The West Transformed Chapter 17 Flash Cards

transcontinental railroad A railroad line that crosses the country from coast to coast.

Union Pacific Railroad The railroad company that started building a rail line from Omaha, Nebraska, and built westward.

Central Pacific Railroad The railroad company that started building a rail line from Sacramento, California, and built eastward.

subsidies Grants of land or money given by the government. (These were given by the government to help railroad companies build the transcontinental railroad.)

vigilantes Groups of self-appointed law keepers who hunted down bandits and imposed their own rough brands of justice.

Fort Laramie Treaty An agreement made in 1851 in which Plains Indians agreed to stop following the buffalo and keep to a limited area that the government promised would be their forever.

Sand Creek Massacre The attack led by Colonel John Chivington and 700 volunteers against a band of Cheyenne in eastern Colorado in 1864 as a response to attacks on supply trains and homes by Plains warriors.

Buffalo Soldiers African American veterans of the Civil War who fought on the Plains for over 20 years.

reservation Land set aside for Native Americans to live on.

Battle of Little Bighorn The attack against a large band of Sioux and Cheyenne in Montana in 1876 in which Colonel George Armstrong Custer and all his men died.

Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse Two Indian leaders who led attacks to keep whites off of the land set aside for them in the Black Hills of the Dakotas. They led the Indian victory at the Little Big Horn.

Geronimo The Apache leader who fiercely resisted the movement to reservations. He and his men attacked settlers in Arizona and New Mexico for 10 years before being captured in 1886.

Chief Joseph The leader of the Nez Perces who led his people toward Canada in 1877 instead of going to a reservation. When caught near the Canadian border, he said, “I shall fight no more forever.”

Ghost Dance A religious ceremony in which Native Americans believed they were talking to ghosts of their ancestors, and that their ancestors and buffalo would return and white people would leave.

Wounded Knee Massacre The conflict that ended the era of Indian Wars in 1890 when a band of Sioux fled the reservation, were surrounded by Army troops, and troops opened fire with machine guns and rifles.

Dawes Act The law passed by Congress in 1887 to end Native American wandering and turn them into farmers. Native American males received 160 acres of land to farm and children were sent to schools to make them more American.

open range The unfenced land of the plains where cattle survived on prairie grass and watering holes.

long drive The herding and moving of cattle over long distances using well-worn trails.

vaquero The Spanish word for cowhand, or cowboy.

cow town A settlement at the end of a cattle drive that catered to the cowboys.

Cattle Kingdom The region of the West dominated by the cattle industry and its ranches, trails, and cow towns.

homesteaders Settlers who acquired free land from the government.

Homestead Act The law passed by Congress in 1862 to give the poor a chance to own a farm. By offering 160 acres plot to anyone who resided on the land for five years.

sod The surface layer of earth in which the roots of grasses tangle with soil.

sodbusters The nickname given to Plains farmers.

Oklahoma Land Rush The event in April 1889 where 100,000 people came to claim some of the 2 million acres of free homesteads in what was once Indian Territory.

Exodusters Thousands of African Americans, many of them former slaves, that streamed onto the Plains and settled in Kansas.

granges Groups of farmers who met for lectures, sewing bees, and other events.

cooperatives Groups of farmers who pool their money to make large purchases of tools, seed, and other supplies at discount.

Populist Party The political party in which unhappy farmers joined with labor unions in order to push for social reforms such as public ownership of railroads and warehouses, a tax on income to replace property taxes, and the use of silver to raise prices.

William Jennings Bryan The Populist candidate for president in 1896 who won the votes of farmers from the South and West for supporting the use of silver to raise prices.