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Objectives

Resources

• How and why the birth of the cattle industry led to the era of the American cowboy and new patterns of migration and settlement in the southwestern United States.

• How and why aridity, availability of land and new land laws influenced the westward migration and settlement of various groups, such as homesteaders and “sodbusters”.

• How American Indians were pushed to the Great Plains and forced to settle on reservations.

• How the development of the railroad and telegraph industry impacted patterns of western migration and settlement during the 19th Century.

• How and why southern African American “Exodusters” moved westward after the collapse of Reconstruction in the South.

• How westward settlement and expansion impacted various ethnic groups during the 19thCentury (e.g., Asians, Hispanics and American Indians).

• How and to what extent the “Americanization” of American Indian led to the break up of reservations and the disintegration of American Indian culture at the dawn of the 20th Century.

• How westward settlement and expansion impacted the roles of women, their contributions and relationships.

• How and why the federal government adopted a policy of “Americanization” or assimilation of American Indians and the impact of the policy on American Indians and the nation.

• How and why conflicting claims over land and water rights led to violent “range wars” between ranchers and farmers in the southwestern United States.

• How westward settlement and expansion led to the Indian Wars of the Great Plains that culminated at the Battle of Wounded Knee.

How African American freedom presented limited opportunities for upward mobility and movement out of the South during the 19th Century (e.g., American Colonization Society, “Exodusters” and Wilmington Race Riots).

• How and to what extent westward migration and the “Americanization” of the American Indian led to the break up of reservations and the disintegration of

• American Indian culture at the dawn of the 20th Century.

• How and why the federal government encouraged the westward growth of the railroad industry and how the industry’s growth and movement impacted the settlement, daily lives and fortunes of various groups

• How westward migration and Manifest Destiny impacted perceptions of the frontier and the “American Dream” (e.g., Frederick Jackson Turner and “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”, Helen Hunt Jackson and A Century of Dishonor, Frank Norris and The Octopus).

• How American Indians viewed the westward migration of American settlers, their own movement to reservations, as well as, government and public attempts at “Americanization” (e.g., Simon Pokagon and “The Future of the Red Man,” Chief Joseph, Zitkala-Sa).

• How and why American Indians were forced to the Great Plains and eventually reservations by the mid 19th Century and how that movement impacted American Indian culture.

• How, why and to what extent American innovations immediately after the Civil War led to economic development and settlement of the frontier (e.g., barbed wire, farm implements, air brakes and steam turbines).

• To what extent westward movement and settlement of various groups fulfilled or denied the promises of freedom and prosperity along the frontier (e.g., American Indians, women, homesteaders, Mormons and missionaries). (Individual rights, individual responsibility, equal justice under the law, private property rights

Homestead Act
Morrill Act
homesteaders
soddies
Dawes Act
Bozeman Trail
Comstock Lode
Wounded Knee 
Little Big Horn 
Black Hills 
Sand Creek Massacre 
Chisholm Trail
Promontory, Utah (golden spike)
Transcontinental Railroad
Exoduster Migration
Barbed wire
John Deere steel plow
windmill
McCormick mechanical reaper 
Refrigerated Rail Car
Railway Air Brake
assimilation
ethnogenocide
open range
range war
Americanization
Helen Hunt Jackson/Century of Dishonor
buffalo
role of women on Great Plains
Frederick Jackson Turner/Frontier Thesis
sodbusters
reservations
Sitting Bull
Ghost Dance Movement
Mormons/Great Salt Lake settlement
Sears & Roebuck
Chicago/railhub/slaugherhouses
Found on Newspapers.com
Picture
​Blacks of the Old West
​
Exodus to Kansas
The 1880 Senate Investigation of the Beginnings of the
African American Migration from the South


Bio of Pap Singleton
​

​Exoduster primary source doc 1
Exoduster primary source doc 2
Exoduster primary source doc 3
Exoduster primary source doc 4
Exoduster primary source doc 5
Exoduster primary source doc 6
Exoduster primary source doc 7
Exoduster primary source doc 8
​Voorhees Committee Report part 1
​Voorhees Committee Report part 2
​Voorhees Committee Report part 3
Overview of the Bear River Massacre
Bear River Handouts
Bear River Massacre Docs
Lesson Plan
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee questions
​
Guided Reading

Sand Creek Massacre lesson (primary source docs)
West Worksheets

Dawes Act Lesson
Map for Above
Picture
Range Wars Overview
Range Wars details
Questions

Homesteader Webquest
West Map Activity
outline map for above

Brochure Activity
​LOC Lesson Indian Boarding Schools
​LOC Lesson American Indian Reservation Controversies
Picture
Picture
  • Myth #1: The frontier was a vast, empty, barely populated land awaiting white settlement - settlement that encouraged rugged individualism, nationalism, and democracy and was destined to transform a savage and desolate land into a modern civilization. Reality:   White Americans did not settle the West, but rather, they conquered it.
  • Myth #2:  Frontier life was politically, socially, and economically fulfilling. Reality: While many immigrants adjusted to frontier life, it was also fraught with physical dangers and economic and emotional hardships.
  • Myth #3:  Plentiful mining opportunities in the West made many people rich.Reality: The majority of miners remained poor; those who did become wealthy largely made their fortunes in the service industries.
  • Myth #4:  Cowboys lived a life in harmony with the environment and were largely responsible for upholding frontier virtue and justice. Reality: The Cowboy’s life was often lonely, dirty, dangerous, ugly, and boring.
  • Myth #5:  The frontier was so vast that westward expansion brought little environmental degradation. Reality:  Between 1865 and 1890, the frontier grew at unprecedented rates, thus bringing about widespread environmental degradation.
  • Myth #6:  The west was settled by exceptional and individualistic American initiative, not by government handouts. Reality.  The frontier could not have been settled without large scale assistance from the federal government.
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  • Home
  • Public Ed Advocacy
  • Historical Thinking Skills
    • Research
  • US History I
    • Part one >
      • American Values
      • European Schism & Imperialism
      • Early Colonial Period
      • Revolutionary Period
      • From the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution
      • Early Republic
    • Part two >
      • Age of Jackson >
        • 19th Century Religion & Reform
      • Manifest Destiny
      • Coming of the American Civil War
      • Civil War >
        • Lincoln: The Film
      • Reconstruction
      • American Dream
  • US History II
    • Part One >
      • Slavery by Another Name
      • West >
        • Homesteader Webquest
      • Gilded Age
      • Immigration & Urbanization
      • Populism & Progressivism
      • Imperialism
    • Part Two >
      • WW I
      • Roaring Twenties
      • Great Depression & New Deal
      • WW II
  • US History Digital Sources
  • Philosophy
  • AP US History
    • Period 4
  • Raw Materials
  • Race in the US
  • Pedagogy
  • Historical Thinking Skills