Terms Chapter 18
1. April 22nd, 1889: This was the day in which many Western settlers were allowed to move into
the No Man’s Land of Oklahoma to be known as the biggest land rush in American History. This
was a time in which many western settlers were breaking up Oklahoma into small chunks of land,
claiming the rich and fertile land for themselves in a huge race to get the best land. This opening
of land following further restrictions on Indian settlement land after the Civil war marked the
beginning of the end of Indian sovereignty.
The result of this land opening came from constant pressure on Congress from nonIndian farmers who sought to divide the 2 million acre land strip into thousands of smaller farms.
Congress also saw some pressure from many free African Americans who wanted a piece of the
land to start new lives. Finally, after a final push from the railroad companies who saw the land as
a means for lucrative commerce, Congress gave into their demands in 1889.
2. Curtis Act: The land rush of 1889 only marked the beginning of the fall of the Indian land in
Oklahoma. First the federal government broke up the estates held by various tribes throughout all
of Oklahoma by giving out 160 acre homesteads to non-Indians and giving out the rest to more
hardcore homesteaders. The Curtis Act swiftly followed because of the high demand for this land,
which formally dissolved the Indian communal land ownership, thus putting an end to the Indian
Territory. Following this, they were forced to tear down their governments and be directed with
the other homesteaders; they were quickly outnumbered by whites ten to one.
3. Indian Removal Act: During the time of Andrew Jackson, the Indians still resided in the South
East and were considered by the government as autonomous nations residing within American
boundaries. With this came the formation of many treaties considering land boundaries and
trading rights. However, after constant violation of these treaties by land hungry whites who
wanted to cultivate the land for cotton and a racist President Andrew Jackson, Congress was
compelled to pass the Indian Removal Act of 1860. With this, many Indian tribes tried to stay and
were forced. The most famous is the Cherokee tribe, which stayed the longest and endured the
most on its forcible removal which came to be known as the Trail of Tears.
4. Medicine Lodge Treaty: With the demand for new land for more resources rising ever more
higher, the government continued to reduce the size of land set aside for the Indians to call their
own, thus causing many tribes to compete with each other for hard-to-get resources and
struggling to survive. The Medicine Lodge Traty of 1867 assigned reservations in existing Indian
Territory to Comanches, Plains, Apaches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes, bringing these
people together with the Sioux, Soshones, and Bannocks. This was a combined 100,000 people
crammed into a smaller area, struggling to survive. This is an example of how the government
constantly shrunk Indian Territory despite numerous treaties, trying to satisfy its own people
rather than consider the needs of others.
5. Sand Creek Massacre: In 1864, war broke out between the United states and several Indian
tribes. Territorial governor John Evans nullified all Indian treaties in the areas and encouraged a
band of Colorado civilians to raid the Cheyenne campgrounds to cause havoc. Chief Black Kettle
brought his band of 800 warriors to an American fort to seek protection where he received orders
to set up camp along Sand Creek. Here, he felt secure and thus sent out all his young warriors to
hunt and gather food for the long winter. Several weeks later, the band of Colorado volunteers
attacked Black Kettle’s camp drunk and proceeded to killer 105 Cheyenne women and children
and 28 men. Here they mutilated the corpses of the fallen and scalped them and brought the
scalps back to Denver as trophies. Following the Sand Creek Massacre by the Colorado volunteer
infantry, the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes retaliated with brutal force, burning many civilian
outposts and killing whole families in cold blood.
6. Treaty of Fort Laramie: During the Indian wars, the Sioux played one of the biggest roles in
fighting for their freedom of land. In the great Sioux War of 1865-1867, the Sioux Army under
Red Cloud was able to come to a stalemate with the United States Army, forcing the government
into the Treaty of Fort Laramie and compelling them to abandon their forts, which the Indians
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burned. The Treaty of Fort Laramie was signed in 1868 and created a temporary peace in the
region of dispute.
Col. George Armstrong Custer: With the signing of the Treaty, the Sioux were given the right
to occupy the Black Hills, which was their sacred land, but with the discovery of gold a few years
later, they were once again driven back into their original places. Lieutenant George Armstrong
Custer was a Civil War hero who was instructed by the government to hush rumors that precious
metals lay in the Sioux sacred land, so as to give them a peaceful place to live. However, after
organizing a surveying expedition of the land, Custer came to report of rich amounts of ore found
in the rocks that could be easily extracted. As a result the gold rush took over and Congress
moved to purchase the land, as a result, the Sioux rebelled and they and the Cheyenne and
Arapaho warriors moved into war camps in 1876 and prepared for war.
