Westward Expansion Vocabulary

1. Technological Advances•Progress in

the use of scientific

discoveries for practical

use.

2. Erode• The movement

of soil from one place to another through natural

processes.

– Examples: Wind and rain.

3. Dust Storm • A strong wind carrying clouds of

dust across or from a dry region.

4. Barbed Wire•Wire with sharp points on it

every few inches, used for fencing.

5. Steel Plow• A steel farm tool used for cutting and

lifting the soil and turning it

over.

6. Sod Houses• Houses made of stacked sod, which

are pieces or layers of dirt containing the grass and its roots.

7. Beef Cattle Raising• Raising cattle for the purpose

of selling the meat of the

animal at market as a

means of income.

8. Wheat Farming• The growing of

wheat for the purpose of selling the crop at market

as a sustainable means of income

on the Great Plains.

9. Windmills•A machine

worked by the action of wind used to pump water.

10. Dry Farming• A way of farming dry

land in which seed are

planted deep in the ground

where there is some moisture.

11. Transcontinental Railroad• A railroad project

contracted by the U.S. government

in 1863 & completed in 1869

linking the east and west coasts.

NOTE: The Union Pacific built from the east, & the Central Pacific from the west.

The two lines met in Utah. The Central Pacific laborers were mostly Chinese, and the Union Pacific laborers mostly Irish.

12. Migration• The movement of people or

animals from one place to another.

13. Great Plains (Prairie)• The Great Plains

are a broad expanse of flat land, which lies

west of the Mississippi River and east of the

Rocky Mountains in the United

States.

This area covers parts of the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North

Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.

14. Treaty• A signed,

formal agreement or understanding between two individuals or

groups of people.

15. Assimilation • To adapt

and conform to

the customs or attitudes of a group or nation.

16. Reservation• A tract of public land

set apart for a special purpose such as the use of an American

Indian tribe.

17. Geronimo• This Native–American was an Apache war chief

who was opposed to Westward Expansion. – He took revenge on the Mexicans

& settlers of the Southwest for the murder of his wife, mother, & three children.

– He later surrendered to U.S. authorities & remained a prisoner of war until his death in 1909.

Actual signature above.

Geronimo 1887

18. Chief Joseph• This Native-American chief

of a Nez Perce tribe in Idaho who was opposed

to Westward Expansion.

– He tried to move his people to Canada, while fighting off the U.S. military, but eventually surrendered and relocated to a reservation rather than see more of his people die.

– Upon his surrender he stated, “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

19. Sitting Bull• Native-American chief

of the Sioux nation who was opposed to Westward Expansion. – He is most famous for the multi-tribal

victory known as the battle of Little Big Horn or Custer’s Last Stand in 1876.

– Sitting Bull would later surrender in 1881 and be forced onto a reservation where he is killed by Indian police in 1890.

Actual signature above.

20. Nez Perce`• This Native-American

tribal nation lived mainly in the Pacific

Northwest of the United States; the name translates to

“The People.” • Their descendants

now inhabit a reservation in Idaho.