Agarian
related to farming
Homestead Act
Passed in 1862, it gave 160 acres of public land to any settler who would farm the land for five years. The settler would only have to pay a registration fee of $25.
Manifest Destiny
A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent, from the Atlantic the Pacific.
Dawes Act
1887 law that distributed reservation land to individual Native American owners
Assimilation
interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas
reservation
Federal land set aside for Native Americans
Americanization
Belief that assimilating immigrants into American society would make them more loyal citizens
vaquero
a Spanish term for cowboy
Great Plains
A mostly flat and grassy region of western North America
Populist Party Platform
The Populist Party Platform was co-opted. The party made a viable third party independant of the Democrats and Republicans
third parties
electoral contenders other than the two major parties. American third parties are not unusual, but they rarely win elections.