Terminology Of The Wild West

Question 1

Boot Hill

Answer 1

A cemetery for the desperados unfortunately slow or inaccurate with firearms

Question 2

Brand

Answer 2

A permanent mark of identification upon cattle to prove ownership

Question 3

Bull Dogging

Answer 3

Rodeo technique developed by Bill Pickett in bringing down a raging steer

Question 4

Dawes Act

Answer 4

Replaced the reservation system for governing and controlling Native Americans

Question 5

Dead Mans Hand

Answer 5

Full house: 3 aces and 2 eights, held by Wild Bill Hickock when he was murdered

Question 6

Dime Novel

Answer 6

An inexpensive fictional story about everyday life in the west

Question 7

Exoduster

Answer 7

African American who went west during reconstruction era for greater freedom and opportunity

Question 8

Gone West

Answer 8

When you had done this you had died

Question 9

Homesteader

Answer 9

Opportunistic settler who went west to live and prosper on free federal land of 160 acres

Question 10

Iron Horse

Answer 10

Native American term for railroads crossing the Great Plains

Question 11

Maverick

Answer 11

A very stubborn and contrary steer Ina cattle drive

Question 12

Morrill Act

Answer 12

Congressional action which created the land grant colleges

Question 13

Neck Tie Party

Answer 13

A social gathering in which the “guest of honor” was lynched

Question 14

Open Range

Answer 14

System wherein branding cattle may graze as ones land boundaries were not fenced in

Question 15

Painted Lady

Answer 15

A colorful name for a female prostitute of the Wild West

Question 16

Prairie Schooner

Answer 16

The vehicle in which a family may travel in a wagon car

Question 17

Rodeo

Answer 17

A circular competition wherein cowboys would demonstrate skills with a horse and a lariat

Question 18

Rustler

Answer 18

A cattle thief

Question 19

Soddie

Answer 19

Cruel reference to a homesteader who lived in a shelter of dried mud and animal waste, not bricks or wood

Question 20

Sooner

Answer 20

One who cheated the night before in participating in the Oklahoma Land Rush

Question 21

Vaquero

Answer 21

Spanish term for cowboy

Question 22

Boom Town

Answer 22

Buisness town, growing city

Question 23

Assimilate

Answer 23

To make someone a part of something

Question 24

Ghost Town

Answer 24

After everything is gone from a boom town it becomes empty (or a ghost town)

Question 25

Reservation

Answer 25

Government program where A-A’s is limited to certain land

Question 26

Vigilante

Answer 26

Someone who takes laws into their own hands