HIST 40733
Study Guide:  Contested Plains

Introduction
Upon what years does this work focus?  Upon what geographical location?  Upon what people?

What themes will dominate the narrative?  Which is most important?

Key concepts:  human imagination, horses, gold

Prologue
How does Elliott West use the term "frontier"?

What thesis does West claim to argue?

Part One:  Visions
The Old World
What does West mean by "old world"?

What point(s) does he wish to make in this chapter?

Frontiers and Visions
How did European expansion onto the Great Plains change the region's history?

What role(s) do waterways play on the Plains?

What "three unbendable requirements" dictated life on the Plains?

West claims the era from 1700 to 1850 unsettled mid-America.  What does he mean?

Key concepts:  frontiers, visions, horses, firearms, access to energy

The Called Out People
To whom does the title refer?  What does it mean?

Study the map showing Cheyenne migration from 1680 to 1830.  Compare it to Comanche and Lakota migrations described in the chapter's opening pages.

Know the significance of:  Noaha-vose, Sweet Medicine, Cheyenne migration relative to their vision for themselves and for the Plains

Key concepts:  horses, bison, peace of 1840, commerce, changing roles for Cheyenne women, sun dance, "a dog has pissed on my tipi," increased human travel through the Plains, drought, Liebig's Law

Part Two:  Gold Rush
The Gold
What is the chapter's thesis?

Key concepts:  Denver's founding, William H. Larimer

The Gathering
What is the chapter's thesis?

Key concepts:  routes to the Colorado gold fields, 1859, new vision of  the central plains, agrarian propaganda

The Rush
What is the chapter's thesis?

Key concepts:  central route, 99th meridian, rivers, weather/elements, emigration vs. invasion

Part Three:  Power
Path of Empire
What is the chapter's thesis?

Key concepts:  demographic changes, Indian responses, white traders, social, spatial, and economic changes, Cheyenne political organization, Dog Soldiers

On the Road to a Flourishing Mountain State
What is the chapter's thesis?

Key concepts:  road ranches, the freighting business and its implications, Indian livestock

The People of the Centre
What is the chapter's thesis?

Which resources are most important?  Why?

Key concepts:  energy, landholding patterns of John Wesley Iliff, John Wesley Prowers, competition for resources

The Miseries of Failure
What is the chapter's thesis?

Key concepts:  The Central Plains at War (1837-1869), Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851), Col. John M. Chivington, Sand Creek (What happened?  So what?), Washita (1868)

Epilogue:  Stories in the Teeth of Life
Summarize the re-imagining of the Central Plains and the associated consequences.

What can we learn from the "speaking dead"?