History Chapter 17 Terms
Chinese Exclusion Act
1882 law that effectively barred Chinese immigration and set a precedent for further immigration restrictions; racial and cultural animosities stood at the heart of the anti-Chinese agitation that led to the passage of the Exclusion Act; led to a sharp drop in the Chinese popluation in America
Exodusters
A group of former slaves from Mississippi and Louisiana who moved west to Kansas in 1879 so that they could own land and escape the sharecropping system
Homestead Act of 1862
Act that promised 160 acres in the trans-Mississippi West free to any citizen or prospective citizen that settled on the land for 5 years; between 1870 and 1900, hundreds of thousands of Americans moved west, many drawn by the promise of free land
Dawes Allotment Act
An 1887 law that divided up reservations and allotted parcels of land to individual Indians as private property- intended to assimilate Indians into American culture; idea of American exceptionalism; American government sold almost two-thirds of Indian land to white settlers; dealt a crippling blow to traditional Indian culture
Battle of the Little Big Horn
Battle between SIoux warriors led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull and American cavalry led by George Armstrong Custer; when Custer charged into a Sioux encampment, he and his men were killed; a major military victory for the Siouc, but shortlived; in response to US government breaking Fort Laermie treaty
Geronimo
Chiricahua Apache shaman who refused to stay at the San Carlos Reservation and repeatedly led raiding parties in the early 1880s; captured in September 1886- nearly 500 Apaches were rounded up by the government and sent as prisoners to Florida
Wounded Knee
December 1890 massacre of Sioux Indians by American cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota; soldiers were sent to suppress the ghost dance when the soldiers opened fire on a group of Sioux as they attempted to surrender; more than two hundred Sioux Indians were killed
Sitting Bull
Great Sioux leader of the second half of the nineteenth century; among those who refused to sign the two Treaties of Fort Laramie; led Indian forces in the Battle of Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand); surrendered in 1881- government took the Black HIlls and confined the Lakota to the Great Sioux Reservation; joined the Ghost Dance in 1890 and was killed by Indian police as they tried to arrest him
Ghost Dance
New religion that served as a nonviolent form of resistance for Indians in the late 1800s; the Paiute shaman Wovoka combined elements of Christianity and traditional Indian religion to found the religion in 1889; frightened whites and was violently suppressed; wore shirts that were supposedly bulletproof; aimed to rid the world of whites and everything they made; led directly to the Massacre at Wounded Knee after President Harrison soent several thousand troops west as protection
Comstock Lode
Silver ore deposit discovered in 1859 in the Washoe basin in Nevada; discovery of the lode touched off an influx of people into the region and led to the establishment of a number of boomtowns, including Virginia City, NV; by 1875, Virigina City had a diverse population of about 25,000 people; continued the influx west
1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie
Treaty with the Sioux in which the United States agreed to abandon the Bozeman Trail and guarantee Sioux control of the Black Hills; signed after a brief war with the Sioux on the northern plains; discovery of gold in 1874 in the Black Hills lead the government to break its promise- demanded all Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians onto the Pine Ridge Reservation- lead to Battle of the LIttle Big Horn
