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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 cowboys guided huge herds of cattle North to new railroad lines extending across The Great Plains |
| Pony Express | A buisness that delivered from Missouri to California in just ten days |
| Telegraph | Invention that sent messages along wires using electricty |
| Samuel B. Morse | Developed a way to send telegraph messages |
| Transcontinental Railroad | A railroadacross the continent linking the eastern United States to the Western United States |
| Union Pacific | Began building train tracks west from Omaha. Most workers were Irish Immagrants |
| Central Pacific | Began building train tracks 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 Immagrants | 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 immagrants |
| 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 Americans pioneers who moved to the Great Plains and started communities. |
| Nicodemus, Kansas | A succesful community started by exodusters |
| Technology | The use of new ideas to make that improve people's lives |
| Entrepreneur | A person who starts a new buisness 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 South Dakota |
| Col. George Custer | Led the 7th Cavalrey on a mission to 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 hos people to the Canadian to avoid moving to a reservation. |