APUSH Late Indian Wars Notes

Great American Desert
(etym. 1823) The Great American Desert is a term that was used in the 19th century to describe the High Plains east of the Rocky Mountain. etym. 1823 by Stephen Long, a government surveyor.

The Sioux
Members of the Great Sioux Nation. The Sioux were involved in many military confrontations with the US including the Dakota War of 1862, the Great Sioux War of 1876 and Wounded Knee Massacre

Union Pacific Railroad
(1862) Was incorporated in the wake of the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. Under Dr. Thomas Durant, the first rails were laid in Omaha, Nebraska as part of first transcontinental railroad.

Central Pacific Railroad
(1862) The California-to-Utah portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Organized by Theodore Judah in 1862 and funded by “The Big Four,” the railroad was finally connected in Promontory, Utah in 1869.

“Buffalo Bill” Cody
(1846-1917) (1846 –1917) an American soldier and showman who received the Medal of Honor in 1872. He is best known for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West (c. 1883).

Battle of Little Big Horn
(1876) aka Custer's Last Stand, it was fought between the Lakota and 7th Cavalry on June 25 - 26, 1876. This was the most famous battle of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and led to the death of Custer and 268 of his men.

Exodusters
(1879-1880) The name given to African Americans who fled the Southern United States in 1879 and 1880 for Kansas, the land of famed abolitionist John Brown.

“Buffalo Soldiers”
Buffalo Soldiers is a nickname originally applied to the members of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army by the Native American tribes they fought.

Homestead Act
(1862) The Homestead Act of 1862 was a Federal law that gave an applicant freehold title to 160 acres if they improved the land and filed for a deed. The act was made to expand the ideal of the “yeoman farmer.”

“The Grange” ***
(1867) Founded in 1867, the Grange is a fraternal organization for American farmers that encourages farm families to band together for their common economic and political good.

Assimilation
(c. 1865) This was a government program that began approximately in 1865. The government encouraged an “American” way of life through suppression of religion, and forced attendance in Indian boarding schools.

Helen Hunt Jackson
(1830-1885) (1830-1885) was an American writer best known as the author of Ramona, a novel about the ill treatment of Native Americans in southern California, and A Century of Dishonor.


A Century of Dishonor
(1881) Written by Helen Hunt Jackson and Justin Lloyd Campbell, it chronicles the experiences of Native Americans in the United States. It was equivalent to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Dawes Severalty Act
(1887) Aka Dawes Act, it was written by Senator Henry Dawes of MA and passed in 1887. The act gave 160 acres of land per Native but divided tribes in the process. This was intended to complete Assimilation.

Massacre at Wounded Knee
(1890) On December 29, 1890, 500 troops of the U.S. 7th Cavalry, surrounded a Sioux camp. When one member refused to give up his rifle, chaos ensued leaving 200+ Lakota Sioux dead.

Virginia City
(1859) Virginia City was a mining boomtown. It virtually appeared overnight as a result of the Comstock Lode silver strike of 1859. Virginia City had ~30,000 residents at its peak, but most left when the Lode ended in 1898.

Californios
Californios is a term used to identify a Californian of Hispanic descent. Much of Californio society lived at or near the many Missions on the El Camino Real.

Samuel Clemens
(1835-1910) aka Mark Twain, he was most noted for his novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American novel. He was called “the father of American literature” - Faulkner

Chinese Exclusion Act
(1882) A law passed on May 6, 1882 that revised the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. The Act allowed the US to suspend immigration and so Congress suspended Chinese immigration, a ban that lasted 60+ years.

John Muir
(1838-1914) Was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of U.S. wilderness. He helped save Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park and was the founder of the Sierra Club.