Module 11

Westward Expansion
Essential Question
Was the United States truly destined to expand west in the 1800s?

About the Photo: Wagon trains carried In this module you will read about the effects of westward expansion
hundreds of thousands of settlers across in the United States. You will also learn about how Native Americans
the Great Plains. resisted these changes.

What You Will Learn …

Lesson 1: A Growing Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Explore ONLINE! The Big Idea Americans explored and settled in the West as the
VIDEOS, including... nation expanded.
• The Transcontinental Railroad Lesson 2: Boom Times in the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
The Big Idea American settlers dramatically changed the western
• The Louisiana Purchase
frontier as they began to tame the land.
• Railroads that Tamed the West
Lesson 3: Wars for the West. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
• Plains Indians The Big Idea Native Americans and the U.S. government came into
• Sitting Bull: Chief of the conflict over land in the West.
Lakota Nation Lesson 4: Farming and Populism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
The Big Idea Settlers on the Great Plains created new communities
and a unique political movement.

Document-Based Investigations
Graphic Organizers
Interactive Games
Interactive Map: Territorial Expansion
of the United States, 1783–1898
Image Carousel: Buffalo Bill’s Wild
West Show

350 Module 11
Timeline of Events 1800–1900 Explore ONLINE!

United States World

1800
1802 An army of former
1803 The U.S. Senate approves the slaves led by Toussaint
Louisiana Purchase. Louverture defeats a
1804 Lewis and Clark begin their French army in Haiti.
journey of exploration through the
Louisiana Territory.
1807 Great Britain
abolishes the slave
trade in its empire.

1821 Mexico wins independence

from Spain.

1842 China gives Great

Britain control of the
1824 Jedediah Smith finds a South island of Hong Kong.
Pass through the Rocky Mountains.

1854 Commodore
1846 The United States acquires Matthew Perry negotiates
the Oregon Territory. a trade treaty with Japan.
1850

1862 The U.S.

Congress passes the 1864 French
first Homestead Act. scientist Louis
Pasteur develops the
purification process of
1869 The first pasteurization.
transcontinental
railroad is completed.
1869 The Suez Canal opens.
1871 Prussia consolidates the
German states into a unified nation.

1876 Native
Americans led by
Sitting Bull defeat
a U.S. cavalry force
at the Battle of the 1883 The Orient Express
Little Bighorn. makes its first run from
Paris to Istanbul.
1887 The Dawes Act distributes reservation
land to individual Native Americans.

1889 Thousands lay claim to land in 1884–1885 Delegates to the Berlin

the Oklahoma land rush. Conference divide Africa among the
1892 The Populist Party is formed to support European imperial powers.
the rights of farmers and laborers.
1900

Westward Expansion 351

Reading Social Studies
THEME FOCUS:
Geography, Science and Technology
In this module you will follow the development of the United States from the
early 1800s through the 1890s. You will learn that the country nearly doubled in
size with the purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803. You will find out about
the struggles that people faced as they later settled the Great Plains. You will
learn about the technological advancements made during this time as well as the
difficult geographical obstacles miners and ranchers faced in the West.

READING FOCUS:
Ask Questions to Understand
When newspaper reporters want to get to the heart of a story, they ask certain
questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. When you are reading
a history book, you can use the same questions to get to the heart of what
happened in the past.
Hypothetical Questions You can also use questions to dig deeper than what is in
the text. You can ask hypothetical, or what if, questions. These questions ask what
might have happened had events occurred differently. Sometimes asking such
questions can help history come alive.

In 1862 Congress passed two

Who? What?
­important land acts that helped
Congress open the West to settlers. The Home- encouraged
stead Act gave government-owned new settlement
land to small farmers. Any adult
who was a U.S. citizen or planned to
become one could receive 160 acres
Where? When?
of land. In exchange, homesteaders
the West promised to live on the land for five 1862
years. The Morrill Act granted more
than 17 million acres of federal land to
the states.
Why?
How? Perhaps Congress
Congress gave feared what
land to anyone What if? would happen
who agreed to If Congress had not passed these laws, to western lands
settle on it for U.S. citizens might not have moved if they remained
five years. West. The United States might not unsettled by U.S.
have grown as quickly as it did. citizens.

352 Module 11
You Try It! Key Terms and People
Lesson 1
Daniel Boone
Read the following passage and then answer the Louisiana Purchase
Meriwether Lewis
questions below. William Clark
Lewis and Clark expedition
Sacagawea
Building Communities Women were an ­important Zebulon Pike
John C. Frémont
force in the settlement of the ­frontier. They joined John Jacob Astor
in the hard work of farming and ranching and mountain men
helped build communities out of the widely spaced Oregon Trail
Santa Fe Trail
farms and small towns. Their role in founding com- Mormons
munities facilitated a strong voice in public affairs. Brigham Young
Wyoming women, for example, were granted the Lesson 2
vote in the new state’s ­constitution, which was frontier
Comstock Lode
approved in 1869. Annie Bidwell, one of the found- boomtowns
ers of Chico, California, used her ­influence to sup- Cattle Kingdom
port a variety of moral and social causes such as cattle drive
Chisholm Trail
women’s suffrage and temperance. Pony Express
transcontinental railroad
standard time
Lesson 3
Answer these questions based on the passage you just Treaty of Fort Laramie
read. reservations
Crazy Horse
1. Who is this passage about? Treaty of Medicine Lodge
2. What did they do? buffalo soldiers
George Armstrong Custer
3. When did they do it? Sitting Bull
4. How do you think they accomplished it? Battle of the Little Bighorn
Massacre at Wounded Knee
5. Why do you think they were able to accomplish so Long Walk
much? Chief Joseph
Geronimo
6. How can knowing this information help you under- Ghost Dance
stand the past? Sarah Winnemucca
7. What if women in the West had been given more assimilate
Dawes General Allotment Act
rights? Fewer rights? How might the West have been
Lesson 4
different? Homestead Act
Morrill Act
As you read Module 11, ask questions like who, what, Exodusters
when, where, why, how, and what if to help you analyze sodbusters
dry farming
what you are reading. Annie Bidwell
National Grange
deflation
William Jennings Bryan
Populist Party

Westward Expansion 353

 Lesson 1

A Growing Nation

If YOU were there . . .

The Big Idea You and your family live on a small farm in Kentucky
Americans explored and set-
in about 1800. Raised on the frontier, you are a skillful
tled in the West as the nation hunter and trapper. One day at the trading post, you see
expanded. a poster calling for volunteers to join the Corps of Dis-
covery. This expedition will explore the vast region west
Main Ideas
of the Mississippi River. You think it would be exciting—
■ As American settlers moved
but dangerous. You might never come home.
West, control of the Mississippi
River became more important Would you volunteer to join
to the United States. the Corps of Discovery?
■ Expeditions led by Lewis
and Clark, Pike, and Frémont
increased Americans’ under-
The First Westerners
standing of the West. For centuries, the Ohio, Cumberland, and
■ During the early 1800s, Tennessee River valleys had been the hunting
Americans moved west of grounds of many Native American tribes. By
the Rocky Mountains to settle 1800, however, thousands of white settlers
and trade. had set up homesteads in these areas. The
■ Families moved into the far land had been opened up to settlement by an
west and established thriving intrepid group of frontier guides known as Frontiersman
communities. long hunters. During months-long hunting Daniel Boone led
trips, they explored and surveyed the wilder- the exploration and
Key Terms and People settlementofKentucky.
ness west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was one of the most famous long hunters.
Louisiana Purchase
Meriwether Lewis From his earliest years, Boone loved the outdoor life. In time,
William Clark he became a skilled hunter, trapper, and guide. In 1769 he led
Lewis and Clark expedition a group of friends on an expedition across the Appalachian
Sacagawea Mountains via the Cumberland Gap. They were among the first
Zebulon Pike whites to venture deep into the land beyond the Appalachians.
John C. Frémont Then, in 1775 Boone and about 30 other long hunters cut a con-
John Jacob Astor
tinuous road through the Cumberland Gap. By the time it was
mountain men
finished, this Wilderness Road stretched some 300 miles. It
Oregon Trail
Santa Fe Trail soon became the main thoroughfare for settlers moving West.
Mormons Some used a southern route called the Natchez Trace. This was
Brigham Young an old Native American trail that ran southwest all the way to
the Mississippi River.
As the region’s population grew, Kentucky, Tennessee,
and Ohio were admitted to the Union. Settlers in these
states depended upon the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to move

354 Module 11
 their products to eastern markets. New Orleans, located at the mouth of
the Mississippi, was a very important port. Its busy docks were filled with
settlers’ farm products and valuable furs bought from American Indians.
Many of these cargoes were then sent to Europe. At the same time, manu-
factured goods passed through the port on their way upriver. As American
dependence on the river grew, President Thomas Jefferson began to worry
that a foreign power might shut down access to New Orleans.
Spain controlled both New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory. This
region stretched west from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.
Although Spain owned Louisiana, Spanish officials found it impossible
to keep Americans out of the territory. “You can’t put doors on open
Reading Check
Analyze country,” the foreign minister said in despair. Years of effort failed to
Information improve Spain’s position. Under a secret treaty, Spain agreed to trade
Why was New Orleans Louisiana to France, passing the problem on to someone else. One
important to settlers
in the western regions Spanish officer expressed his relief. “I can hardly wait to leave them
of the United States? [the Americans] behind me,” he said.

