Diana Chetnik 11-18-13 Vocab ch 15, 16, & 17 APUSH Chapter 15 Ralph Waldo Emerson- Wrote the popular lecture-essay ?Self-Reliance?. Insurmountable- Too great to be overcome ?Kentucky Bluegrass?- European bluegrass that thrived on charred canefields and made ideal pastures for livestock, luring Americans into Kentucky. George Catlin- A painter and student of Native American life. Was one of the first Americans to push for the preservation of nature as a national policy. He observed Sioux Indians slaughter buffalo in 1832 in order to trade the animal?s tongues for the white man?s whiskey. He was appalled by this and proposed the creation of a national park, beginning with Yellowstone Park in 1872. ?Queen of the South?- What New Orleans was called.