Essay
The Development of the West
In the summer of 1876, two dramatically different places captured the American nation’s attention. As the summer began, fairgoers in Philadelphia teemed into the Centennial Exhibition held to commemorate...
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Showing results 1 – 10 of 12
Glossary Term – Event
Enabling Act of 1889
The Enabling Act of 1889 allowed Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington to become states.
Glossary Term – Event
Battle of Little Bighorn
In the war against western Sioux, General George Custer and more than two hundred of his men died along Montana’s Little Bighorn River at the hands of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.
Glossary Term – Event
Northern Pacific Railroad completed
The completion of the Northern Pacific railroad was celebrated with a “golden spike” ceremony at Gold Creek, Montana.
Glossary Term – Event
Yellowstone National Park Act
The Yellowstone National Park Act set an area of the Wyoming and Montana territories aside as “the people’s pleasuring ground.”
Glossary Term – Event
Nez Perce War
Hostilities between settlers and the Nez Perce Indians became violent in June 1877. For the next four months, the Nez Perce were pursued by the US Army, and the two sides clashed across Montana and Idaho. In October, led by Chief Joseph, the Indians surrendered. Though promised a safe return to their Oregon homeland, the Nez Perce were relocated to Kansas and Oklahoma.
Glossary Term – Person
Jeannette Rankin
Jeannette Rankin (1880–1973) was the first woman elected to Congress. Rankin, originally from Montana, was a social worker and became involved in the suffrage movement as a student at the University of Washington. She returned to Montana and ran successfully in 1916 as a Republican for Congress, where she supported woman suffrage and western issues, and voted against entering World War I. In the 1918 election she ran for the Senate but did not win. For the next two decades she continued to support social issues and pacifism. The threat of...
![George Custer, [Report on the Battle of Washita], December 22, 1868 (Gilder Lehr](http://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/aggregate-208x148/content-images/04606p1_0.jpg "George Custer, [Report on the Battle of Washita], December 22, 1868 (Gilder Lehrman Collection)")