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| The vast arid territory that included the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Western Plateau. Known as this before 1860, they were the lands between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Coast. | ||
| The discovery of gold in California in 1848 caused the first flood of newcomers to the West. A series of gold strikes and silver strikes in what became the states of Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, and South Dakota kept a steady flow of hopeful young prospectors pushing into the Western mountains. | ||
| First discovered in 1858 by Henry Comstock, some of the most plentiful and valuable silver was found here, causing many Californians to migrate here, and settle Nevada. | ||
| Many Chinese established laundries and restaurants in West Coast cities where they were viewed as potential competition by both white workers and proprietors of small business. A potent and racist anti-chinese movement organized to protest "cheap" Chinese labor and to demand a halt to Chinese immigration. The act restricted Chinese immigration by barring laborers, limited the civil rights of resident Chinese, and forbade their naturalization. | ||
| The cattle drives were the forced migration of massive numbers of cattle to the railroads where they could be shipped to the East. | ||
| Skilled riders who herded cattle on ranches in Mexico, California, and the Southwest. | ||
| Used to fence in land on the Great Plains, eventually leading to the end of the open frontier. | ||
| A period of time in which hundreds of thousands of citizens moved west and began to farm the frontier, very much due to the Homestead Act of 1862, which offered 160 acres of free public land to any family that settled there for a period of 5 years. | ||
| Flat, tree-less landscape that stretches through the central portion of North America from Texas to Canada. | ||
| A territory that was once set aside for use by Native Americans that was thrown open for settlement in 1889. | ||
| Historian who wrote an essay in 1893 emphasizing the western frontier as a powerful force in the formation of the American character; referred to as the frontier thesis. | ||
| Parcels of land set aside by the federal government for the Native Americans. | ||
| Ranged from colonial times to the Wounded Knee massacre and "closing" of the American frontier in 1890, generally resulted in the conquest of American Indians and their assimilation or forced relocation to Indian reservations. | ||
| American Indian medicine man, chief, and political leader of his tribe at the time of the Custer massacre during the Sioux War. | ||
| A chief of the Sioux who resisted the invasion of the Black Hills and joined Sitting Bull in the defeat of General Custer at Little Bighorn (1849-1877). | ||
| United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars who today is most remembered for a disastrous military engagement known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn. | ||
| Leader of Nez Perce. Fled with his tribe to Canada instead of reservations. However, US troops came and fought and brought them back down to reservations. | ||
| A writer. Author of the 1881 book A Century of Dishonor. The book exposed the U.S. governments many broken promises to the Native Americans. For example the government wanted Native Americans to assimilate, i.e. give up their beliefs and ways of life, that way to become part of the white culture. | ||
| Wanted to eradicate tribal life and assimilate Native Americans into white culture through education, land policy, and federal law. | ||
| Allotted lands to various Indian tribes and extended protection through federal laws over the Indians. It was designed to encourage the breakup of the tribes and promote the assimilation of Indians into American Society. Dawes' goal was to create independent farmers out of Indians -- give them land and the tools for citizenship. | ||
| The last effort of Native Americans to resist US domination and drive whites from their ancestral lands, came through as a religious movement. | ||
| In 1890 it was the site of a massacre of Native North Americans in which between 150 and 370 Sioux people were killed, most of them unarmed. | ||
| Act which secured certain rights to Native Americans. These include a reversal of the Dawes Act's privatization of common holdings of American Indians and a return to local self-government on a tribal basis. Owing to this Act and to other actions of federal courts and the government, over two million acres of land were returned to various tribes in the first 20 years after passage of the act. | ||
| After the Civil War, southerners promoted a new vision for a self-sufficient southern economy built on modern capitalist values, industrial growth, and improved transportation. Henry Grady played an important role. | ||
| In this system, storekeepers granted credit until the farm was harvested. To protect the creditor, the storekeeper took a mortgage, or lien, on the tenant's share of the crop. The system was abused and uneducated blacks were taken advantage of. The result, for blacks, was not unlike slavery. | ||
| United States botanist and agricultural chemist who developed many uses for peanuts and soy beans and sweet potatoes (1864-1943). | ||
| Booker T. Washington built this school to educate black students on learning how to support themselves and prosper. | ||
| By 1890, it had more than one million members. It rallied behind political reforms to solve farmers' economic troubles. | ||
| More than 1 million southern black farmers organized and shared complaints with poor white farmers. By 1890 membership numbered more than 250,000. The history of racial division in the South, made it hard for white and black farmers to work together in the same organization. | ||
| Laws created by the "Redeemers" in order to treating African Americans as social inferiors by separating them from whites in public facilities. | ||
| Court ruled that Congress could not legislate against the racial discrimination practiced by private citizens. | ||
| An 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal. | ||
| State laws which created a racial caste system in the South. They included the laws which prevented blacks from voting and those which created segregated facilities. | ||
| The grandfather clause was a clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867. A poll tax is a tax of a fixed amount per person and payable as a requirement for the right to vote. A literacy test is given to persons to prove they can read and write before being allowed to register to vote | ||
| Bishop who formed International Migration Society in 1894 to help American blacks emigrate to Africa. | ||
| Editor of a black newspaper in Memphis, Free Speech, she campaigned against lynching and Jim Crow laws. | ||
| African American progressive who supported segregation and demanded that African American better themselves individually to achieve equality. | ||
| Organized by Washington; established 320 chapters across the country to support businesses owned and operated by African Americans. Created as an effort to inspire the "commercial, agricultural, educational, and industrial advancement" of African Americans. | ||
| Raising crops and livestock for sale on the local or world market. | ||
| Increased crop production and global competition drove prices down while farmers still had mortgages to pay with high interest rates. | ||
| Organized in 1868 by Oliver H. Kelley as social and educational organization for farmers and their families. | ||
| Businesses owned and run by farmers to save the costs charged by middlemen. | ||
| A set of laws designed to address railroad discrimination against small farmers, covering issues like freight rates and railroad rebates. | ||
| 1876; The Supreme Court upheld the Granger laws. The Munn case allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders, including railroads, and is commonly regarded as a milestone in the growth of federal government regulation. | ||
| Supreme court ruling that states could not regulate interstate commerce. | ||
| Required railroads to be "reasonable and just." It set up the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first federal regulatory agency. | ||
| Arising vehicles of agrarian protest; groups principally concerned with local problems which formed cooperatives and marketing mechanisms such as stores, banks etc. | ||
| The deepening crisis in farm prices in the 1880s resulted in the blending of a host of organizations into the National Alliance Movement. The movement had distinct branches in the South and Midwest. | ||
| Demanded, among other things, the abolition of national banks, a graduated income tax, free and unlimited coinage of silver, the establishment of sub treasuries where farmers could obtain money at less than 2 percent on nonperishable products, and the election of U.S. senators by a direct vote of the people. |
