The American West Webquest

A. Homestead Act
Go to:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050219084403/http:/www.nps.gov/home/
homestead_act.html

1. What was the Homestead Act.

2. What were the qualifications to be able to claim a 160 acre parcel of land?

3. Besides making improvements on the land, how many years did you have to live on the
land before keeping this free land?

4. When was the Homestead Act repealed?

5. Click on the Map of Homesteading States. How many states were homesteaded
under this act?

B. The Dawes Act

Go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Act

6. What was the Dawes Act?

7. Who was the act named after?

8. What was the stated objective of the Dawes Act?

C. Chief Joseph
Go to: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/chiefjoseph.htm

9. What did Chief Josephs real name mean?

10. Where were the Nez Perce from?

11. Which American general was impressed with Josephs 1,400 mile
march?

12. What was Josephs final sentence of his famous surrender speech?

13. In what year did Chief Joseph die?

14. What did his doctor say was the cause of his death?
D. Cattle Drives
Go to: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/places/trails_ter/cattle.htm

15. What were the names of three Cattle Trails used by Texas cattlemen
to move their cattle to market?

16. Click on Charles Goodnight. What organization did Goodnight join in 1857?

17. What was the name of Goodnights partner?

18. What promise did Goodnight keep to his partner after he died fighting off a band of
Comanches.

19. In what year did Goodnight die?

E. Cowboys
Go to:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/five/cowboys.htm

20. Name three groups from which cowboys came.

21. Whos father let him help drive a herd of cattle from Texas to
Nebraska when he was just 10 years old?

22. What was the average age of a cowboy?

23. Why did cowboys sing?

24. How many months did a cowboy spend in the saddle?

25. What ordinances did cowtowns begin to pass in order to control the
cowboys that entered their towns?

F. Indian Wars
Go to:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/six/yellowhair.htm

26. In 1874, who led an army of more than 1,000 soldiers from Fort
Abraham Lincoln and marched into the Black Hills of Dakota Territory?

27. What were they unofficially looking for?

28. How did Stephen Ambrose describe Custer?

29. What did Custers enemies call him?

Go to:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/six/goodday.htm

30. What vision did Sitting Bull have after climbing to a hilltop in the
early spring of 1876?

31. Who commanded the 7th Cavalry?

32. Where were 3,000 Lakota and Cheyenne were camped on June 6th?

33. How many times did Sitting Bull slash his arms as a sign of
sacrifice?

34. What name did whites give the winding stream that the Lakota and
Cheyenne called the Greasy Grass?

35. In the end, how many men in Custer's command died at the Battle
of Little Bighorn?

G. Transcontinental Railroad

Go to:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/five/grandanvil.ht
m

36. How many miles of railroad track was planned from Omaha to
Sacramento?

37. Which two railroad companies did Congress give charters to build
it the transcontinental railroad?

Go to:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/five/artilleryheave
n.htm

38. What immigrant group did Charles Crocker recommend take the
place of his workers who took off to find gold in Nevada?

39. About how many Chinese died digging and blasting for Charles
Crocker and the Central Pacific?
Go to:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/introduction/tcrr
-intro/

40. When and where did the completion of the Transcontinental

Railroad occur?

H. Wounded Knee

Go to:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/eight/likegrass.htm

41. What disturbing vision did Sitting Bull while living on the Standing
Rock reservation?
42. Who was the Paiute medicine man and prophet that was
responsible for the Ghost Dance?

43. According to Wovoka, what would happen after his people purified
themselves and dances in a large circle, chanting and appealing to the
spirits of their ancestors?

44. To which creek was Big Foots band taken by soldiers?

45. What happened to Big Foot and 250 of his followers?