Settling on the Great Plains

1. Unit 4- The West

2.  I. Assimilation- Native Americans would give up
their way of life and embrace white culture
 Dawes Act- passes in 1887 to “Americanize” NA
 Broke up reservations and gave pieces of land
to families
 Buffalo almost become extinct due to fur traders

3.  II. Battle of Wounded Knee- ended Indian wars
 US troops rounded up 350 starving Sioux
(Sitting Bull) and brought them to Wounded
Knee Creek
 Soldiers opened fire, killing 300- corpses left
to freeze

4.  III. Settlers move west to farm
 A. Transcontinental Railroad- built across the
US
 B. Homestead Act- 160 acres of land to any
family that wanted to move to the Great Plains

5.  1. Exodusters- Blacks that moved from the
South to Kansas
 2. Sooners- People that moved to Oklahoma
(many moved sooner than gov’t intended)

6.  IV. Closing of the Frontier
 A. Yellowstone National Park (1872)
 First national park, 3,500 acres (MT, WY, ID)
 B. Land no longer given away by 1890

7.  V. Settlers face hardships on the Great Plains
 A. Droughts, floods, fires, blizzards, locusts,
raids by outlaws or Indians

8.  B. Few trees to build houses
 1. Dugout- Made by digging out the side of a
hill
 2. Soddy- Made by stacking sod or prairie turf