Key Vocabulary
Land set aside by the U.S. government specifically for Native American tribes to live on.
What is a reservation?
A U.S. Army officer known for fighting Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest during the 1858 battles.
Who was George Wright?
An event where thousands of people rushed to an area hoping to strike it rich finding precious metals.
What is a Gold Rush?
The acquisition of this animal gave tribes drastically improved mobility, changing hunting and travel dynamics.
What is the horse?
To cripple tribal resistance in 1858, Colonel Wright ordered the destruction of approximately 700 of these animals.
What are horses?
When a group of people adopts the customs and culture of another group, often by force.
What is assimilation?
Missionaries who moved to Oregon/Washington to convert Native Americans and established a mission near Walla Walla.
Who were the Whitmans?
A law passed by the U.S. government offering free land to settlers who promised to farm it for several years.
What is the Homestead Act?
This European disease decimated tribal populations in the Pacific Northwest prior to large-scale settler arrivals.
What is smallpox?
Rather than just fighting battles, Colonel Wright's strategy to defeat local tribes involved targeting and destroying these basic necessities required for tribal survival
What are resources (or food/livestock)?
The belief that the United States was meant to expand across the entire North American continent.
What is Manifest Destiny?
The Washington Territory governor who negotiated and signed a series of treaties with local tribes.
Who was Isaac Stevens?
The series of official agreements negotiated by the government in 1854 that required Native American tribes to sell millions of acres of their homelands and move onto reservations.
What are treaties (or the Treaty Trail)?
This traditional long-range hunting target became much easier to pursue across the mountains once tribes obtained horses.
What is the buffalo?
The military officer whose troops suffered a famous and embarrassing defeat against allied Northwest tribes near present-day Rosalia in May 1858.
Who was Colonel (Lieutenant Colonel) Edward Steptoe?
The informal word-of-mouth communication network Native Americans used to spread news quickly.
What is the Moccasin Telegraph?
A chief of the Coeur d’Alene tribe who predicted the future arrival of Christianity.
Who was Circling Raven?
Passed in 1850, this act granted up to 640 acres of land to married couples in the Northwest, giving 320 acres directly to the husband and 320 acres directly in the wife's name.
What is the Donation Land Claim Act?
This hostile neighboring tribe blocked traders and threatened to skin them alive if they traded firearms to the Salish.
Who are the Blackfeet?
The breaking of signed treaties by the U.S. government caused tribes to suffer a severe loss of this key relationship element.
What is trust?
A phrase used by Native tribes meaning "for as long as anyone can remember" or "forever".
What is "since time immemorial"?
The Spokane Chief who was warned by Colonel George Wright that failure to surrender would lead to total war and extermination.
Who was Chief Garry?
These two Washington cities grew as key supply hubs for prospectors traveling north to gold fields in Alaska and the Northwest
What are Seattle and Walla Walla?
The introduction of firearms created a massive military power imbalance over tribes that were still relying on these two traditional weapons.
What are bows (and arrows) and war clubs?
The famous 1872 painting by John Gast depicting a floating figure leading settlers westward, symbolizing Manifest Destiny.
What is American Progress?