WESTWARD EXPANSION

SODBUSTER

• A farmer in the Great Plains during the late 1800s who had to cut through sod before planting crops.

• A type of machinery used for breaking up soil in agriculture.

• A nickname for cattle ranchers in the Midwest.

• A term for farmers who specialized in growing wheat in the 1900s.

The way cowboys moved large herds of cattle north from ranches in Texas to towns along railroads in the late 1800s.

• CATTLE DRIVE

• CATTLE RANCH

• CATTLE ROUNDUP

• CATTLE TRAIL

BUFFALO SOLDIERS

• Nickname for African American soldiers who fought in the wars in the plains against Native Americans in the 1870s

• A term used for Native American warriors

• A nickname for soldiers in World War I

• A title for African American civil rights leaders

GEORGE CUSTER

• Led the U.S. 7th Calvary in the Battle of Little Big Horn against a coalition of Native American tribes, where he and all his men were killed.

• Served as a general in the American Civil War and later became a prominent politician.

• Was a famous explorer who mapped the western territories of the United States.

• Fought in World War I and was known for his strategic military tactics.

PIONEER

• Early settler of a region

• A type of plant

• A modern technology

• A famous explorer

HOMESTEAD ACT

• Law signed in 1862, offering free land to people willing to start new farms on the Great Plains.

• A policy that restricted land ownership to wealthy individuals in the East.

• An act that provided loans to farmers for purchasing land in the West.

• A treaty that established boundaries for Native American territories.

Lakota Tribal Chief who led his people to victory at the Battle of Little Big Horn

• SITTING BULL

• GERONIMO

• CHIEF JOSEPH

• BLACK ELK

Service begun in 1860 that used a relay of riders on horses to deliver mail from Missouri to California in ten days

• PONY EXPRESS

• MAIL COACH

• RIDER SERVICE

• CARRIER PIGEON

Name for African American pioneers who moved to the Great Plains after the Civil War

• EXODUSTER

• MIGRANT WORKER

• PIONEER SETTLER

• FRONTIERSMAN

Settler who claimed land in the Great Plains under the Homestead Act

• HOMESTEADER

• PIONEER

• COLONIST

• SETTLER