Westward Expansion Vocabulary

1. Technological Advances Progress in the use of scientific discoveries for practical use.

2. Erode The movement of soil from one place to another through natural processes. Examples: Wind and rain.

A strong wind carrying clouds of dust across or from a dry region. 3. Dust Storm A strong wind carrying clouds of dust across or from a dry region.

Wire with sharp points on it every few inches, used for fencing. 4. Barbed Wire Wire with sharp points on it every few inches, used for fencing.

5. Steel Plow A steel farm tool used for cutting and lifting the soil and turning it over.

6. Sod Houses Houses made of stacked sod, which are pieces or layers of dirt containing the grass and its roots.

7. Beef Cattle Raising Raising cattle for the purpose of selling the meat of the animal at market as a means of income.

8. Wheat Farming The growing of wheat for the purpose of selling the crop at market as a sustainable means of income on the Great Plains.

A machine worked by the action of wind used to pump water. 9. Windmills A machine worked by the action of wind used to pump water.

10. Dry Farming A way of farming dry land in which seed are planted deep in the ground where there is some moisture.

11. Transcontinental Railroad A railroad project contracted by the U.S. government in 1863 & completed in 1869 linking the east and west coasts. NOTE: The Union Pacific built from the east, & the Central Pacific from the west. The two lines met in Utah. The Central Pacific laborers were mostly Chinese, and the Union Pacific laborers mostly Irish.

The movement of people or animals from one place to another. 12. Migration The movement of people or animals from one place to another.

13. Great Plains (Prairie) The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. This area covers parts of the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.

14. Treaty A signed, formal agreement or understanding between two individuals or groups of people.

To adapt and conform to the customs or attitudes of a group or nation. 15. Assimilation To adapt and conform to the customs or attitudes of a group or nation.

16. Reservation A tract of public land set apart for a special purpose such as the use of an American Indian tribe.

Actual signature above. 17. Geronimo This Native–American was an Apache war chief who was opposed to Westward Expansion. He took revenge on the Mexicans & settlers of the Southwest for the murder of his wife, mother, & three children. He later surrendered to U.S. authorities & remained a prisoner of war until his death in 1909. Geronimo 1887 Actual signature above.

18. Chief Joseph This Native-American chief of a Nez Perce tribe in Idaho who was opposed to Westward Expansion. He tried to move his people to Canada, while fighting off the U.S. military, but eventually surrendered and relocated to a reservation rather than see more of his people die. Upon his surrender he stated, “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

Actual signature above. 19. Sitting Bull Native-American chief of the Sioux nation who was opposed to Westward Expansion. He is most famous for the multi-tribal victory known as the battle of Little Big Horn or Custer’s Last Stand in 1876. Sitting Bull would later surrender in 1881 and be forced onto a reservation where he is killed by Indian police in 1890. Actual signature above.

Their descendants now inhabit a reservation in Idaho. 20. Nez Perce` This Native-American tribal nation lived mainly in the Pacific Northwest of the United States; the name translates to “The People.” Their descendants now inhabit a reservation in Idaho.