| A | B |
|---|
| The Homestead Act | This encouraged people to settle in the Great Plains by giving free land. |
| gold | People poured into California in search of this. |
| cattle ranchers | They needed large amounts of land. |
| sod | Farmers built houses on the Great Plains out of this. |
| boom | A time of rapid economic growth. |
| cowboys | They drove cattle, branded cattle, cared for horses on ranches. |
| Vaqueros | They were the first cowboys and they came from Mexico. |
| barbed wire | This ended the cowboys' way of life. |
| rodeo | A contest of cowboy skills like roping, branding, and catching calves. |
| Bill Pickett | A famous African-American cowboy. |
| reservation | Land set aside by the federal government for the Indians to live. |
| buffalo | The most important resource for the Plains Indians. |
| Little Big Horn | The Sioux defeated Gen. George Custer here. |
| Nez Perces | They tried to escape the U. S. Army by going to Canada. |
| Apache | They attacked Arizona settlers and hid from the U. S. Army for five years. |
| open range | This was a free way to feed ranchers' cattle. |
| Joseph McCoy | He opened stockyards near the railroad in Abilene. |
| low crop prices | Farmers left their farms and gave up on farming because of this. |
| long drive | Ranchers moved cattle North to the railroad towns. |
| farmers | Railroads wanted them to settle the Great Plains. |
| range wars | Bitter fights between farmers and ranchers. |
| treaty | This was an agreement between the U. S. Government and the Indians. |
| Vigilance Committees | Citizens who helped keep peace in mining towns. |
| Chief Joseph | The famous leader of the Nez Perces. |
| Geronimo | The famous leader of the Apache Indians. |
| prospectors | They used a pickax to dig for riches. |
| To keep cattle on their side of the fence. | Barbed wire was used for this purpose. |
| Bonanza Farms | A large farm run by a manager for profit. |
| James Oliver | He invented a new plow strong enough to cut sod. |
| reaper | Cyrus McCormick built a machine for harvesting crops |
