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Westward Expansion
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| California Gold Rush | period where thousands of people went to search for gold |
| Cattle Drive | when cowboys guided huge herds of cattle North to new railroad lines extending across The Great Plains |
| Pony Express | business that delivered mail from Missouri to California in just ten days |
| Telegraph | invention that sent images along wires using electricity |
| Samuel B. Morse | developed a way to send telegraph messages |
| Transcontinental Railroad | a railroad across the continent linking the Eastern United States to the Western United States |
| Union Pacific | began building train track west from Omaha. Most workers were Irish immigrants. |
| Central Pacific | began building train track east from Sacramento, California. Most workers were Chinese immigrants. |
| Promontory Point | place in Utah where the Union Pacific met the Central Pacific and connected the transcontinental road |
| Chinese Immigrants | made up almost 80% of the Central Pacific workers |
| Red Cloud | told Union Pacific workers they were scaring away the buffalo |
| Gen. William Tecumsah Sherman | warned the Native Americans that nothing would stop the building of the railroads |
| Homestead Act Of 1862 | law that offered free land to American citizens and immigrants who were willing to start new farms on the Great Plains |
| Homesteaders | settlers who claimed land through the Homestead Act |
| sod House (soddy) | houses that were made from sod (soil) on the Great Plains |
| sodbusters | the name for farmers on the Great Plains |
| pioneers | new settlers |
| exodusters | thousands of African Americans pioneers who moved to the Great Plains and started commnities |
| Nicodemus, Kansas | a successful community started by exodusters |
| technology | the use of new ideas to make tools to improve people's lives |
| entrepreneur | a person who starts a business hoping to make a profit |
| Levi Strauss | began making pants out of blue denim that were Sturdy and didn't tear-the first blue jeans |
| reservation | area of land set aside for Native Americans |
| Sitting Bull | chief of the Lokata tribe in the Black Hills of South Dakota |
| Col. George Custer | led the 7th Calvary on a mission to defeat the Lakota and force them into a new reservation |
| Battle of Little Bighorn | battle in which Crazy Horse helped lead the Lakota to victory against the U.S. forces |
| Chief Joseph | A Nez Perce' chief who led his people to the Canadian border to avoid moving to a reservation |