U.S History Chapter 4

rail link between the eastern and the western US

Transcontinental railroad

Self-appointed law enforcers

Vigilantes

25th President of the US

William McKinley

1890 confrontation between US cavalry and Sioux that marked the end of Indian resistance

Wounded Knee

Succeeded his father as chief of the Nez Perce in 1871.

Chief Joseph

government departments and their non-elected employees

Civil Service

African Americans who migrated from the South to the West after the Civil War

Exodusters

What conflict arose between farmers and ranchers settling western lands?

Farmers demanded water rights from ranchers

Network of farmers' organizations that worked for political and economic reforms in the late 1800s

Farmers' Alliance

currency not backed by gold or silver

Fiat money

employee in the US Department of Agriculture who worked to improve the lives of farmers and the agricultural industry

Oliver H. Kelley

method of ranching in which the rancher allowed his or her livestock to roam and graze over a vast area of grassland

Open-range system

1883 law that created a civil service system for the federal government in an attempt to hire employees on a merit system rather than on a spoils system

Pendleton Civil Service Act

a political party's organization that wins voter loyalty and guarantees power to a small group of leaders, who often abuse it for their own gain

Political machines

A party formed in 1891 to advocate a larger money supply and other economic reforms

Populists Party

public lands where Native Americans were required to live by the federal government

Reservations

practice of the political party in power giving jobs and appointments to its supporters, rather than to people

Spoils system

Democratic and Populist leader who ran unsuccessfully three times for the US presidency

William Jennings Bryan

. Land designated by the federal government for building schools, roads, or railroads

Land grants

. (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

Las Gorras Blancas

What did the gridlock between parties in Congress and the White House in the late 1800s lead to?

Little meaningful legislation was passed

President Grant is remembered as a corrupt president because he

Allowed members of his administration to engage in corruption

absorbed into the main culture of a society

Assimilated

1876 battle in which the Sioux defeated US Army troops

Battle of the Little Big Horn

1887 law that divided reservation land into private family plots

Dawes General Allotment Act

policy of designating monetary units in terms of their value in gold

Gold standard

farmers' organization formed after the Civil War

Grange

How was William Jennings Bryan different from the majority of other presidential candidates of theera?

He toured the nation, doing his own campaigning

1862 law that gave 160 acres of land to persons willing to live on and cultivate it for five years

Homestead Act

How did the federal government affect the practice of mining in the west?

It provided land and patents for new inventions for large mining companies

1864 incident in which Colorado militia attacked a camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, Some of who were under US Army protection

Sand Creek Massacre

A war chief and important spiritual leader who became the first-ever chief of all the Lakota Sioux bands in the 1860's. After surrendering to the Army in 1881, he lived on a reservation where he was killed by the Indian police sent to arrest him

Sitting Bull

Which type of people were most likely to support the Populist Party in the 1890s?

Small farmers

What was the primary effect of Native Americans being confined to reservations?

Their nomadic way of life was increasingly restricted