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westward expansion v
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| California Gold rush | period where thousands of people went to the west 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 messages 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 to Sacramento California. Most workers were Chinese immigrants. |
| 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 the Union Pacific workers that 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. ' Had to be a man 21 or older or a women who was head of family ' got up to 160 acres of land. ' Paid about $10 and agreed to farm |
| homesteaders | settlers who claimed land through the Homestead act |
| sod house (soddy) | houses made from sod (soil) on the Great Plains |
| sodbusters | the name for farmers on the Great Plains |
| pioneers | new settlers |
| exodusters | thousands of African American pioneers who moved to the Great Plains and started communities |
| Nicodemus, Kansas | a successful community started by exodusters |
| technology | the use of new ideas to make tools that improve people's lives |
| entrepreneur | a person who starts 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 Lakota tribe in the Black Hills of South Daktota |
| Col George Custer | led the 7th Cavalry on a mission to defeat the Defeat the Lakota and force them onto 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. |