Western Expansion

Great Plains

the grassland extending through the west-central portion of the U.S.

Sand Creek Massacre

an atrocity in the American Indian Wars in 1864, when a Colorado Territory militia attacked and destroyed a peaceful village of Cheyenne and Arapaho, killing and mutilating an estimated 70-163 Indians, about two-thirds of whom were women and children

Treaty of Fort Laramie

The government agreed not to build a road connecting gold mining towns through Sioux territory and to abandon three forts. The Sioux and others who signed the treat agreed to live on a reservation, specific areas set aside by the government for indigenous use, with the support of the Federal Government. Unfortunately, the support and resources were unevenly distributed or stolen.

Sitting Bull

a Lakota holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies, including at the Battle of Little Bighorn; he was killed during an attempt to arrest him, at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement

Crazy Horse

a Native American war leader of the Lakota; he took up arms against the government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party to victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876

Colonel George A. Custer

a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars; he and all his men were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876

Battle of Little Bighorn

commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes, against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army

Assimilation

a plan under which Native Americans would give up their beliefs and way of life and become part of the white culture

Dawes Act

passed in 1887, this act broke up the reservations and gave some of the reservation land to individual Native Americans, although more often than not Native Americans never actually received any money or land

Red River Wars

a series of major and minor incidents, led to the final defeat of the powerful southern Plains Indians, including the Kiowas and Comanches. It marked the end of the southern buffalo herds

Nez Perce War

federal government decided to move the Nez Perces to a smaller reservation to make room for white settlers. Led by Chief Joseph

Battle of Wounded Knee

an 1890 massacre left some 150 Native Americans dead, in what was the final clash between federal troops and the Sioux

"A Century of Dishonor"

Written by Helen Hunt Jackson, helped build sympathy for the plight of Native Americans

Assimilation Boarding Schools

Indigenous parents were forced to send their children. Indigenous children were to learn to live by the rules and culture of white America.

Longhorns

sturdy, short-tempered breeds of cattle brought from Spain

Long Drive

Overland transport of cattle that took three months

Homestead Act

an act passed in 1862 that encouraged Western migration by providing settlers 160 acres of public land; in exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land

exodusters

a name given to African Americans who migrated from states along the Mississippi River to Kansas in the late nineteenth century

Soddy

Sod home or dugout that was warm in the winter, cool in the summer - small, offered little light, havens for pests

Morrill Act

United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges, an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the acts

John Deere

an American blacksmith and manufacturer who invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837

Cyrus McCormick

credited as the "inventor" of the mechanical reaper

Oliver Hudson Kelley

Created the Grange, an organization for farmers.

The Grange

a fraternal organization in the United States that encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture

Farmers' Alliances

an organized agrarian economic movement among American farmers that developed and flourished in the 1870s and 1880s, that generally supported the government regulation of the transportation industry, establishment of an income tax to restrict speculative profits, and the adoption of an inflationary relaxation of the nation's money supply as a means of easing the burden of repayment of loans by debtors

Ghost Dance

a Native American ritual performed under the belief that Native American lands and ways of life would be restored

Barbed Wire

invented by Joseph F. Glidden and used by ranchers to fence in the land on the Great Plains, resulting in the closing of the open range

Sutter's Mill

The gold rush began when gold was discovered at this location

End of the Open Range

- overgrazing

- barbed wire

- transcontinental railroads

- further settlement of the West.

Vaqueros

Mexican Cowboys that American Cowboys learned from

Challenges of a Cowboy

- worked 10 -14 hours

- broken down by age 40

- drives were 3 months

- in saddle from dawn to dusk

- slept on ground & bathed in rivers

- risked death and loss everyday

Central Pacific Railroad Company

start building in Sacramento and continue east across the Sierra Nevada; hired Chinese immigrants

Union Pacific Railroad Company

build westward from the Missouri River, near the Iowa-Nebraska border; hired mainly Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans

Promontory Point

Meeting spot of the Central Pacific & Union Pacific Railroads with the Golden Spike.

Pacific Railway Act

Lincoln signed this act, which constructed the transcontinental railroad by two corporations

49'ers

Gold Miners

gold mining towns

- had sprung up all over the region, complete with shops, saloons, brothels and other businesses

- towns grew ever more lawless, including rampant banditry, gambling, prostitution and violence

Challenges of a Farmer:

- faced harsh natural conditions, scarcity of water, hard/compact soil, hot summers & cold winters, disease & death frequent

- Overproduction: Mechanized farming increased production of food which resulted in a surplus of crops.

- The price: Due to the overproduction farmers had to sell their crops for low prices

- Railroads: the railroads were taking advantage of farmers

- Bank money : Farmers often mortgaged their farms

so that they could buy more land and produce more crops. Good farming land was becoming scarce & banks were foreclosing on mortgages of farmers who couldn't make payments.

Steel Plow

Developed by John Deere

Reaper

Developed by Cyrus McCormick

Challenges of a Miner:

- mostly men borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey

- towns were lawless & had rampant banditry

- gambling, prostitution and violence

- didn't strike rich

hydraulic mining

brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.