Custer’s Last Stand: Following many skirmishes, Lt. Custer decided to boldly rush to a
supposed Indian sight in Montana known as Little Big Horn, overextending his military reach.
Recognizing the flawed strategy, the Cheyennes and Sioux warriors easily cut off Custer’s
military supply and annihilated he and his unit with over 2,000 Indian warriors. This event
generated more Indian hatred back on the East Coast, getting more public support for the United
States’ cause. Thus, in 1877, each of the tribes was forced to surrender and the Indian Wars ended
as a result.
Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse:
Geronimo: Geronimo was a skilled horse rider of the Apaches. During the time of the Indian
Wars, the Apaches had earned themselves a reputation as skilled pillagers with highly trained
warriors. Geronimo was almost legendary to the tribe in his incredibly quick raids of white
settlements in rugged Arizona. Geronimo was also part of organized a powerful Indian movement
with the Kiowas and Comanches in the Red River War in which the U.S. Army won. Finally,
after much struggling, Geronimo was reduced to just a few dozen raiders and he was forced to
surrender, thus officially ending the Indian Wars.
Chief Joseph “Nez Perce”: The Nez Percé was a friendly Indian Tribe that got along very well
with American merchants for several generations. However, with the discovery of gold in their
territory in the plateau of where Idaho, Oregon, and Washington meat, they were forced to sell
nine tenths of their territory for just ten cents an acre. Several Nez Percé leaders agreed to the
treaty and falsely signed for their fellow Indian tribe members. Federal officials were first
sympathetic and willing to listen to complaints made by the Indians; however, after constant
pressure from politicians and settlers, they were compelled to completely reverse their decisions
and forced the Nez Percé tribes to move onto a reservation.
Chief Joseph was an important Nez Percé Chief who move with his band and livestock
from the Wallowa Valley to the reservation. Along the way, several young warriors dispatched
from the main line to avenge the death of a fellow fallen Indian by killing several whites. To try
and amend the misunderstanding, a Nez Percé truce team approached U.S. troops, who opened
fire without warning. Indian forces retaliated, killing two thirds of the U.S. troops. After several
major confronts, Chief Joseph and his band retreated some 1,400 miles into the mountains of
Montana and Wyoming. After a three and a half month journey, U.S. troops managed to trap the
Nez Percé in the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana. Promised to be returned to Oregon, they were
tricked and led to disease-ridden Kansas. Later, Joseph spoke with amazing grace to Congress to
plea for his people. However, the last bits of his band were deported to non- Nez Percé
reservation in Washington where he died of a broken heart and to this day his followers live
exiled to this day.
California Gold Rush: The California Gold Rush of 1848 was one of the most amazing
examples of rapid western migration and immigration in the history of the United States. As the
first gold was discovered all out west, wannabe fortune makers came from all over the world. As
a result of this sudden obsession of striking the mother lode becoming apparent, many small
mining towns popped up all over the once isolated and acrid desert. In four years alone, the
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population of California jumped from 14,000, to almost 225,000 people, as a result of the search
for gold.
Comstock Lode: As a result of the constant discoveries of lodes all around the South West, the
mining industry grew into a full grown corporate enterprise. In 1859, Henry Comstock struck the
Comstock Lode of silver in the Sierra Nevada in California. Comstock is an example of a wealthy
entrepreneur who used his first big find of precious metals in the state to buy himself a team of
miners and equipment in search of an even larger and more valuable find. The result of these
lucky and wealthy miners fed the mining business, making it a very successful one.
Helldorados: These were wealthy mining towns that were centralized in areas of big finds in
hopes of discovering more gold or silver in the area. These towns were usually short lived, but
generally flourished and were incredibly diverse as towns. In these towns, men usually greatly
outnumbered women and the town functioned more like a huge bed and breakfast for the miners.
Many had no family or did not bring them along and whore houses and saloons were built to
satisfy many lonely men.
Caminetti Act: As the mining business began to fall as a result of ore prices dropping rapidly,
many could not stop the environmental pig sties many of these companies left behind. As a result
of hydraulic presses functioning water cannons to carve rock; this mined rock was generally
thrown in streams and rivers, thus flooding many towns and destroying ecosystems. Congress
passed the Caminetti Act which game the state the power to regulate mines so none of this
thoughtless work was carried out.
