Western Expansion
American adventurers and fur trappers who spent most of their time in the Rocky Mountains
Mountain men
famous early pioneer who cleared Wilderness Road, a new route to the west. Wilderness Road became the main route used to cross the Appalachian Mountains
Daniel Boone
The Cherokee Indians were forced to leave their lands. They traveled from North Carolina and Georgia through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas-more than 800 miles (1,287 km)-to the Indian Territory. More than 4,000 Cherokees died of cold, disease, and lack of food during the 116-day journey.
Trail of Tears
Apache chieftain who raided the white settlers in the Southwest as resistance to being confined to a reservation (1829-1909)
Geronimo
United States general who was killed along with all his command by the Sioux at the battle of Little Bighorn (1839-1876)
Custer
2000 mile trail from independence Missouri to Oregon used by many pioneers during the 1840s.
Oregon Trail
United States frontiersman who guided Fremont's expeditions in the 1840s and served as a Union general in the Civil War (1809-1868)
Kit Carson
An act that removed Indian land from tribal possession, redivided it, and distributed it among individual Indian families. Designed to break tribal mentalities and promote individualism.
Dawes Act
Guided expedition and acted as an interpreter with various Native American tribes including the Shoshone.
Sacagawea
Defense force that tried to keep the peace along the Texas frontier
Texas Rangers
A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined by God to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.
manifest destiny
hunter, trapper, fur trader, guide, one of the greatest American frontiersmen
Jim Bridger
1862 - Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.
Homestead Act
a famous chief of the Shawnee who tried to unite Indian tribes against the increasing white settlement (1768-1813)
Tecumseh
areas of federal land set aside for American Indians
Reservations
Forty-eight surviving members of a group of migrants to California were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive a brutal winter trapped in the Sierra Nevadas, 1846-47; highest death toll of any group traveling the Overland Trail.
Donner Party
Mountain man; first white man to enter California by land; discovered the South Pass, a wagon route from Wyoming to Oregon
Jedediah Smith
Diseases that hurt Native Americans
Small pox , measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, influenza, tuberculosis, and chicken pox.
American Indian medicine man, chief, and political leader of his tribe at the time of the Custer massacre during the Sioux War
Sitting Bull
In 1876, Indian leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeated Custer's troops who tried to force them back on to the reservation, Custer and all his men died
Battle of Little Bighorn
Sent on an expedition by Jefferson to gather information on the United States' new land and map a route to the Pacific. They kept very careful maps and records of this new land acquired from the Louisiana Purchase.
Lewis and Clark
Famous frontiersman, left Tennessee to help Texas fight Mexico for independence. Died at the Alamo.
Davy Crockett
In 1890, after killing Sitting Bull, the 7th Cavalry rounded up Sioux at this place in South Dakota and 300 Natives were murdered and only a baby survived.
Wounded Knee
Leader of Nez Perce. Fled with his tribe to Canada instead of reservations. However, US troops came and fought and brought them back down to reservations
Chief Joseph
The land West of the Mississippi River given to France by Spain and then sold to the U.S.A. Doubled the size of the US
Louisiana Purchase