Chapter 18

Oklahoma Land Rush

(1889) the first land rush into the Unassigned Lands; agreed to open up 2 million acres of land in Indian Territory to settlement by U.S. citizens on April 22, 1889 - anyone who lived on the land and improved it, could keep it without having to pay for it; 50,000+ people lined up to race to grab their 40 acres of land

Telegraph

- A device that uses coded signals to send communications over a wire - it sent messages faster than on horseback which put the Pony Express out of business and it was the newest mail system

Transcontinental Railroad

- Completed in May 10,1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west

Promontory, Utah

- Congress required the two railways to connect at this place - May 10, 1869 workers and reporters watched as they connected and finally met in the dramatic ceremony; a golden spike was used to tie together the tracks and the railroad united the East and the West

Mennonites

- Russian Immigrants to the Great Plains from Russia. Members of a Protestant religious group. Among the first to start large scale farming in the Plains. Brought "red wheat" to the Plains. - Mennonites introduced American farmers to a type of red wheat that grew very well on the Plains. This was very good because growing crops on the Plains was difficult.

Pony Express

- because people started going West, supplies and information needed to be easier to travel from the East to West - 1860 the Pony Express was formed to fit those needs - messengers on horseback carried mail between relay stations on a route about 2000 miles long - telegraph lines sent messages faster and soon put the Pony Express out of business

Pacific Railway Acts

- because people wanted to connect the East and the West, the government decided to build the transcontinental railroad - the Acts of 1862 and 1864 passed to give railroad companies large loans and land grants which could be sold to pay for construction costs of the railroads - the government gave tens of millions of acres of lands to railroad companies in exchange for lower US mail and troop carrying rates - the Acts inspired many companies to lay tracks

Comstock Lode

- gold and silver found in Colorado was named after the miner Henry Comstock - it was a bonanza and there was real wealth because over the next 20 the gold and silver found there was worth over 500 million dollars

Treaty of Fort Laramie

- in 1851 a treaty signed in Wyoming by the United States and northern Plains nations to keep the peace between the two -it was the first major treaty between the U.S. government and the Plains Indians -it says that the Americans settlers can pass on Indian lands and the Americans will pay for any damages

Ore

- it was mined for profit and a was a rock with value like gold or silver - a metal-bearing mineral valuable enough to be mined

Union Pacific Railroad

- part of people building the transcontinental railroad - 1863 started building West from Omaha, Nebraska - they hired 1000's of workers, for example Irish immigrants and civil war veterans - they faced harsh weather on the plains and they did not have good food access so they had professionals hunt for them - they met at Utah with the Central Pacific Railroad company

Mining Dangers

- the bigger and deeper the tunnels got, the more dangerous they became - As they went down, there was unsafe equipment, ie. Wall-less elevator platforms, poorly lit tunnels, because there was no oxygen for the candles - All the dust caused serious lung problems and unexpected explosions killed and injured many workers - Cave ins or floods from underground springs killed or trapped many below ground - there was a risk of fire in the tunnels because the temperature was sometimes above 130 degrees Fahrenheit

Long Walk

-1863 a 300-mile walk the Navajo were forced to endure across a desert to a reservation in Bosque Redondo, New Mexico and many Navajo died -they surrendered because the U.S. army raided their homes, food, and livestock

Buffalo Soldiers

-African American cavalry regiments -served in the western U.S. army -nicknamed by Indians because of their dark and curly hair -known for their courage and discipline

Wovoka

-Paiute spiritual leader -he created the Ghost Dance religious movement that spread throughout numerous native nations in 1890. After meeting with Sitting Bull, who then brought the ghost dance to the Sioux in 1890.

