(6.3 and 6.4) with Complete Solutions
Learning Objective (6.3) - ANSWER - -Explain the causes and effects of the settlement of the
West from 1877 to 1898
Turner's Frontier Thesis - ANSWER - Argument by historian Fredrick Jackson Turner says that
argued the American character was shaped by the existence of the frontier and the way
Americans interacted and developed the frontier, he felt that the frontier encouraged
individualism and democracy. He believed that the settling of the frontier was a form of evolution
of building a civilization. This was a generation of wave after wave of people who were
colonizing the frontier. Turner feared that without the promise of the frontier that America would
follow the patterns of class division and social conflict that was in Europe. However, most of US
migration at this time wasn't people going to the west but people migrating to the city from rural
communities
American Indians on the frontier - ANSWER - About two thirds of tribal groups lived in the Great
plains. Nomadic tribes like the Sioux had given up farming in the 1700s with the introduction of
horses that helped them with farming. After the Reservation policy of moving eastern Natives to
the West were based on the belief that lands west of the Mississippi river would be "Indian
territory". Despite the building of the transcontinental railroads, most plain tribes refused to
restrict their movements to the reservation and continued to follow the migrating buffalo where
they roamed.
Indian Wars - ANSWER - Multiple conflicts between American settlers or the United States
government and the native peoples of North America from the time of earliest colonial
settlement until 1890. The US Army were responsible for numerous massacres. In 1866, the
tables were turn when a Sioux fighters wiped out an army of US soldiers under William
Fetterman. On top of this conflict gold miners refused to stay off of Native land if gold were
found on them
Assimilationists - ANSWER - Wanted to eradicate tribal life and assimilate Native Americans into
white culture through education, land policy, and federal law. Some people opened boarding
schools to American Indian children and taught them the "right" way to live (follow what the
white people were doing)
The Conservation Movement - ANSWER - A political and social movement that seeks to protect
natural resources including plant and animal species as well as their habitat for the future. The
early conservation movement included fisheries and wildlife management, water, soil