Explore ONLINE!
The Louisiana Purchase and Western Expeditions

Interpret Maps
1. Location What major port city was located at the
southern tip of the Louisiana Territory?
2. Human-Environment Interaction Why might
Lewis and Clark have followed the Missouri River?
Fort

er ce
Ri v
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Clatsop er n
NG

LE W TURN BRITISH TERRITORY

Bitterroot I S ' S RE

Riv re
aw
Mtns. Superior
RA

ke

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Co La
l u m b i a Ri v e r

St
Fort
LEWI

Lak Lake
RN
CLARK'S RETU Mandan e Ontario
DE

S AN

OREGON COUNTRY
Lake Michigan

LOUISIANA
Hu
CA

(Claimed by Britain, Mi
ron

PURCHASE ss
DC
C AS

Russia, Spain, and the AR iss

INS
M

ke MICHIGAN
L

United States) S na e (Purchased in 1803) K'S i

iss

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pp
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Riv XP Er
ou

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GRE

ke
TA
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La 40˚N
r

Pl
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att Ri
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River

UN
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Ri v INDIANA OH
U.S. states and e r
MO
AT

territories in 1804 TERRITORY

r

ado
ve

lor Pikes Peak

St. Charles
Louisiana Purchase Co
Ri

er 14,110 ft. O hio

Riv (4,301 m) St. Louis
AN

Disputed by United States

and Britain KY
HI

35˚N
Lewis and Clark's
AC
Ar
PL

Expedition, 1804–1806 an
k

sa TN
AL

Pike's Expedition, s Rive

r
AI

Santa Fe
PP

1806–1807
ATLANTIC
A
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0 200 400 Miles Red Riv

er MISSISSIPPI OCEAN
S

0 200 400 Kilometers TERRITORY

30˚N
SPANISH TERRITORY N
C o nti n

N
ITIO
PED
EX
Ri

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o

New Orleans W
en

E'S

PACIFIC G
tal

PIK

ra S 75˚W
nd
Divid

OCEAN e
e

Gulf of Mexico 25˚N

90˚W 85˚W 80˚W

95˚W
HMH—Middle School U.S. History—2016
MS_SNLESE454149_276M
Lousiana Purchase - Legend
First proof 03/03/16
Westward Expansion 355
 Louisiana and Western Explorers
In 1802, just before handing over Louisiana to France, Spain closed New
Orleans to American shipping. Angry farmers worried about what this
would do to the economy. President Jefferson asked the U.S. ambassador
to France, Robert R. Livingston, to try to buy New Orleans. Jefferson sent
James Monroe to help Livingston.
Napoléon and Louisiana France was led by Napoléon (nuh--lay-uhn)
Bonaparte, a powerful ruler who had conquered most of Europe. He wished
to rebuild France’s empire in North America. Napoléon’s strategy was to
use the French colony of Haiti, in the Caribbean, as a supply base. From
there he could send troops to Louisiana. However, in the 1790s enslaved
Africans, led by Toussaint Louverture (too- loo-vehr-), revolted
and freed themselves from French rule. Napoléon sent troops to try to
regain control of the island, but they were defeated in 1802. This defeat
ended his hopes of rebuilding a North American empire.
Jefferson Buys Louisiana Livingston and Monroe got a surprising offer
during their negotiations with French foreign minister Charles Talleyrand.
When the Americans tried to buy New Orleans, Talleyrand offered to sell
all of Louisiana. With his hopes for a North American empire dashed,
Napoléon had turned his attention back to Europe. France was at war with
Great Britain, and Napoléon needed money for military supplies. He also
hoped that a larger United States would challenge British power.
Livingston and Monroe knew a bargain when they saw one. They quickly
accepted the French offer to sell Louisiana for $15 million, and
Jefferson agreed to the purchase. On October 20, 1803, the Senate
approved the Louisiana Purchase agreement, which roughly doubled the
size of the United States.
Explorers Head West President Jefferson wanted to learn more about
the West and the Native Americans who lived there. He also wanted to
see if there was a river route that could be taken to the Pacific Ocean. So,
The Lewis and Clark in 1803 Jefferson asked Congress to fund an expedition to explore the
expedition followed the
Missouri River for most
West. To lead it, he chose former army captain Meriwether Lewis. Lewis
of the journey across the then chose his friend Lieutenant William Clark to be the co-leader of the
Great Plains. expedition. With Clark, Lewis carefully selected about 50 skilled
frontiersmen to join the Corps of Discovery, as they called their
group.
In May 1804 the Lewis and Clark expedition began its long
journey to explore the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis and Clark
used the Missouri River as their highway through the unknown
lands. By late October the Corps of Discovery had pushed more
than 1,600 miles upriver. They spent the winter among the
Mandan people. At this time, the Corps also came into contact
with British and Canadian trappers and traders, who were not
happy to see them. The traders feared American competition in
the trade in beaver fur—and they would be proved right.

356 Module 11
 DOCUMENTBASED INVESTIGATION Historical Source

Meriwether Lewis’s Journal

“The shortness . . . of grass gave the plain the
Entry
appearance throughout its whole extent of beautiful
On September 17, 1804, while bowling-green in fine order . . . this scenery, already
traveling across the Great Plains, rich, pleasing, and beautiful was still farther
Meriwether Lewis marveled at the heightened by immense herds of Buffaloe, deer Elk
richness of the land. and Antelopes which we saw in every direction feeding
on the hills and plains. I do not think I exaggerate
when I estimate the number of Buffalo which could be
compre[hend]ed at one view to amount to 3000.”
—Meriwether Lewis,
Analyze Historical Sources quoted in Original Journals of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition, edited by Reuben Bold Theraites
What did Lewis find so impressive
about the Great Plains?

In the spring of 1805, the expedition set out again. They were joined by
Sacagawea (sak-uh-guh-WEE-uh), a Shoshone from the Rocky Mountains.
Her language skills—she knew several Native American languages—and
her knowledge of the geography of the region proved very useful to Lewis
and Clark. Sacagawea also helped the expedition by naming plants and
by gathering edible fruits and vegetables for the group. At one point, the
group met with Sacagawea’s brother, who provided horses and a guide to
lead the expedition across the mountains.
After crossing the Rockies, Lewis and Clark followed the Columbia
River. Along the way they met the powerful Nez Percé. Like the Shoshone,
the Nez Percé provided the expedition with supplies. At last, in November
1805 Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean. The explorers stayed in
Sacagawea, whose name the Pacific Northwest during the rough winter. In March 1806 Lewis and
is believed to mean “bird
woman,” contributed
Clark set out on the long trip home.
greatly to the success Lewis and Clark had not found a river route across the West to the
of the Lewis and Clark Pacific Ocean. But they had learned much about western lands and paths
expedition.
across the Rockies. They used this knowledge to produce the first accurate
maps of the Louisiana Territory. The explorers also established contact
with many Native American groups and collected much valuable informa-
tion about western plants and animals.
Other Explorations In 1806 a young army officer named Zebulon Pike
was sent on another mission to the West. He was ordered to find the start-
ing point of the Red River. This was important because the United States
considered the Red River to be a part of the Louisiana Territory’s western
border with New Spain.
Heading into the Rocky Mountains, in present-day Colorado, Pike
tried to reach the summit of the mountain now known as Pikes Peak. In
1807 he traveled into Spanish-held lands until Spanish cavalry arrested
him. They suspected Pike of being a spy. When he was finally released, he

Westward Expansion 357

 returned to the United States and reported on his trip. This report offered
many Americans their first description of the Southwest. Not all of Pike’s
information was accurate, however. For example, he described the treeless
Great Plains as a desert. This led many Americans to believe, mistakenly,
that the Plains region was useless for farming.
Another explorer, John C. Frémont, led an expedition to the Rocky
Mountains in May 1842. Upon his return, Frémont compiled a report
of his journey, which became a guide for future travelers to the West. It
detailed the geology, botany, and climate of the region. It also crushed the
mistaken belief that the West was a vast desert, attracting more settlers as
a result. Buoyed by the success of his first effort, Frémont led several more
Reading Check surveys of the American West in the 1840s and 1850s.
Compare What did
the expeditions of
Lewis and Clark, Pike,
Mountain Men Go West
and Frémont reveal In the early 1800s, Americans pushed steadily westward, moving even
about the West? beyond the territory of the United States. They traveled by canoe and flat-
boat, on horseback, and by wagon train. Some even walked much of the way.
The rush to the West occurred, in part, because of a hat. The “high hat,”
made of water-repellent beaver fur, was popular in the United States and
Europe. While acquiring fur for the hats, French, British, and American
companies gradually killed off the beaver population in the East. Compa-
nies moved West in search of more beavers. Most of the first non-Native
Americans who traveled to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific North-
west were fur traders and trappers.
American merchant John Jacob Astor created one of the largest fur
businesses, the American Fur Company. His company bought skins from
western fur traders and trappers, who became known as mountain men.
These adventurers were among the first to explore the Rocky Mountains
and lands west of them. The knowledge they acquired helped settlers who
made the westward journey. Mountain men lived lonely and often danger-
ous lives. They trapped animals on their own, far from towns and settle-
ments. Mountain men such as Jedediah Smith, Manuel Lisa, Jim Bridger,
and Jim Beckwourth survived many hardships during their search for
wealth and adventure. To survive on the frontier, mountain men adopted
Jim Beckwourth was an African Native American customs and clothing. In addition, they often married
American fur trapper and Native American women. The Indian wives of trappers often worked hard
explorer of the West in the to contribute to their success.
early 1800s.
Pioneer William Ashley saw that frequently bringing furs out of the
Rocky Mountains was expensive. He asked his traders to stay in the
mountains and meet once a year to trade and socialize. This practice
helped make the fur trade more profitable. The yearly meeting was known
as the rendezvous. At the rendezvous, mountain men and Native American
trappers sold their fur to fur-company agents. One trapper described
the people at a typical rendezvous in 1837. He saw Americans, Canadian
French, some Europeans, and “Indians, of nearly every tribe in the Rocky
Mountains.” The rendezvous was filled with celebrating and storytelling.
At the same time, the meeting was also about conducting business.

358 Module 11
 In 1811 John Jacob Astor founded a fur-trading post called Astoria at the
mouth of the Columbia River. Astoria was one of the first American settle-
ments in what became known as Oregon Country. American Indians occupied
the region, which was rich in forests, rivers, and wildlife. However, Britain,
Russia, Spain, and the United States all claimed the land. Recognizing the
huge economic value of the Pacific Northwest, the United States made treaties
in which Spain and Russia gave up their claims to various areas. The United
States also signed treaties with Britain allowing both countries to occupy
Oregon Country, the Columbia River, and its surrounding lands.
By the 1840s the era of American fur trading in the Pacific Northwest
Reading Check was drawing to a close. The demand for beaver furs had fallen because
Draw Conclusions fashions had changed. Too much trapping had also greatly reduced the
How did the number of beavers. Some mountain men gave up their work and moved
mountain men help to
open up the West for back East. Their daring stories, however, along with the treaties made by
future settlement? the U.S. government, fired the imagination of many Americans.

