| A | B |
|---|
| push-pull factors | Events and conditions that either force people to move elsewhere or strongly attract them to do so |
| Pacific Railway Acts | Lasw passed in 1862 and 1864 giving large land grants to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads |
| Morrill Land-Grant Act | Passed by congress in 1862, this law distributed millions ofacres of western lands to state governments in order to fund state agricultural colleges |
| land speculator | Person who buys up large areas of land in the hope of selling them later for a profit |
| Homestead Act | 1862 law that gave 160 acres of land to citizens who met certain conditions |
| Exoduster | An African American who migrated to the West after the Civil War |
| Great Plains | Vast grassland between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains |
| nomad | People who move their homes regulary usually in search of available food sources |
| reservation | Federal land set aside for Native Americans |
| Battle of Little Bighorn | 1876 Sioux victory over army troops led by George Custer |
| Ghost Dance | A Native American purification ritual |
| Massacre at Wounded Knee | 1890 shooting of a group of unarmed Sioux by arm troops |
| assimilation | Process by which people of one culture merge into and become part of another culture |
| Dawes Act | 1887 law that divided reservation land into private family plots |
| boomers | Settlers who ran in land races to claim land upson the 1889 opening of Indian Territory for settlement |
| sooners | In 1889, people who illeally claimed land by sneaking past government officials before the land races began |
