Early Settlement of the West Flashcards

All 23 cards in this deck

What was a band in the social structure of the Indigenous peoples of the Plains?

A group of 10–50 families who lived, travelled and hunted together, led by a chief advised by a council.

Why was the buffalo essential to the survival of the Indigenous peoples of the Plains?

It supplied almost everything they needed: meat for food, hides for tipis and clothing, and bones and horns for tools.

What did the Indigenous peoples of the Plains believe about the ownership of land?

Land could not be owned, bought or sold; it was given by the Great Spirit for everyone to use.

True or false? For the Indigenous peoples of the Plains, success in war meant killing as many of the enemy as possible.

False. Bravery mattered most — 'counting coup' (touching an enemy and escaping) brought the greatest honour, and raids were kept short to avoid losing warriors.

What was Manifest Destiny?

The belief that White Americans had a God-given right to settle and populate the whole of America.

Why was the Oregon Trail, opened from 1836, important for migration West?

It gave covered wagons a practical route across the Rocky Mountains; Christian missionaries crossed this way in 1836, showing that families could make the journey.

What pull factor drew over 40,000 people across the Great Plains in 1849?

The California Gold Rush — the desire to get rich quickly after gold was discovered.

Give one consequence of the California Gold Rush (1849) for settlement in the West.

San Francisco grew from a small settlement into a city as miners arrived and settled.

What happened to the Donner Party (1846–47)?

They left the Oregon Trail for Hastings' shortcut, were trapped by blizzards in the Sierra Nevada and starved, eating the dead; only about half survived the rescues of February–April 1847.

Who led the Mormon migration of 1846–47, and when did his advance party reach the Great Salt Lake?

Brigham Young; his advance party of about 150 reached the Great Salt Lake in July 1847, and the main body of Mormons followed along the trail it had marked.

True or false? The Mormons left Illinois in 1846 because the land around them had become too crowded.

False. They left because of anti-Mormon hostility, including mob attacks, which led Brigham Young to take them out of the United States.

What was the 'Permanent Indian Frontier'?

A line, guaranteed by the US government in 1834, west of which the land was set aside for Indigenous peoples and white Americans were not to settle.

What did the first Fort Laramie Treaty (1851) agree?

Tribes allowed settlers safe passage and US roads and forts on their land; each tribe was given a set territory and promised $50,000 a year.

What did the Indian Appropriations Act (1851) do?

It created the reservation system, confining Indigenous peoples to reservations and forcing them off their traditional lands.

Give one reason why early mining towns and settlements in the West were lawless.

They were hundreds of miles from the nearest government, with no law officers, courts or prisons.

What were vigilance committees (vigilantes)?

Groups of citizens who took the law into their own hands, catching and often hanging suspects without a proper trial, e.g. in San Francisco in 1851.

Give two ways horses were important to the Indigenous peoples of the Plains.

Any two: they made it possible to follow and hunt the buffalo herds; they carried tipis and belongings when a band moved camp; the number of horses a person owned showed their wealth and status.

What was a warrior society in a band of the Indigenous peoples of the Plains?

A group of the band's best warriors, who defended the band, organised the buffalo hunt and led raids; the band's council took their advice before making decisions.

Why did a chief's signature on a treaty not commit everyone in his band to keep it?

Chiefs led by persuasion, not command: decisions needed the agreement of the whole council, and no one was forced to obey them. The US government wrongly assumed a chief's signature bound all his people.

What did the Indigenous peoples of the Plains believe about nature?

That animals, plants, land and weather all had spirits with power over people's lives, and that humans were one part of the natural world, meant to live in balance with it rather than master it.

Give two problems that made farming the Great Plains difficult for early settlers.

Any two: very little rain or surface water; almost no trees for building houses or fences; thick, root-matted sod that broke the ploughs used in the East.

How did the growing number of migrants on the Oregon Trail increase tension with the Indigenous peoples of the Plains?

Wagon trains along the trail scattered the buffalo, so tribes went hungry and fought each other more over hunting grounds; settlers saw these war parties as a danger to themselves and called on the government for army protection.

What were miners' courts?

Courts that miners set up themselves in remote mining camps, with an experienced miner chosen as judge, to settle disputes over claims such as claim jumping (seizing another man's claim).