Brigham Young and Joseph Smith: Joseph Smith and the Mormons faced even greater
persecution in the Midwest after moving from New York to Ohio to Missouri and eventually
Colorado. Smith was eventually killed while in Ohio after preaching polygamy and Brigham
Young moved the Mormons in 1846-1847 to Utah. Following Smith’s preaching of polygamy,
the Mormon Church received a lot of discouragement and hate from outsiders who saw them as
heathens and savages. In 1882, Congress passed the Edmunds Act which made polygamy illegal
and threatened to fine and imprison any who attempted to practice it. Finally, the EdmundsTucker Act passed five years later dealt a huge blow to the Mormon Church, allowing the
government to seize all assets over $50,000 and to establish a commission that would oversee all
elections in the territory.
Anglos: As a result of the citizenship rights given to many immigrated Mexicans after the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, many socially and racially diverse communities developed on the borders
of Mexico and the United States. The Anglos were what the local Mexicans used to describe
whites in the area.
Santa Fe Ring: This was a group of lawyers, politicians, and land speculators that stole millions
of acres from public domain and grabbed over 80 percent of the Mexicano landholdings in New
Mexico alone.
Hispanic American Alliance: This was an alliance formed that was to protect and fight for the
rights of Spanish Americans through political action. This was to attempt to counter the great
amount of persecution many Hispanic workers received as a result of having to rely off of wage
working and a large majority of them constantly trying to make ends meet.
Texas Longhorns: These were special types of male cattle that were prized by American
cowboys for their exceptionally long horns. Many rich people had high demands for these as
decorations in their homes.
21. Elizabeth Collins: Elizabeth Collins in an example of women who took over the whole of their
husband’s businesses following their deaths on the frontier. Following her husband’s death, she
turned his ranch into an amazingly popular and prosperous business, earning herself the title of
“Cattle Queen of Montana”.
22. Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp: Because of the amount of drinking, prostitution, drugs, and
gambling that occurred in many western towns, the formation of stable societies was hard if no
sheriffs were present to enforce laws. Because of the unruliness in the areas, gun duels were
outlaws, but it was not enforced until local police officers like Hickok and Earp worked to keep
order among drunken cowboys.
23. Range wars: The term “range wars’ was used to describe violent conflicts that occurred between
ranch owners during the 1870s. Land had become scarce and farmers and sheep herders began
intruding on each other’s properties. The farmers complained sheep chewed grass down to the
roots, leaving little for their cattle to eat. Farmers began building barbed wire fences to keep the
sheep herders’ livestock in their own property. However, these herders hired cowboys to cut these
fences. This constant back and forth competition made it very apparent that the business was
extremely competitive.
24. Great desert: This was the name given to the stretch of land from west Kansas and Nebraska,
north to Montana and the Dakotas, and south again to Oklahoma and Texas. In this area, few trees
grew, water was sparse, and the blazing sun all combined to make traveling deadly in the area.
25. Homestead Act 1862: This was an act imposed by President Lincoln to inspire westward
expansion by granting homesteads of 160 acres to any settlers who promised to develop the land
within five years of receiving the land. However, the dream of the homestead died quickly as
many families found it hard to successfully develop the land within just five years of getting it.
Only about 10 percent actually get their start under its terms. Instead, most settlers acquired their
land outright.
26. National Land Company: This is an example of a company that sold its own government
allotments to immigrants looking for land to develop. Because bringing people west was the top
priority of railroad companies because it brought profit to their transit system. Thus, when they
sold land, they created travel routes for these settlers. The national Land Company organized over
sixteen different colonies of mainly European immigrants in parts of Kansas and Colorado.
27. John Deere and Cyrus McCormick: John Deere and Cyrus McCormick were famous inventers
who essentially changed the way farming was done during the early to mid nineteenth century.
John Deere’s “singing” or steel plow easily dug up hard packed soils and Cyrus McCormick’s
reapers allowed farmers to cultivate vast amounts of crops in shorter time.
28. Hatch Act: With the revolutionary discoveries in planting technology, finds scientifically
concerning soil, grain, and climatic conditions contributed greatly to record amounts of crop yield
during the late 1800s. The Hatch Act was an act that created a series of state experimental states,
provided for basic agricultural research, especially in the areas of soil and plant growth.
29. National Reclamation Act: Because the presence of new farmers meant the irrigation of more
and more land, natural water reserves began drying up. Farmers damned and redirected water
sources to their fields, starving the countryside and hurting wildlife. By the 1890s, the irrigation
of land reached a critical point at which the government could not ignore. It passed the Nation
Reclamation Act which added 1 million acres of irrigated land, and satte irrigation districts added
more than 10 million acres.
