Chapter 17 History Vocab

Front 1

Great Plains

Back 1

The flat prairie and grassland area between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains that was inhabited by Indians until the 19th century.

Front 2

"Crowd Nobody"

Back 2

A saying Greeley used to urge Northerners to move out into the "empty" West.

Front 3

"Indian Country"

Back 3

The area to the West of the Mississippi that was guaranteed to the Indians through American treaties.

Front 4

Chivington Massacre

Back 4

November 29th, 1864. Colonel Chivington led the Colorado militia to ambush and kill 700 Indian men, women, and children

Front 5

Red Cloud

Back 5

Leader of the Sioux Indians, Red Cloud wanted to stop the building of the Bozeman Trail through the land promised to the Indians.

Front 6

Fetterman Massacre

Back 6

Red Cloud and his warriors lured Fettermen and 82 of his soldiers out into the wild, ambushing and killing them all.

Front 7

Buffalo Soldiers

Back 7

African American cavalrymen on the western frontier known for their fierce fighting.

Front 8

Red River War

Back 8

The U.S soldiers crushed the Indian resistance in 1874-1875 and ended the warfare in the southwest.

Front 9

Sitting Bull

Back 9

Famous Indian medicine man who was killed during the rise of the Ghost Dances.

Front 10

Crazy Horse

Back 10

Great Indian war chief that led many resistances against white invasion.

Front 11

George Armstrong Custer

Back 11

Led the Sioux in their leaving their reservation in 1875., Former General during the Civil War, he set out in 1874 with his Seventh Cavalry to return the Plains Indians to the Sioux reservation. Defeated by an army that outnumbered his men 10 to 1.

Front 12

7th Cavalry

Back 12

Cavalry of Custer who he took with him to the Battle of Little Bighorn

Front 13

Nez Perce Tribe

Back 13

Rebeled against government policy and tried to escape to Canada, led by Chief Joseph. Fought the whole way but ran out of supplies and were forced to surrender.

Front 14

Chief Joseph

Back 14

Leader of the Nez Perce, he took them on their trek toward Canada.

Front 15

Wovoka

Back 15

He was a new prophet, who promised to restore the Sioux to their original dominance on the Plains if they performed the Ghost Dance

Front 16

Ghost Dance

Back 16

A ritual the Sioux performed to bring back the buffalo and return the Native American tribes to their land

Front 17

Wounded Knee Massacre

Back 17

In December 1890, Army troops captured some of Sitting Bull's followers and took them to a camp. 300 Sioux men, women, and children were killed

Front 18

Assimilation

Back 18

the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

Front 19

Court Of Indian Offenses

Back 19

A court erected solely to deal with American Indian linked cases, part of the Indian policies.

Front 20

Assimilation

Back 20

1887, dismantled American Indian tribes, set up individuals as family heads with 160 acres, tried to make rugged individualists out of the Indians, attempt to assimilate the Indian population into that of the American

Front 21

Extermination of the Buffalo

Back 21

Whites hunted down and killed all the buffalo they could find, convinced that if they could force buffalo into extinction, the Indians would be under their control.

Front 22

Buffalo Bill Cody

Back 22

Organized the first Wild West shows that depicted the myths of the "Old West"

Front 23

Gold Rush of 1849

Back 23

the movement of thousands of people to CA looking for gold; led to CA population explosio

Front 24

Overland Trial

Back 24

People traveled this trail from Mississippi river to Pacific ocean; Overwhelming mid-western white farmers took this trial; they were rural folk of missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, etc; Significance: Play a big role in the annexation of California

Front 25

Homestead Act of 1862

Back 25

Act that allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30 - instead of public land being sold primarily for revenue, it was now being given away to encourage a rapid filling of empty spaces and to provide a stimulus to the family farm, turned out to be a cruel hoax because the land given to the settlers usually had terrible soil and the weather included no precipitation, many farms were repo'd or failed until "dry farming" took root on the plains , then wheat, then massive irrigation projects

Front 26

Timber Culture Act of 1873

Back 26

Act which allotted 160 acres to individuals in certain Western states if they agreed to plant one fourth of it with trees

Front 27

Timber and Stone Act of 1878

Back 27

Gave a discounted price on lands deemed "unfit for civilization"

Front 28

National Reclamation Act

Back 28

Backed by Roosevelt in 1902, it provided federal funds for the construction of damns, reservoirs, and canals in the West—projects that would open new lands for cultivation and provide cheap electric power later on.

Front 29

"Hydraulic" Society

Back 29

A social or governmental structure which maintains power and control over access to water

Front 30

Romauldo Pacheco

Back 30

Aristocratic Mexican American who was the governor of California, then later went on to Congress.

Front 31

Las Gorras Blancas

Back 31

Also known as the White Caps, group of Mexican Americans living in New Mexico who attempted to protect their land and way of life from encroachment by white landowners.

Front 32

"Instant Cities"

Back 32

Cities that sprang up at key points across the country, normally on transport routes (railroads)

Front 33

Placer Mining

Back 33

Method of extracting mineral ore by hand using simple tools like picks, shovels, and pans

Front 34

Comstock Lode

Back 34

First discovered in 1858 by Henry Comstock, some of the most plentiful and valuable silver was found here, causing many Californians to migrate here, and settle Nevada.

Front 35

Chinese Exclusion Act

Back 35

(1882) Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate.

Front 36

Foreign Miners Tax

Back 36

One of the first acts of California state legislature was to pass this tax, which imposed a $20 a month tax on foreign miners

Front 37

Vaqueros

Back 37

Skilled riders who herded cattle on ranches in Mexico, California, and the Southwest

Front 38

Wyoming Stock Growers Association

Back 38

Historic American cattle organization created in 1873 to standardize and organize the cattle industry.

Front 39

Exodusters

Back 39

African Americans who settled western lands in the late 1800s

Front 40

Dry Farming

Back 40

Farming method used in dry regions in which land is plowed and planted deeply to hold water in the soil

Front 41

National Grange

Back 41

The more common name of the Patrons of Husbandry—this organization was formed in 1867 as a support system for struggling western farmers. This organization was a educational and social organization, but under the leadership of Oliver Kelley, this organization began to lobby state and federal governments for legislation that would protect farmers from the effects of big business

Front 42

Bonanza Farms

Back 42

Large scale farms often over 50,000 acres, where farmers set up companies to operate

Front 43

Turners Thesis

Back 43

Theory of Fredrick Jackson Tuner a historian which said that frontier had a lot to do with forming the American character.