Chapter 7

1. Chapter 7 Changes on the Plains

2. Lesson 1 Link East to West • Timeline: 1844-1869 • Vocabulary: transcontinental, prejudice • Main Ideas: Telegraph made it faster to send messages over long distances. Transcontinental railroads made traveling and shipping easier and faster.

3. Samuel Morse • Created Morse Code making messages normally sent by horse or boat easy and fast • Telegraph is a machine that sends electric signals over wire lines • Morse Code is a series of dots and dashes that represent letters (see page 222) • Reporters, bankers, war generals, family and friends used Morse Code and the telegraph

4. Railroad • Settlers were searching for gold on long, dangerous expensive trips • Transcontinental railroad linked the east to the west • Pacific Railway Act-law allowed government money to be loaned to the Union Pacific and to the Central Pacific • 1869 Promontory Point, Utah the two railroads were joined with spikes of gold and silver • 1,800 miles of railroad was announced using the telegraph • Parades and celebrations were in honor of the finale

5. Effects of the Railroad • First of several railroads across the U.S. • Easier and faster to move people and goods • Helped settlers earn money by transporting goods • Gave immigrants jobs by building the railroad • Connected east to west permanently • Summary: Improvements in communication and transportation helped unite the country and made the economy grow.

6. Lesson 2 Great Plains • Timeline: 1862-1890 • Vocabulary: homestead, exodusters, drought, sodbuster • Main Ideas: Large numbers of settlers moved onto the Great Plains and started farming. Settlers had to learn new ways of farming the Great Plains.

7. Life on the Plains • Middle of the country with flat grassy land • 1862 Homestead Act-offered 160 acres of land to adults-had to pay small amount and farm the land for 5 years-then they owned the land • Europeans also wanted to farm the Plains – Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands • African Americans in the south wanted to farm the Plains- exodusters-trying to find a place to be free

8. Difficulties on the Plains • Harsh climate-drought is a long period of time without rain • Cold winters • Floods • Fires • Grasshoppers killed crops • Water and food were scarce • Many homesteaders thought life on the Plains was too difficult and they moved away

9. How did they adapt? • Sod homes since there was little wood-sodbusters cut through the thick roots (see page 236) • Finding crops that would grow in the hot dry climate-Europeans brought wheat seeds that grew well • Carried or irrigated water from streams • New and improved farming machines like plows • Summary: Sodbusters turned the Plains into large fields of wheat.

10. Lesson 3 Cattle Ranchers • Timeline: 1865-1890 • Vocabulary: demand, supply, railhead, barbed wire • Main Ideas: Ranchers in Texas raised and sold longhorn cattle. Cowhands led cattle to railroads where they were shipped everywhere.

11. Supply and Demand • Vaquero-Mexican cowhand skilled at herding cattle • 1845 Texas became part of the U.S. instead of Mexico • Supply and demand- Many cattle in Texas with few people to buy them made cattle cheap ($4) but when shipped away to places that cattle were in demand made the same cattle more expensive ($40) • As supply increases, demand decreases and vice versa (see chart on page 239) When demand is high, prices go up; when supply is high, prices go down.

12. Cattle Drives • Ranchers would transport cattle to areas where they sold for more money-used the railhead-town where railroad begins or ends-railheads were usually far away from each other • Cowhands led cattle to railhead on cattle drives • Drives took weeks or months to complete and were very dangerous, boring, and dirty • Cowhands spent 10-14 hours a day on horseback • Stampedes may cause them to loose cattle which meant loosing money • Slept on ground and were sometimes robbed

13. End of the Drive • Lasted about 20 years • Ended because of barbed wire, growth of the railroads/railheads, baron ranges, freezing temperatures killed cattle • Summary: Still today, when people think of the west, they think of wild wild west and cattle drives.

14. Lesson 4 Conflicts on the Plains • Timeline: 1860-1890 • Vocabulary: reservation, habitat, extinct, assimilate • Main Ideas: American Indians and soldiers fought on the Great Plains. • U.S. government tried to force American Indians to change their way of life.

15. War • As settlers travelled west, they built towns and dug mines • Government built railroads on this land to help settlers • Tried to convince Plains Indians to sell land and move on reservation where they could farm • But Indians were nomads that followed buffalo and didn’t want to farm • So fighting began……

16. Battle of Sand Creek • 1864- Colorado-U.S. soldiers attacked Indians in their sleep despite the surrender white flag • Peace was no where in sight • Battle of Little Bighorn-1876-South Dakota and Wyoming- George Custer found gold but Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull killed most of the soldiers (see page 252) • But within a few years, most American Indians were forced onto reservations

17. Wounded Knee • Ghost Dance-religious activity by Indians but government feared they were preparing for war • Huge battle on creek called wounded knee where soldiers killed men, women and children • Life on the reservation was not the same

18. Reservations • Railroads killed buffalo habitat and Indian lives • Government tried to assimilate or change the culture of the Indians by making Ghost Dance/religious ritual illegal, by sending kids to schools where they couldn’t dress or speak their native language • Dawes Act of 1887-Law to split land and make American Indians farmers on poor land • The Indian was forced to depend on the government for food and survival • Today, traditions are preserved on Indian reservations.

19. Test Time Complete the review on page 254, study workbook pages and know vocabulary I EXPECT A’S 