| A | B |
|---|
| frontier | an undeveloped area |
| boomtown | a community that grew suddenly when a mine opened |
| cattle drive | cowboys herded cacattle to the market or northern Plains for grazing |
| transcontinental railroad | a railroad that would cross the continent and connect the East to the West |
| reservation | area of federal land set aside for Native Americans |
| Comstock Lode | An incredibly rich and deep silver and gold strike discovered by miner Henry Comstock in 1859 in Nevada |
| Cattle Kingdom | an area in the Great Plains from Texas to Canada where many ranchers raised cattle in the late 1800s. |
| Chisholm Trail | A cattle drive route that ran from SanAntonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas. It is named after its founder, Texas cowboy, Jesse Chisholm in the late 1860s |
| Pony Express | A system of messengers on horseback that started in 1860 to carry mail west between relay stations for the 2,000 mile journey. It was soon put out of business by the telegraph. |
| buffalo soldiers | African American soldiers sent to the Great Plains to force the Indians to leave their lands and move onto reservations |
| Treaty of Fort Laramie | The first major treaty between the U.S. government and the Plains Indians. It tried to peacefully settle disputes between the miners and settlers and the Indians in the northern Plains |
| Crazy Horse | A Sioux Chief who led Indians to victory in the Fetterman Massacre in 1866 and the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. He was later killed while attempting to resist arrest. |
| Treaty of Medicine Lodge | 1867 treaty that forced southern Plains Indians to leave their lands and move onto reservations |
| George Armstrong Custer | A Lieutentant Colenel who discovered gold in the Black Hills in 1874 and later led his men into a trap at the Battle of Little Bighorn. All 264 soldiers died in the massacre led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse on June 25, 1876. The event is also known as Custer's Last Stand. It was the last major victory for the Sioux Indians |
| Sitting Bull | A leader of the Lakota Sioux who along with Crazy Horse led the Sioux to victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn |
| Battle of Little Bighorn | Sioux forces led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeated a cavalry force led by Custer and killed his entire command. In "Custer's Last Stand", all 264 cavalry troops were killed in battle. It was the last major victory for the Sioux Indians. |
| Massacre at Wounded Knee | In 1890, the U.S. army shot and killed about 150 Sioux near Wounded Knee Creek because the Sioux were doing the Ghost Dance |
| Long Walk | In 1864, Kit Carson starved the Navajo into surrendering and forcibly marched the Navajo on a 300 mile journey to a reservation in Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. Over 200 Navajos died on the journey in blizzard conditions across the desert. |
| Geronimo | An Apache Indian who continued to battle the U.s. army long after most Plains Indians had surrendered in the southwest. In 1886, he finally surrendered |
| Ghost Dance | A religious movment that predicted the arrival of paradise for the Plains Indians. IN the paradise, buffalo herds would return and the settlers would disappear. |
| Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887 | tried to lessen traditional tribal influences by making land ownership private rather than shared. the act also promised U.S. citizenship which it failed to deliver. After breaking up reservation land, the government sold the remaining acreage which took away about 2/3 of the Indians land. |
| Chief Joseph | A Nez Perce chief who led his people in an effort to hold onto their homeland. This effort failed and his tribe was sent to live on a reservation in Oklahoma where many died. His famous surrender speech earned him a place in history. |
| sodbusters | Plains farmers earned the name from breaking up the tough sod |
| dry farming | a new method of farming necessary on the Plains that shifted away from water-dependent crops like corn in favor of red wheat |
| deflation | a time of decreased money supply in circulation and verall lower prices |
| Homestead Act (1862) | a land grant act passed by congress that gave government owned land to small farmers. Any adult who was a U.S. citizen or intrended to become one could receive 160 acres of land if they promised to live there for at least five years. |
| Morrill Act (1862) | congress passed this act granting more than 17 million acres of federal lands to the states. The act required each state to sell this land and use the money to build colleges to teach agriculture and engineering |
| Exodusters | Term for the 20,000-40,000 African Americans that moved to Kansas in 1879 from the South for the promise of land and a life free from discrimination. |
| Annie Bidwell | A California reformer who used her influence to support a wide variety of reforms including temperance and women's suffrage |
| National Grange (1867- ) | A social and educational organization for farmers founded by Oliver Hudson Kelley. It campaigned for politicians who supported farmers' goals such as the regulation of railroad rates. |
| Farmers' Alliance | Name for the political organizations formed by farmers to elect candidates that would help them |
| William Jennings Bryan | A Democrat supported by the Populist Party in his bid to become President in 1896. He favored the free coinage of silver but lost to the Republican, William McKinley, who ran a well-financed campaign supported by the banks, railroads, and big business. McKinley's victory marked the end of the Populist Party and the Farmers' Alliances |
| Populist Party | A new party formed in the 1890s that favored unlimited free silver coinage, government regulation of the railroads, telegraph and telephone systems, an eight-hour workday, and limits on immigration. |
