Deck 16: The Conquest of the Far West

Question 1

The Chinese from California became the major source of labor for the transcontinental railroad in part because

A) they had no other employment prospects.
B) they worked for lower wages than what whites would accept.
C) most were experienced in railroad construction.
D) most were forced into working for the railroads.
E) their more well-established unions won the railroad contracts.

Answer 1

they worked for lower wages than what whites would accept.

Question 2

During the mid-nineteenth century,Hispanics living in California

A) lost ownership of large areas of lands.
B) saw an expansion in the power of californios.
C) attempted to revive the Spanish mission society.
D) joined with white Americans to drive out Indians.
E) increasingly became part of the state's middle class.

Answer 2

lost ownership of large areas of lands.

Question 3

Mining in the West

A) did not see any great mineral strikes until after the Civil War.
B) flourished until the 1930s.
C) saw corporations move in first, followed by individual prospectors.
D) kept ranchers and farmers from establishing their own economic base.
E) saw individual prospectors move in first, followed by corporations.

Answer 3

saw individual prospectors move in first, followed by corporations.

Question 4

In the late nineteenth century,which of the following was NOT a major western industry that relied on the East for markets and capital?

A) mining
B) fur trading
C) ranching
D) commercial farming
E) timbering

Question 5

The Homestead Act of 1862

A) gave without condition 160 acres to all settlers who would move to the West.
B) only applied to public lands within the borders of an organized state.
C) saw settlers on the Plains complain the claims were too large for grain farming.
D) proved to be enormously popular with western ranchers.
E) was expanded by the Timber Culture Act.

Question 6

In the 1840s and 1850s,in the Far West,the response by white Americans to the Chinese

A) moved from initial hostility to gradual acceptance.
B) was one of consistent acceptance.
C) was one of consistent hostility.
D) moved from initial acceptance to gradual hostility.
E) depended mainly on whether the white American was pro-slavery or antislavery.

Question 7

In the second half of the nineteenth century,the working class in the western economy was

A) highly multiracial.
B) highly stratified along racial lines.
C) paid higher wages than workers in the East.
D) both highly multiracial and paid higher wages than workers in the East.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 8

By 1900,one of the three American territories in the contiguous United States that had NOT been granted statehood was

A) Arizona.
B) Utah.
C) Colorado.
D) Nebraska.
E) South Dakota.

Question 9

In the mid-nineteenth century,the Plains Indians were

A) usually able to unite against white aggression.
B) not as vulnerable to disease as eastern tribes.
C) among the least aggressive of all American Indians.
D) mostly sedentary farmers.
E) the most widespread Indian groups in the West.

Question 10

The western cattle industry saw Mexican ranchers first develop

A) saddles.
B) spurs.
C) lariats.
D) leather chaps.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 11

Chinese tongs were

A) secret societies.
B) prostitutes.
C) community officials.
D) merchants.
E) indentured servants.

Question 12

Which of the following statements regarding Hispanic New Mexico is FALSE?

A) At the time of the Mexican War, Hispanics greatly outnumbered Anglo-Americans.
B) The Spanish had had settlements in the area since the seventeenth century.
C) Taos Indians, allied with Navajos and Apaches, forced out Anglo-Americans until 1847.
D) By the 1870s, the government of New Mexico was dominated by "territorial rings" of Anglo business people and politicians.
E) Descendants of the original settlers engaged primarily in cattle and sheep ranching.

Question 13

Which tribe should NOT be included among the Plains Indians?

A) Yurok
B) Sioux
C) Arapaho
D) Pawnee
E) Cheyenne

Question 14

Which of the following Indian tribes was NOT found on the Pacific coast of the Far West?

A) Chumash
B) Chinook
C) Pomo
D) Creek
E) Serrano

Question 15

The Comstock Lode primarily produced

A) copper.
B) silver.
C) gold.
D) lead.
E) zinc.

Question 16

In the 1870s in the Far West,the largest single Chinese community was located in

A) Seattle.
B) Sacramento.
C) San Diego.
D) Los Angeles.
E) San Francisco.

Question 17

By the mid-1840s,the American West

A) contained few migrants from the United States.
B) was extensively populated.
C) had seen the elimination of nearly all Indian tribes.
D) closely resembled its popular image.
E) was still an empty, desolate land.

Question 18

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

A) resulted in the deportation of half of the Chinese in the United States.
B) was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
C) banned Chinese in the United States from becoming naturalized citizens.
D) was only applied in California.
E) had little effect on the size of the Chinese population in America.

Question 19

During the nineteenth century,in the Far West the term "coolie"

A) was a description for all Asian immigrants.
B) was an epithet used by whites to describe members of Chinese tongs.
C) applied to all non-Indians who came to the Far West before the California gold rush.
D) was a slang term for prostitutes in mining towns.
E) referred to Chinese indentured servants.

Question 20

Women in nineteenth-century western mining towns

A) were nearly all single when they first arrived.
B) had few economic opportunities outside of prostitution.
C) often found work doing domestic tasks.
D) generally worked as miners.
E) often greatly outnumbered the men.

