APUSH U6: Pt. 1

Buffalo

-Cowboys would load and transport them from the ranch to the railroads for profit

-Population was decimated due to the influx of Americans moving West and how they killed them for food and sport, and corporations overstocked the open range for profit even though there wouldn't be enough food

Coolie

-Indentured servants whose condition was close to slavery

-When Chinese migrated to places other than the U.S. (Hawaii, Australia, South and Central America, and the Caribbean), they would typically arrive as this

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

-congress response to the political pressure and growing violence towards Chinese
-banned Chinese emigration from China for ten years, and barred Chinese already in the country from becoming citizens

-Reflected the growing fear of unemployment and labor unrest
-White Americans believed would "protect" american worker/help reduce class conflict

-Caused the Chinese population in America to decrease by 40% in the 40 years after being enacted
-Resistance efforts made by the Chinese had no effect

Timber Culture Act

-1873
-act which allotted homesteaders an additional 160 acres of land in return for planting and cultivating 40 acres of trees

Comstock Lode

-First discovered in 1858 by Henry Comstock
-a lode of silver ore located in Nevada
-was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States
-After the discovery was made public in 1859, it sparked a silver rush of prospectors to the area, scrambling to stake their claims
-caused considerable excitement in California and throughout the United States
-Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity

Boomtowns

-A town that grew in mining areas where there were rushes

-Influx of migrants settled in them temporarily in hopes to get rich quick

-towns usually didn't last because the minerals usually ran out, or there was no minerals at all

The Cattle Kingdom

• 1860s to 1880s
  -Mexican ranchers used methods used by Americans in Texas
  -Texas Longhorn cattle roamed the open range that contained millions of acres of free public land

  
  -Cowboys made money by loading and transporting cattle from the cattle ranch to towns on railroads

  
  -Ended in the 1880s after corporations overstocked the open range with cattle, and migrants settling in the West building barbed wire fences

Long drives

-A cattle drive in which Texas ranchers (cowboys) drove herds of cattle north to be sold in northern markets

-Majority of the trails originated from Texas

The Chisholm Trail

-major long drive route north of Texas to Abilene, Kansas
-cowboys drove herds of cattle to the railroads to be shipped back East for huge profits

Open Range

-A vast area of grassland owned by the government where ranchers could graze their herds for free

Rocky Mountain School

-painters that romanticized the West by painting western landscapes

-These paintings combined with less Native American attacks and more railroads increased tourism of the West

-People were fascinated by the paintings and would go on trains to move out west/created a desire to go see

Wild West Shows

-Popularized American image of the west
-increased tourism-portrayed stereotypes of cowboys and Native Americans

-Many Native Americans found no other options but to work in them
-Started by Buffalo Bill

Turners Frontier Thesis/1893

-the argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner

-Also known as "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"

-Argued that the closing of the frontier was not a cause for celebration, but rather a cause for concern

-The closing of the frontier was troubling because westward expansion was a means of American discontent as Americans moved West whenever things got bad

-Argued that the frontier was known for it's ability for "fresh starts" and had leveled classes and social hierarchies

Bureau of Indian Affairs

-1836
-The federal government established this to be in charge of the relocation of Native Americans
-Corruption among agents was common

-The flawed federal aid program furthered the Native Americans' resentment toward white society and created an atmosphere of conflict

Battle of Little Big Horn/1876

-General Custer and his men were wiped out by a coalition of Sioux and Cheyenne Native Americans led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse

-Custer was sent to stop possible uprising due to his claim to gold in the Black Hills

-marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War

Chief Joseph

-was leader of the Nez Perce Indians of Idaho

-People wanting gold trespassed on their beaver river

-To avoid war, and save his people he tried retreating to Canada with his people
-They were cornered 30 miles from safety and he surrendered to the U.S. troops in 1877

Ghost Dance

-Lasted from 1870 to 1890

-Developed by northwest Native American prophet Wavoka

-resistance Idea was that if the Native Americans participated in this ritualistic dance, then the ghosts of their ancestors would return and "drive the white man from their lands"

-Would eventually spread across the continent

Battle of Wounded Knee/1890

-Last notable and violet armed conflict between the Native Americans and the U.S. Army
-The U.S. army was attempting to disarm a group of Lakota Native Americans

-when an older man rose to perform the Ghost Dance, a gunshot went off
-In the end, the army killed more than 200 men, women, and children

-Marked the end of Native American resistance

Dawes Act/1887

-law that divided reservation land to individual Native Americans to be farmed
-Federal government officially abandoned the reservation system

-Allowed the Native Americans to become American citizens on the condition that they settled on that land and assimilated to American culture

Assimilation

-the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

-Federal government attempted to put an end to distinct Native American cultures through education, job training, and Christianizing them

Barbed Wire

-Strong wire fencing the settlers of the homestead act used to fence in land on the Great Plains, eventually leading to the end of the open frontier cattle drives in 1890