Changing+and+Growing

=Unit 3: Changing and Growing= The United States changed dramatically in the last half of the century. Homesteaders rushed westward, and the transcontinental railroad linked the nation. Cowboys rode the plains. But the price of progress was dear. Native Americans lost their lands, and corrupt men twisted the law to their own advantage. As immigrants swelled the cities, reformers and writers emerged who would change history.
 * Summarize the major reasons for westward expansion in the late 1800's
 * Explain the relationship between new technology and inventions and the settlement of the Great Plains
 * Describe the growth of cities in the late 1800s and the political and environmental challenges that growth brought
 * Recognize major immigrant groups of the late 1800s and their challenges, opportunities, and contributions
 * Describe the era of the long cattle drive, including cowboy life, and the reasons for the end of that era
 * Identify the challenges and impacts of building a transcontinental railroad
 * Recognize the major causes and results of conflict between Native Americans and settlers
 * Identify individuals, groups, or movement that helped or hindered the growth of civil rights and opportunity in the late 1800s
 * Give examples of the cultural response to the changes of the late 1800s
 * Describe the Great Plains and the advantages and disadvantages of farming there in the late 1800s
 * Recognize the growing role of the courts in expanding or restricting civil rights in the late 1800s
 * Use maps to gain familiarity with the American prairie

Links
Western Expansion and Reform Whose Land is This?

Key Words

 * Cheyenne** (shiy-AN)
 * Sioux** (soo)
 * Nez Perce** (nez puhrs)
 * barbed wire**: twisted wire with sharp barbs used to build fences to control cattle and mark property lines
 * Great American Desert**: a term the early pioneers and Forty-Niners used to describe the Plains States
 * Homestead Act**: a law passed in 1862 that offered settlers 160 acres of land in return for living and farming there for at least five years
 * range**: open land for grazing cattle
 * constituents**: the people a politician represents
 * fraud**: dishonesty or cheating
 * political machine**: an unofficial government that exists alongside a real government
 * naturalized:** made a citizen
 * abridge:** reduce
 * immunities:** protections
 * deprive:** take away
 * privileges:** rights
 * due process of law:** to act fairly, according to established legal procedures
 * subject:** under rule of
 * jurisdiction:** authority
 * civil case:** a court case to settle an argument when no law has been broken
 * alien:** a person who is not a citizen of the country he is living in
 * criminal case:** a court case involving a violation of the law
 * prejudice:** dislike of another ethnic group, gender, race, or religion
 * suffrage:** the right to vote

Lesson 1: Westward Ho!
No sooner had the Civil War ended than settlers spilled onto the Great Plains. They endured danger and hardships and turned the plains into "the nation's breadbasket."

America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie [|Prairie Settlement: A Visual Essay] [|Virtual Prairie Farmhouse] [|Build a Prairie]
 * 1) Define Prairie
 * 2) Complete "Viewing the Prairie" worksheet
 * 3) Read Chapter 15 in //A History of US: Reconstructing America//
 * 4) Read //Westward Ho!: Eleven Explorers// of the West by Charlotte Foltz Jones
 * 5) Read //Westward Expansion// by Teresa Domnauer

Lesson 2: Homesteading
When the Homestead Act opened the plains, settlers moved westward to find land of their own. They used new technology--windmills, barbed wire, and steel plows--to transform the "Great American Desert" into a sprawling agricultural region. American Pioneer Moving to the Great Plains Homesteaders' Problems Farmers' Problems
 * 1) Write a brief paragraph about settling in the Plains. What were some of the challenges, and what were the settlers solutions to these challenges?
 * 2) Read Chapter 12 in //A History of US: Reconstructing America//
 * 3) Read //Pioneers: Life as a Homesteader// by Emily Raabe

Lesson 3: A Cowboy's Life
The Great Plains briefly belonged to the Texas longhorns and cattle herders who rode the open range. They were the "knights of the prairie"--the skilled and strong-willed men (and women) who pushed the cattle across the great American prairie. The Development of Cattle Ranching Key Factors in the Development of Cattle Ranching Who Were the Cowboys? [|National Cowboy Museum]
 * 1) Write a brief paragraph on what factors made the cattle business profitable?
 * 2) Draw a picture to illustrate the life of a cowboy.
 * 3) Read Chapter 13 in //A History of US: Reconstructing America//
 * 4) //Read Cattle Trails and Cowboys// by Sally Senzell Isaacs

Lesson 4: Rails
The linking of Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroad lines marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. The nation changed as the railroad system expanded. One significant change was the creation of a system of time zones.