Question 21

The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864

A) involved the killing of Indian women and children.
B) saw the death of Chief Black Kettle.
C) was carried out by George Custer.
D) moved Colonel J. M. Chivington to denounce the U.S. Army.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 22

The Dawes Act of 1887

A) was intended to preserve traditional Indian culture.
B) denied U.S. citizenship to landowning Indian adults.
C) was designed to force Indians to become landowners and farmers.
D) ended the U.S. government's effort to assimilate Indian tribes.
E) reaffirmed tribal ownership of western lands in the face of white claims to it.

Question 23

William Cody's Wild West shows

A) showed the realities of life on the frontier.
B) proved to be popular in Europe as well as the United States.
C) did not include representations of Indians.
D) ignored the fact that Cody had never actually lived in the West himself.
E) often competed against those of sharpshooter Annie Oakley.

Question 24

In 1890 at Wounded Knee,South Dakota,

A) Plains Indians mounted their last major attack on white Americans.
B) the U.S. Seventh Cavalry massacred more than 300 Indians.
C) the Sioux attempted to leave the reservation for Canada.
D) the U.S. Seventh Cavalry suffered no casualties.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 25

All of the following writers and artists made significant contributions to the romanticizing of the American West EXCEPT

A) Frederic Remington.
B) Mark Twain.
C) Theodore Roosevelt.
D) James Whistler.
E) Frederick Jackson Turner.

Question 26

In the mid-1880s,the open-range cattle industry declined as a result of

A) Indian wars.
B) severe weather.
C) disease.
D) competition from Mexico.
E) changing consumer habits in the East.

Question 27

The town that reigned as the railhead of the cattle kingdom for many years was

A) Sedalia, Missouri.
B) Abilene, Kansas.
C) Dallas, Texas.
D) Omaha, Nebraska.
E) Deadwood, South Dakota.

Question 28

The decimation of American buffalo herds in the late nineteenth century

A) destroyed the ability of Plains Indians to resist the advance of white settlers.
B) was accelerated by the eastern fad of owning a buffalo robe.
C) happened almost entirely in the space of a single decade.
D) was fostered by the railroad companies.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 29

The Rocky Mountain School of painting

A) marked a sharp departure from the artistic style of the Hudson River Valley painters.
B) helped inspire the growth of tourism in the West.
C) emphasized the primitive art of Indians and other indigenous peoples.
D) first gained popular acceptance in the early twentieth century.
E) was a significant influence on the abstract art that would soon flourish in Europe.

Question 30

In Owen Wister's novel,The Virginian (1902),the American cowboy was

A) castigated for his poor relations with Indians, Mexicans, and Chinese.
B) lamented as having lost his innocence and decency.
C) seen as fast disappearing, as urbanization spread west.
D) criticized for being too quick to use violence.
E) portrayed as a simple and virtuous frontiersman.

Question 31

In 1886,the end of formal warfare between the United States and American Indians was marked by the surrender of

A) Cochise.
B) Wovoka.
C) Mangas Colorados.
D) Sitting Bull.
E) Geronimo.

Question 32

Early in 1866,a massive joint cattle drive from Texas to Missouri

A) saw the herds suffer heavy losses.
B) proved that cattle could be driven to distant markets.
C) established a link to the booming urban markets of the East.
D) both proved that cattle could be driven to distant markets, and established a link to the booming urban markets of the East.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 33

In the late nineteenth century,"range wars" in the West were often between

A) white Americans and Indians.
B) white American ranchers and Mexican ranchers.
C) white American ranchers and Chinese ranchers.
D) individual white American ranchers and large American ranching corporations.
E) white American ranchers and farmers.

Question 34

In "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," Frederick Jackson Turner claimed

A) that the end of the "frontier" also marked the end of one of the most important democratizing forces in American life.
B) the United States should expand its northern and southern borders into Canada and Mexico to create new frontier land.
C) the western wars between whites and Indians were a national disgrace.
D) most of the frontier land was of little practical use for Americans.
E) the frontier had repressed individualism, nationalism, and democracy in America.

Question 35

In the late nineteenth century,the popular image of the American West

A) presented a heroic image of cowboys.
B) perceived the region to be a place offering true freedom.
C) was promoted by the Rocky Mountain School.
D) both presented a heroic image of cowboys, and was promoted by the Rocky Mountain School.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 36

The 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn

A) took place in Wyoming.
B) saw the destruction of the entire Seventh Cavalry.
C) was a short-lived Indian victory.
D) marked the start of prolonged warfare in the Dakotas.
E) saw the Sioux united under Sitting Bull and Geronimo.

Question 37

In 1890,the "Ghost Dance"

A) was a spiritual revival among Plains Indians.
B) honored all the Indians who had died in battle with white Americans.
C) marked the resumption of hostilities by Plains Indians.
D) was a spiritual revival among Plains Indians, inspired by the Paiute prophet Chief Joseph.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 38

Before 1860,the traditional policy of the federal government was to regard Indians partly as

A) members of dependent states.
B) a natural enemy of the United States.
C) wards of the president of the United States.
D) non-humans.
E) citizens of the United States.

