Red
What was the pony express?
Mail system of horse riders
What new ways did Americans become more connected?
Telegram and railroads
What is a telegram?
Electric way to send messages
What is the transcontinental railroad?
Railroad that went east to west coast
Who built the railroads?
Immigrants and Civil War Veterans
What issues did railroads companies deal with?
Geography and Natives
How would these railroads change America?
Made America more connected
What happened after the first railroads were connected?
More were built
What is the homestead act?
Gave free land in the Midwest to farm
What was life on the plains like?
Very harsh
What are exodusters?
African Americans who left the South to farm in the Midwest
What are cattle drives?
Moving cattle from Texas to rail stations in Kansas/Missouri
What are cowboys and what backgrounds did they come from?
People who moved cattle and came from many backgrounds
What happened to many towns out west?
Began to grow due to cattle sales
What allowed people to move west and make money off cattle?
Trains
What were ranchers and farmers trying to do?
Take Native American land
What did people hunting buffalo do?
Killed buffalo to take away Native food source
What are reservations
land Native Americans were moved to
What happened to the population of Native Americans?
drastically declined