Chapters 10 & 11 Vocabulary

Barbed wire

A type of fencing that consists of one or more strands of metal wire implanted with sharpened metal spikes, or barbs, at regular intervals.

Bootleggers

People who carried illegal liquor bottles into the Territory in their high-top boots.

Cattle drive

A cattle drive was often organized by one or more ranchers who hired a head drover, or trail driver. The head drover was responsible for getting the herd to a certain market.

Chuck wagon

The chuck wagon served as the headquarters on the cattle drive. It was the place for gathering, eating, listening to music, talking, and sleeping.

Decimated

To reduce drastically, especially in number.

Domestic

Relating to or involving one's home or family.

Full-bloods

The full-bloods generally had small farms and were poorer than were the mixed-bloods. The third class of people included the white laborers, who had to have permits to work in the Nation.

Iron horse

The railroad.

Jurisdiction

Authority given to an official organization to make legal decisions and judgments.

Mixed-blood

The mixed-blood Choctaw tended to live in towns, where they owned trading stores or were in the coal, timber, or stone quarry businesses.

Pastoral

Relating to the keeping or grazing of sheep or cattle.

Posse

A group of people summoned by a sheriff or other law enforcement officer to help make arrests or maintain order.

Quarantine

A restriction of people's or animals' movement to stop the spread of disease.

Royalty

A royalty is a payment for the right to exploit a natural resource.

Segregation

Separating groups by race.

Seminary

Residential schools.

Tenant farmers

A tenant farmer was a farmer who cleared the land and planted a crop but did not own the land. Tenant farmers usually received a share of the crop in payment.

Auction

A public sale in which goods or property are sold to the highest bidder.

Boomer

Boomers were those who took part in the land "booms" of the late 1800s when western land was opened to settlement.

Sooner

A sooner was a person who crossed the starting line of a land run before the appointed time.

Squatter

A squatter is one who settles on unoccupied land in order to gain title to it.

Territorial government

A form of government that is established over a territory before it becomes a state.

Dawes Severalty Act

Legislation that authorized the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.

Curtis Act

An act of Congress that extended federal jurisdiction over Indian Territory and abolished tribal governments in 1906.

Railhead

The point where a railroad line ended, often serving as a major transportation hub for the shipment of goods.

Drover

A person responsible for leading and managing a cattle drive.

Quarantine

A restriction on people's or animals' movement to prevent the spread of disease.

Royalty

A payment made for the right to exploit a natural resource.

Strike

A labor protest in which workers refuse to work as a means of demanding better conditions or higher wages.

Jurisdiction

Authority given to an official organization to make legal decisions and judgments.

Light Horse

The name of the police force for the Five Tribes.

Bootleggers

The name given to people who smuggled illegal liquor.

Chilocco

The name of the U.S. Government School for Plains Indians.

Freedmen

The name given to African Americans after the Civil War.

Chinese laborers

The name of the ethnic group that built the Central Pacific Railroad.

Irish laborers

The name of the ethnic group that built the Union Pacific Railroad.

Firewater

The name for liquor, often diluted whiskey, given to the Indians.

Cherokee Strip

Name of the group of ranchers leasing grazing lands from the Indians.

101 Ranch

The name of the famous ranch and wild west show in Oklahoma.

Rock Island

The name of the railroad line that followed the Chisholm Trail.