1. GO WEST! Westward expansion and settlement in the late 19 th century

3. Kansas emigrants The railroads provided would-be "sodbusters" with transportation to get to the land that was being opened for settlement. (Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries)

6. (left) The Kern family seated in front of their sod house in 1886, holding slices of an enormous melon as if to show off their prosperity and the bounty of their land. (Courtesy Nebraska State Historical Society) (right) The Shores family, whose formal pose, with their sod house and other possessions displayed behind them, conveys a sense of accomplishment and determination to stay on their own land. (Courtesy Nebraska State Historical Society)

10. “ It is really absurd that 41,000,000 acres of land, having a magnificent soil and climate, should be fenced in from development…They should have a goodly amount of land reserved to each of them in severally, and care should be taken that their tribal lands should not be taken from them without due equivalent being paid…Colonel Elias C. Boudinot, one of the Cherokee Nation…says: “’There is not an intelligent Indian in the Indian Territory ….but will heartily endorse the conclusion that the time has come when the Territory should be opened to civilization.’" (May 1879)