Settling the West

The success of early pioneers convinced thousands of families and indi-
viduals to make the dangerous journey west. They traveled along a series
of routes that led to New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah. Once in these places,
the new pioneers claimed the land and established settlements.
The Oregon Trail Many settlers moving to Oregon Country and other
western areas followed the 2,000-mile-long Oregon Trail, which stretched
from places such as Independence, Missouri, and Council Bluffs, Iowa,
west into Oregon Country. The trail followed the Platte and Sweetwater
Rivers over the Plains. After it crossed the Rocky Mountains, the trail
forked. The northern branch led to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The
other branch went to California and became known as the California Trail.
Traveling the trail challenged the strength and determination of pioneer
families. The journey usually began after the rainy season ended in late
spring and lasted about six months. The cost, about $600 for a family of
four, was high at a time when a typical worker usually made about $1.50
per day. Young families made up most groups of settlers. They gathered in
wagon trains for the trip. There could be as few as ten wagons or as many
as several dozen in a wagon train. Some pioneers brought small herds of
cattle with them on the trail.
Oxen, mules, or horses pulled the wagons. Pioneers often walked to
save their animals’ strength. They kept up a tiring pace, traveling from
dawn until dusk. They faced severe hardships, including shortages of food,
supplies, and water. Rough weather and geographic barriers, such as rivers
and mountains, sometimes forced large numbers of pioneers to abandon
their wagons. In the early days of the Oregon Trail, many Native Ameri-
cans helped the pioneers, acting as guides. They also traded goods for food.
Although newspapers sometimes reported Native American “massacres” of
pioneers, few settlers died from Indian attacks. The settlers who arrived
safely in Oregon and California found generally healthy and pleasant cli-
mates. By 1845 some 5,000 settlers occupied the Willamette Valley.

Westward Expansion 359

 Explore ONLINE!
Trails Leading West

CA N A DA

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RA
Astoria M MINNESOTA

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Ft. Vancouver
Portland TERRITORY

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TERRITORY Ft. Hall TERRITORY 40°

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pp
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Ft. Laramie

iR
Beckwourth Council

MO
E

.
Pass Great Bluffs IA
Sutter’s Ft. W
Fort Salt Lake Salt Bridger IL

UN
S
Nauvoo
SIER

UTAH Lake City

San TERRITORY Ft. Kearney Ft. Leavenworth
Council ATLANTI C
TA I
Francisco
RA

Grove O CEAN
Independence
NE

NS MO
VA

CA 70°W
DA

Las
Vegas Santa Fe
INDIAN Trails, Distances, and Travel Times
Los Angeles NEW MEXICO TERRITORY
TERRITORY California 2,000 miles, 6 months
AR
PAC I FI C Santa Fe 1,200 miles, 2 months
O C E AN Mormon 1,300 miles, 4 months
TX LA
30°N Old Spanish 700 miles, 7 weeks
120°W Interpret Maps Oregon 2,000 miles, 6 months
1. Movement Which trails took the longest to travel? Fort or trading post
2. Human-Environment Interaction What difficulties 0 200 400 Miles
MEXICO
do you think travelers on the trails faced? 0 200 400 Kilometers

The Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was another important path west. It
led from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It followed an
ancient trading route first used by Native Americans. American traders loaded
their wagon trains with cloth and other manufactured goods to exchange for
horses, mules, and silver from Mexican traders in Santa Fe.
The long trip across blazing deserts and rough mountains was dangerous.
But the lure of high profits encouraged traders to take to the trail. One trader
reported a 2,000 percent profit on his cargo. The U.S. government helped
protect traders by sending troops to ensure that Native Americans were not a
threat.
Mormons Travel West One large group of settlers traveled to the West in
search of religious freedom. In 1830 a young man named Joseph Smith
founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in western New
York. The members of his church became known as Mormons. Smith told his
followers that he had found and translated a set of golden tablets containing
religious teachings. The writings were called the Book of Mormon.
Church membership grew rapidly, but certain beliefs and practices caused
Mormons to be persecuted. For example, beginning in the 1850s some Mor-
mon men practiced polygamy—a practice in which one man is married to
several women at the same time. The church outlawed this practice in 1890.
In the early 1830s Smith and his growing number of converts left New
York. Many traveled on the recently completed Erie Canal and Lake Erie
to Ohio, where they set up new communities. Later, they moved on and

360 Module 11
 This Mormon family took
part in an early-1900s
celebration of the
pioneers who made the
great trek along the
Mormon Trail to Utah.

established communities in Missouri and Illinois. Eventually, these com-

munities failed. The Illinois community collapsed after an anti-Mormon
mob murdered Smith in 1844. Following Smith’s murder, Brigham Young
became head of the Mormon Church. Young chose what is now Utah as
the group’s new home, and thousands of Mormons took the Mormon Trail
to the area near the Great Salt Lake, where they prospered. By 1860 there
Reading Check were about 40,000 Mormons in Utah.
Summarize How did
settlers travel west, Summary and Preview Some of the first Americans to move West were
and what challenges
did they face on fur traders and trappers. Settlers soon followed. In the next lesson you will
their journey? learn about America’s continued westward expansion.

Lesson 1 Assessment
Review Ideas, Terms, and People c. Summarize What difficulties led Mormons to move
to Utah?
1. a. Identify Who helped to open up the land west of
the Appalachians by building the Wilderness Road? Critical Thinking
b. Explain Why were New Orleans and the Mississippi
River important to settlers in the West? 5. Sequence In this lesson you learned about the west-
ward expansion of the United States. Create a graphic
2. a. Summarize Why was the Louisiana Purchase
organizer like the one below to rank the three most
important to the United States?
important effects of the Louisiana Purchase, from most
b. Describe What areas did the Lewis and Clark important to least important, and explain why you
expedition and the Zebulon Pike and John C. Frémont chose that order.
expeditions explore?
c. Draw Conclusions Why were Meriwether Lewis and Importance Why
William Clark chosen to lead the exploration of the 1.
Louisiana Purchase? 2.
3. a. Identify Who established one of the first American 3.
settlements in Oregon Country?
b. Describe What were the lives of mountain men 6. Draw Conclusions What challenges did the westward
like? journey present for settlers?
4. a. Identify What was the Oregon Trail? 7. Make Predictions What effects do you think west-
b. Elaborate Would you have chosen to leave your ward migration of the mid-1800s would have on
home to travel West? Why? Native Americans?

Westward Expansion 361

 History and Geography
America’s Growth by 1820
In 1803 the United States made the biggest land
purchase in its history—the Louisiana Purchase.
With this purchase, the country stretched west
all the way to the Rocky Mountains. In 1819 the
British Territory
United States acquired Florida from Spain, gain-
ing even more new territory. By 1820 the young Claimed by United
American republic had roughly doubled in size, States, ceded to Great
Britain in 1818
as you can see on the map. Explorers, traders,
50°N
and settlers began to pour into the new lands in
search of wealth, land, and a place to call home. 49th Parallel

R
O
C
Oregon Country Both the

K
United States and Great Oregon Country

Y
Britain claimed Oregon
Country.

M
42nd Parallel

O
U
N
ah06se_ u01amg002a

T
revised by ron bowdoin
12/21/04

A
I
N
S
America’s Population, 1820: 10.1 million

4% 1%

Ethnic Groups, 1820

18%
White/European
African American PACIFIC Spanish Territory
77% Native American OCEAN
30°N Other

Louisiana Purchase, 1803

Claimed by United States and
1% Great Britain, 1818
4%
<1%
Convention of 1818
Religions, 1820 From Britain to United States, 1818
Protestant Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819
Jewish From Spain to United States, 1819
Catholic
94% Other 0 150 300 Miles

0 150 300 Kilometers

130°W 120°W 110°W

362 Module 11
 Early Traders Soon after
Lewis and Clark explored the
Louisiana Territory, American
fur traders and trappers began Through the Gaps Settlers crossed
setting up trading posts there. the Appalachians through valleys
Many of these posts later called gaps. In time, roads were built
became towns as more settlers through the gaps, making it easier for
arrived. settlers to head West.
Unorganized
Unorganized
TerritoryTerritory
M

DelawareDelaware ATLANTIC
ATLANTIC
isso

isso

Gap Gap OCEANOCEAN

u

TS

TS
ri R

ri R

40°N 40°N
M

M
iv

iv

r r
e

MissouriMissouri
IA

IA

TerritoryTerritory
H

Cumberland
Cumberland Gap Gap
C

A A
L L
A A
P P
er

er

P P
Ri v

Ri v

Arkansas
Arkansas A A
Re R
d Ri ed Ri TerritoryTerritory
ver ver
pi

pi

The Mighty Mississippi The Mississippi River was the

sissip

sissip

great highway of the United States. Americans west of the

Appalachians shipped farm goods and supplies up and
Mis

Mis

down the Mississippi and to its major port, New Orleans.

Louisiana
Louisiana 30°N 30°N
New Orleans
New Orleans

Gulf of Gulf of
MexicoMexico Unorganized TerritoryTerritory
Unorganized
(Florida)(Florida)

Interpret Maps
1. Movement In which directions did the United States expand 70°W 70°W
before 1820?
2. Region Based on the map, why do you think the United States
was interested in claiming Oregon Country?

Westward Expansion 363

 Lesson 2

Boom Times in the West

If YOU were there . . .