30. Albert Bierstadt: Albert Bierstadt was a German artist who traveled the Oregon Trail with a
camera to document the natural beauty of the western landscape during the 1860s. he is an
example of the type of artists who traveled the western landscape, taking in its beauty and rich
environments.
31. William F. Cody: William F. Cody was a former rider of the Pony Express, an army scout, and a
famed buffalo hunter who saw profit in bringing Wild West stories to the theater. He earned the
name “Buffalo Bill” Cody and put on hundreds of acted plays depicting certain monumental
historical times in the westward expansion of the U.S.
32. Frederick Remington: Remington was the most famous of all artists in the United States who
left Yale art School to visit Montana in 1881. Here, Remington became a sheep owner and tavern
owner before returning to painting. He was able to depict many vivid, yet famous battle scenes
after he made himself into a war correspondent after being inspired by the army’s campaign
against the Apaches. He is one of hundreds of artists who also depicted the famous western story
of Custer’s Last Stand.
33. Alice Cunningham Fletcher: Fletcher was one of the most influential interpreters of the cultures
of living tribespeople. He was also a pioneering ethnographer. In 1879, he met Susette La Fleshce
of the Ohama tribe, who was on a speaking tour to try and gather support for her tribe to prevent
further usurpation of their land. With her, he transcribed many hundreds of songs, he was
growing accustomed and sympathetic towards Indian culture. In 1885, Fletcher presented the
Indian Education and Civilization report which was the first general statement on the status of
Indian peoples.
34. Helen Hunt Jackson: The United States movement into the West was nothing of glory or fame,
it was filled with hatred and dislike with the violation of countless treaties with the Indians. Helen
Hunt Jackson was a poet and reformer who had similar views of this. Jackson had attended an
Indian convention held by a chief of Ponca tribe in Hartford, Connecticut concerning his people
being forced from their homelands in Dakota. From here, she became an avid advocate of Indian
rights and the continuation of certain treaties. In her A Century of Dishonor published in 1881,
Jackson details the plight of the Indian peoples.
35. Dawes Severalty Act: This was an act passed by congress to help alleviate the amount of hatred
against the persecution and removal of Indians from their land. After constant pressure from the
Women’s Nation Indian Association and the Indian Rights association, the Dawes Severalty Act
was passed. In it, the act allowed the president to distribute land to Indians as legally severed
from their tribes, meaning they could not give land to the tribe as a whole. Essentially the
homestead was applied to Indian individuals who were granted 160 acres in exchange for
allowing the government to sell unallotted tribal lands as well as giving them the chance to
become legal U.S. citizens.
36. Ghost Dance: In 1888, Sioux prophet was sick with scarlet fever and had a vision during a
complete eclipse of the sun, in the vision he was told by the creator that if the Indian peoples
learned to love each other, they would be granted a place in the afterlife. The Creator also gave
them the ghost dance which was a dance for the Indians to pray to their ancestors to give them
good fortune. These dances became popular in Sioux culture because they truly believed
judgment would come if they continued them.
37. Battle of Wounded Knee: After these ghost dances became popular, Indians would literally
dance themselves into exhaustion, desperate for salvation. Eventually, whites grew skeptical and
tired of their incessant dancing and ordered them to stop. Members of the 7th cavalry who were
survivors of Little Bighorn rushed the Sioux dancing on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Big Foot,
the Sioux leader there, feared mass murder of his people and fled to the Bad Lands in South
Dakota. Following a quick skirmish, Sitting Bull and his son were killed.
After this skirmish, the 7th Cavalry pursued the remaining tribe members to Wounded
Knee Cree. On December 29th, 1890, Big Foot laid Dying holding a white flag of surrender,
surrounded by soldiers armed with automatic weapons. However, after an unexpected gunshot by
a misunderstood deaf Indian brave, the whole 7th Cavalry and Indians were in confusion, causing
the cavalry members to open fire, killing all 200 Indians in a matter of minutes.
38. Long Walk: This was a result of the Navajo Indians being conquered by an alliance of hostile
tribes led by Colonel Kit Carson who was on a campaign to rid the region of the Navajos to make
way for more land for customers. The Long walk occurred after the Navahos lost all crops and
fruit trees, it happened with 8,000 Indians who were forced to march 300 miles to the desolate
Bosque Redondo reservation where they nearly starved. Four year later they were allowed to
return to their original land which had been sized down considerably by the Indian Bureau.