| A | B |
|---|
| Nomadic | wandering |
| Vigilance Committee | unauthorized citizen group trying to maintain order & punish criminals |
| Vaudeville | theatrical entertainment featuring a variety of acts |
| sod houses | early plains settlers built these where trees were not available |
| railroad | parallel steel on which wheels of cars fit |
| windmills | machine moved by wind causing wheels or sails to set in motion to pump water or grind grain |
| dry farming | method of conserving moisture for farming in drought areas |
| barbed wire | sharp points on fence material to pen animals or protect land |
| Promontory Point, Utah | where golden spike was driven |
| Sand Creek | Cheyenne Massacre by troops under John Chivington |
| Chisholm Trail | farmous western cattle trail from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas |
| Comstock Lode | rich silver mine at Virginia City, Nevada |
| Morrill Act of 1862 | Congress granted each state 30,000 acres for each senator & congressman, land was to be sold with proceeds to create & maintain colleges (land grant colleges) |
| Homestead Act of 1862 | law promising 160 acres of free land to anyone who paid a small filing fee & farmed it for 5 years |
| Battle of Little Big Horn | 600 soldiers sent to protect miners on Cheyenne land died in battle |
| Battle of Wounded Kee | Army followed Indians after Sitting Bull's death to South Dakota. Indians prepared to surrender, shot fired, 300 Native Americans & 25 soldiers died. It marked the end of 25 years of war on the Great Plains. |
| Dawes Act of 1887 | tribal land divided up for Native Americans to farm |
| transcontinental railroad | stretched coast to coast across North American continent |
| Great Plains | vast, dry grassland in North America which became known as the breadbasket of the world |
| long drive | cowhands drove herds of steers to railroad shipping centers in Missouri & Kansas |
| Sutter's Mill | gold discovered on South Fork of the American River, bringing a rush of fortune seeking from around the world |
| Treaty of Medicine Lodge | 1867 agreement requiring Indians to live on reservations |
| range wars | Competition between large & small ranchers for grazing |
| Bozeman Trail | Route used by pioneers that ran between Wyoming & Montana. |
| Pacific Railway Act | Provided loans & land grants to encourage railroad construction |
| Cattle Kingdom | Area between Texas & Canada |
| Long Walk | An army led 300 mile march of Navajo in 1864 to a reservation at Bosque Redondo, New Mexico |
| Vaqueros | Mexican cowboys in the West who tended cattle and horses. |
| refigerated railroad cars | Made it possible to ship beef to eastern cities |
| Western Trail | Most heavily used cattle drive route. |
| Sodbusters | farmers on the Great Plains |
| spring roundup | Where branding of calves & horses took place |
| Union Pacific Workers | Irish Immigrants & Civil War Veterans |
| Apache | Fierce raiders able to survive the desert |
| Range Rights | Rights to water sources on the Great Plains; ranchers bought these rights to give them exclusive control of both the water and the land around it. |
| Open Range | Public land on which cattle grazed upon was once occupied by the Plains Indians. |
| Central Pacific Workers | Chinese who built tracks across the Sierra Nevadas |
| bananza | Large deposit of precious ore |
| Reservations | Federal lands set aside for American Indians. |
| Mennonites | Religious group from Russia who introduced red wheat to the Plains |
| Treaty of Fort Laramie | First major treaty signed with northern Plains tribes in 1851. It allowed Americans to build forts, roads, & to travel across Indian homelands. The US would pay any damages to Indian lands. |
| Ghost Dance | Believed to lead to their traditional life |
| boomtowns | Communities that sprang up when a min opened. |
| cattle drive | Long journey when cowboys herded cattle to market. |