The Big Idea You are a cowboy in Texas in 1875. You love life on the
American settlers dramatically
open range, the quiet nights, and the freedom. You even
changed the western frontier as like the hard work of the long cattle drives to Kansas. But
they began to tame the land. you know that times are changing. Homesteaders are
moving in and fencing off their lands. Some of the older
Main Ideas
cowboys say it’s time to settle down and buy a small
■ Valuable deposits of gold
ranch. You hope that they’re not right.
and silver in the West created
opportunities for wealth and What would make you give up a cowboy’s life?
brought more settlers to the
region.
■ The cattle industry thrived on
Mining Boom Brings Growth
the Great Plains, supplying During the years surrounding the Civil War, most Americans
beef to the East. had thought of the Great Plains and other western lands as
■ The transcontinental railroad the Great American Desert. In the years following the Civil
succeeded in linking the east- War, Americans witnessed the rapid growth of the U.S. popula-
ern and western United States. tion and the spread of settlements throughout the West. With
the admission of the state of California to the Union in 1850,
Key Terms
the western boundary of the American frontier—an undevel-
frontier
oped area—had reached the Pacific Ocean.
Comstock Lode
boomtowns The frontier changed dramatically as more and more people
Cattle Kingdom moved westward. Settlers built homes, fenced off land, and laid
cattle drive out ranches and farms. Miners, ranchers, and farmers remade
Chisholm Trail the landscape of the West as they adapted to their new sur-
Pony Express roundings. The geography of the West was further changed
transcontinental railroad by the development and expansion of a large and successful
standard time railroad industry that moved the West’s natural resources to
eastern markets. Gold and silver were the most
valuable natural resources, and mining companies
Hydraulic Mining used the growing railroad network to bring these
Miners used high-powered precious metals to the East.
water jets to blast earth from
a hillside in order to expose Big Business Most of the precious metals
the gold in the rock. were located in western Nevada. In 1859 miner
Henry Comstock discovered a huge deposit of
gold and silver in Nevada that became called the
Comstock Lode. The deposit was incredibly rich

364 Module 11
 and deep. In just the first year after its discovery, the
Comstock Lode lured thousands of ­California min-
ers to Nevada. Over the next 20 years, the Comstock
Lode produced more than $500 million worth of gold
and silver.
Expensive equipment was needed to remove the silver
and gold that were trapped within quartz rock. Larger
mining companies bought up land claims from min-
ers who could not afford this machinery. As a result,
­mining became a big business in the West.
As companies dug bigger and deeper mines, the
work became more ­dangerous. Miners had to use
unsafe equipment, such as elevator ­platforms without
protective walls. They worked in dark tunnels and
breathed hot, stuffy air. They suffered from lung dis-
ease caused by dusty air. Miners often were injured
or killed by poorly planned explosions or by cave-ins.
Fire was also a great danger. Mining was therefore
one of the most ­dangerous jobs in the country. In
Posters like this one were the West, worries about safety and pay led miners to form several unions
designed to persuade in the 1860s.
people to move West.
Settlers People from all over the world came to work in the ­western
mines. Some miners came from the eastern United States. Others
­emigrated from Europe, Central and South America, and Asia. Many
Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans were experienced miners.
They were skilled in assaying, or testing, the contents of valuable ore. One
newspaper reporter wrote, “Here were congregated the most varied ele-
ments of humanity . . . belonging to almost every nationality and every
status of life.”
New Towns Mining booms also produced boomtowns, communities that
grew suddenly when a mine opened. They disappeared just as quickly
when the mine closed. The California town of Bodie, located just southeast
of Lake Tahoe, provides a vivid illustration of a mining boomtown. In the
early 1870s it was a mining camp with just a handful of inhabitants. The
discovery of a rich vein of gold in the late 1870s drew thousands. Within
months, Bodie had become a bustling town of some 8,000 people. It had a
railroad station, a school, two banks, three newspapers, two churches, and
dozens of saloons. Once the gold in the mine was worked out, however,
Bodie went into an equally rapid decline. By 1900 the population was less
than 1,000.
Few women or families lived in even the most bustling boomtowns.
“I was never so lonely and homesick in all my life,” wrote one young
woman. The women who did settle there washed, cooked, made clothes,
and chopped wood. They also raised families, established schools, and
Reading Check
Summarize What wrote for newspapers. Their work helped turn some boomtowns into suc-
risks did miners face? cessful, permanent towns.

Westward Expansion 365

 Cattle Ranching in the West
The cattle industry was another area of rapid growth. Following the Civil
War, a growing economy and population created a greater demand for beef
in the East. Cattle worth $3 to $6 each in Texas could be sold for $38 each
in Kansas. In New York, they could be sold for $80 each. The most popu-
lar breed of cattle was the longhorn. The longhorn breed spread quickly
throughout western Texas. Because these animals needed very little water
and could survive harsh weather, they were well suited to the dry, desert-
like environment of western Texas. But how could Texas ranchers move
the longhorns to eastern markets?
In 1867 businessman Joseph McCoy discovered a solution. He built pens
for cattle in the small town of Abilene, Kansas. The Kansas Pacific Rail-
road line went through Abilene. As a result, cattle could be shipped by rail
from there. Soon, countless Texas ranchers were making the trip north to
Abilene to sell their herds of cattle.
Around the same time, cattle ranching began to expand in the ­Midwest.
The vast open range of the Great Plains from Texas to Canada, where
many ranchers raised cattle in the late 1800s, became known as the Cattle
­Kingdom. Ranchers grazed huge herds on public land called the open
range. The land had once been occupied by Plains Indians and buffalo
herds.
Importance of Cowboys The workers who took care of the ­ranchers’ cattle
were known as cowhands or cowboys. They adopted many ­techniques and
tools from vaqueros (bah-ker-ohs), Mexican ranch hands who cared for
cattle and horses. From vaqueros came the western saddle and the lariat,
a rope used for lassoing cattle. The cowboys also borrowed the vaqueros’
boot. Its narrow toe fit easily into the riding stirrup, and the high heel
hooked the stirrup for stability. Cowboys adopted and changed the vaque-
ros’ broad felt hat, turning it into the familiar high-peaked ­cowboy hat.
One of the cowboy’s most important and dangerous duties was the
cattle drive. On these long journeys, cowboys herded cattle to the mar-
ket or to the northern Plains for grazing. These long drives usually lasted
several months and covered hundreds of miles. Workdays on the drive
were long—often up to 15 hours—and sometimes very dull. Excitement
came with events such as stampedes. Frightened by a sudden noise such
as a thunderclap, the whole herd would take off running wildly. Bringing
the herd under control was dangerous and hard work. The Chisholm Trail,
which ran from San Antonio, Texas, to the cattle town of Abilene, Kansas,
was one of the earliest and most popular routes for cattle drives. It was
blazed, or marked, by Texas cowboy Jesse Chisholm in the late 1860s.
At times, rowdy cowboys made life in cattle towns rough and violent.
There were rarely shoot-outs in the street, but there often was disorderly
behavior. Law officials such as Wyatt Earp became famous for keeping the
peace in cattle towns.
End of the Open Range As the cattle business boomed, ranchers faced
more competition for use of the open range. Farmers began to buy range

366 Module 11
 Myth and Reality in the Wild West
No episode in American history has given rise to as many
myths as the Wild West. Writers of dime novels, popular in
the East, helped create the myths in the years after the Civil
War. Even today, popular books, television shows, and movies
continue to portray the West in ways that are more myth than
reality.
Myth: The cowboy was a free-spirited individual.
Reality: Most cowboys were employees. Many joined labor
unions and even went on strike.
Myth: Western cow towns were wild places where cowboys
had gunfights, and there was little law and order.
Reality: Most were orderly places with active law enforcement.
Showdowns rarely, if ever, occurred.
Myth: Almost all cowboys were Anglo Americans.
Reality: About 25 percent of cowboys were African Americans,
and 12 percent were Hispanic. Some Native Americans also
worked as cowhands.

African American
cowboy Nat Love
(above); Marshal
Wyatt Earp (left)

land on the Great Plains, where cattle had once grazed. Small ranchers
also began competing with large ranchers for land. Then in 1874, Joseph
Glidden’s invention of barbed wire allowed westerners to fence off large
amounts of land cheaply. The competition between farmers, large
ranchers, and small ranchers increased. This competition led to range
wars, or fights for access to land.
Making matters worse, in 1885 and 1886, disaster struck the Cattle
Reading Check Kingdom. The huge cattle herds on the Plains had eaten most of the
Draw Conclusions prairie grass. Unusually severe winters in both years made the ranching
Why did the Cattle
Kingdom come to situation even worse. Thousands of cattle died, and many ranchers were
an end? ruined financially. The Cattle Kingdom had come to an end.

The Transcontinental Railroad

As more Americans began moving West, the need to send goods and infor-
mation between the East and West increased. Americans searched for ways
to improve communication and travel across the country.
In 1860 a system of messengers on horseback called the Pony Express
began to carry the mail West. The Pony Express operated from St. Joseph,
Missouri, to Sacramento, California, a route of almost 2,000 miles. The
business purchased over 400 horses, and riders used a relay system,
switching horses at stations 10 to 15 miles apart. The Pony Express cut
The Pony Express mail mail delivery time in half, from three weeks to ten days. The completion
system helped speed up
communication across of a telegraph line to California in 1861, which sent messages much faster,
the United States. quickly put the Pony Express out of business.

Westward Expansion 367

 Explore ONLINE!
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Boston S

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San
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30°N
30°N

Railroad New Orleans 80°W 70°W

Pony Express
Chisholm Trail San Antonio
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Transcontinental ic of
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0 200 400 Miles

Interpret Maps
0 200 400 Kilometers Movement "DDPSEJOH
UP
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Some Americans wanted to build a transcontinental railroad—a

railroad that would cross the continent and connect the East to the West.
The federal government, therefore, passed the Pacific Railway Acts in
1862 and in 1864. These acts gave railroad companies loans and large
land grants that could be sold to pay for construction costs. Congress had
granted more than 131 million acres of public land to railroad companies.
In exchange, the government asked the railroads to carry U.S. mail and
troops at a lower cost. Many railroad companies were inspired to begin lay-
ing miles of track.
Great Race Two companies, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific,
led the race to complete the transcontinental railroad. In February 1863
the Central Pacific began building east from Sacramento, California. At
the end of the year, the Union Pacific started building west from Omaha,
Nebraska.
The Union Pacific hired thousands of railroad workers, particularly Irish
immigrants. Chinese immigrants made up some 85 percent of the Central
Pacific workforce. The railroad’s part-owner Leland Stanford praised
them, but he paid them less than other laborers. Chinese crews also were
given the most dangerous tasks and had to work longer hours than other
railroad laborers. They took the job, however, because the $30 a month
that the Central Pacific paid was as much as ten times what they could
earn in China.

