1. The American
West
A crash course in History GCSE

2. 1 2 3
5
4

3. The Indian Way Of Life
There were different tribes within the American Indians.
The main ones were;
- Arapaho
- Cherokee
- Cheyenne
- Sioux
Like most living things, the basic
needs of all Indians were
food, clothing and shelter. The buffalo
provided all of these things.
The buffalo was not only important for food,
But also had religious connotations.
It was so important to the
Indians, that their whole life revolved
around them. The Indians were
nomadic in order to hunt buffalo.
In order to conserve buffalo tribes To find the buffalo, young braves would
would split up and watch how many go out and look for them. Sometimes
buffalo they killed so they didn't’t buffalo dances would be
wipe them out. done, where, until the buffalo were found

4. Indians lived in tipis which were made out of buffalo hide. They kept the cold
winds out and could be packed up within 10 minutes.
The Indian society:
Each band (sub-group from tribe) would have up to 10-50 families, each living in their ow
Within the family there were different roles;
-MEN: Hunting, looking after horses, protecting band
Judged by skills in hunting and horse riding
-WOMEN: Tipi, preparing food, fetching water, making clothes
Judged by skills in crafts and as a homemaker
Family life:
The Indians followed polygamy, which is the practice of having more than one wife
or husband at the same time. This was because there were less men than women in
the tribe, and it ensured all the women were looked after.
Marriage- If a man wanted to marry a woman he had to give her family a number of
horses
Divorces were rare, and all you had to do was say ‘I divorce you’
Old People- Old people were just left to die on their own when they were too old and
slowing down the rest of the rest of the band
They were the source of all history, and told tales of the past
Children- Babies were encouraged not to cry as it scared off the buffalo

5. Source A
Give two things you can learn about the Indian
way of life from Source A (4 marks)

6. They blazed the trails west. They
Mountain Men were the only ones who knew about
the route, so they made maps and
They were the first (after the Indians) acted as guides to wagon train
to travel west through the Rocky migrants
They had to face harsh climates, grizzly
Mountains bears and hostile Indians
Jim Bridger was an important mountain
man…
- He had great mapping skills of the
They were fur trappers who lived in
Great Plains
the mountains in order to hunt
- He was the first man to see Great Salt
animals, e.g. Beavers
Lake
- Built a trading post, ‘Fort Bridger’ to
Once a year, all of the trappers provide supplies to migrants on the
gathered at an agreed spot to Oregon trail
trade. Up to 600 trappers came. - Led 100’s of wagons safely through the
They met with merchants and Rockies
traded fur in return for - He discovered a pass that shortened
alcohol, rifles, powder, sugar etc… the journey West by 61 miles
They also spread the word about - Created the Bridger Trail
fertile lands in the west. - Worked as a guide and an army

7. Give two things
that you can learn
about the life of a
mountain
man, from source
A.
Source B

8. Wagon Train Migrants PUSH Factors PULL Factors
Why go west? Fertile Land
Economic Depression
Unemployment Cheap Land
Before 1845, most Spacious
Agricultural Depression
Americans lived on the Religion – convert Indians
Too crowded
East coast of America. But Stories of Prosperity
Land is expensive
as things started getting Manifest Destiny
Nothing to loose
worse in the east, the Good Climate
prospect of starting afresh
in the west became even
more enticing.
MANIFEST DESTINY: The belief that
the United States was destined to
expand across the North American
continent
The trek across the Great Plains was
VERY hard. Harsh weather, hostile
Indians, lack of water and food and
treacherous mountains were only the
beginning of their problems.

9. Source C
Give two things that you can learn about the
wagon train migrants, from source C.

10. The mining towns were full of
Gold Rush disease and crime. As they were set
In 1848, gold was discovered in the up so fast, there was no law and
foothills of the Sierra Nevada. By order. Claim-jumping, which is
1849, there were 90,000 gold miners stealing another man’s claim to mine
digging for gold. after gold has been discovered
there, was very common.
Most didn’t find gold and either went
back east or wandered from mine to Groups of ordinary citizens set up
mine. The lucky ones found gold and vigilantes, where they took the law
became extremely rich. into their own hands. Their ‘trials’
were quick and unfair, and innocent
All of a sudden there were thousands people were often hanged.
of men in the West needing a place to
stay, so mining towns were built. They
were made from shacks and were in
the middle of nowhere. Most of them
were unmarried men, who spent a lot
of time in saloons; drinking, gambling Gradually the surface gold was
and hiring prostitutes. exhausted, and bigger mining
companies with better machinery
Not only White American people starting moving west. They hired
came to find gold; there were men who brought their families with
Chinese, Asian and Black people as them. This meant the mining towns

11. The Mormons
Why were they persecuted?
The Mormons were • Joseph Smith was called
Joseph Smith is born
blamed for Mountain a fraud
in 1806
Meadows massacre • Kept themselves to
themselves
In 1849 Brigham • They were successful so
Joseph Smith receives
Young asked for non-Mormons were
the golden plates in
‘Deseret’ to become a jealous
Palmyra
state • Made a scapegoat
• Polygamy was against
They move to Kirtland people’s views
and it becomes the They settle in Great
Salt Lake City • There were rumors that
‘City of God’ they freed slaves
The Mormons are
driven from country to Under Brigham Young
country from 1833- they reached Winter
1838 Quarter in Autumn
1846
The Mormons build a
city called
Nauvoo, with it’s own Joseph Smith shot in
laws, judges and prison 1844
troops 1839