TIMELINE OF EVENTS
| 1848 | Gold discovered in California |
| 1851 | First Treaty of Fort Laramie |
| 1862 | Homestead Act passed |
| 1864 | Sand Creek massacre |
| 1865–1868 | Lakota Sioux lead Indian resistance |
| Late 1860s | Large-scale cattle drives begin |
| 1868 | Second Treaty of Fort Laramie |
| 1869 | Transcontinental railroad completed |
| 1870s | Gold discovered in Black Hills of North Dakota |
| 1876 | Battle of the Little Big Horn |
| 1877 | Desert Land Act |
| 1878 | John Wesley Powell questions suitability of Great Plains for small-scale farming |
| Timber and Stone Act | |
| 1881 | Helen Hunt Jackson publishes Century of Dishonor |
| 1882 | Edmunds Act passed |
| Chinese Exclusion Act passed | |
| 1884 | Annie Oakley joins William Cody’s Wild West show |
| 1885–1887 | Cattle industry collapses |
| 1886 | Geronimo captured |
| 1887 | Dawes Act passed |
| Kansas women win right to vote and run for office in municipal elections | |
| 1889–1890 | Mexican American White Caps attack Anglo property |
| 1890 | Massacre at Wounded Knee |
| 1893 | Western Federation of Miners formed |