Question | Answer |
Great Plains | Region in central North America, east of the Rocky Mountains and extending from Canada to Texas |
Nicodemus, Kansas | town in Kansas that was founded by African Americans |
Willa Cather | (1873-1947)Novelist who moved to the Great Plains as a child in the 1800's. Her writing was strongly influenced by Nebraska's immigrant settlers |
Benjamin Singleton | (1809-1892)Leader of African American pioneers known as exodusters, who moved to the Great Plains after the Civil War |
George Shima | (1863-1926)Immigrant farmer from Japan who produced 80 percent of California's potato crop, becoming known as the "Potato King" |
Pioneer | early settler of a region |
Homestead Act | law signed in 1862 offering free land to people willing to start new farms on the Great Plains |
homesteader | settler who claimed land in the Great Plains under the Homestead Act |
sodbuster | Great Plains farmer of the lated 1800's who had to cut through sod, or thick grass, before planting crops |
technology | use of new ideas to make tools that improve peoples lives |
exoduster | name for African American pioneers who moved to the Great Plains after the Civil War |
Pony Express | service begun in 1860 that used a relay of riders on horses to deliver mail from Missouri to California in ten days |
telegraph | device that sends messages through wires using electricity |
transcontinental railroad | Railroad that crosses a continent. The first transcontinental railroad in the United States was started in 1862 and was completed in 1869 |
cattle drive | way cowboys moved large herds of cattle north from ranches in Texas to towns along the railroads in the late 1800's |
gold rush | sudden movement of many people to an area where gold is found |
entrepreneur | person who starts a new business, hoping to make a profit |
reservation | land set aside by the government for Native Americans |
Battle of Little Bighorn | Lakota victory over United States soldiers on June 25, 1876 |