Indians, Cowboys & Gold: Unit 1

Vocabulary flashcards covering key people, places, and events from the Indians, Cowboys & Gold unit.

Manifest Destiny

An early 19th-century belief that white Americans were destined to expand across North America; term coined in 1845 by John O'Sullivan.

John O'Sullivan

Editor of the Democratic Review who coined the term Manifest Destiny in 1845.

Louisiana Purchase

Territory acquired from France in 1803, doubling the size of the United States.

Texas Annexation

1845 incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States.

Mexican Cession

Territory ceded by Mexico to the U.S. after the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

1848 treaty ending the Mexican-American War; Mexico ceded large portions of the present U.S. Southwest.

Gadsden Purchase

1853 purchase of land from Mexico to facilitate a southern route for a transcontinental railroad.

Oregon Trail

Overland route used by settlers heading to the Oregon Country in the 1840s–1860s.

Fort Laramie

Fort established in 1834 as a private fur-trade post; later a major military post and site of treaty negotiations with the Sioux.

Dragoons

Elite frontier cavalry formed in 1833 to police the western plains.

Grattan Massacre

Aug 1854 clash that intensified tensions between U.S. forces and Plains tribes.

Sioux Warfare

Series of conflicts (roughly 1830–1890) between Sioux groups and the U.S. Army, including major battles over land and gold.

Red Cloud

Oglala Lakota leader who resisted U.S. encroachment and played a central role in Red Cloud's War and related treaties.

Crazy Horse

Oglala Lakota war leader who helped defeat Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Lakota

Subdivision of the Sioux; includes Lakota (7 bands), Dakota/Santee (4 bands), Nakota/Yankton (3 bands); ‘Dakota’ means allies.

Battle of Little Bighorn

June 25–26, 1876; also known as Custer's Last Stand; 7th Cavalry defeated by Sioux and Cheyenne.

Two Moon

Cheyenne chief whose words are associated with the Little Bighorn era and its communal memory.

Sitting Bull

Hunkpapa Lakota leader and war chief who resisted U.S. encroachment and fought at Little Bighorn.

Donner Party

Overland emigrants who left Missouri in 1846; became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada after Hastings Cutoff; ~90 started, ~45 survived.

California Gold Rush

1848–1849 mass migration to California after gold discoveries, accelerating western settlement.

Levi Strauss

Entrepreneur who popularized durable blue jeans for miners in 1853.

George Hearst

Mining magnate who profited from California mines; father of William Randolph Hearst.

Klondike Gold Rush

1896 discovery of gold in Yukon Territory; less successful than earlier western rushes.

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad completed in 1869 linking the East and West; largely built with Chinese labor on the Central Pacific and with other laborers on the Union Pacific.

Chinese Exclusion Act

1882 federal law banning new Chinese workers and limiting those already in the U.S.; repealed in 1943.

Pony Express

Mail service (1860–1861) that carried messages across the United States before the railroad.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show

Traveling vaudeville show (1870–1920) featuring frontier legends and sharpshooters.

Annie Oakley

Celebrated sharpshooter who performed with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Brigham Young

Leader of the Mormons who led settlers to Utah and established Salt Lake City in the mid-19th century.

Hastings Cutoff

Shorter, hazardous route used by the Donner Party that contributed to their disaster.

7th Cavalry

U.S. Army regiment led by George Armstrong Custer; destroyed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.