Term | Definition |
reservation | land set aside by the government for Native Americans |
Battle of Little Bighorn | Lakota victory over the United States soldiers on June 25, 1876 |
pioneer | early settler of a region |
exoduster | name for African American pioneers who moved to the Great Plains after the Civil War |
gold rush | sudden movement of many people to an area where gold has been found |
entrepreneur | person who starts a new business, hoping to make a profit |
transcontinental railroad | railroad that crosses a continent. The first transcontinental railroad in the United States was completed in 1869 |
cattle drive | ways cowboys moved large herds of cattle north from ranches in Texas to towns along the railroads in the late 1800s |
Pony Express | service begun in 1860 that used a relay of riders on horses to deliver mail from Missouri to California in ten days |
technology | use of new ideas to make tools that improve people's lives |
telegraph | device that sends messages through wires using electricity |
Homestead Act | law signed in 1862 offering free land to people willing to start new farms on the Great Plains |
sodbuster | Great Plains farmer of the late 1800s who had to cut through thick sod, or thick grass, before planting crops |
homesteader | settler who claimed land in the Great Plains under the Homestead Act |