A Fluid Frontier: Minority and Ethnic Groups and Opportunity in Oklahoma
Glossary
allegiance: Commitment or support to a cause or to a person.
ancestry: A person’s family that lived a long time ago.
barred: To be kept from or out of a place.
Buffalo Soldiers: A name Plains Indians gave to the African American soldiers assigned to the Great Plains.
cattle drives: Trails used by cowboys and ranchers to move large herds of cattle from one state to another.
Chinese Exclusion Act: An 1882 law that prevented the immigration of Chinese workers. It was repealed in 1943.
Chisholm Trail: One of the best known cattle trails, which extended 800 miles. It was named after Jesse Chisholm, a Cherokee frontier trader who owned a trading post on the trail.
cross-cultural interaction: When people from different backgrounds or cultures to each other.
dispersal: Spread out across a space.
diverse: Showing great variety.
emigration: Moving from or leaving a country to settle in another.
ethnicity: Social group that has similar national, racial, or cultural traditions.
Euro-American: A person living in the US who migrated from or has ancestors from the countries of Europe.
expedition: A long trip taken with a specific purpose.
First Indian Home Guard: Union fighting force during the Civil War that attempted to protect Indian territory.
Five Tribes: Term used to refer to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole tribes.
Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907: Agreement between the Japanese Government and the US that greatly limited Japanese immigration to the US.
Gold Rush: Gold was discovered in California in 1848 and by 1849 nearly 100,000 people moved out there to make their fortune and mine for gold. This great migration of people to California in search of gold has been termed “the Gold Rush.”
Great Depression: A time of extreme economic downturn in the 1930s that created high unemployment rates.
Great Western Trail: The last of the great cattle trails running through Indian Territory. It began in southern Texas and went north as far as Nebraska.
immigration: Coming to a new country.
interpreter: A person who explains what someone is saying in another language.
Jim Crow laws: Laws that promoted segregation and racist practices.
land allotments: Practice of the federal government dividing communally owned land among individual tribal members.
Land Run of 1889: The opening of the Unassigned Lands in Indian Territory for settlement.
Mexican Revolution: An armed civil struggle in Mexico that established a constitutional republic.
mining towns: Towns that arose near mines where people would work to bring those minerals out of the ground. People were usually paid by the amount the mined.
minority: When a person does not share the same ethnicity as the majority of the population around them they are considered to be a minority.
peddler: A traveling salesman, who was common on the frontier.
prejudice: Having an unfair opinion about someone or something.
racism: The belief that one’s own race is better than another.
reata: A type of rope lasso used by cowboys.
settlement: When a person or group of people move from one area to another and establish residence.
Shawnee or Sedalia Trail: Major cattle trail that allowed longhorn cattle from San Antonio to travel east to Missouri.
Tejanos: A term used for people who were both Mexican and Texan in heritage.
Thirteenth Amendment: The amendment to the Constitution which prohibits and outlaws slavery within the United States.
Trail of Tears: The federal government’s forced removal of American Indians from their tribal lands to Indian Territory. The American Indians were subjected to harsh conditions and many people died.
transcontinental railroad: The connecting of the Union Pacific Railroad with the Central Pacific Railroad, which linked the East Coast of the United States to the West Coast.
Unassigned Lands: Land in Indian Territory that did not belong to any one tribe.
