| A | B |
|---|
| transcontinental Railroad | railroad that spanned the entire continent from East to West; completed in 1869 |
| Union Pacific Railroad | company hired by the Government to build the trans-continental railroad from East to West - they began building in Omaha |
| Central Pacific Railroad | Railroad company that built the trans-continental Railroad; they started building in Sacramento California and built towards the East |
| Promontory Point, Utah | The place where both the Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet to complete the trans-continental Railroad in May of 1869 |
| frontier | unsettled or sparsely settled land |
| Great Plains | area in the center of the United States from Texas north to Canada and between the Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains |
| mining | digging into the earth to get minerals (like gold and silver) |
| boom-towns | towns that developed almost overnight, usually near: gold/silver strike or a rail-head |
| vaqueros | Mexican cowboy; the first cowboys were from Mexico |
| ranchers | people who raise cattle/livestock for profit |
| Texas Longhorn | big cow (hornspan: 6 feet); mixed breed of American and Spanish cattle raised in Texas |
| long-drives | paths the cowboys took to move the herds of cattle from Texas north to the railheads in order to get a better price for the cattle |
| rail heads | places/towns where the railroad came through |
| cowboys/cowgirls | people who drove the cattle herds to the rail heads |
| manifest destiny | the belief that it was the fate of the United States to control the whole continent |
| Fort Laramie Treaty | agreement made between US government and Plains Indians that the Natives would move to reservation land that would be their for "all time" and would recieve supplies from the gov't to survive |
| Chivington Massacre | attack led by US Army Col. John Chivington in which the army destroyed a Cheyenne village and killed more than 200 Cheyenne men, women, and children |
| Battle of Little Big Horn/Custer's Last Stand | battle led by US army Col. George Custer against Lakota Sioux in which Custer and all of his men were killed |
| Chief Joseph | Native American leader of the Nez Perce who led his people on a 1000 mile retreat to Canada before surrendering to the US army |
| Sitting Bull | a Lakota Sioux war chief and holy man |
| Lakota Sioux | Native American tribe from the Black Hills region of the Dakotas who fought the US army to maintain control of the Black Hills region that had been promised to them in the Fort Laramie Treaty |
| vigilantes | a person who 'took the law into his or her hands'; common in the West because there was no organized law enforcement |
| Homestead Act | federal law passed in 1862; this law offered 160 acres of land for free to anyone who agreed to live on and farm the land for 5 years |
| sod-busters | nickname given to Homesteaders because they built their homes from mud and sod |
| barbed wire | cheap, efficient method of fencing in farmland used by the Homesteaders to keep herds of cattle off of their property and to separate one farm from another |
| standard time | a system adopted by the government that divided the United States into time zones to regulate time across the nation |
| John Deere | invented the steel plow used by many homesteaders |
| steel plow | invention used to cultivate land (loosened the soil); revolutionized agriculture and made it possible to farm in the Great Plains |
| Cyrus McCormick | invented the reaper |
| reaper | invention that cuts and harvests grains; did the work of 40 men and made it possible to farm in the Great Plains |
| irrigation | watering crops |
| wind pump | machine that used wind power to drill into the ground to pump water |
| Rocky Mountain locusts | large grasshoppers that travelled in swarms and ate everything in their path; destroyed some homesteaders farms |
| buffalo herds | millions of buffalo roamed the Great Plains; blocked the Railroad; wiped out by hunters and Railroad companies by 1900 |
| cow-towns | towns that developed near railheads to hold cattle before boarding trains;also to entertain cowboys at the end of the long drive |
| Black Hills | region in the Dakotas that was sacred to the Sioux and had been promised to them in the Fort Laramie Treaty |
| Ghost Dance | religious ceremony performed by the natives of the Great Plains to bring about a new world, free of white settlers and starvation |
| Massacre at Wounded Knee | attack in which US army killed more than 300 Lakota Sioux who were preparing to surrender |
| reservation | land set aside by the US government for Native Americans |
| Helen Hunt Jackson | wrote a book called "A Century of Dishonor" in which she described the mistreatment of Native Americans by the US Government |
| Susette La Flesche | daughter of Omaha chief who wrote and gave speeches about the mistreatment of Native AMericans |
| Dawes Act | law passed in 1887 in which Native AMericans were encouraged to become farmers and give up their traditional cultures |
| The Populists | political party which fought to pass policies to help farmers |
| the Grange | an organization which helped farmers by encouraging them to pool their money to buy seeds and equipment at better prices |
