12 KEY DATES
- 1837 Financial Crisis in the Eastern USA.
- 1844 The death of Joseph Smith
- 1848 The discovery of gold in California.
- 1851 The 1st Fort Laramie Treaty.
- 1862 The Homestead Act.
- 1864 The Sand Creek Massacre.
- 1866 Goodnight and Loving establish the first Cattle trail.
- 1868 The 2nd Fort Laramie Treaty.
- 1869 The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
- 1876 The Battle of the Little Bighorn.
- 1887 The end of the Open range.
- 1890 The Battle of Wounded Knee.
Keywords and Definitions
Buffalo chips dried buffalo dung used as fuel on the Great Plains, by both Native Americans and the early homesteaders
Cattle barons owners of large cattle ranches who formed powerful associations and took over smaller ranches in the 1880s
Counting coup the practice of Native American warriors of rushing towards an enemy and touching him with a coup stick (a pole about 8-10ft long) – considered more honourable than killing
Ghost Dance a dance taken up by the Sioux Nation in 1890 – associated with Wovoka who said the dance would bring back all dead warriors and buffalo, and make the whites disappear. It was ended by the Massacre at Wounded Knee, November 1890
Great Plains the huge, often barren, grasslands (prairies) west of the Mississippi – in 1840, the Plains Indians and about 60 million buffalo lived there (whites called it the ‘Great American Desert’)
Great Plains Massacre the deliberate extermination of the buffalo in the 1870s by organised hunting (for leather), encouraged by the government, who saw it as a way of forcing the Plains Indians on to reservations. By 1875, less than one million buffalo were left; by 1890, there were only about 250
Great Spirit a name given by those Plains Indian Nations that believed in one supreme being/creator – other names included Father of Life, or Wakan Tanka (the Great God)
Homesteaders early pioneer settlers/farmers encouraged by US government acts and land grants in the 1860s to farm on the Great Plains – this began a large migration to the new Western Territories
Long Drive the journey made by cattle and cowboys from Texas to the cattle towns – it could last two months
Lynching the illegal hanging by unauthorised people (for example, vigilante groups) of someone suspected of a serious crime
Manifest Destiny the belief by whites that they had a God-given right to rule the whole of the USA, including (after 1840) the Great Plains where the Native Americans lived
Mountain men early fur trappers who also helped open up the West by working out new trails (routes) and acting as scouts for the wagon trains of early pioneers
Native Americans all the Indians living in America before the arrival of the first white people – sometimes called (Red) Indians or American Indians
Nomadic a lifestyle based on hunting, requiring people to move frequently in order to follow the animals hunted (for example, buffalo on the Great Plains)
Pioneers the very first white settlers to begin the move westwards
Reservations areas of land (often poor) ‘granted’ by US governments to Native Americans – they were supposed to stay on them and whites were meant to stay out
Rustlers gangs who stole cattle on the ranges and the Long Drives – for example, Jayhawkers
Scalping cutting off the skin and hair on the top of the head of a dead enemy. Plains Indians believed it prevented them having to meet their enemy in the afterlife – it also brought prestige/honour to the warrior. It was also practised by some whites
Sod houses another early type of homesteader dwelling – better than dugouts, they were made out of timber and turf bricks, with roofs made of sod and grass. Though cool in summer and warm in winter, they were impossible to keep clean, and they were damp and attracted insects
Trailblazers mountain men and fur trappers who surveyed/pioneered the first trails (routes) west – for example, the Oregon Trail, the California Trail
Vigilantes people who (often because of the lack of reliable law officers) formed vigilance committees, and punished suspected law breakers (for example, by hanging/lynching)