368 .PEVMF

 Railroad companies faced many geographic challenges. For example,
workers for Central Pacific struggled to cross the Sierra Nevada mountain
range in California. Breaking apart its rock formations required setting
carefully controlled explosions using large amounts of blasting powder
and the explosive nitroglycerin. And in the winter of 1866, snowdrifts
more than 60 feet high trapped and killed dozens of workers. Faced
with these obstacles, the Central Pacific took four years to lay the first
115 miles of track.
Meanwhile, Union Pacific workers faced harsh weather on the Great
Plains. In addition, the company pressured them to work at a rapid pace—
at times laying 250 miles of track in six months.
For both railroad companies, providing food and supplies for workers
was vital. This job became more difficult in remote areas. The railroad
companies consequently often relied on local resources. Professional
hunters, such as William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, shot thousands of buffalo to
feed Union Pacific workers.
Golden Spike Congress required the two completed rail lines to connect
at Promontory, Utah. On May 10, 1869, a golden spike was used to
connect the railroad tie joining the two tracks. Alexander Toponce
witnessed the event.

“Governor Stanford, president of the Central Pacific, took the sledge

[hammer], and the first time he struck he missed the spike and
hit the rail. What a howl went up! Irish, Chinese, Mexicans, and
The Central everybody yelled with delight. ‘He missed it’ . . . Then Stanford
Pacific and Union tried it again and tapped the spike.”
Pacific connected —Alexander Toponce, from Reminiscences of Alexander Toponce, Written by Himself
their tracks at
Promontory, Utah, The railroad companies were not finished, though. Following comple-
in 1869, completing
tion of the transcontinental railroad, they continued building railroads
the transcontinental
railroad. until the West was crisscrossed with rail lines.

Westward Expansion 369

 Results of the Railroad The transcontinental railroad increased both
economic growth and the population in the West. Railroad companies
provided better transportation for people and goods. They also sold land
to settlers, which encouraged people to move West. The development of
the West brought about the railroad; however, it also would prove to be the
beginning of the end of the Plains Indians’ way of life.
New railroads helped businesses. Western timber companies, miners,
ranchers, and farmers shipped wood, metals, meat, and grain East by
railroad. In exchange, eastern businesses shipped manufactured goods to
the West. As trade between regions increased, the idea that the U.S. econ-
omy was interdependent became more widespread.
Even perceptions of time became more formal as railroad ­schedules
began to unite areas that before had existed under different times.
Before the railroads, each community determined its own time, based
on ­calculations about the sun’s travels. This system, called “solar time,”
caused problems for people who scheduled trains crossing a long distance.
The railroad companies addressed the issue by setting up standard time.
This system divided the United States into four time zones.
Railroad companies encouraged people to invest in the railroads, which
Reading Check they did—sometimes unwisely. Speculation and the collapse of railroad
Find Main Ideas owner Jay Cooke’s banking firm helped start the Panic of 1873. Despite
How did the such setbacks, Americans remained interested in railroad investments. By
railroad affect the
development of the 1890 there were about 164,000 more miles of track than in 1865. Rail-
West? roads had become one of the biggest industries in the United States.
Summary and Preview In this lesson you learned about the increased
settlement of the West. In the next lesson you will learn about conflicts
with Native Americans.

Lesson 2 Assessment
Review Ideas, Terms, and People Critical Thinking
1. a. Recall Why did Americans move West in the years 4. Identify Cause and Effect In this lesson you learned
following the Civil War? about the kinds of economic opportunities that
b. Draw Conclusions What effect did the discovery of people found in the West. Create a graphic organizer
the Comstock Lode have on the West? similar to the one below to list these opportunities and
c. Evaluate Do you think women were important to their effects.
the success of mining towns? Why or why not?
Opportunity Effect
2. a. Recall What led to the cattle boom in the West?
b. Analyze Why was there competition between
ranchers and farmers to settle in the Great Plains?
c. Evaluate What played the biggest role in ending
the Cattle Kingdom? Why?
3. a. Recall When and where did the Union Pacific and
Central Pacific lines meet?
b. Describe What role did Irish and Chinese
immigrants play in opening up the West?
c. Make Generalizations How do you think the
transcontinental railroad improved people’s lives?

370 Module 11
 Lesson 3

Wars for the West

If YOU were there . . .

The Big Idea You are a member of the Sioux nation, living in Dakota
Native Americans and the U.S.
Territory in 1875. These lands are sacred to your people,
government came into conflict and the U.S. government has promised them to you. But
over land in the West. now gold has been found here, and the government has
ordered you to give up your land. Some Sioux leaders
Main Ideas
want to fight. Others say that it is of no use, that the
■■ As settlers moved to the Great
soldiers will win.
Plains, they encountered the
Plains Indians. Would you fight to keep your lands? Why?
■■ Native Americans attempted to
keep their lands through trea-
ties with the U.S. government.
Settlers Encounter the Plains Indians
As miners and settlers began cross-
■■ Continued pressure from white
settlement and government
ing the Great Plains in the mid-1800s,
legislation brought the Plains they pressured the federal government
Indians’ traditional way of life for more access to western lands. To
to an end. protect these travelers, U.S. officials
sent agents to negotiate treaties with
Key Terms and People
the Plains Indians.
Treaty of Fort Laramie
reservations
The Plains Indians lived in the
Crazy Horse Great Plains, which stretch north into Crazy Horse (Tashunka Witco)
Canada and south into Texas. Indian was a Sioux chief who fought
Treaty of Medicine Lodge
to defend his people’s way
buffalo soldiers groups such as the Apache and the of life and resisted attempts
George Armstrong Custer Comanche lived in and around Texas to force the Sioux onto
Sitting Bull and what is now Oklahoma. The Chey- reservations.
Battle of the Little Bighorn enne and the Arapaho lived in different
Massacre at Wounded Knee regions across the central Plains. The Pawnee lived in parts of
Long Walk
Nebraska. To the north were the Sioux. These groups spoke
Chief Joseph
Geronimo
many different languages. However, they used a common sign
Ghost Dance language to communicate and they shared a similar lifestyle.
Sarah Winnemucca
Hunting Buffalo For survival, the Plains Indians depended on
assimilate
Dawes General Allotment Act two animals—the horse and the buffalo. The Spanish brought
horses to America in the 1500s. The Plains Indians learned
to ride horses, and hunters used them to follow buffalo herds
year-round. While on horseback, most Plains Indian hunters
used a short bow and arrows to shoot buffalo from close range.
The Plains Indians used buffalo for food, shelter, clothing,
utensils, and tools. Women dried buffalo meat to make

Westward Expansion 371

The Plains Indians
depended on two
animals—the horse and
jerky. They made tepees and clothing from buffalo hides, and cups and
the buffalo. tools from buffalo horns. As one Sioux explained, “When our people killed
a buffalo, all of the animal was utilized [used] in some manner; nothing
was wasted.” The Plains Indians prospered. By 1850 some 75,000 Native
Americans lived on the Plains.
Struggle to Keep Land Miners and settlers were also increasing in
­numbers—and they wanted the Indians’ land. The U.S. government tried
to avoid disputes by negotiating the Treaty of Fort Laramie, the first
major treaty between the U.S. government and Plains Indians. Two years
later, several southern Plains nations signed a treaty at Fort Atkinson in
Nebraska. These treaties recognized Indian claims to most of the Great
Plains. They also allowed the United States to build forts and roads and to
travel across Indian homelands. The U.S. government promised to pay for
any damages to Indian lands.
The treaties did not keep the peace for long. In 1858 the discovery of
gold in what is now Colorado brought thousands of miners to the West.
They soon clashed with the Cheyenne and the Arapaho. In 1861 the U.S.
government negotiated new treaties with Plains Indians. These treaties
created reservations, areas of federal land set aside for Native Americans.
The government expected Indians to stay on the reservations, which made
hunting buffalo almost impossible.
Pioneers and miners continued to cross the Great Plains. Many miners
used the Bozeman Trail. To protect them, the U.S. Army built forts along
the trail, which ran through favored Sioux hunting grounds. The Sioux
responded with war. In late 1866 a group led by Crazy Horse, an Oglala
Sioux chief, ambushed and killed 81 cavalry troops.
In 1868 under the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie, the U.S. govern-
ment agreed to close the Bozeman Trail and abandon the forts, and forced
some of the Sioux onto reservations. The U.S. government also forced

372 Module 11
 some of the southern Plains Indians to move off their land. In the 1867
Treaty of Medicine Lodge, most southern Plains Indians agreed to live on
Reading Check reservations. However, many Indians did not want to give up their hunting
Summarize What grounds. Fighting soon broke out between the Comanche and Texans. The
was the federal policy U.S. Army and the Texas Rangers were unable to defeat the Comanche, so
toward the Plains
Indians in the 1860s they cut off the Comanche’s access to food and water. In 1875 the last of the
and 1870s? Comanche war leaders surrendered.

