Expansion – Mexican – American War

Practice Exam

 

  1. ____Which court case ruled that the federal government had authority over
  2. interstate commerce?
  3. ____Manifest Destiny was the idea that God had given the continent to
  4. ____Under the National Colonization Act, Mexico gave 26 empresarios large grants
  5. ___In the 1844 presidential race, candidate James K. Polk promised to
  6. ____The Preemption Action of 1830 allowed squatters to
  7. ____In order to implement to three-pronged military strategy against Mexico, the United States needed to expand
  8. ____Seeking religious freedom, the Mormons traveled west, settling in what is now
    A. Oregon                        C. Utah         B. California                     D. Idaho
  9. ____Texas joined the union in
  10. ____In the 1844 presidential race, former president Martin Van Buren lost his party’s nomination because he
  11. ____An uprising by the settlers in northern California resulted in
  12. ____ Parts of Oregon had been claimed by
  13. ____Mountain men played a vital role in the western settlement because they
  14. ____Spain ceded all of Florida to the United States in the
  15. ____ Between 1816 and 1824, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in three
  16. important cases that established the dominance of the nation over the
  17. ____Supreme Court rulings in three important cases between 1816 and 1824 shaped the future of American government by…

Vocabulary   
Define these and add another piece of information. Use a separate sheet of paper (14 points)

presidio

 

Short Answer

 

IV. Primary source document – Answer on a separate sheet of paper

30 points possible.
Plea from Pawnee Chief Sharitarish

 

About the Selection

 

In 1822 a group of sixteen Native Americans met with President James Monroe. The Pawnee chief Sharitarish made a moving speech to Monroe. In his speech, Sharitarish seems to know that the rich Pawnee culture will end, but he wants to keep it alive as long as possible. He

sensed that the westward spread of whites would alter or destroy Native American culture. The buffalo hunt was one example

 

My Great Father [President Monroe]—I am going to speak the truth. The Great Spirit looks down upon us, and I call Him to witness all that may pass between us on this occasion. . . . I am indebted to my father here who invited me from home, under whose wings I have been protected. Yes, my Great Father, I have traveled with your chief . . . but there is still another Great Father, to whom I am very much indebted—it is the Father of us all. Him who made us and placed us on this earth. I feel grateful to the Great Spirit for strengthening my heart for such an undertaking, and for preserving the life which he gave me. The Great Spirit made us all—he made my skin red, and yours white. He placed us on this earth, and he intended that we should live differently from each other. . . . I believe there are no people, of any color, on this earth, who do not believe in the Great Spirit—in rewards and in punishments. We worship him, but we worship him not as you do. We differ from you in appearance and manners, as well as in our customs, and we differ from you in our religion . . . but still my Great Father, we love the Great Spirit—we acknowledge his supreme power—our peace, our health, and our happiness depend upon him; and our lives belong to him—he made us, and he can destroy us.

 

My Great Father—Some of your good chiefs, or as they are called, Missionaries, have proposed to send some of their good people among us to change our habits, to make us work, and live like the white people. I will not tell a lie, I am going to tell the truth. You love your country; you love your people; you love the manner in which they live; and you think your people brave. I am like you, my Great Father, I love my country; I love my people; I love the manner in which we live, and think myself and my warriors brave; spare me then, my Father, let me enjoy my country, and pursue the buffaloe, and the beaver, and the other wild animals of our wilderness, and I will trade the skins with your people. I have grown up and lived this long without work;

 

I am in hopes you will suffer me to die without it. We have yet plenty of buf-faloe, beaver, deer, and other wild animals; we have also an abundance of

horses. We have everything we want. We have plenty of land, if you will keep your people off of it.

 

It is too soon, my Great Father, to send those good men among us. We are not starving yet. We wish you to permit us to enjoy the chase, until the game of our country is exhausted . . . before you make us toil, and interrupt our happiness. Let me continue to live as I have done, and after I have passed to the Good or Evil Spirit from the wilderness of my present life, the subsistence of my children may become so precarious, as to need and embrace the offered assistance of those good people.

 

There was a time when we did not know the whites. Our wants were then fewer than they are now. They were always within our control. We had then seen nothing which we could not get. But since our intercourse with the whites, who have caused such a destruction of our game, our situation is changed.

 

Source: Our Hearts Fell to the Ground:Plains Indian Views of How the West Was Lost . New York: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1996.

READER RESPONSE

Directions: Answer the following questions on the lines below.

1. According to Sharitarish, what changes do the missionaries want to bring about?

 

2. What reasons does Sharitarish cite to President Monroe for respecting

the Pawnee way of life?

 

3.In two paragraphs answer the EQ:

 

Is expansion justified by the constitutional, cultural or economic reasons? Take a position using this document. Cit the document on either side at least once.