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Westward Expansion
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| California gold rush | Period where thousands of people went west to search for gold. |
| Cattle drive | When north 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. |
| Telegraph | invention that sent messages along wires using electricity |
| Samuel B. Morse | Developed a way to send telegraph messeges |
| 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 immagrants |
| promontory point | place in Utah where the union pacific met the central pacific and connected the Transcontinental railroad |
| 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 Americans citizens and immigrants who were willing to start new farms on the great plains |
| Homesteaders | settlers who claimed land through Homestead Act |
| sod House (soddy) | houses made from sod (soil) on the Great Plains |
| sodbusters | the name of farmers on the great Plains |
| Pioneers | new settlers. |
| exobusters | thousands of African American pioneers who moved to the great plains and started communities |
| Nicodemus, Kansas | a successful community started by exodusters |
| technoligy | the use of new ideas to make tools that improve people's lives |
| entrepreneur | a person who stats a new 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 Lakota tribe in the Black hills of South Dakota |
| Col. George Custer | led the 7th Cavalry on a mission to defeat the Lakota and force them onto a new Reservation. |
| Battle of Little Bighorn | battle in witch Crazy Horse helped lead the Lakota to victory against the U.S. forces |
| Chief Joseph | a Nez Pierce' chief who led his people to the Canadian border to avoid moving to a reservation |