1. Section 1 “Miners and Ranchers”
Settling the West
Section 1
“Miners and Ranchers”
Placer Mining – Using picks, shovels, and pans.
Quartz Mining – Dug deep beneath the surface.
Henry Comstock – Staked a claim in Six Mile Canyon, Nevada.
Vigilance Committees – self appointed volunteers punishing wrongdoers.

2. Open Range – A vast area of grassland owned by the government.
Long Drive – From either Abilene or Dodge City in Kansas to Sedalia, Missouri.
Chisholm Trail – A town that rivaled the mining towns in terms of rowdiness.
Mavericks – stray calves with no identifying symbols
Barbed Wire – enabled hundreds of square miles to be fenced off cheaply and easily.

3. Section 2 “Farming the Plains”
Great Plains – Extended westward to the Rocky Mountains from around the 100th meridian.
Stephen Long – Explored the region with an army expedition in 1819.
Homestead Act – For a $10 registration fee, an individual could file for a homestead.
Homestead – A tract of public land available for settlement.

4. Dry Farming – Plant seeds deep in the ground where there was enough moisture for them to grow.
Sodbusters – those who plowed the soil on the Plains.
Bonanza Farms – often yielded big profits.

5. Section 3 “Native Americans”
Nomads – roamed vast distances following their main source of food.
Annuities – payments to reservation dwellers
Little Crow – Asked traders to provide food to his people on credit.
Fetterman’s Massacre – The Lakota Sioux defended their territory.

6. Sand Creek Massacre – Took place along Sand Creek in eastern Colorado.
Indian Peace Commission – Proposed creating two large reservations on the Plains. One for the Sioux and one for the southern Plains Indians.
George A. Custer – Commander of the Seventh Cavalry.
Ghost Dance – ritual that celebrated a hoped-for day of reckoning when settlers would disappear, the buffalo would return, and native Americans would be reunited with their deceased ancestors.
Assimilate – to be absorbed
Allotments – were families could be self-supporting.