Comparing the Effectiveness of Federal Policies Towards the Plains Indians - Worksheets, Questions and Revision

15 original exam-style questions - 4 pages of questions with a full mark scheme - free printable PDF.

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This topic is chapter 10 of GCSE History: The American West, c1835-c1895 Practice Book.

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6.10 Comparing the Effectiveness of Federal Policies Towards the Plains Indians

EDEXCEL 1HI0 · about 55 minutes

Total Marks

Name: _______________________________ Date: ____ / ____ / ______

Answer ALL questions. Write in full sentences for Questions 13, 14 and 15. You are advised to spend about 65 minutes on this pack.

Give the year of the Fort Laramie Treaty often called the 1851 treaty with Plains nations.

(Total for Question 1 is 1 mark)

Name the 1868 agreement that recognised the Black Hills as part of a Lakota reservation.

(Total for Question 2 is 1 mark)

Give the year in which the Dawes Act became law.

(Total for Question 3 is 1 mark)

State one aim of the Permanent Indian Frontier policy as used in the 1850s.

(Total for Question 4 is 2 marks)

Name one federal method used in the 1860s to force Plains nations onto reservations.

(Total for Question 5 is 1 mark)

Give one reason why the 1851 treaty system relied on annuities paid by the federal government.

(Total for Question 6 is 1 mark)

Name one promise made in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 to the Lakota regarding land.

(Total for Question 7 is 1 mark)

Give one practical problem caused by dividing communal reservation land into individual allotments under the Dawes Act.

(Total for Question 8 is 1 mark)

State one way in which the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 attempted to protect white migrants and trade routes.

(Total for Question 9 is 2 marks)

State one provision of the Dawes Act relating to landholding.

(Total for Question 10 is 2 marks)

Name one weakness of treaty boundaries along the Plains in the 1850s.

(Total for Question 11 is 1 mark)

State one aim of the reservation policy that became dominant after the 1860s.

(Total for Question 12 is 2 marks)

Explain two consequences of the shift from the Permanent Indian Frontier and 1851 treaty approach to the reservation system exemplified by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

(Total for Question 13 is 8 marks)

Write a narrative account analysing how federal policy moved from treaty-making under the Permanent Indian Frontier to the Dawes Act of 1887 as a deliberate policy of assimilation.

You may use the following information in your answer:
- the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868 as examples of treaty-based boundary agreements
- the Dawes Act's use of allotment to break up communal land

You should also use information of your own.

(Total for Question 14 is 8 marks)

Explain two of the following:
(a) the importance of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 for how the federal government managed relations with Plains nations
(b) the importance of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 for the aims of reservation policy
(c) the importance of the Dawes Act of 1887 for the federal aim of assimilating Native Americans

You must answer on TWO parts.

(Total for Question 15 is 16 marks)

Mark scheme · 6.10 Comparing the Effectiveness of Federal Policies Towards the Plains Indians

Question 1

B1 1851
Answer: 1851

Question 2

B1 The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868
Answer: The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868

Question 3

B1 1887
Answer: 1887

Question 4

B1 identifies an aim, e.g. to limit settler-Native conflict by keeping frontier routes open
B1 supporting detail, e.g. by establishing recognised territories and promising annuities to tribes to discourage attacks on migrants
Answer: To limit conflict and keep migration routes open, for example by recognising territories and offering annuities to tribes.

Question 5

B1 military campaigns against resisting bands
Answer: Military campaigns against resisting bands

Question 6

B1 to persuade tribes to accept boundaries and reduce raiding by providing goods and money
Answer: To persuade tribes to accept boundaries and reduce raiding by providing goods and money.

Question 7

B1 that the Black Hills and a Great Sioux Reservation would be set aside for the Lakota
Answer: That the Black Hills and a Great Sioux Reservation would be set aside for the Lakota.

Question 8

B1 many Native people lacked experience in individual farming, so plots were often unsuccessful
Answer: Many Native people lacked experience in individual farming, so allotments were often unsuccessful.

Question 9

B1 identifies a way, e.g. by defining territories for tribes and creating agreed routes for migrants
B1 supporting detail, e.g. by promising annuities to tribes if they allowed wagon trains and traders safe passage
Answer: By defining tribal territories and creating agreed routes for migrants, and by promising annuities if tribes allowed safe passage for wagons and traders.

Question 10

B1 identifies a provision, e.g. allotment of individual plots of land to Native heads of household
B1 supporting detail, e.g. surplus reservation land could be sold to non-Native settlers
Answer: Allotment of individual plots to heads of household, with surplus reservation land sold to non-Native settlers.

Question 11

B1 they were often vague and not respected by settlers or by all tribes
Answer: They were often vague and not respected by settlers or by all tribes.

