Topic 1 - The Wild, Wild West

Required reading:
“There are No Indians Left But Me”— Marvin and Dorothy Rosenberg, Essay 1, Flyover
"Captain Pratt's School"— Mary Kay Morel, Essay 2, Flyover
"Women on the Lone Prairie"— Sean McCollum, Essay 3, Flyover
"Standard Time"— John Steele Gordon, Essay 4, Flyover

Quiz (from assigned Flyover reading):

There are no Indians Left Now But Me

1. What promise did the Ghost Dance hold for Native Americans?
   1. to be rewarded in a heavenly afterlife
   2. to confront whites in a militaristic manner
   3. to live in harmony with westward moving settlers
   4. to sweep the white invaders from the Plains
2. In the 1860's, what did the white men begin hunting in the Sioux hills that interfered with the Sioux way of life?
   1. buffalo
   2. antelope
   3. iron ore
   4. gold
3. What was an ironic result of Custer's defeat at Little Big Horn in 1876?
   1. if he had won the battle, he would have become president
   2. since he lost, white Americans were embarrassed by him
   3. though it was a famous victory for the Sioux, it was a last one
   4. Sitting Bull became the first authentic American hero
4. Who did Sitting Bull work for after the Battle of Little Big Horn?
   1. P.T. Barnum
   2. Geronimo
   3. Buffalo Bill Cody
   4. Teddy Roosevelt
5. Why did Sitting Bull say there are no Indians left now but me ?
   1. He realized most of his fellow tribesmen were dead.
   2. He recognized the fate of the Sioux on to reservations.
   3. He accepted the white man's terms of surrender.
   4. He felt betrayed by fellow Sioux who signed treaties.
6. According to Major James McLaughlin- the director of the Standing Rock Agency,the only good Indian was:
   1. one who copied the whites' ways and did as he was told.
   2. one who was starving and dependent on a reservation.
   3. one who was dead on the Plains.
   4. one who was free and living on his own.
7. What did Sioux warriors believe the Ghost Dance would do to their shirts?
   1. make them fly
   2. make them invisible
   3. make them bulletproof
   4. make them white
8. What was Sitting Bull's ultimate fate?
   1. he was shot dead
   2. he was confined to a reservation
   3. he assimilated
   4. he was imprisoned for life
9. After the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, Dakota chief Red Cloud and his followers fled the Pine Ridge Reservation. What happened when they were captured?
   1. they were executed
   2. they were allowed to move to the Canadian province of Alberta
   3. they were imprisoned
   4. they were told to return to the reservation and to be good

   Captain Pratt's School

10. Richard Henry Pratt was more compassionate toward Indians than most whites of the late nineteenth century because:
    1. he felt Indians were worth educating.
    2. he felt Indians should go to college.
    3. he realized the Indian culture was worth preserving.
    4. he felt assimilation was a mistake.
11. What was Pratt's purpose for establishing the Carlisle Indian School?
    1. to create a powerhouse of a technological school
    2. to establish a teaching institution for former veterans
    3. to help Indian children make their way in the white man's world
    4. to re-introduce tribal customs to Plains Indians children
12. Why did Luther Standing Bear attend the Carlisle Indian School?
    1. to leave reservation life
    2. to prove to his father that he was brave
    3. to learn the technical skills of industry
    4. to experience a cosmopolitan lifestyle
13. In what realm of college activities, did the students of Carlisle compete with Ivy League schools?
    1. liberal arts
    2. job placement
    3. professional degrees
    4. athletics
14. What best describes Richard Henry Pratt's attitude toward the Indians?
    1. to be sympathetic by assimilating their children
    2. to be ethnocentric while preaching cultural diversity
    3. to encourage a military take-over of their lands
    4. to discourage Plains children from being American
15. In Captain Pratt's School , assimilation refers to:
    1. efforts to eliminate the Native American.
    2. integration efforts to eliminate racism in America.
    3. "kill the Indian, but save the man".
    4. relocation policies resulting in reservations.