Fighting on the Plains

In the northern Plains, Southwest, and Far West, Native Americans con-
tinued to resist being moved to and confined on reservations. The U.S.
government sent troops into the area to force the Indians to leave. These
troops included African American cavalry, who the Indians called buffalo
soldiers—a term of honor, inspired by their short, curly hair, that com-
pared their fighting spirit to that of the buffalo.
Battles on the Northern Plains As fighting on the southern Plains came
to an end, new trouble started in the north. In 1874 Lieutenant Colonel

Explore ONLINE!
Native American Land Loss in the West, 1850–1890

1850–1870
QUINALT
COLVILLE 1870–1890

BLACKFOOT Reservations in 1890

YAKIMA SPOKANE SIOUX MANDAN
FLATHEAD CHIPPEWA UTE Native American
CHIPPEWA group
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SHOSHONE SIOUX ONEIDA
SHOSHONE ARAPAHO 4 ONE
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HUPA Fetterman Wounded Knee
40°N YUROK BANNOCK 8
70°W
PAIUTE SHOSHONE 1 SIOUX OMAHA
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MAIDU 2
PAIUTE UTE PAWNEE Battles and Treaties of the Indian Wars
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1 Treaties at Fort Laramie,
TULE Sand Creek
Medicine MUNSEE 1851 and 1868 ATLA
RIVER 3
UTE Lodge OCE
HOPI 5 2 Treaty at Fort Atkinson, 1853
APACHE OSAGE CHEROKEE
MISSION NAVAJO
CHEYENNE
CREEK 3 Sand Creek Massacre, 1864
ZUNI PUEBLO ARAPAHO
COMANCHE CHOCTAW
MOHAVE APACHE 4 Fetterman Massacre, 1866
MARICOPA
PIMA
30°N
N CHICKASAW 5 Treaty of Medicine Lodge, 1867 30°N
PAPAGO APACHE
W
E
6 Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1876
S
7 Battle of the Rosebud, 1876
Interpret Maps
PACIFIC 8 Wounded Knee Massacre, 1890
Region In what regions did Native
OCEAN
Americans lose land in the late 1800s? Gulf of
Mexico
80°W

120°W 90°W
Tropic of Cancer

Westward Expansion 373

 The Native Americans are shown
surrounding a small force of U.S. soldiers.

Custer is shown standing

among his men as he fires.

The U.S. Army

is shown on
horseback in
this drawing.

Two Views of a Historic Battle

These horses have
Art historians have identified about 1,000 paintings of the Battle of the been captured
Little Bighorn. The painting at the top was painted in 1899. The drawing by the Native
below it is one of the many colored-pencil drawings of the battle done Americans.
by Amos Bad Heart Buffalo, who based his drawing on memories from
Sioux warriors who participated in the battle.

Analyze Visuals
How do these paintings show the influences of different cultures?

George Armstrong Custer’s soldiers discovered gold in the Black Hills

of the Dakotas. Sitting Bull, a leader of the Lakota Sioux, protested U.S.
demands for the land.

“What treaty that the whites have kept has the red man broken? Not
one. What treaty that the white man ever made with us have they
kept? Not one.”
—Sitting Bull, quoted in Life of Sitting Bull and the History of the Indian Wars of 1890–1891 by
W. Fletcher Johnson

374 Module 11
 Other Sioux leaders listened to Sitting Bull and refused to give up
land. During late 1875 and early 1876, many Sioux and Cheyenne war-
riors left their reservations. They united under the leadership of Sitting
Bull and Crazy Horse. Their plan was to drive the intruders from the
Black Hills. Custer was sent to force the Native Americans back onto
their reservations.
On June 25, 1876, Custer’s scouts found a large Sioux camp along
the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory. Leading about 200 of his
soldiers, Custer raced ahead without waiting for any supporting forces. In
the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sioux and Cheyenne forces led by Crazy
Horse surrounded and defeated Custer and his troops. Newspapers called
Apache leader Geronimo the battle “Custer’s Last Stand” because his entire command was killed. It
fought settlers on his land
for more than 25 years—
was the worst defeat the U.S. Army suffered in the West. The Battle of the
all the while avoiding Little Bighorn was also the Sioux’s last major victory in the Sioux Wars.
permanent capture. In 1881 Sitting Bull and a few followers returned from Canada where
they had fled after Little Bighorn. They had run out of food during the
hard winter. They joined the Sioux on Standing Rock Reservation in
Dakota Territory.
Almost a decade later, in 1890, while following orders to arrest Sitting
Bull, reservation police killed him. Many Sioux left the reservation in pro-
test. Later that year, the U.S. Army shot and killed about 150 Sioux men,
women, and children near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. This
Massacre at Wounded Knee was the last major military incident on the
Great Plains.
Southwest The Navajo lived in what became Arizona and New Mexico. In
1863 the Navajo refused to settle on a reservation. In response, U.S. troops
made raids on the Navajo’s fields, homes, and livestock.
When the Navajo ran out of food and shelter, they started surrendering
to the U.S. Army. In 1864 the army led Navajo captives on the Long Walk.
On this brutal 300-mile march, the Navajo were forced to walk across the
desert to a reservation in Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. Along the way,
countless Navajo died.
Far West The United States had promised to let the peaceful Nez Percé
keep their land in Oregon. Within a few years, however, the government
ordered the Nez Percé to a reservation in what is now Idaho. A group of
Nez Percé led by Chief Joseph resisted, and in 1877 left to seek refuge in
Canada. For four months, they crossed more than 1,000 miles with army
troops in pursuit. Near the border, U.S. troops overtook them and sent
them to a reservation in what is now Oklahoma.
Final Battles By the 1880s, most Native Americans had stopped ­fighting.
The Apache of the Southwest, however, continued to battle the U.S. Army.
A Chiricahua Apache named Geronimo and his band led raids on both
Reading Check sides of the Arizona–Mexico border, avoiding capture for many years.
Contrast How did In September 1886 Geronimo surrendered and was sent to an Apache
the Apache resistance
differ from that of ­internment camp in Florida. This e­ nded the Apache armed resistance in
the Navajo? the Southwest.

Westward Expansion 375

 A Way of Life Ends
By the 1870s many Native Americans lived on reservations, where
land was usually not useful for farming or buffalo hunting. Many were
starving.
A Paiute Indian named Wovoka began a religious movement, the Ghost
Dance, that predicted the arrival of paradise for Native Americans. In this
paradise, the buffalo herds would return and the settlers would disappear.
U.S. officials did not understand the meaning of the Ghost Dance. They
feared it would lead to rebellion, so they tried to end the movement, which
had spread to other groups, including the Sioux. After the massacre in
1890 at Wounded Knee, the Ghost Dance movement gradually died out.
In the late 1870s a Paiute Indian named Sarah Winnemucca called
for reform—particularly of the reservation system. A writer, educator,
and interpreter, she toured the country speaking on behalf of Native
Americans. Her 1883 autobiography Life Among the Paiutes is one of the

Biography

Chief Joseph c. 1840–1904 to a reservation, Chief Joseph at first agreed, but

then was forced to flee. He attempted to escape
Chief Joseph became leader of the Nez Percé into Canada with about 750 of his people. On
in 1871. He led his people in an effort to hold a courageous journey across Idaho, Montana,
onto their homeland and to avoid war with Oregon, and Washington, they defeated pursuing
the United States. In 1877, when the U.S. troops who greatly outnumbered them. Traveling
government ordered the Nez Percé to relocate with families, and low on supplies, the Nez
Percé managed to evade the U.S. Army for four
months. Ultimately though, Chief Joseph saw
that resistance was futile. Upon his surrender, he
gave a speech that has become one of the most
famous in American history.
“I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. . . . The
old men are all dead. . . . It is cold, and we have no
blankets. The little children are freezing to death.
My people, some of them, have run away to the
hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows
where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want
to have time to look for my children, and see how
many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them
among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired.
My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now
stands I will fight no more forever.”
—Chief Joseph, October 5, 1877

Identify Cause and Effect

What brought suffering to Chief Joseph and his
people?

376 Module 11
 most significant accounts of traditional Native
American culture. Writer Helen Hunt Jackson
published a book in 1881 that pushed for reform
of U.S. Indian policy. Titled A Century of Dishonor,
it described the mistreatment of many Native
American groups in an attempt to force the gov-
ernment to establish fairer policies.
Some reformers believed that Native Ameri-
cans should assimilate by giving up traditional
ways and adopting Anglo-American gender and
family roles, cultural and social practices, and
language. The Dawes General Allotment Act
of 1887 tried to lessen traditional influences on
Indian society by making land ownership private
for male-headed households rather than shared
communally. The act also promised—but failed
to deliver—U.S. citizenship to Native Americans.
After breaking up reservation land, the govern-
ment sold the acreage remaining. The act took
about two-thirds of Indian land.
The U.S. government also sent many Native
American children to boarding schools in an
Sarah Winnemucca spoke out for the fair treatment of her effort to “Americanize” them. The children were
people. dressed in European-style clothes, learned Eng-
lish, and often spent part of the day farming or doing other work. They
were discouraged from practicing their own culture or speaking their own
Reading Check language. Many were separated from their families for years at a time.
Summarize
How did reformers try Summary and Preview In this lesson you read about conflict in the settle-
to influence Native
Americans’ lives?
ment of the West. In the next lesson you will learn more about Great
Plains settlers.

Lesson 3 Assessment
Review Ideas, Terms, and People b. Predict What effect do you think the Massacre at
Wounded Knee would have on relations between
1. a. Describe What animals did Plains Indians depend
Plains Indians and the United States?
on, and how did they use those animals?
b. Analyze How did U.S. policy toward the Plains Critical Thinking
Indians change in the late 1850s?
4. Sequence In this lesson you learned about the major
c. Elaborate Would you have agreed to move to a
events surrounding the loss of land rights of Native
reservation? Why or why not?
Americans. Create a timeline similar to the one below
2. a. Describe What events led to the Battle of the Little to organize the events in sequence.
Bighorn?
b. Elaborate Why do you think most Indian groups
eventually stopped resisting the United States? 1851 1864 1867 1887
3. a. Describe How did the Dawes General Allotment Act
affect American Indians?

Westward Expansion 377

 Lesson 4

Farming and Populism

If YOU were there . . .

