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Vaqueros
Skilled riders(Cowboys) who herded cattle on ranches in Mexico, California, and the Southwest and also developed riding, roping, and branding -
Irish immigrants
Immigrants that came over because of potato famine and worked as: farmers, factory workers, built canals and railroads (women-servants in private homes) -
Chief Joseph
Leader of Nez Perce. Fled with his tribe to Canada instead of reservations. However, US troops came and fought and brought them back down to reservations -
Chinese immigrants
Many Chinese came to America with the 1849 California Gold Rush; they came in small groups and usually settled in the west coast. 300,000 arrived -
Colorado Gold Rush
The boom in gold prospecting and mining in Kansas territory, and Nebraska territory. About 100,000 people took part in one of the greatest gold rushes. "Pike's Peak or Bust!" and the "59er's" -
Sitting Bull
A chief of the Sioux;took up arms against settlers in the northern Great Plains and against United States Army troops; he was present at the battle of Little Bighorn (1876) when the Sioux massacred General Custer's troops (1831-1890) -
Homestead Act of 1862
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 -
Morrill Act
Passed by Congress in 1862, this law distributed millions of acres of western lands to state governments in order to fund state agricultural colleges. -
Sand Creek Massacre
In Colorado territory in 1864, U.S army colonel John M. Chivington led a surprise attack on a peaceful Cheyenne settlement along Sand Creek River. The Cheyenne under Chief Black kettle tried to surrender. First he waved the America Flag and the White flag of surrender. Chivington ignored the gestures. The U.S army killed about 200 Cheyenne during the conflict -
open-range system
Property was not fenced in though ranchers claimed ownership and knew the boundaries of their property , cattle from any ranch grazed freely across those boundaries. -
Cattle drives
Cowboys drove herds of cattle along trails to be shipped to the East by railroad. -
Treaty of Ft. Laramie
1868 treaty with the Sioux that led to a brief period of peace but that focused on Americanizing the Sioux. It was repeatedly violated by whites who wanted gold on Lakota Sioux land. -
Transcontinental Railroad
Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west -
Battle of Little Big Horn
1876 - General Custer and his men were wiped out by a coalition of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. (commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand) -
Exoduster
The African Americans migrating to the Great Plains state (ie: Kansas & Oklahoma) in 1879 to escape conditions in the South -
Helen Hunt Jackson
United States writer of romantic novels about the unjust treatment of Native Americans (1830-1885). A writer. Author of the 1881 book A Century of Dishonor. The book exposed the U.S. governments many broken promises to the Native Americans. -
‘A Century of Dishonor’
A non-fiction book by Helen Hunt Jackson first published in 1881 that chronicled the experiences of Native Americans in the United States, focusing on injustices. -
Dawes Allotment Act
1887 law that divided reservation land into private family plots -
Oklahoma Land Rush
1889; former Indian lands;opened up for settlement, resulting in a race to lay claim for a homestead (Boomers and Sooners) -
Battle of Wounded Knee
1890 - The Sioux, convinced they had been made invincible by magic, were massacred by troops at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
