REVISION PACK GCSE HISTORY The Bear Necessities

THE AMERICAN WEST

The Great Plains Grassland, flat, no trees, freezing in Winter, hot in summer, buffalo, Native Americans, Great American desert
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The Plains Indians Nomadic, hunted buffalo, provided everything, food, tipi: mobile home, polygamy, Great Spirit, happy hunting ground, scalping, Sun Dance, counting coup, land not for sale, exposure of the elderly
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Manifest Destiny An idea: White Americans had a duty to spread their way of life across the entire continent. It was what God wanted them to do.
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Mountain Men: Rocky Mountains, beaver felt hats, Jed Smith, only passing through the Great Plains, the Rendezvous
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Gold Miners: Gold discovered at Sutters Creek in California in 1848,Gold rush 1849, miner forty niners,panning,
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lawlessness in mining towns

Pioneers: Oregon and California, trails: California trail, Oregon trail, wagon trains, push and pull factors, dangers on the trail, crossing mountains, deserts, Donner Party
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The Mormons: Joseph Smith, the angel, gold plates, Kirtland, Missouri, Nauvoo, unpopular, Bank collapsed, polygamy, friendly to Indians, against slavery, Smith killed 1844, Brigham Young, journey to Salt Lake, Plan, Winter Quarters, Salt Lake city, missionaries, PEF, irrigation, share out of land, gave up polygamy.
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Homesteaders: Push and pull factors, unemployment, poverty, ex slaves, free land Problems, sod house, lack of water, weather, no fencing, no wood for a house or fuel, grasshoppers, difficult land to farm Solutions: Wind pump, barbed wire, sodbuster, dry farming, turkey Red Women, civilising influence

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Railways: Crossing the continent, played a huge part in the settlement of the West, disturbing Indians and buffalo
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Cowboys and Cattlemen: Texas, open range, longhorns, Autumn/ Winter; line riding and bog riding, Spring roundup, summer; long drive, stampedes, storms, rivers, Trails, Chisholm trail, GoodnightLoving trail to cow tons like Abilene Ranching on Great Plains, open range and then fencing, barbed wire. End of open range = overgrazing, drought, winter 1883. Own notes Cowboy kit, e.g. bandana

Law and Order Crimes: cattle rustling, bank robbery, train robbery, fence cutting Forces of law and order: marshals, sheriffs, Texas Rangers, Pinkertons Vast country, everyone had a gun, conflict between ethnic groups Vigilantes took law into their own hands but often worse than the criminals themselves 1862: Johnson County War: conflict between homesteaders and cattlemen, power struggle; cattlemen hired gangs of gunfighters, showdown broken up by army. Power of cattle barons reduced.

Outlaws; Billy the Kid, the James Gang, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
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Struggle for the Plains Permanent Indian Frontier,1851 Fort Laramie treaty, Plains wars: 1864 massacre at Sand Creek, Colonel Chivington 1874: gold found in Black hills, Led to end of Indian way of life, reservations Custer,1876- Battle of the Little Bighorn, defeat for Custer; poor plan, mistakes by Custer, split his command, attacked too early, but Indians had better rifles and they stood and fought, Last clash: Battle of Wounded Knee, single shot from an Indian, led to killing of women and children. End of Indian way of life. Reservations, rations.

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