The Big Idea You are a female schoolteacher in Wisconsin in 1880.
Settlers on the Great Plains
You live and teach in a small town, but you grew up on a
created new communities and farm and are used to hard work. Now you are thinking
a unique political movement. about moving West to claim free land from the govern-
ment. You could teach in a school there, too. You think it
Main Ideas
would be an exciting adventure, but your family is horri-
■ Many Americans started new
fied that a single woman would move West on her own.
lives on the Great Plains.
Would you decide to
■ Economic challenges led to the
creation of farmers’ political
become a homesteader?
groups.
■ By the 1890s the western New Lives on the Plains
frontier had come to an end.
In 1862 Congress passed two important land grant acts that
Key Terms and People helped open the West to settlers. The Homestead Act gave
Homestead Act government-owned land to small farmers. Any adult who was a
Morrill Act U.S. citizen or planned to become one could receive 160 acres of
Exodusters land. In exchange, homesteaders promised to live on the land
sodbusters for five years. The Morrill Act granted more than 17 million
dry farming acres of federal land to the states. The act required each state
Annie Bidwell
to sell this land and to use the money to build colleges to teach
National Grange
deflation
agriculture and engineering.
William Jennings Bryan
Populist Party
Pioneers like this family often
lived in houses made of sod
because there were few trees
for lumber on the Plains.

378 Module 11
This family of African
Americans moved to the
West in order to build new Settling the Plains People from all over the country moved West. Many
lives after the Civil War. farming families moved from areas where farmland was becoming scarce
or expensive, such as New England. Many single women moved West. The
Homestead Act granted land to unmarried women, which was unusual for
the time.
In the late 1870s, large numbers of African Americans began to move
West. Some fled the South because of violence and repression. The end
of Reconstruction in 1877 led to harsh new segregation laws. Also, the
withdrawal of federal troops left African Americans unprotected from
attacks by such groups as the Ku Klux Klan. Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, a
former slave from Tennessee, inspired others. Born in Nashville in 1809,
Singleton fled slavery several times. Eventually he got to the North and
settled in Detroit. There, he helped runaway slaves escape to Canada. After
the Civil War, he returned to Tennessee. He wanted to help freed African
Americans buy farmland. However, white landowners refused to sell. So he
urged African Americans to leave the South and build their own communi-
ties in Kansas and elsewhere in the West.
By 1879 some 20,000 southern African Americans had moved to
Kansas. Many others settled in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. These
African American migrants were known as Exodusters because they had
made a mass exodus, or departure, from the South.
The promise of free land also drew thousands of Europeans to the
West. Scandinavians from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland came
to the northern Great Plains in the 1870s. Many Irish who had helped to
build the railroads decided to settle on the Plains. Russians also came to
the Plains, bringing with them their experience of farming on the vast
steppes, or grasslands, of their homeland. Germans and Czechs created
many small farming communities on the Plains, especially in Texas.

Westward Expansion 379

 DOCUMENTBASED INVESTIGATION Historical Source

Letter from the Plains, 1863

“I remember I used to wonder when I heard that
In a letter to her family in Norway, it would be impossible to keep the milk here as
immigrant Gro Svendsen describes we did at home. Now I have learned that it is
her new life as a farmer on the
indeed impossible because of the heat here in the
plains of Iowa.
summertime . . . It’s difficult, too, to preserve the
butter. One must pour brine
[salt water] over it or salt it.
The thunderstorms are so violent that one might
think it was the end of the world . . . Quite often
the lightning strikes down both cattle and people,
damages property, and splinters sturdy oak trees
into many pieces.”
Analyze Historical Sources —quoted in Frontier Mother:
What might be some of the The Letters of Gro Svendsen

differences between Norway and

Svendsen’s new home in Iowa?

Farming the Plains Plains farmers had many unique challenges. The
seasons were extreme. Weather could be harsh. Also, the root-filled sod, or
dirt, beneath the Plains grass was very tough. The hard work of breaking
up the sod earned Plains farmers the nickname sodbusters.
In the 1890s western Plains farmers began dry farming, a new method
of farming that shifted the focus away from water-dependent crops such
as corn. Instead, farmers grew more hardy crops like red wheat. In addi-
tion, new inventions helped Plains farmers meet some of the challenges
of frontier life. A steel plow invented by John Deere in 1837 and improved
upon by James Oliver in 1868 sliced through the tough sod of the prairie.
Windmills adapted to the Plains pumped water from deep wells to the
Laura Ingalls Wilder surface. Barbed wire allowed farmers to fence in land and livestock.
(right) wrote the Little Reapers made the harvesting of crops much easier, and threshers helped
House on the Prairie series
based on her childhood
farmers to separate grain or seed from straw.
in a settler family. These inventions also made farm work more efficient. During the late
1800s, farmers greatly increased their crop production. They shipped their
harvest east by train. From there, crops were shipped overseas. The Great
Plains soon became known as the breadbasket of the world.
Building Communities Women were an important force in the settle-
ment of the frontier. They joined in the hard work of farming and ranch-
ing and helped build communities out of the widely spaced farms and
Academic small towns. Their role in founding communities facilitated a strong
Vocabulary voice in public affairs. Wyoming women, for example, were granted the
facilitate to make
easier
vote in the new state’s constitution, which was approved in 1869. Annie
Bidwell, one of the founders of Chico, California, used her influence to
support a variety of moral and social causes such as women’s suffrage
and temperance.

380 Module 11
 Many early settlers found life on their remote farms to be extremely dif-
ficult. Farmers formed communities so that they could assist one another
Reading Check in times of need. One of the first things that many pioneer communities
Compare and did was establish a local church and school.
Contrast How were Children helped with many chores around the farm. Author Laura
settlers’ lives alike and
different from their Ingalls Wilder was one of four children in a pioneer family. Wilder’s books
lives in the East? about settlers’ lives on the prairie are still popular today.

Farmers’ Political Groups

From 1860 to 1900, the U.S. population more than doubled. To feed this
growing population, the number of farms tripled. With modern machines,
farmers in 1900 could harvest a bushel of wheat almost 20 times faster
than they could in 1830.
Farm Incomes Fall The combination of more farms and greater produc-
tivity, however, led to overproduction. Overproduction resulted in lower
prices for crops. As their incomes decreased, many farmers found it dif-
ah06se_c17cmb014a
ficult to pay bills. Farmers who could not make their mortgage payments
final
lost their farms and homes. Many of these homeless farmers became
12/3/04
­tenant farmers who worked land owned by others. By 1880 one-fourth of
all farms were rented by tenants, and the number continued to grow.
The National Grange Many farmers blamed businesspeople—­wholesalers,
brokers, grain buyers, and especially railroad owners—for making money
ah06se_c17cmb014b
at their expense. As economic conditions worsened, ­farmers began to fol-
finallow the example of other workers. They formed ­associations to protect and
12/3/04
help their interests.

Wheat Production, 1866–1880

(in millions of bushels)

600
450
Wheat

300
150
0
1866 1870 1875 1880
Year
Explore ONLINE!
Agricultural Supply and Demand
Wheat Prices, 1866–1880
Connect to Economics The amount of goods
($ per bushel of wheat)

2.00
available for sale is the supply. The willingness
1.50
and ability of consumers to buy goods is
Cost

1.00
called demand. The law of supply and demand
says that when supply increases or demand .50
decreases, prices fall. By contrast, when 0
supply decreases or demand rises, prices rise. 1866 1870 1875 1880
Year
What happened to the price of wheat as the supply
increased?

Westward Expansion 381

 One such organization was founded by Oliver Hudson Kelley, who
toured the South in 1866 for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Kelley
saw firsthand how the country’s farmers suffered. Afterward, Kelley and
several government clerks formed the National Grange of the Patrons of
Husbandry in 1867. The National Grange was a social and educational
organization for farmers. (Grange is an old word for “granary.”) Local
­chapters were quickly founded, and membership grew rapidly.
The Grange campaigned for political candidates who supported
farmers’ goals. The organization also called for laws that regulated rates
charged by railroads. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1877 that the gov-
After the founding of
the National Grange, ernment could regulate railroads because they affected the public interest.
other groups, including In 1886 the Court said that the federal government could only regulate
the Farmers’ Alliance, companies doing business across state lines. Rate regulation for railroad
formed to advance the
interests of farmers.
lines within states fell to the state governments.
In February 1887 Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act, provid-
ing national regulations over trade between states and creating the Inter-
state Commerce Commission to ensure fair railroad rates. However, the
commission lacked power to enforce its regulations.
Free Silver Debate Money issues also caused problems for farmers. Many
farmers hoped that help would come from new laws affecting the money
supply.
Since 1873 the United States had been on the gold standard, ­meaning
that all paper money had to be backed by gold in the treasury. As a result,
the money supply grew more slowly than the nation’s population and led
to deflation—a decrease in the money supply and overall lower prices.
One solution was to allow the unlimited coining of silver and to back
paper currency with silver. This was the position of those in the Free
Silver movement.
During the late 1870s, there was a great deal of support for the Free
Silver movement. Many farmers began backing political candidates who
favored free silver coinage. One such candidate was William Jennings
Bryan of Nebraska.
The two major political parties, however, largely ignored the money
issue. After the election of 1888, the Republican-controlled Congress
passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. The act increased the amount of
silver purchased for coinage. However, this did not help farmers as much
as they had hoped.
Populist Party To have greater power, many farmers organized to elect
candidates who would help them. These political organizations became
known as the Farmers’ Alliances.
In the 1890 elections the Alliances were a strong political force.
State and local wins raised farmers’ political hopes. At a conference in
­Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1891, Alliance leaders met with labor and reform
groups. Then, at a convention in St. Louis in February 1892, the Alliances
formed a new national political party.

