
Answer two important questions
Adopt the government’s position.
Think about the treatment of animals.
A land rush in 1889 brought tens of thousands of settlers to:
South Dakota
Idaho
Nevada
Oklahoma
The railroads hired what type of immigrants to work in small passages and dangerous situations?
Russian
Chinese
Indians
Latino
What was found in California that caused thousands to move west?
Oil
Gold
Silver
ancient artifacts
Why did Black-Freedmen want to move west?
To strike it rich
To discover new land
To get away from discrimination and have a better way of life for family
To chase the buffalo
Why were Native American children taken away from their families and stripped of their culture and language?
The government wanted Native American children to learn English and look like “white” children.
Government used children to bribe Indians to be good
The Government gave money to the Native American parents to use their children in factories.
So they could make the children stronger.