Crazy Horse

-Sioux chief -1866 he and a group of Sioux ambushed 81 cavalry troops killing them all -he was in the Battle of Little Big Horn -late 1877 he was killed in prison after surrendering

Reservation

-U.S. government negotiated a new treaty that created this -give up homelands for new home -because they were supposed to stay on the land it made buffalo hunting hard

Ghost Dance

-a Paiute Indian named Wovoka began a religious movement that predicted the arrival of a paradise for the Indians if you preformed the dance and you would

Sarah Winnemucca

-a Paiute Indian who called for reforms on reservations -she gave lectures and pleaded her case in Washington D.C. -it was people like her that helped with getting the Dawes Allotment Act, but it ended up not helping

Sitting Bull

-a Sioux religious chief and leader -became a war leader in battles against the U.S. Army -he didn't want to sell his Black Hills land which caused the Battle of the Little Bighorn -in 1881 he turned himself in to the U.S. Army -in 1890 he died in a fight that started when officials came to arrest him

Bonanza

-a large deposit of precious ore -Comstock lode was this

Boomtowns

-communities that would go as fast as they would come -mining booms caused this -common things they had: general stores, saloons, boardinghouses -they were dangerous places lacking basic law and order -few to no women or children -in 1860~there was 1 women to every 75 men -women in these towns worked hard and faced lives of loneliness -the women in these towns helped make some of the towns become permanent

Great Plains

-lies roughly between the 98th meridian and the Rocky Mountains -stretch North to Canada and South to Texas -despite harsh conditions it is home to many Indians

Dawes General Allotment Act

-passed by Congress in 1887 -people believed Native Americans would be better off adopting the ways of the whites -it made landownership private instead of shared among the tribe -reservation land was divided up 160 acres for families, 80 for individual people -was supposed to help but it made Native Americans lose about 2/3 of their land didn't lead to citizenship for many and overall failed to improve their lives

Central Pacific Railroad

-railroad that started in Sacramento, California and laid tracks heading East in February 1863 -connected with the Union Pacific Railroad in Promontory Point, Utah -it hired Chinese immigrants who were paid less than white workers and given more dangerous jobs and longer hours, yet they still earned more money here than they would in China -the worker had to struggle to cross the Sierra Nevada range in California and they had to use explosives to blast through the mountains - in 1866, snow drifts of over 60 feet trapped and killed many workers

Treaty of Medicine Lodge

-signed in 1867 -a treaty in which most of the Southern Plains Indians agreed to live on reservations -because some Indians didn't want to comply fighting soon broke out

Exodusters

1879 - Southerners that made a mass exodus (meaning to depart) from the South; , 1870s migration of African Americans from the post-reconstruction South to the Great Plains.

Dry Farming

A method in which land is left unplanted every few years so that it can store moisture, A farming technique developed to allow farming in the more arid parts of the West where settlers had to deal with far less rainfall than they had east of the Mississippi. -they farmed red wheat

Open Range

A vast area of grassland owned by the federal government where ranchers could graze their herds for free.

Massacre at Wounded Knee

After the death of Sitting Bull, some Sioux attempted to leave their reservation, but were apprehended by the federal army. As the ale Sioux were handing in their weapons, a shot was fired and the U.S soldiers opened fire on the Native Americans, killing over 200 en, women, and children on December 29, 1890. Most of the Native Americans were unarmed. This was the lady major event of the War on the Plains

John Deere

American blacksmith that was responsible for inventing the steel plow. This new plow was much stronger than the old iron version; therefore, it made plowing farmland in the west easier, making expansion faster.

Homestead Act

An act passed by Congress in 1862 promising ownership of a 160-acre tract of public land to a citizen or head of a family who had resided on and cultivated the land for five years

Barbed wire

Barbed wire was invented and patented by Joseph Glidden in 1874 and had a major impact on the cattle industry of the Western U.S. Accustomed to allowing their cattle to roam the open range, many farmers objected to barbed wire. Others used it to fence in land or cattle that did not belong to them. it was a cheap and an inexpensive way to mark land and keep cattle enclosed. Revolutionized land ownership in the American Plains and helped bring an end to the long drives.

Sodbusters

Because of the manufacturer John Deere's deep steel plow, farmers were able to break through the tough sod so farmers could plant crops. This hard work of breaking up the sod earned farmers on the plains the nickname sodbusters.

Vaqueros

Cowboys who managed massive herds of livestock such as sheep and cattle. -skilled riders who herded cattle on ranches in Mexico, California, and the Southwest -Hispanic ranch hands who developed riding, roping, and branding -Mexican cowboys who raised and rounded up cattle in Texas

Pioneer Communities

Farms were very remote and life was difficult in the Plains. Farmers formed together to assist one another in times of need. First they established a church, that served for religion and meeting place and they joined together to build a school. Joint effort made the Plains a much more appealing place to live.