Question 12

B1 identifies an aim, e.g. to concentrate Native populations so they could be controlled and confined
B1 supporting detail, e.g. to open land for white settlers and to make Native communities dependent on government supplies
Answer: To concentrate Native populations for control and to open land for white settlement, making Native peoples more dependent on government supplies.

Question 13

Level 1 (1-2): Identifies one or two simple consequences of the shift to reservations, with little or no supporting detail.
Level 2 (3-4): Identifies and begins to explain one consequence with some accurate detail.
Level 3 (5-6): Explains two consequences, each supported by accurate and relevant detail.
Level 4 (7-8): Explains two consequences in a well-developed way, showing links between consequences and supported by precise and accurate detail.
Indicative content:
- Consequence 1, greater control and confinement: the reservation system concentrated Native peoples into smaller, defined areas, making it easier for the federal government and agents to control movement and reduce raiding, but this confinement disrupted traditional seasonal movements and hunting, especially of the buffalo.
- Consequence 1 supporting detail: the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 set aside land for the Lakota, but pressure from settlers and the military meant those boundaries were often violated, undermining their effectiveness at protecting Native life-ways.
- Consequence 2, increased dependency and poverty: by confining groups and promising rations and supplies, the reservation policy often led to dependency on government provisions when annuities or supplies were late or inadequate, producing hunger and social disruption.
- Consequence 2 supporting detail: reservation life reduced opportunities for traditional economic activities and increased vulnerability when promised federal supplies failed to arrive, showing a failure to replace lost resources with viable alternatives.

Question 14

Level 1 (1-2): Simple statements about change over time with little sequencing or explanation.
Level 2 (3-4): Some organisation into a sequence and limited explanation of how policies changed, with some accurate detail.
Level 3 (5-6): A clear sequence showing change over time and some analysis of connections between events and policies, supported by accurate detail.
Level 4 (7-8): A coherent, well-organised narrative that analyses how and why policy shifted, showing clear links between events and policy choices and supported by precise and accurate detail.
Indicative content:
- Start with the Permanent Indian Frontier and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, where the federal aim was to define territories for tribes and reduce violence by promising annuities and recognised boundaries to allow migration and trade to continue.
- Explain how the outbreak of wider conflict in the 1860s, pressure from white settlement and the military campaigns used to force compliance shifted policy towards concentrating tribes on reservations, as shown by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 which created the Great Sioux Reservation.
- Analyse how the reservation era proved inadequate in government eyes because it did not integrate Native peoples into the settler economy; the Dawes Act of 1887 shows a new rationale, that assimilation through individual land ownership and farming would 'civilise' Native peoples and free up 'surplus' land for settlers.
- Conclude by linking the policies: treaty-making sought order through negotiated boundaries, reservation policy sought control through confinement, and the Dawes Act sought cultural transformation through allotment and assimilation, each policy driven by the continuing pressure for land and by changing federal attitudes towards what the 'solution' should be.

Question 15

Level 1 (1-4): For each part answered: identifies general points about importance with little or no supporting detail.
Level 2 (5-8): For each part answered: begins to explain importance, supported by some accurate detail.
Level 3 (9-12): For each part answered: explains importance clearly with accurate and relevant detail, and begins to analyse consequences or limitations.
Level 4 (13-16): For each part answered: explains importance in a well-developed, analytical way, fully supported by precise and accurate detail, showing clearly why the development mattered for the outcome named.
Indicative content:
- (a) The 1851 treaty was important because it established a framework of recognised territories and annuity payments intended to reduce raiding and enable safe passage for settlers and traders; it set the precedent for using treaties to manage relations and to try to create order on the frontier.
- (a) Supporting detail: by recognising territories the 1851 approach attempted negotiated limits to conflict, but its reliance on voluntary compliance and annuities meant that it could not control settler expansion or prevent boundary violations.
- (b) The 1868 treaty was important for reservation aims because it formally set aside land for a specific nation, the Lakota, illustrating the federal move to concentrate and confine Native peoples as a means of control and as a compromise to stop wider warfare.
- (b) Supporting detail: Fort Laramie 1868 created the Great Sioux Reservation and promised the Black Hills, showing the attempt to produce a stable reservation system, but subsequent violations and settler pressure revealed limits to its effectiveness.
- (c) The Dawes Act was important because it embodied a shift from containment to assimilation, making individual land ownership the instrument for transforming Native society and integrating individuals into a Euro-American agricultural economy.
- (c) Supporting detail: allotment under the Dawes Act broke up communal land and declared surplus land open to white settlement, showing how assimilation policy also served the continuing federal aim of opening land for settlers, not only cultural change.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Federal Policies Towards the Plains Indians - Worksheets, Questions and Revision

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