activities: APUSH AMSCO Questions and Answers
Learning Objective (6.3) Correct--Explain the causes and effects of the settlement of the
West from 1877 to 1898
Turner's Frontier Thesis Correct-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 Correct-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
, Exam- Main points of Unit 6 (6.3 and 6.4)Games and
activities: APUSH AMSCO Questions and Answers
tribes refused to restrict their movements to the reservation and continued to follow the
migrating buffalo where they roamed.
Indian Wars Correct-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
Continuing conflicts with the Natives Correct-The Indian Appropriation Act of 1871 ended
recognition of native tribes as independent nations by the federal government and ended
negotiation of treaties to be approved by Congress. Before the Sioux were defeated, they
ambushed and destroyed Colonel George Custer's command in Little Big Horn in 1876. Chief
Joesph's efforts to defeat the US ended in defeat in 1877. The US government continued to
force the Natives to comply, even after violating treaties. At the same time, the natives were
doomed due to the slaughter of the buffalo and the loss of their way of life.