382 Module 11
 Biography

William Jennings Bryan continued to be an influential

1860–1925 speaker and political leader.
Many of the reforms that
William Jennings Bryan was born in Illinois but he fought for in the late
moved to Nebraska when he finished law school. 1800s, such as an eight-hour
He was elected Nebraska’s first Democratic workday and woman
Congress member in 1890. Through his political suffrage, later
campaigns and work as a newspaper editor, he became law.
became one of the best-known supporters of
Populist ideas. After a dramatic speech at the Make Inferences
1896 Democratic National Convention, Why was Bryan’s
support of Populist
Bryan was nominated for the presidency. He was
ideas important?
the youngest presidential candidate up to that
time. Although he lost the election, he

The new party was called the Populist Party, and it called for the
government to own railroads and telephone and telegraph systems. It
also favored the “free and unlimited coinage of silver.” To gain the votes
of workers, the Populists backed an eight-hour workday and limits on
immigration.
The concerns of the Populists were soon put in the national spotlight.
During the Panic of 1893, the U.S. economy experienced a crisis that some
critics blamed on the shortage of gold. The failure of several major railroad
companies also contributed to the economic problems.
The Panic of 1893 led more people to back the Populist call for
­economic reform. In 1896 the Republicans nominated William ­McKinley
for ­president. McKinley was firmly against free coinage of silver. The
­Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan, a strong supporter of the
Free Silver movement.
The Populists had to decide between running their own candidate, and
Reading Check thus splitting the silver vote, or supporting Bryan. They decided to support
Summarize Why did Bryan. The Republicans had a well-financed campaign, and they won the
farmers, laborers, and
reformers join to form election. McKinley’s victory in 1896 marked the end of both the Populist
the Populist Party? Party and the Farmers’ Alliances.

End of the Frontier

By 1870 only small portions of the Great Plains remained unsettled. For
most of the next two decades, this land remained open range.
In March 1889, government officials announced that homesteaders
could file claims on land in what is now the state of Oklahoma. This land
had belonged to Creek and Seminole Indians. Within a month, about
50,000 people rushed to Oklahoma to stake their claims.
In all, settlers claimed more than 11 million acres of former Indian land
in the famous Oklahoma land rush. This huge wave of pioneers was the

Westward Expansion 383

 Oklahoma Land Rush
• The rush began at noon on
April 22, 1889.
• Some witnesses said they could
feel the ground shake as 50,000
people raced to claim land.
• Single women and widows
could claim land on an equal
basis with men.
• Many settlers were dismayed to
find some people had claimed
land before the rush legally
began. These people were
called sooners.

Guthrie, Oklahoma

last chapter of the westward movement. From the time it began gathering
information, the U.S. Census Bureau had mapped a “frontier line” along
Reading Check the edge of western population. The 1890 census showed that more than
Find Main Ideas 20 million people lived between the Mississippi River and the Pacific coast.
What event signaled
the closing of “There can hardly be said to be a frontier line,” a Bureau report stated. The
the frontier? disappearance of the “line” is considered the closing of the frontier.
Summary and Preview In this lesson you read about the challenges set-
tlers in the West faced. Despite these difficulties, the promise of open land
and a fresh start continued to lure Americans westward.

Lesson 4 Assessment
Review Ideas, Terms, and People 3. a. Recall What was the Oklahoma land rush?
1. a. Describe What groups settled in the Great Plains? b. Explain Why did the frontier cease to exist in the
United States?
b. Explain How did the U.S. government make lands
available to western settlers? Critical Thinking
c. Elaborate Would you have chosen to settle on the
frontier? Why or why not? 4. Compare and Contrast In this lesson you learned
about the reasons for the rise of populism in the
2. a. Recall What was the goal of the National Grange?
United States. Create a table similar to the one below
b. Make Inferences Why did the Populist Party want to explain why Populists sought the changes they did.
the government to own railroads and telegraph and
telephone systems? Change sought R eason why
c. Evaluate Do you think farmers were successful
in bringing about economic and political change?
Explain.

384 Module 11
Social Studies Skills
Compare Migration Maps
Define the Skill 3. Why do you think the West coast was settled
One of the best ways of using geography to before the interior of the United States?
learn history is by comparing maps. This skill 4. According to the maps, how might rivers
allows you to see changes over time. It also have shaped the settlement of the West?
helps you see relationships between one
factor, such as population growth, and another
Migration 1850
factor, such as transportation routes or
economic activities in an area. WA
MT ND
OR
WI
Learn the Skill ID SD MN
WY
Follow these steps to compare information on NE
IA
NV IL
maps. UT
CA CO KS
MO
1. Apply basic map skills by reading the title
and studying the legend and symbols for AZ NM AK
OK
each map. MS
120°W
2. Note the date of each map and the area it 30°N TX
LA
covers. Maps compared for changes over N
time should include the same areas. Those W Settled area
used to look for relationships should have E
Modern-day
S state boundaries
similar dates. 0 200 400 Miles

3. Note similarities or differences. Closely exam- 0 200 400 Kilometers

ine and compare each map’s patterns and

symbols.
Migration 1890
4. Apply critical thinking skills. Make
generalizations and draw conclusions about WA
the relationships you find. MT ND
OR
ID MN WI
SD

Practice the Skill WY HMH—Middle Sc

IA
NE MS_SNLESE4541
NV IL
American Settlem
Use the maps below to answer the following UT
CA CO Map area: 20p w
questions. KS
First
MO proof 03/03/

1. What present-day state was unsettled by AZ AK

NM OK
Americans in 1850 and almost completely
MS
settled in 1890? 120°W
LA
30°N TX
2. Which other two present-day states show the HRW American History
N
ah06se_c17leg021a.ai
most settlement by Americans from 1850 to W
Settled area
American Settlement in 1850
1890? E Modern-day
Map Area: 20p wide x 20p high
state boundaries
S
0 200 400 Miles
2nd Proof - 11/02/04
0 200 400 Kilometers

Westward Expansion 385

Module 11 Assessment
Review Vocabulary, Terms, and People
Complete each sentence by filling in the blank with the correct term or person.
1. In 1803 Congress approved the , which added former French territory
in the West to the United States.
2. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were known
as .
3. were fur traders and trappers who lived west of the Rocky Mountains
and in the Pacific Northwest.
4. The Trail, which ran from Missouri to New Mexico, was an important
route for trade between American and Mexican merchants
5. lead the 7th Cavalry in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
6. The gave government-owned land to small farmers. In return the
farmers had to live on the land for at least five years.
7. A Paiute Indian named worked hard to reform the reservation system.
8. The Trail was one of the most popular routes for cattle drives.
9. The huge deposit of gold and silver found in Nevada in 1859 was known as
the .
10. Formed in 1867, the was a social and educational organization for
farmers.

Comprehension and Critical Thinking

Lesson 1 Lesson 3
11. a. Identify Which routes did settlers 13. a. Describe What was life like for the Plains
use to move into the land west of the Indians before and after the arrival of
Appalachians? large numbers of American settlers?
b. Draw Conclusions What are three ways b. Draw Conclusions Why did the spread
in which the United States benefited of the Ghost Dance movement cause
from the Louisiana Purchase? concern for U.S. officials?
c. Evaluate Do you think that Napoléon c. Elaborate What do you think about the
made a wise decision when he sold Loui- reservation system established by the
siana to the United States? Explain your United States?
answer. Lesson 4
Lesson 2 14. a. Identify What political organizations did
12. a. Recall Why were many Americans eager western farmers create? Why did farmers
to move to the western frontier? create these organizations?
b. Analyze How did railroads and ranching b. Analyze How did women participate in
change the landscape of the West? the settling of the American frontier?
c. Elaborate In your opinion, which made c. Predict How might the end of the fron-
the greatest changes to the West—mining, tier in the United States affect the nation?
ranching, or railroads? Explain your answer.

386 Module 11
Module 11 Assessment, continued
Review Themes Social Studies Skills
15. Geography Through what geographic Compare Migration Maps Use the Social Studies
regions did the Lewis and Clark expedition Skills taught in this module to answer the question
travel? about the map below.
16. Geography What geographic obstacles did
miners, ranchers, and railroad workers face
in the West?
17. Science and Technology What types of
technology did farmers on the Great Plains
use, and how did it benefit them?
120°W

Reading Skills 30°N

30°N

Ask Questions to Understand Use the Reading W

N

Skills taught in this module to answer the question

E
80°W
S
110°W 90°W

about the reading selection below. 19. According to the map above, for what
reasons did settlers migrate to the West?
For survival, Plains Indians depended on two a. for mining, ranching, and farming
animals—the horse and the buffalo. The Spanish b. for jobs in manufacturing
brought horses to America in the 1500s. Plains
c. for the homes in the major cities there
Indians learned to ride horses, and hunters used HMH— Middle School U.S. History—2016
MS_SNLESE454149_316M

them to follow buffalo herds year-round. d. for the fishing industry First proof 03/23/16

Focus on Writing
18. Write two or three questions you have
20. Write a Job Description Write a job
about the information in the passage above.
description for a cowboy. Note the skills
Remember to use the five Ws—Who? What?
required for the job and the equipment
When? Where? and Why?
needed. Also outline a typical workday for a
cowboy. To add interest to your description,
include appropriate visual materials.

Westward Expansion 387

 MULTIMEDIA CONNECTIONS

Lewis
and Clark

In 1804, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the 33- plants, and animals. Not only was their mission one of
man Corps of Discovery began an 8,000-mile journey history’s greatest explorations; it also secured an American
across uncharted territory. Under orders from President claim to the Pacific coast and helped inspire millions to
Thomas Jefferson, the expedition mapped a route across migrate west.
the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean. From St. Explore entries from Lewis’s journal and other primary
Louis, Missouri, they traveled west up the Missouri River, sources online. You can find a wealth of information, video
then across the Rocky Mountains, and to the Pacific. They clips, activities, and more through your online textbook.
met Native American peoples and cataloged geography,

387 MC1 MULTIMEDIA CONNECTIONS

 . . . the Indian woman Go online to view these and
other HISTORY® resources.
recognized the point of a high
plain to our right which she
informed us was not very
distant from the summer
retreat of her nation on a river
beyond the mountains which
runs to the west.”
— Meriwether Lewis Underway on the Missouri
Watch the video to see how the Corps of Discovery
sailed up the Missouri River to begin their
expedition.

“Lewis’s Journal, Entry 1”

Read an excerpt from Meriwether Lewis’s
journal that details Sacagawea’s assistance
during the journey.

Making Friends Upriver

Watch the video to see which Native American
peoples the Corps met and traded with as they
made their journey west.

The Shores of the Pacific

Watch the video to see how the Corps tried to
adapt to a different climate and the new peoples
that they met along the Pacific coast.

LEWIS AND CLARK 387 MC2

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