Chapter 17 Vocab List

Front 1

Great Plains

Back 1

an area where travelers found treeless, flat land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.

Front 2

"Crowd Nobody"

Back 2

Greeley's advice when moving from New York to the West. He thought nobody lived in the west but there was actually large numbers of people.

Front 3

"Indian country"

Back 3

land given to the eastern tribes in the space west of the Mississippi. White people were prohibited from entering the land.

Front 4

Chivington Massacre

Back 4

led by John M. Chivington. It was an attack on Chief Black Kettle who raised an American flag then a white flag but chivington ordered the massacre.

Front 5

Red Cloud

Back 5

A sioux chief determined to stop the Bozeman Trail.

Front 6

Fetterman Massacre

Back 6

In December 1866, Red Cloud ambushed Captain William J. Fetterman and his men after leading them into the wilderness. Red Cloud wiped out 82 soldiers and the attack sparked a public debate over the nation's Indian policy.

Front 7

Buffalo Soldiers

Back 7

African American cavalry men on the Western frontier.

Front 8

Red River War

Back 8

occurred in 1874-1875 when the Kiowa and Comanche tribes rampaged through Texas. They killed until the U. S. army defeated them.

Front 9

Crazy Horse

Back 9

the Sioux's war cheif

Front 10

George armstrong Custer

Back 10

a lieutenant responsible for the death of himself and the rest of his men at Little Bighorn River. He only took 265 men toward the River and underestimated the 2,500 waiting warrios

Front 11

7th Cavalry

Back 11

Custer's old regiment who had taken the Big Foot's band to Wounded Knee Creek, where another massacre broke out

Front 12

Nez Perce Tribe

Back 12

a tribe in Oregon who rebelled against government policy in 1877. They were led on a 75 day fight by Chief Joseph. Eventually they ran out of horses, food, and ammunition. Most of them died from disease after being sent to the Indian country of Oklahoma.

Front 13

Chief Joseph

Back 13

led by the Nez Perce tribe on a 75 day fight but lost because of lack of supplies

Front 14

Wovaka

Back 14

a Paiute messiah.

Front 15

Ghost Dances

Back 15

a set of dances that would restore land, cause whites to disappear, bring back vanished buffalo, and all Native Americans would reunite

Front 16

Wounded Knee Massacre

Back 16

where two hundred men, women, and children were killed at wounded Knee Creek. The native americans fired the first shot and the war begun

Front 17

Assimilation

Back 17

the process of urging that the nation assimilating Native Americans individually into white culture

Front 18

Court of Indian Offenses

Back 18

passed in 1882. Created to try Indians who broke government rules.

Front 19

Dawes Severalty act

Back 19

designed to give each Native American a farm and land amount based on status: family, single adult, or child.

Front 20

Extermination of the Buffalo

Back 20

the final blow to tribal life. The killings were designed to also kill Indians

Front 21

Buffalo Bill Cody

Back 21

a professional hunter who killed millions of Buffalo on the Plains

Front 22

Gold Rush of 1849

Back 22

when half a million people crossed the overland trail to California in search of a better life and money

Front 23

Overland Trail

Back 23

where men and women worked and crossed into California

Front 24

Homestead Act of 1862

Back 24

when the government gave away 48 million acres and sold about 100 million acres to private citizens and corporations.

Front 25

Timber and Stone Act of 1878

Back 25

applied to lands "unfit for cultivation" and valuable for timber or stone

Front 26

National Reclamation Act

Back 26

set aside most of the proceeds from the sale of public lands in 16 states to finance irrigation projects in the arid states

Front 27

"Hydraulic" society

Back 27

created by the channeling of water into dry areas by dams, canals, and irrigation systems

Front 28

Romualdo Pacheco

Back 28

served as governor of California and went onto Congress in 1875

Front 29

Las Gorras Blancas

Back 29

an organization of Spanish Americans who attacked the movement of Anglo ranchers into the Las Vegas community land grant.

Front 30

"Instant cities"

Back 30

San Francisco, Salt Lake City, etc. Cities where growth occurred in terms of new railroads, gold strikes, and other opportunities

Front 31

Placer Mining

Back 31

needed nothing more than a shovel, washing pan, and a good claim

Front 32

Comstock Lode

Back 32

produced gold and silver worth $306 million in 1879

Front 33

Chinese Exclusion Act

Back 33

suspended immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years

Front 34

Foreign Miners Tax

Back 34

charge foreign miners a $20 a month licensing fee

Front 35

Vaqueros

Back 35

developed the essential techniques of branding, round ups, and roping

Front 36

Wyoming Stock Growers Association

Back 36

a population of 400 members who owned two million cattle. The laws of the association were often the law of the land.

Front 37

Exodusters

Back 37

African Americans who came to Kansas to establish new and freer lives

Front 38

Dry Farming

Back 38

the process of plowing furrows 12 to 14 inches deep and creating a dust mulch to fill the furrows

Front 39

National Grange

Back 39

a group designed to provide social, cultural, and educational activities for its members

Front 40

Bonanza Farms

Back 40

run by the new machinery and financed with outside capital

Front 41

Turners Thesis

Back 41

shaped customs and character, gave rise to independence, self- confidence, and individualism, fostered invention.

Front 42

Sitting Bull

Back 42

part of the Sioux tribe and known as the medicine man

Front 43

Timber Culture Act of 1873

Back 43

allowed homesteaders to claim an additional ten million acres of land. It encouraged needed forestation and enabled homesteaders to expand their farms