Round-up

Gathering the cattle together usually in the spring from the open range. In spring for counting and branding cattle and new calves and horses with a ranch's unique mark to prevent thieves from stealing.

Battle of Little BigHorn

George Artmstrong Custer and his army found a Sioux camp and with his 7th cavalry he didn't wait for backup forces and on June 25th, 1876 he led 264 of his men into the camp. sitting bull and crazy horse were there and they along with other Native Americans surrounded the whites killing them. this was the worst U.S. defeat and the Sioux's last major victory.

Texas Longhorn

Hardy breed of cow created by interbreeding English and Spanish cattle. Responsible for the creation of the Cattle Kingdom because they were lean and tough in the harsh climate of the south and Plains. , The product of Spanish cattle and English cattle in Texas and California during the 1700's. Spread quickly throughout western Texas. Lean and tough, horns up to five feet across. Butchers say "8 pounds of hamburger on 800 pounds of bone and horn". Settlers preferred to raise Longhorns because they needed very little water and could survive harsh weather.

Decline of the Cattle Kingdom

In 1885-6, disaster struck the Cattle Kingdom. The huge cattle herds on the Plains had eaten much of the prairie grass that ranchers had depended on for feed. Unusually severe winters in both years made the ranching situation even worse. 1000s of cattle died, and 30% of a rancher's herd was lost. Many ranchers were ruined financially. Cattle ranching became costly and Ranchers were forced to buy winter feed for their cattle and to reduce their herd's size. Low prices, harsh weather, and greater competition for grazing land brought an end to the reign of the cattle kingdom.

Refrigerator Cars

In the early 1880's the introduction of the refrigerator railroad car made it possible to carry meat from packing plants to eastern cities. As the demand for beef grew, cities such as Chicago and Illinois became known for their meatpacking plants.

Cyrus McCormick

Irish-American inventor that developed the mechanical reaper. The reaper replaced scythes as the preferred method of cutting crops for harvest, and it was much more efficient and much quicker. The invention helped the agricultural growth of America. (1809-1884) the inventor and manufacturer of a mechanical harvester. With the invention of steel plows in the 1850's farmers were able to plant more than they could harvest. McCormick's reaper enabled farmers to harvest their crops at a faster pace.

Glidden

Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire in 1874. This allowed westerners to fence off large areas at a low cost. Glidden basically created the Range Wars by inventing barbed wire.

Cattle Drive

Method cowboys used to move large herds of cattle north from ranches in Texas towns along Rail Road in late 1800's. , One of the cowboys most important and dangerous duties. On long journeys, cowboys herded cattle to the market or to the northern Plains for grazing. These trips usually lasted several months and covered hundreds of miles. Two trails used were the Western trail and Chisholm Trail. Cowboys were happy to reach the end of a cattle drive. Lived with no tents or shelter of any kind except there blankets for months. Cattle difficult to handle, might stampede during a storm. Cowboys then had to track down the strays and round them up again. At night cowboys had to watch the cattle herds to make sure nothing happened.

Breadbasket

Name for the Great Plains region that grew so much grain it was referred to as the Bread Basket. Indicator of the control that farmers and their technology began to have on the Great Plains.

Range Rights

Rights to water sources on the Great Plains, ranchers bought these rights to give them exclusive control of both the water and the land around it. Ranchers could cut off their competition by stopping farmers and other ranchers from using their water.

Red Wheat

Successful crop used on Plains farms that was brought to America by Mennonites (Russian Immigrants); Survived in the dry climate and soil of the Great Plains. Helped to create the "Breadbasket" in the Plains.

Western/Chisholm Trails

The Western trail is a heavily used rout that headed north from San Antonio, Texas to Dodge City, Kansas. The Chisholm Trail was a popular rout for cattle drives. It was marked by Texas cowboy Jesse Chisholm in the 1860's. The trail went from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas.

Cattle Towns

Western towns where cattle were bought and sold A large cattle town such as Dodge City or Kansas usually laid at the end of the cattle trail. Small businesses sprang up as more cowboys passed through these towns. Some of the businesses were owned and operated by women. Boardinghouses, saloons, and restaurants depended on tired cowboys spending money on food, hot baths, and comfortable beds. There were rarely shootouts but the towns were still violent.

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.