U.S. History with Mrs. Risko



Opening of the WestHomestead Act (1862)0-63500Enacted on May 20, 1862, this landmark piece of legislation granted to settlers ownership of 160 acres of land merely by living on it and working it for five years. It proved one of the most important government incentives in settling the vast territory of the American West and provided economic opportunities to thousands of Americans and newly arrived immigrants. Below is an excerpt of the act.?Be it enacted, That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter-section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands, upon which said person may have filed a pre-emption claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, be subject to pre-emption at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, per acre; or eighty acres or less of such unappropriated lands, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, to be located in a body, in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed: Provided, That any person owning or residing on land may, under the provisions of this act, enter other land lying contiguous to his or her said land, which shall not, with the land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the aggregate one hundred and sixty acres.?What was the Homestead Act of 1862?What qualifications needed to be met in order to qualify for the Homestead Act?What does it mean: “who has never borne arms against the United States Government, or given aid and comfort to its enemies”? (Think about the DATE that the article mentions, and what was happening in the U.S. during this time.)Why do you think the government offered the Homestead Act to its citizens?Pacific Railway Act (1862) 0381000According to the suggestions in this advertisement, how did railroads encourage settlement of the West?Based on this document, sate two ways a railroad to the Pacific would help overcome the geographic obstacle of distance.According to this document, why were Native American Indians hostile to the surveyors?According to this document, what did the federal government give the Union Pacific Railroad Company to help them construct the railroad and the telegraph line?According to this document, how did the Pacific Railroad Act help the United States expand westward?Dawes Act (1887)9525127635004. Based on this poster, what do you think the Dawes Act did?6286504191000According to this document, what were two criticisms that Chief Washakie had against the white man and/or the federal government?February 8, 1887 – Cleveland signs devastating Dawes Act into law.On this day in 1887, President Grover Cleveland signs the Dawes Severalty Act into law. The act split up reservations held communally by Native American tribes into smaller units and distributed these units to individuals within the tribe. Also called the General Allotment Act, the law changed the legal status of Native Americans from tribal members to individuals subject to federal laws and dissolved many tribal affiliations. The Dawes Severalty/General Allotment act constituted a huge blow to tribal sovereignty.Cleveland’s goal was to encourage Native Americans to integrate into American agrarian culture. Cleveland, who once said though the people support the government; the government shouldn ot support the people, led a socially reformist yet financially conservative government that did not believe in welfare handouts. He signed the act in a sincere but misguided attempt to improve the Native Americans’ lives by incorporating them into white culture, rejecting earlier policies toward Native Americans that forced them to live on desolate reservations where it was difficult to make a living. However, his support of the Dawes Severalty Act actually did more damage than good.Under the Dawes Act, the head of each Native American family received 160 acres in an effort to encourage Native Americans to take up farming, live in smaller family units that were considered more American and renounce tribal loyalties. The government held such lands in trust for 25 years, until the recipients could prove themselves self-sufficient farmers. Before the family could sell their allotment, they were required to get a certificate of competency. If the family did not succeed at farming, the land reverted back to the federal government for sale, usually to white settlers. The Dawes Act reduced Native American landholdings from 138 million acres in 1887 to 78 million in 1900 and continued the tred of white settlement on previously Native American-held land. In addition, the law created federally funded boarding schools designed to assimilate Native American children into white society. Family and cultural ties were practically destroyed by the now-notorious boarding schools, in which children were punished for speaking their native language or performing native rituals.The Dawes Severalty Act was finally abolished in 1934, during President Frankling Roosevelt’s first term.Which president put the Native Americans on reservations west of the Mississippi River?Why did the president put Native Americans on reservations and kick them out of their homelands?What was the purpose of the Dawes Act? Explain all of the stipulations of the Dawes Act.Review QuestionsThe Homestead Act was important in the growth of the West because itSet aside reservations for Native American IndiansCreated the Department of Agriculture to aid farmersEncouraged settlement of the Great PlainsProvided land to build a canal systemWhich geographic region of the United States was most directly affected by the passage of the Homestead Act?Atlantic CoastRocky MountainsAppalachian MountainsGreat PlainsPassage of the Dawes Act affected Native American Indians bySupporting their cultural traditions.Attempting to assimilate them into mainstream cultureForcing their removal from areas east of the Mississippi RiverStarting a series of Indian wars on the Great PlainsThe aim of the Dawes Act of 1887 was toRestore previously taken land to Native American Indian tribesMaintain traditional Native American Indian culturesAssimilate Native American Indians into American cultureEnd all governmental contact with Native American Indians ................
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