Transcontinental Railroad Timeline of Railroad Allegheny Portage Railroad National Railroad Museum Transcontinental Railroad Photos Time Zones (.mp3 at bottom of page with lesson) media type="youtube" key="Id0LlcMV-Sg" height="315" width="420" > //The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad// by Nathan Olson
 * 1) Answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper: Which time zone do you live in?
 * 2) Which time zones are the following cities in? Portland, Oregon; Savannah, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah
 * 3) What time is it in Denver if it's 5:30 a.m. in Miami?
 * 4) Which states are divided into more than one time zone?
 * 5) //Read The Transcontinental Railroad// by John Perritano
 * 1) [|Transcontinental Railroad Video - Download from Library]

Lesson 5: Losing a Way of Life
As homesteaders moved westward, conflicts arose between the settlers and the Plains Indians. The two groups had incompatible ways of life, and neither wanted to accommodate the other. In an uneven power struggle, the native Americans resisted the settlers--often violently--but were eventually pushed onto reservations on unwanted lands. With the 1890 battle at Wounded Knee the resistance ended, and along with it the Indians centuries-old way of life. Wounded Knee Museum - Interactive Plains Indians Plains-Indian War Overview [|Wounded Knee Massacre - Video] Struggle on the Plains Conflict on the Plains
 * 1) Read Chapter 17 in //A History of US: Reconstructing America//
 * 2) Study the map on page 83, Indian Lands Ceded or Taken.
 * 3) About what percentage of land did Native Americans lose between 1850 and 1890?
 * 4) Why was it hard for Native Americans and new Americans to share the land?
 * 5) How did the new Americans attempt to solve the Native-American conflicts? How are their solutions reflected on the map?
 * 6) //Read Wounded Knee: the Death of a Dream// by Laurie O'Neill
 * 7) Read //A Boy Becomes a Man at Wounded Knee// by Ted Wood

Lesson 6: Sorrow
In one last bid for freedom, Chief Joseph led his people, the Nez Perce, on a desperate flight toward Canada. The U.S. Army stopped them 30 miles from their destination. Thereafter, the Nez Perce were forced to live on reservations. This race for Canada was one of the last great attempts by a Native-American group to maintain its freedom. Chief Joseph's eloquent speech on behalf of his people has become a plea for justice for people of all races and backgrounds.

Young Chief Joseph Speaks Freedom: A history of US: Chief Joseph The Trail Ends on a Reservation media type="youtube" key="zECT7JGvs3I" height="315" width="420" > //Chief Joseph: The Voice for Peace// by Lorraine Hopping Egan
 * 1) Read Chapter 18 in //A History of US: Reconstructing America//
 * 2) Why do you think this speech was made?
 * 3) List three things the speaker said that you think are important.
 * 4) What evidence in the speech tells you about life in the Americas at the time that it was made?
 * 5) //Read Thunder Rolling Down the Moutain: The Story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce// by Agnieskzka Biskup

Lesson 7: Corruption and Crusaders
In the late 1800s, a few powerful men controlled many of the nation's large cities. In New York City, William Marcy "Boss" Tweed built a corrupt political machine that scorned the Constitution's system of checks and balances and used intimidation and bribery to get its way. The political cartoonist Thomas Nast exposed Tweed's corruption and eventually helped bring him down. media type="youtube" key="YildL_ilQFY" height="315" width="560"

Tammany Hall PBSKids Tweed's Machine
 * 1) Read Chapter 19 in //A History of US: Reconstructing America//
 * 2) Draw your own political cartoon about Boss Tweed
 * 3) //Read America's Political Scandals in the Late 1800s: Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall// by Corona Brezina

