Unit #6 Flashcards
(180 cards)
The Great Plains
Untamed, wild, full of Indians, bison and wildlife, and sparsely populated by Mormons and Mexicans.
Exodusters
Name given to African Americans who fled the Southern United States for Kansas in 1879 and 1880 because of racial oppression and rumors of the reinstitution of slavery.
The Homestead Act
an 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 and to provide a stimulus to the family
Pacific Railroad Act
an act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes
The Transcontinental Railroad
completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California’s railroad system
Union Pacific RR
the railroad that started from Omaha in the mid-1860s and was built westward as part of the transcontinental railroad
Central Pacific RR
started in California, and pushed eastward; eventually connected with the Union Pacific Railroad in Promentary Point, Utah
The Plains Indians
Posed a serious threat to western settlers because, unlike the Eastern Indians from early colonial days, the Plains Indians possessed rifles and horses.
The Plains Indians Wars
Native American tribes fought back because they were removed from their ancestral lands and Indian agents were corrupt and pawned off products to their own Indians.
Chivington (Sand Creek) Massacre
1864: Militia massacred about 400 hundred Indians in cold blood - Indians who had though they had been promised immunity and Indians who were peaceful and harmless
Fetterman Massacre
1866: a Sioux war party ambushed Captain Fetterman’s command of 81 soldiers and civilians who were constructing the Bozeman Trail to the Montana goldfields leaving no survivors, Indian Victory
2nd Treaty of Fort Laramie
1868: the government abandoned the Bozeman trail; “Great Sioux Reservation” promised; Ended when Custer found gold on the lands
Reservation System
The federal government tried to pacify the Indians by signing treaties with chiefs of tribes. The US failed to understand that tribes and chiefs didn’t necessarily represent groups of people in Indian culture.
Sitting Bull
Leader of the Sioux
Crazy Horse
chief of the Nez Perce Indians of Idaho; tried to escape to Canada
George Armstrong Custer
Discovered gold in Black Hills of South Dakota, his seventh cavalry division was decimated by the Sioux at the battle of Little Big Horn
Battle of Little Big Horn
Hordes of gold-seekers invaded the Sioux reservation after Colonel Custer found gold in the Black Hill, Indian Win
Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
After the New Perce Indians revolted the gold seekers made the government shrink their reservation by 90% and after a battle Chief Joseph surrendered his band after a long trek across the continental divide to Canada.
Geronimo
Lead the Apache tribes of Arizona and New Mexico; finally surrendered after being pushed to Mexico and they became successful farmers
Destruction of Buffalo
Many people killed buffalo for their meat and their skins and used the whole body but others hunted for sport. By 1885, fewer that 1000 buffalo were left.
The Carlisle Indian School
Was founded to teach native American children how to behave like whites, completely erasing their culture
Helen Hunt Jackson
Wrote a Century of Dishonor and Ramona; chronicled record of government ruthlessness/love story
Dawes Severalty Act
1887: dissolved the legal entities of all tribes, but if the Indians behaved the way whites wanted them to behave (farmers) and could receive full citizenship is 25 years
The Ghost Dance
a festival that whites thought was the war-drum beating