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Fort Laramie Treaty
The Fort Laramie Treaty is where government officilas met with nations near Fort Laramie. The officials asked each of the nations to keep to a limited area of land. If they did this in return they got money, domestic animals, agricutural tools, and other goods. The Native American agreed to this treaty. Then, gold was discovered at Pikes Peak in Colorado. Federal officilas forced them off the land and to sign the treaty. They attacked the white settlers and this caused the Chivington Massacre. -
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Comstock Lode
Gold was struck in the Sierre Nevada in 1859. Then, Henry Comstock said "The land is mine!' From then on he boasted about "his" mine and it came to be known as the Comstock Lode, A lode is a rich vein of gold or silver. Comstock then had discovered one of the richest silver mines in the world. After this, many people decided to move out West and try to strike there own gold or silver. -
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The Cattle Kingdom
Strays that came from cattle ranches over the years formed large herds of wild cattle that started these cattle kingdoms. Then Texas ranchers began to round up these cattle. In these cattle drives were mostly longhorns because they could go a long time without water. The life of a cowhand was very long, tiring days. They would round up the cattle and drive herds to market. Then, in the cold winters of 1886 and 1887 entire herds of cattle died, causing the cattle kingdom to die. -
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The construction of the Transcontinental Railraod
The transcontinental raildroad was significant because it was the first railroad to stretch all the way from the east to the west. It was also good because many people from the east could now easily move to the West. They faced many challenges to build it, but they had a very limited time to get it finished so they worked as hard and as fast as they could. Many times they brought over Chinese immigrants who were very hard workers, but most of the time got the most dangerous jobs. -
Chvington Massacre
Chivington Massacre videoThe settlers struck back after the Fort Laramie Treaty was broken. Colonel John Chivington lead his militia against a Cheyenne village. When Chivington attacked the Indians they raised a a white flag of surrender and the flag of the United States. However, Chivington ignored the flags and ordered his men to destroy the village and to take no prisoners. They killed more then 200 men, women, and children. -
Nebraska
Nebraska went from being a territory to a state in 1867. -
Exoduster Move West
African Americans also wanted to join the rush for homestead land. They moved out West after the Civil War because there rights were slowly slipping away. They were called the Exodusters after the book of Exodus that tells about the Jews escaping slavery in Egypt. They were called this because they were essentially escaping slavery in the East. Between 40,000 and 70,000 African Americans moved West to Kansas by the time of 1881. -
Oklahoma Land Rush
As more and more people moved West free land started to become scarce. The last major of the land rushes took place in Oklahoma, The Oklahoma Land Rush. There was some Indians who lived on this land but the government forced them to sell it. The purpose was to get all of the land farmed and for people to move out to the West. For this purpose the Oklahoma Land Rush did succeed, however, there were some people who went out on to the land early called "Soooners" who got the best of the land. -
Washington
Washington went from a territory to a state in 1889. -
The Battle of Wounded Knee
The Battle of Wounded knee was caused by the Ghost Dance, which was a Dance from the Indian people where they prayed the Great Spirit would make a new world for his people. Many settlers thought this dance was a way of indicating that they were preparing for war, and persuaded the government to outlaw the Ghost Dance. Then the Sitting Bull was shot and army troops led the Lakotas to Wounded Knee Creek where the battle began, the Native Americans lost, and this was the end of the Ghost Dance.
