Answer ALL questions. Write in full sentences for Questions 15, 16 and 17. You are advised to spend about 65 minutes on this pack.
1
State one way in which the growth of hide-hunting and railroad building after the Civil War affected the size of the buffalo herds on the Plains.
(Total for Question 1 is 2 marks)
2
State one reason why some US army and government figures were willing to see the buffalo herds destroyed.
(Total for Question 2 is 2 marks)
3
Name three consequences for the Plains Indians of the destruction of the buffalo herds.
(Total for Question 3 is 3 marks)
4
Give the year of the Sand Creek Massacre, in which US soldiers attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho camp in Colorado.
(Total for Question 4 is 1 mark)
5
Name the US army officer who led the attack on the Cheyenne and Arapaho camp at Sand Creek in 1864.
(Total for Question 5 is 1 mark)
6
State what happened at the Sand Creek Massacre (1864).
(Total for Question 6 is 2 marks)
7
State one reason why the Sand Creek Massacre (1864) increased tension between the US government and Plains Indian nations.
(Total for Question 7 is 2 marks)
8
Give the year of the Fetterman Fight (Fetterman's Trap), in which Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors killed Captain William Fetterman and about 80 US soldiers near Fort Phil Kearny.
(Total for Question 8 is 1 mark)
9
Name the Lakota leader whose resistance to US forts on the Bozeman Trail gave its name to the conflict of 1866-68 that included the Fetterman Fight.
(Total for Question 9 is 1 mark)
10
Give the year of the second Fort Laramie Treaty, which ended Red Cloud's War.
(Total for Question 10 is 1 mark)
11
State two terms agreed under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.
(Total for Question 11 is 2 marks)
12
State one reason why the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 came under strain in the years after it was signed.
(Total for Question 12 is 2 marks)
13
Explain two reasons why the buffalo herds were destroyed so rapidly on the Plains from the mid-1860s onward.
(Total for Question 13 is 4 marks)
14
Describe two ways in which the Sand Creek Massacre (1864) and the Fetterman Fight (1866) show growing conflict between the US government and Plains Indian nations in the 1860s.
(Total for Question 14 is 4 marks)
15
Explain two consequences of the destruction of the buffalo herds for the Plains Indians.
(Total for Question 15 is 8 marks)
16
Write a narrative account analysing how relations between Plains Indian nations and the US government changed between the Sand Creek Massacre (1864) and the Fort Laramie Treaty (1868).
You may use the following information in your answer: - the Fetterman Fight (1866) during Red Cloud's War - the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty agreed in 1868
You should also use information of your own.
(Total for Question 16 is 8 marks)
17
Explain two of the following: (a) the importance of the Sand Creek Massacre (1864) for relations between Plains Indian nations and the US government (b) the importance of the destruction of the buffalo for the Plains Indians' way of life (c) the importance of the Fort Laramie Treaty (1868) for the Lakota
You must answer on TWO parts.
(Total for Question 17 is 16 marks)
Mark scheme · EDX.ASU5 The American West, c1835-c1895: Changes to the Plains Indians' Way of Life, c1862-1868
Question 1
B1 identifies an effect, e.g. the buffalo population fell steeply
B1 supporting detail, e.g. commercial hide-hunters, aided by the railroad, which let hides be shipped east cheaply, killed buffalo in vastly greater numbers than Plains Indian hunting alone had ever done
Answer: The buffalo population fell steeply, as commercial hide-hunters, helped by the railroad, killed far more buffalo than Plains Indian hunting had ever done.
Question 2
B1 identifies a reason, e.g. some believed that destroying the buffalo would remove the Plains Indians' main food source
B1 supporting detail, e.g. they judged that this would force Plains nations to give up a nomadic, hunting-based life and move onto reservations, where the government could control them more easily
Answer: Some believed destroying the buffalo would remove the Plains Indians' food source and force them onto reservations.
Question 3
B1 loss of their main source of food
B1 loss of materials for shelter and clothing (hide for tipis and clothes)
B1 growing dependence on government rations on reservations (accept also loss of a central part of religious/cultural life)
Answer: E.g. loss of food, loss of shelter/clothing materials, and growing dependence on government rations.
Question 4
B1 1864
Answer: 1864
Question 5
B1 Colonel John Chivington
Answer: Colonel John Chivington
Question 6
B1 identifies the key fact, e.g. Chivington's soldiers attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho camp led by Black Kettle, which believed itself to be under the protection of the US army
B1 supporting detail, e.g. around 150 to 200 people, most of them women, children and elderly people, were killed
Answer: Chivington's soldiers attacked Black Kettle's Cheyenne and Arapaho camp, which believed it was under US protection, killing around 150-200 people, mostly women, children and elderly people.
Question 7
B1 identifies a reason, e.g. the camp had been told by US officers it was under protection, so the attack was widely seen as a serious betrayal of trust
B1 supporting detail, e.g. news of the massacre spread among Plains nations and hardened resistance to further US encroachment on their land
Answer: The camp had been promised protection, so the attack was seen as a betrayal that hardened resistance among Plains nations.
Question 8
B1 1866
Answer: 1866
Question 9
B1 Red Cloud
Answer: Red Cloud
Question 10
B1 1868
Answer: 1868
Question 11
B1 the US government agreed to close its forts on the Bozeman Trail and abandon the road through Lakota hunting grounds
B1 a Great Sioux Reservation was established, including the Black Hills, set aside for the Lakota's exclusive use
Answer: The US government closed its Bozeman Trail forts, and a Great Sioux Reservation, including the Black Hills, was set aside for the Lakota.
