| A | B |
|---|
| Pony Express | Service begun in 1860 that used a relay of riders on horses to deliver mail from Missouri to California in ten days. |
| telegraph | Device that sends messages through wires using electricity |
| transcontinental railroad | Railroad that crosses a continent. First completed in 1869. |
| Homestead Act | Law signed in 1862 offering free land to people willing to tart new farms on the Great Plains. |
| homesteader | Settlers who claimed land on the Great Plains under the Homestead Act. |
| sodbuster | Great Plains farmer of the late 1800s who had to cut through sod, or thick grass, before planting crops. |
| exoduster | Name for African American pioneers who moved to the Great Plains after the Civil War. |
| technology | Use of new ideas to make tools that improve people’s lives. |
| cattle drive | Method cowboys used to move large herds of cattle north from ranches in Texas to towns along the railroads in the late 1800s. |
| gold rush | Sudden movement of many people to an area where gold has been found. |
| entrepreneur | Person who starts a new business, hoping to make a profit. |
| reservation | Land set aside by the government for Native Americans. |
| Battle of Little Bighorn | Lakota victory over United States soldiers on June 25, 1876 |
| pioneer | Early settler of a region. |
