18 sections 1-3 The American Journey

Ore

Rock from which gold is extracted

Wounded Knee

More than 200 Lakota Sioux were killed by U.S. Army

Lodes

silver deep underground in rich streaks of ore

Vigilantes

People who take the law into their own hands

Ghost towns

An empty lifeless town that miners left behind.

Subsidies

A grant of money from the government to aid a certain organization

Transcontinental Raliroad

connected the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts

Marked the end of the Cattle Kingdom

Price collapse of the mid 1880s/overgrazing/harsh winters of 1885/1886 killed many cows.

Brand

to burn a symbol into an animal's hide to show ownership

Stampede

a sudden rush of animals or people, usually caused by fear

Exodusters

the African Americans migrating to the Great Plains state (ie: Kansas & Oklahoma) in 1879 to escape conditions in the South

Boomers

Settlers who ran in land races to claim land upon the 1889 opening of Indian Territory for settlement.

Sioux

Native tribe with nomadic life depends on the horse, buffalo, and open land

Ghost Dance

dance performed by the Sioux to help them regain their former greatness; spiritual/ceremonial

Women

Added stability to boomtowns

Chinese immigrants

Hired by Central Pacific

Comstock lode

rich lode of silver-bearing ore

Boomtown (Comstock Lode)

Virginia City, Nevada

Promontory Point

transcontinental railroad completion site, Golden Spike

Time Zones

Created by railroad companies, scheduling purposes

Longhorns

type of cattle, Texas

Sodbusters

Plains farmers

Homestead Act

Federal land policy of 1862; land for a small filing fee, must live on land for 5 years and improve the land.

Buffalo

main source of food for Native Americans

Crazy Horse

Sioux military leader

William Cody

Buffalo Bill

Sitting Bull

Lakota Sioux leader; fought for land, killed by police over Ghost Dance.

Little Bighorn

Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeat Custer and kill over 200 soldiers

Locusts

Insects that killed crops in Great Plains

Tornado Ally

Area of frequent violent storms in Great Plains

Dry Farming

Farming technique where seeds are planted deeper to get to moisture.

Irish men / African American men

Hired by Union Pacific Railroad

Sooners

Settlers who claimed land in Oklahoma before land officially available

cow town

located near train stations where cattle was sold to be shipped to to midwest/east

Long Drive

over 1,000 mile longhorn cattle drive north to cow towns

Ripple Effect

a spreading effect or series of consequences caused by a single action or event.

Dawes Act

1887 law that distributed reservation land to individual Native American owners