all

• barn-raising


  Pioneer settlers helped each other build barns and then had contests and parties to celebrate

  
• railroad


  Land treaties made with the Sioux and other tribes were not honored by the US because it wanted the land for this

  
• mountain men


  Fur traders who aided settlers along the Rockies were called

  
• Manifest Destiny


  The belief that God wanted the US to expand from coast to coast

  
• rancheros


  Mexican ranch-owners in California were called

  
• Battle of Little Bighorn


  The Lakota Sioux killed all US troops led by Custer in this battle but were later slaughtered

  
• John Sutter


  Built the sawmill outside of San Francisco, California, where the first gold was found. He was one of the original founders of Gold.

  
• James Marshall


  Partner of John Sutter, helped him build a sawmill and they split the profits. Was the first to find Gold at Sutter's Mill on January 24th, 1848.

  
• Sam Brannan


  Owned California's only newspaper during the Gold Rush. He bought all of the available mining equipment, pick, pan, and shovels he could find and sold it for a lot more than it was worth. After he bought all of the equipment, he ran through San Francisco and announced that there was Gold.

  
• sawmill


  A structure built by a river that uses the force of water to operate a saw to cut lumber.

  
• gold fever


  The contagious excitement of a gold rush.

  
• deserted


  No longer occupied or used; abandoned; ghost town

  
• boomtown


  A town that grows rapidly as a result of new business.

  
• entrepreneur (empresario)


  A person who starts a new business with the hope of making money.

  
• migrate


  To move from one place to another.

  
• immigrate


  To come into another country to live.

  
• pioneer


  A person who is one of the first settlers of a part of a country.

  
• settler


  A person who settles in a new colony or moves into new country.

  
• Sutter's Mill


  Sawmill owned by John Sutter, where James Marshall first discovered gold in 1848.

  
• gold


  A soft valuable metal.

  
• American River


  River where James Marshall found gold in 1848.

  
• California Gold Rush


  Period in 1849 when thousands of people rushed to California to find gold.

  
• The Gadsden Purchase was fundamentally designed to


  permit the construction of a transcontinental railroad along a southern route.
• vigilante justice


  taking the law into your own hands as a citizen

  
• barricade


  block off with barriers

  
• Forty-niners


  Gold seekers who traveled to California during the gold rush

  
• cede


  to give up, surrender

  
• annex


  to add or attach

  
• The Donner Party


  Settlers forced into cannibalism when they were trapped for months in the snowy Rocky Mountains

  
• Sitting Bull


  Sioux chief who led the attack on Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn

  
• Great Plains


  A mostly flat and grassy region of western North America, settled because of the Homestead Act

  
• treaty


  a formally concluded and ratified agreement between countries.

  
• Republic


  A form of government in which citizens choose their leaders by voting