Lesson Y8-U07-L04

Conflict on the Plains Broken Promises Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 13

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y8-U07-L04, Conflict on the Plains Broken Promises: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 13: Year 8: The Wild West, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What did the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty promise the Sioux?

    • Safe passage for white settlers along the Oregon Trail and beyond
    • The right to mine gold across all of the Plains for twenty years
    • The Black Hills of Dakota as sacred land, 'forever'
    • Rifles and horses in return for leaving their hunting grounds in the north

  2. What precious metal was confirmed in the Black Hills by Custer's 1874 expedition?

    • Copper
    • Silver
    • Iron ore
    • Gold

  3. On what date was the Battle of the Little Bighorn fought?

    • 1 January 1868
    • 25 June 1876
    • 29 December 1890
    • 4 July 1876

  4. Which US Army officer was killed with his men at the Little Bighorn?

    • Colonel Richard Pratt
    • Lt-Col George Custer
    • General William Sherman
    • Major Marcus Reno

  5. What was a 'reservation' for the Plains Indians?

    • A trading post on the Oregon Trail where furs and goods were sold
    • A sacred hill where the tribes held their ceremonies each summer
    • Poor land the US government forced them to live on
    • A fort built to protect white settlers from raids on the Oregon Trail

  6. Which Plains leader was a spiritual leader who had a vision of soldiers 'falling into camp' before the Little Bighorn?

    • Crazy Horse, the war chief who led the warriors into battle
    • Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota holy man
    • Wovoka, the Paiute prophet who began the Ghost Dance
    • Red Cloud, the Sioux leader who signed the 1868 treaty

  7. When did Sitting Bull finally surrender to the US authorities?

    • 1877
    • 1890
    • 1868
    • 1881

  8. By the 1880s, how far had the buffalo population fallen?

    • From several thousand to about 2,000 animals in the wild
    • From about 200,000 to over two million animals by the 1880s
    • From a few thousand to a few dozen animals across the whole Plains
    • From tens of millions to a few hundred

  9. Which part of the buffalo was used to make needles and tools?

    • Its sinew
    • Its horns
    • Its dried dung
    • Its bones

  10. What did the Ghost Dance promise the Plains Indians?

    • A new treaty that returned the Black Hills and guaranteed rations for every tribe
    • Victory in battle against the US Army and the return of the Black Hills to the tribes
    • Free rations, guns and horses for every family on the reservations at once
    • The return of the dead, the buffalo and a world free of white settlers

  11. Who began the Ghost Dance religion?

    • Black Elk, a Lakota boy at the battle
    • Custer, a US Army commander
    • Wovoka, a Paiute prophet
    • Red Cloud, a Sioux treaty signer

  12. What happened to Sitting Bull on 15 December 1890?

    • He surrendered to Custer at the Little Bighorn and was taken to Fort Abraham Lincoln
    • He fled to Canada after the massacre at Wounded Knee and never returned to the Plains
    • He was shot dead when reservation police tried to arrest him
    • He signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and accepted a reservation for his people

  13. When and where did the massacre at Wounded Knee take place?

    • 29 December 1890 at Wounded Knee Creek
    • 31 January 1876 at Fort Laramie
    • 25 June 1876 at the Little Bighorn River
    • 24 May 1877 in the Black Hills

  14. Why did soldiers surround a Lakota band at Wounded Knee Creek in December 1890?

    • To disarm the band they had surrounded
    • To rescue soldiers held after the Little Bighorn
    • To buy the Black Hills from the Sioux
    • To escort settlers safely along the Oregon Trail

  15. Roughly how many Lakota were killed at Wounded Knee?

    • About 250
    • About 2,000
    • About 600
    • About 25

  16. In which year was Black Elk's account of the Little Bighorn (Source B) recalled?

    • 1932
    • 1851
    • 1890
    • 1876

  17. Why might a popular American newspaper in July 1876 call the Plains Indians 'savage hordes'?

    • To show that the Plains Indians had won a fair battle against a larger army
    • To sell copies and reflect angry public opinion after the battle
    • To record the exact number of soldiers who died in the fighting that day
    • To warn settlers that the 1868 treaty was still valid and must be respected

  18. Why is Black Elk's account (Source B) useful for understanding why the Plains Indians fought?

    • He wrote his account in the same week as the battle, for a local newspaper
    • He was present as a boy and gives the Plains Indians' own reasons
    • He was a US Army officer who fought at the battle and later wrote a report
    • He was paid by the government to report on the battle and its causes

  19. After gold was found in the Black Hills in 1874, by which deadline did the US government order the Sioux onto reservations?

    • 31 January 1876
    • 4 July 1876
    • 1 January 1868
    • 25 June 1876

  20. Why did the victory at the Little Bighorn lead to a harsher US response?

    • It showed the army could never win a battle on the Plains, so it gave up its campaign
    • It persuaded Congress to return the Black Hills to the Sioux and end the wars for good
    • It enraged the American public, who demanded revenge and sent more troops
    • It forced Sitting Bull to surrender at once and end the fighting across the Plains

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