Chapter 5 Western Crossroads
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33 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Bureau of Indian Affairs | A government agency created in the 1800s to oversee federal policy toward Native Americans |
| John M. Chivington | US army colonel who lead troops at the Sand Creek Massacre |
| Sand Creek Massacre | US army's killing of about 200 Cheyenne elderly, women and children at the Sand Creek Reservation in Colorado territory |
| Sitting Bull | Sioux chief who led the attack on Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn |
| George Armstrong Custer | United States general who was killed along with all his command by the Sioux at the battle of Little Bighorn (1839-1876) |
| Battle of Little Bighorn | In 1876, Indian leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeated Custer's troops who tried to force them back on to the reservation, Custer and all his men died |
| Wovoka | A Paiute Indian who began a religious movement called Ghost Dance. |
| Massacre at Wounded Knee | a massacre in 1890 that started when Sioux left the reservation in protest because of the death of Sitting Bull. The US army killed 150 sioux Indians; last major incident in the great plains |
| Chief Joseph | The Native American leader who attempted to lead his people to Canada from Oregon |
| Geronimo | Apache chieftain who raided the white settlers in the Southwest as resistance to being confined to a reservation |
| Sarah Winnemucca | This Paiute Indian gave lectures on the problems of the reservations in the 1870's |
| Dawes General Allotment Act | 1887 law that divided reservation land into private family plots of 160 acres each |
| Sod houses | buildings that were made from chunks cut from, the heavy topsoil that were stacked like bricks |
| Bonanza farm | farm controlled by large businesses, managed by professionals, and raising massive quantities of single cash crops |
| Homestead Act | Passed in 1862, it gave 160 acres of public land to any settler who would farm the land for five years. |
| Pacific Railway Act | (1862) law that gave lands to railroad companies to develop a line linking the East and West Coasts |
| Morrill Act | gave federal land to the states to help finance agricultural and engineering colleges |
| Exodusters | african americans who migrated from the South to the Great Plains following the Civil War |
| Benjamin Singleton | 70-year-old leader of African American pioneers known as exodusters, who moved to the Great Plains after the Civil War. |
| U.S. Department of Agriculture | Created in 1862; helped farmers adapt to their new environment; sought out and promoted new varieties of wheat suitable to the Great Plains |
| Willa Cather | Virgina-born noveilst wrote movingly of pioneering on the prariries |
| Theodore Judah | Civil engineer who had the vision to build a railroad across the Sierra Nevada mountains? |
| Transcontinental Railroad | Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the east coast with the west coast, revolutionizing transportation in the west. |
| Railhead | town located along a railroad; long cattle drives usually ended there |
| Open range | A vast area of grassland owned by the government where ranchers could graze their herds for free |
| Texas Longhorn | Hardy breed of cow created by interbreeding English and Spanish cattle. It was resistant to Texas fever and required little water. |
| Barbed wire | Patented in 1874 by Joseph Glidden, prevented animals from freely roaming the Great Plains, altered the economy of the American West. |
| Patio process | Mining technique developed in Mexico and South America during the 1700s that used mercury to extract silver from ore; used in the western United States. |
| Hydraulic mining | mining technique that uses water pressure to remove gravel and dirt, exposing minerals underneath. |
| Comstock Lode | One of the world's richest silver veins. Discovered in Nevada in the mid 1800's. |
| William H. Seward | arranged the purchase of Alaska from Russia |
| Hard-rock mining | Technique that involves sinking deep mine shafts to get at ore in veins of rock. |
| Dead Man's Hand | The poker hand consisting of a pair aces and eights that was held by Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot dead in Deadwood, South Dakota |
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