5-2.2

It Is Essential For Students To Know:

• The environment of the West was influenced by the men and women who settled the region. Land was plowed and irrigation created to make the plains into the breadbasket of the country.
• When the railroads crossed the plains they affected the herds of bison that had freely wandered there. The iron rails of the railroad track were trampled and mangled by the great herds. Railroad owners hired riflemen to shoot the offending beasts. Soon the bison herds were decimated and the way of life of the Native Americans who depended on the buffalo was significantly impacted.
• As more and more migrants settled the West, they infringed on the land that had been the domain of many Native American tribes. Native Americans resisted this encroachment.
• A series of Indian wars ended with the Native Americans being forced onto reservations.
• By the end of the 19th century, the United States government tried to make the Native Americans into farmers. The reservations were divided into parcels for individual Native American families. However, Native Americans did not want to give up their traditional way of life. They did not want to know how to farm and soon many lost their land to white settlers.

It Is Not Essential For Students To Know:

• It is not essential for students to know the names of the Native American tribes or the leaders of the Native American resistance such as Geronimo and Chief Joseph.
• Students do not need to know the name of the Dawes-Severalty Act that divided the reservations into farm parcels.
• Students do not need to know the names of the famous buffalo hunters such as Buffalo Bill Cody or of the railroad lines that crossed the plains.