Westward Expansion, Federal Indian Policy, and the Plains Wars

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Westward Expansion, federal Indian legislation, territorial acquisitions, the Plains Wars, and key historical figures.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century ideology asserting that the United States was divinely ordained to expand across North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Turner's Frontier Thesis

The historical argument formulated by Frederick Jackson Turner asserting that the American frontier experience was central to shaping American democracy, individualism, and national character.

Closing of the American Frontier (1890)

The point recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau indicating that an unbroken line of unsettled frontier land no longer existed in the United States.

Homestead Act (1862)

Federal legislation that granted 160 acres of surveyed public land to individual settlers who lived on, cultivated, and improved the plot for five years.

Pacific Railroad Act (1862)

Federal legislation authorizing the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad and granting extensive land subsidies and government bonds to railroad corporations.

Indian Removal Act of 1830

Federal legislation authorizing the exchange of unsettled public lands west of the Mississippi River for tribal lands within existing state borders, precipitating forced relocations.

Indian Appropriations Act of 1851

Federal legislation that authorized the creation of officially protected Indian reservations in present-day Oklahoma, initiating the formal reservation system.

Indian Appropriations Act of 1889

Federal legislation that officially opened designated Unassigned Lands in Indian Territory to non-Native settlement, enabling the Oklahoma Land Run.

Dawes Act / General Allotment Act (1887)

Federal legislation sponsored by Senator Henry Dawes that divided communal tribal reservation holdings into individual private allotments to promote cultural assimilation.

Burke Amendment (1906)

An amendment modifying the Dawes Act by withholding U.S. citizenship from Native American allottees until the expiration of a 25-year trust period or until individual competency was certified.

Indian Residential Schools / Boarding Schools

Educational institutions established under federal Americanization policies that separated Native American children from their families and heritage to enforce cultural assimilation.

Promontory Summit, Utah (May 10, 1869)

The historic location where the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad lines were officially joined with the driving of the Golden Spike, completing the First Transcontinental Railroad.

Mining Methods (Placer Mining, Shaft Mining, Hydraulic Mining)

The primary techniques of mineral extraction on the frontier, progressing from panning and sluicing alluvial surface deposits (placer) to underground tunneling (shaft) and high-pressure water blasting of hillsides (hydraulic).

Oklahoma Land Run of 1889

The event on April 22, 1889, wherein thousands of prospective settlers raced across the border to stake legal claims on newly opened Unassigned Lands in Indian Territory.

Boomers

Settlers and activists who vigorously campaigned and agitated for the opening of Indian Territory's Unassigned Lands to public settlement prior to 1889.

Sooners

Settlers who illegally crossed into the Unassigned Lands of Indian Territory ahead of the official designated start time of the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 to stake out the best land claims.

Northwest Ordinance (1787)

Landmark legislation enacted by the Confederation Congress establishing governance in the Northwest Territory and defining the formal procedure for admitting new states to the Union on equal terms.

Convention of 1818 (49th Parallel)

An international boundary treaty between the United States and Great Britain establishing the 49th parallel north as the boundary between U.S. territory and British North America from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains.

Adams-Onís Treaty (1819)

An international treaty between the United States and Spain that ceded Florida to the United States and established a defined boundary between U.S. territory and New Spain.

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851)

An agreement establishing territorial boundaries among Great Plains tribes and granting the U.S. government permission to build roads and forts in exchange for annual annuities.

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

A treaty concluding Red Cloud's War that established the Great Sioux Reservation, preserved the Black Hills for the Lakota, and closed military posts along the Bozeman Trail.

Louisiana Purchase (1803)

The acquisition of approximately 828,000 square miles of territory from Napoleonic France that doubled the geographical area of the United States.

Texas Annexation (1845)

The incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States as a slave state, contributing directly to the outbreak of the Mexican-American War.

Mexican Cession (1848)

The southwestern territories ceded by Mexico to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, encompassing modern-day California, Nevada, Utah, and portions of neighboring states.

Gadsden Purchase (1853)

The purchase of a strip of land in southern present-day Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico to secure an optimal southern route for a transcontinental railroad.

The Plains Wars (1850s-1890)

A multi-decade series of military conflicts fought across the Great Plains between indigenous Native nations and the United States military and expanding settlers.

Trail of Tears

The forced relocation routes taken by southeastern Native American tribes following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, during which thousands perished from disease, starvation, and exposure.

Grattan Massacre (1854)

An early armed confrontation near Fort Laramie in which a detachment led by U.S. Lieutenant John Grattan was annihilated following an escalated dispute over an impounded stray cow.

Sand Creek Massacre (1864)

An unprovoked assault in Colorado Territory by Colonel John Chivington's volunteer militia on a peaceful encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho villagers, resulting in widespread atrocities and death.

Red Cloud's War (1866-1868)

A successful armed resistance campaign led by Oglala Lakota leader Red Cloud against U.S. military forts established along the Bozeman Trail in the Powder River Country.

Red River War (1874-1875)

A military campaign by the U.S. Army to remove Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho populations from the southern plains and force them onto reservations.

The Great Sioux War / Black Hills War (1876-1877)

A major conflict triggered by the influx of gold prospectors into the sacred Black Hills, pitting the U.S. Army against allied Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors.

Battle of the Rosebud (1876)

A battle in Montana Territory where allied Lakota and Cheyenne forces under Crazy Horse checked the northern advance of General George Crook's forces prior to the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Battle of the Little Bighorn / Custer's Last Stand (1876)

A major engagement in which allied Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces overwhelmed and annihilated Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and five companies of the U.S. 7th Cavalry.

Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

The mass shooting of approximately 300 Lakota men, women, and children by the U.S. 7th Cavalry in South Dakota, widely regarded as the concluding engagement of the Plains Wars.

Five Civilized Tribes

The collective designation applied historically to the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nations who integrated various European-American customs prior to their forced removal.

Ghost Dance Movement

A late-19th-century spiritual revitalization movement founded by the prophet Wovoka, preaching that ritual dancing would banish white settlers, restore the buffalo, and bring back ancestral spirits.

Sitting Bull

A prominent Hunkpapa Lakota holy man and political leader who resisted federal reservation policies and united Native forces against the U.S. Army at the Little Bighorn.

Crazy Horse

A renowned Oglala Lakota war leader known for his tactical defense of indigenous territory and military leadership at the Rosebud and the Little Bighorn.

Red Cloud

An Oglala Lakota headman who led a successful military campaign against U.S. fortifications along the Bozeman Trail, culminating in favorable terms in the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868).

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer

A U.S. Army cavalry officer whose aggressive tactical advance against an allied Native encampment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn resulted in his death and the loss of his command.

Leland Stanford

A prominent railroad industrialist, president of the Central Pacific Railroad, and California politician who participated in the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit.

Thomas C. Durant

A railroad executive and vice president of the Union Pacific Railroad who financed and directed the eastward construction phase of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

Senator Henry Dawes

A United States Senator from Massachusetts who authored the Dawes Act (1887) designed to assimilate indigenous peoples by dissolving communal reservations into private allotments.

Wovoka

A Northern Paiute religious leader and prophet whose visions and teachings catalyzed the spread of the Ghost Dance Movement among Native American tribes.