Question 39

The Indian leader who said,"I am tired.My heart is sick and sad.From where the sun now stands,I will fight no more forever," was

A) Black Kettle.
B) Sitting Bull.
C) Chief Joseph.
D) Crazy Horse.
E) Cochise.

Question 40

In the 1850s,the U.S.policy of "concentration" for Indians

A) set the basis for Indian policy for the rest of the century.
B) affirmed and continued the previous federal treatment of Indians.
C) had many benefits for both whites and Indians.
D) reduced conflicts between whites and Indians.
E) assigned all tribes to their own defined reservations.

Question 41

In his writings during the late 1800s,the popular author Hamlin Garland

A) romanticized agrarian life in the West.
B) criticized western farmers for failing to develop a stable industry.
C) reflected the growing disillusionment of western farmers.
D) argued the Plains should be abandoned by Americans.
E) suggested the trials of rural life refined and enlarged the human spirit.

Question 42

Plains Indians were not particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases brought from the eastern United States.

Question 43

In the late nineteenth century,regarding western agriculture,

A) the prices paid for American farm goods rose after the 1880s.
B) the reality of farming was very much like its popular image with the public.
C) commercial farmers were not self-sufficient and made little effort to become so.
D) farmers increasingly owned the land on which they worked.
E) American farm families were relatively unaffected by the effects of world production.

Question 44

Permanent settlements were somewhat rare among the Plains Indians.

Question 45

A number of Chinese immigrants worked in the mines of California before turning to the railroad for employment.

Question 46

The power of the Navajo and Apache tribes in the Southwest was broken by Hispanic settlers before the arrival of the U.S.Army.

Question 47

More than 300,000 Indians lived on the Pacific coast before the arrival of Spanish settlers.

Question 48

By the end of the nineteenth century,the American West was firmly tied to the increasingly powerful industrial economy of the East.

Question 49

The Timber Culture Act and the Desert Land Act were both designed to limit individual homesteaders in the American West.

Question 50

In the mid-nineteenth century,Hispanic society in the Southwest grew,despite the increasing Anglo-American settlement in that area.

Question 51

The western farmers' first and most burning grievance was against

A) the railroads.
B) state governments.
C) the banks.
D) eastern manufacturers.
E) crop speculators.

Question 52

In the late nineteenth century,fences for Plains farms were usually made from

A) barbed wire.
B) stones.
C) wood.
D) sod.
E) brick.

Question 53

By the end of the nineteenth century,the Hispanic presence in California was concentrated in the working class.

Question 54

The real West of the mid-nineteenth century bore little resemblance to its popular image.

Question 55

During the late nineteenth century,Plains farm life

A) was marked by active community life.
B) became increasingly profitable for most.
C) was generally admired by the growing urban public.
D) often lacked any access to the outside world.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 56

In the late nineteenth century,the surge of farming settlement in the West

A) was composed of mostly settlers who had little to no experience with farming.
B) was brought to a dramatic halt by a major drought during the 1870s.
C) was primarily the result of federal subsidies for land ownership.
D) spurred the development of massive irrigation projects.
E) was a result of many factors, but the most important was the railroad.

Question 57

White hostility to Chinese immigrants was rooted in the perception that they were lazy.

Question 58

By 1880,more than 200,000 Chinese had settled in the United States.

Question 59

Plains Indians were formidable foes of white settlers because they were usually able to present a united front.

Question 60

A homestead unit of 160 acres was too small for grain farming on the Great Plains.

Question 61

The Dawes Severalty Act sought the gradual elimination of most tribal ownership of land.

Question 62

The Sand Creek Massacre was a rare story of Indians killing whites.

Question 63

Management of Indian affairs by the federal government was in the hands of the army.

Question 64

Women in western mining towns were almost always prostitutes.

Question 65

In the 1870s,nearly one out of every eighty miners was killed on the job.

Question 66

The western working class was highly multiracial and stratified along racial lines.

Question 67

During the latter half of the nineteenth century,the structure of the cattle industry became increasingly corporate.

Question 68

The 1866 attempt to create a "long drive" between Texas and Missouri ended in failure.

Question 69

The most valuable mineral in the great Comstock Lode was gold.

Question 70

In the long run,natural resources such as copper,tin,lead,and zinc proved more important to the development of the West than did gold or silver.

Question 71

The federal government reservation policy known as "concentration" had few benefits for either whites or Indians.

Question 72

At the end of the Civil War,whites stepped up their wars against the western Indians on several fronts.

Question 73

By ancestry,the western cattle industry was Mexican and Texan.

Question 74

Custer's defeat at Little Bighorn in 1876 was made possible in part by an unusually large gathering of tribal warriors.

Question 75

The story of the Nez Percé Indians is of a peaceful tribe forced to turn terribly violent.

Question 76

Between 1865 and 1875,the number of buffalo in the American West declined from 15 million to under 1,000.

Question 77

The number of men in mining towns greatly outnumbered the number of women.

Question 78

Commercial farmers in the Midwest and West were forced to become self-sufficient.

Question 79

American Indians were generally accepting and supportive of the terms of the Dawes Act.

Question 80

White agents who observed the Indian "Ghost Dance" often did not understand it.