Lesson 8: Mark His Words
The United States was changing fast. In the late 1800s, small towns began transforming into industrial centers. Author Mark Twain captured the country's enterprising spirit in his stories, but he was also concerned that Americans were forgetting their ideals. He called this period the Gilded Age because a layer of wealth and excess disguised the poverty and corruption that still existed in the country. media type="custom" key="18961292" Mark Twain Samuel Clemens Opulence in the Gilded Age
 * 1) Read Chapter 21 in //A History of US: Reconstructing America//
 * 2) Choose several words to describe Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
 * 3) Explain the term "Gilded Age" in your own words
 * 4) //Read Mark T-W-A-I-N!: a Story about Samuel Clemens// by David R. Collins

Lesson 9: New Arrivals
In the last half of the nineteenth century, nearly 14 million people immigrated to the United States. German and Irish immigrants made up the largest proportion of the newcomers, but they also came from Europe, Asia, and other pars of the world. These immigrants faced many difficulties in adapting to their new home, but their arrival fueled the growth of cities and industry, propelling the nation into the modern era. media type="custom" key="19286278" media type="youtube" key="AcxIdYbKu7Q" height="315" width="420" [|Scholastic Immigration - Interactive Tour] [|Ellis Island Video] [|Port of Entry: Immigration] Interactive Citizenship Game Who Was Jacob Riis?
 * 1) Read Chapter 22 in //A History of US: Reconstructing America//
 * 2) Play the interactive citizenship game (link above)
 * 3) Who was Jacob Riis?
 * 4) //Read If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island// by Ellen Levine
 * 5) Read //he Other Half: The Life of Jacob Riis and the world of immigrant America// by Tom Buk-Swienty

Lesson 10: Barring the Doors


Although most immigrants cherished American ideals, not all Americans welcomed the immigrants. Many immigrants encountered ugly ethnic, racial, and religious prejudice. The case of //Yick Wo v. Hopkins// revealed the power of the 14th Amendment. In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court used the "equal protection" clause to overturn the decision to shut down Chinese laundries in San Francisco. Chinese Exclusion Act Document Chinese Immigration Act Know-Nothing Party The Strange Case of the Chinese Laundry
 * 1) Read Chapter 23 & Chapter 25 in //A History of US: Reconstructing American// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) Supreme Court Decides
 * 3) Be prepared to explain the difference between civil and criminal cases.

Lesson 11: Wyoming Wins
Wyoming led the way in granting the vote to women. When the United States threatened to deny the territory statehood unless it abandoned women's suffrage, a representative declared: "We may stay out of the Union a hundred years, but we will come in with our women." And they did. Women of the West Museum Wyoming the Equality State Biographies //When Esther Morris headed West : women, Wyoming, and the right to vote// by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
 * 1) Read Chapter 26 in //A History of US: Reconstructing American// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) Design a poster that lists some political "firsts" for women (Use pages 131-132 in your book as a starting point for your information)
 * 3) Read //I could do that : Esther Morris gets women the vote// by Linda Arms White

Lesson 12: Don't Citizens Vote?
In 1872 women could be taxed, but they couldn't vote. Women could be arrested, but they couldn't serve on a jury. Susan B. Anthony and other leads in the women's rights movement fought for decades so American women could have the same rights as men. Today, all U.S. citizens (including women) enjoy certain freedoms, protections, and legal rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution. media type="youtube" key="YNOznB9NV-Y" height="315" width="420" media type="youtube" key="gdgM-K91Lhk" height="315" width="420" Susan B. Anthony Biography Not For Ourselves Alone Are You a Citizen if You Can't Vote? Audio of Bio for Susan B. Anthony
 * 1) Read Chapter 27 in //A History of US: Reconstructing American// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) Voting: A Right and a Responsibility
 * 3) Read //Marching with Aunt Susan : Susan B. Anthony and the fight for women's suffrage// by Claire Rudolf Murphy
 * 4) Read //Susan B. Anthony : a life of fairness// by Jennifer Boothroyd
 * 5) Listen to audio story from link above

Lesson 13: Review and Reflect
Read Chapter 18 in //A History of US: Reconstructing America//