    Women on the Lone Prairie

16. How did the people back east view the prairie?
    1. as a place to escape poverty and persecution, and to own land
    2. as a desolate land, where loneliness was a way of life
    3. as a region that would be ideal for a factory system
    4. as an area to subdivide for future land development
17. What did homesteaders use for "fuel"?
    1. dried manure
    2. sod blocks
    3. mesquite trees
    4. prairie wheat
18. What was the government's motivation in passing the Homestead Act?
    1. to allow socialism on the Plains
    2. to discourage Native Americans from living on reservations
    3. to encourage settlement of the West
    4. to stop Canadians from moving into Dakota territory
19. What is a "soddie"?
    1. a person who sold sod
    2. a Native American leader
    3. a term for an acre of land
    4. a house composed of sod
20. What is the best description of the late nineteenth century West?
    1. a place free from locusts and other plagues
    2. a region of friendly and nearby neighbors
    3. a land of understanding between settlers and Native Americans
    4. a desolate and inhospitable place
21. What were the two natural resources of the West?
    1. trees and lakes
    2. grass and soil
    3. wind and rain
    4. water and oil
22. Who helped Annette LeCleve Botkin's mother deliver her baby?
    1. the local physician
    2. a midwife
    3. the nearby neighbor
    4. nobody

    Standard Time

23. Where was the measurement of time originally determined?
    1. Mesopotamia
    2. Egypt
    3. Europe
    4. China
24. Why did railroads create standard time?
    1. to unify travel and shipping schedules across the nation
    2. to encourage local authorities to abdicate power to Congress
    3. to ship Sears and Roebucks' hottest selling items- pocket watches
    4. to set Bethlehem as the prime meridian of the world
25. What was the problem for railroads before standardized time?
    1. southern and northern states had different time zones
    2. local times were established by town mayors
    3. each city kept its own time
    4. Americans did not own watches
26. Why didn't Congress enact legislation for standardized time?
    1. they supported federal action
    2. they feared local reaction
    3. they were still fighting the Civil War
    4. they sustained a presidential veto

 

A: Despite the notion that North America was open, unowned land, there were many groups of people living in areas throughout the continent. Take a look at this list of Native American Nations. (You'll need to scroll down a little from the top of the page.) Choose four of the groups and look at their websites. What do the groups have in common? What are major differences between them? What is the difference between how the people in each group refer to themselves and the name given to them by the Anglo newcomers? Are there similarities or differences in their histories that you can detect? What are they?

 

 

Despite the fact that the "Wild" part of the Wild West only lasted about thirty years or so, why do you think it's created such an indelible impression on the American psyche? What is it about this kind of person that is so memorable? Was there anything these gunfighters had in common that may have led them to that vocation? Should these gunfighter types be remembered as villains or heroes? Why?

C: Moving west was a momentous experience in the lives of the people who chose to relocate, and there were many trials faced by both men and women. People flocked to the western states of Kansas, the Dakotas, Colorado and other locales to claim their free land in exchange for homesteading. Read about some of the challenges people who moved west faced. (Click on 'The Challenges of the Plains' on the left side of the page.) Once they arrived, they had to find their land and build a home. But with little timber to be found, what materials are used to build a house? Hint: they were walking on it. What would be the most difficult part of homesteading for you? What kinds of people moved west, and what characteristics did they need to make a go of it? What do you think some of the main reasons for failure would have been for homesteaders who didn't make it? Would you volunteer for a reality show set in these kind of circumstances? Why or why not?

D: Women's experiences as settlers in the west often are not seen too much in movies or written about in books. Elinore Pruitt Stewart left behind a detailed account of her life in Letters of a Woman Homesteader. Her stories about life in early twentieth century Wyoming are a great insight into an unusual woman's life as she moves west on her own after being widowed. What do you think made Stewart stay in the west, despite the hard work involved? As a widowed woman during this period of history, what kind of options did she have open to her? How would you describe Pruitt Stewart? What were the things about her that made her journey west a success?

E: Research Richard Henry Pratt's background. Use the Carlisle Indian Industrial School web site, the article Richard Henry Pratt, and find another source on his life and work. What did you learn from your research about Pratt that the article Captain Pratt's School did not discuss? Are there any issues that the reader should know more about regarding Pratt and his school? If so, what are they? If not, why not? Finally, did Richard Henry Pratt succeed in making life better for the American Indian? Provide specific historical reasoning.