Question 12
B1 identifies a reason, e.g. gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874
B1 supporting detail, e.g. this triggered a rush of miners into land that the treaty had set aside exclusively for the Lakota, in violation of its terms
Answer: The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 triggered a rush of miners onto land the treaty had reserved for the Lakota.
Question 13
B2 the completion and expansion of the railroads made it cheap and quick to ship buffalo hides east, so commercial hide-hunters had a strong financial incentive to kill buffalo in very large numbers for the hide trade
B2 some army and government figures deliberately encouraged or tolerated the destruction of the herds because they saw it as a way to remove the Plains Indians' main source of food and force nomadic nations onto reservations
Answer: The railroad-enabled commercial hide trade, and, in some cases, a deliberate government/military policy to remove the Plains Indians' food source and force reservation life.
Question 14
B2 at Sand Creek in 1864, US soldiers attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho camp that believed it was under official protection, killing around 150 to 200 people, most of them women, children and elderly people, showing the scale of harm US military action could inflict
B2 at the Fetterman Fight in 1866, Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors under Red Cloud killed Captain Fetterman and around 80 soldiers, showing that Plains nations were also capable of inflicting serious defeats on the US army in defence of their land and way of life
Answer: Sand Creek (1864) showed the scale of harm US forces could inflict on a Plains Indian camp, while the Fetterman Fight (1866) showed Plains nations' capacity to inflict serious defeats on US forces; together they show escalating, two-sided conflict through the 1860s.
Question 15
Level 1 (1-2): Identifies one or two general consequences of the destruction of the buffalo herds, with little or no supporting detail or explanation.
Level 2 (3-4): Identifies and begins to explain one consequence, supported by accurate detail.
Level 3 (5-6): Explains two consequences of the destruction of the buffalo herds, each supported by accurate and relevant detail.
Level 4 (7-8): Explains two consequences in a well-developed, logically structured way, supported throughout by precise and accurate detail, showing how the consequences connect.
Indicative content:
The loss of the buffalo removed the Plains Indians' main source of food, hide for shelter and clothing, and materials for tools, undermining the practical basis of the nomadic way of life that had depended on the herds for generations.
As buffalo numbers collapsed, Plains nations became increasingly dependent on government rations and supplies on reservations, since they could no longer support themselves through hunting alone, which increased the US government's practical control over them.
Because so much religious and cultural life, including ceremonies such as the Sun Dance, had been closely connected to the buffalo and the hunting way of life, its loss also weakened long-standing social and spiritual structures within Plains Indian communities.
The destruction of the buffalo strengthened the position of US officials who wanted to force Plains nations onto reservations and into farming, since without the buffalo, nomadic hunting was no longer a viable way of life on anything like its earlier scale.
Question 16
Level 1 (1-2): Simple, generalised statements, with little organisation or sense of change over time.
Level 2 (3-4): Some accurate knowledge is deployed, with limited organisation into a sequence; the account may be more a list of events than a developed narrative.
Level 3 (5-6): The account is organised and mostly coherent, and shows some analysis of how the situation changed, with accurate supporting detail.
Level 4 (7-8): The answer demonstrates a coherent, well-organised narrative that analyses connections between events across the period, showing clearly how the situation changed, fully supported by precise and accurate detail.
Indicative content:
In November 1864, US soldiers under Colonel John Chivington attacked Black Kettle's Cheyenne and Arapaho camp at Sand Creek, Colorado, which believed itself to be under US protection, killing around 150 to 200 people, most of them women, children and elderly people.
News of Sand Creek spread among Plains nations and deepened distrust of US promises, contributing to the outbreak of Red Cloud's War (1866-68), fought over US forts built to protect the Bozeman Trail through Lakota hunting grounds.
In December 1866, Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors led by Red Cloud ambushed and killed Captain William Fetterman and around 80 soldiers near Fort Phil Kearny, one of the heaviest US army defeats of the conflict.
Facing continued resistance and unable to secure the Bozeman Trail, the US government agreed in 1868 to a new Fort Laramie Treaty, closing its forts on the trail and establishing a Great Sioux Reservation, including the Black Hills, for the Lakota's exclusive use.
Overall, the narrative moves from a devastating attack on a Plains Indian camp in 1864, through sustained and effective Lakota-led resistance in 1866, to a negotiated settlement in 1868 that, for a time, secured significant terms for the Lakota, illustrating how military resistance shaped the US government's approach to the Plains nations in these years.
Question 17
Level 1 (1-4): For each part answered: identifies a general point of importance, with little or no supporting detail or explanation.
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, supported by accurate and relevant detail, with some analysis of consequences.
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 event or development mattered for the outcome named.
Indicative content:
(a) The Sand Creek Massacre was important because the killing of around 150 to 200 people in a camp that had been promised protection was widely seen among Plains nations as proof that US promises could not be trusted, hardening resistance and contributing to further conflict, including Red Cloud's War.
(b) The destruction of the buffalo was important because it removed the practical foundation of the nomadic Plains Indian way of life (food, shelter materials and much of its religious and cultural life), making Plains nations far more dependent on the US government and increasingly vulnerable to policies that pushed them onto reservations.
(c) The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 was important because it closed US forts on the Bozeman Trail and established the Great Sioux Reservation, including the Black Hills, as a significant, if temporary, victory for Lakota resistance, though the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 soon placed the treaty's terms under severe strain.
A strong answer on any two parts explains a clear causal chain from the event or development named to its stated importance, using precise dates and detail, and treats both sides' actions as matters of historical cause and consequence rather than moral judgement.