[APUSH 1] Closing/Opening The West Vocabulary

Great American Desert

refers to the land between the Mississippi River and the West Coast prior to 1860. Largely settled by 1900

Comstock Lode

$400 million in gold found and mined in Nevada that attracts settlers in the West

Cattle Drives

Refers to long drives in the late 1800’s from Texas to Kansas; railroad to Chicago & then to the East Coast meat industry

Barbed Wire

Used by “sod busters” to force in and settle the Great Plains since wood was scarce

Great Plains

Dry, treeless, middle part of America that was forced to be farmed differently. Home to 2/3rds of the Indians in the U.S.

Reservations

Land on Plains set aside specifically for Indian settlement. Both sides frequently ignored the borders

Sitting Bull

Indian chief who led several battles v. U.S. winning many battles for the Sioux

Crazy Horse

Indian warrior who attacked the U.S. military throughout the Great Plains

General George Custer

American Colonel responsible for many “Indian Wars” during the late 1800’s. Killed at the Battle of Little BigHorn by Crazy Horse

Chief Joseph

Indian leader who led an attack north into Canada before being defeated in 1877

Helen Hunt Jackson

Assimilationist author who wrote A Century of Dishonor about the U.S.-Indian relations in 1881

• Bestselling book

• Described the injustices of the federal government towards Native Americans

Dawes Act (1887)

Broke up tribes & gave up to 160 acres and citizenship to any Indian who lived on the land for 25 years

• Indians had to give up their tribal lands to be involved in this process

• Policy failed b/c many Indians had little interest in farming & the best land was sold to speculators of the railroad and mining companies

• Plot of land for the family and all following generations!

• At the beginning of the 20th century, virtually all Indians were living on reservations

Ghost Dance

Native American religious ceremony suppressed by the U.S. gov’t

(led to the Wounded Knee Massacre)

Wounded Knee

Massacre of unarmed Sioux during a military search

• This was an example of clear abuse of Americans towards Indians

“New” South

Vision of a Southern economy based on industry rather than agriculture

Indian Reorganization Act

Passed during the New Deal by FDR that put reservations back together

Oklahoma Territory

Former Indian land made open for settlement in 1889

Carlisle School

1 of several assimilationist schools set up to make Natives “more White”

• In Pennsylvania

• Jim Thorpe went to this school