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Kaministikwia

(Encyclopedia)Kaministikwia kəmĭnˌĭstĭkˈwēə [key], river, c.60 mi (100 km) long, rising in Dog Lake, W Ont., Canada, and flowing S, then E into Lake Superior at Thunder Bay. In fur trade days it was the chi...

vigilantes

(Encyclopedia)vigilantes vĭjĭlănˈtēz [key], members of a vigilance committee. Such committees were formed in U.S. frontier communities to enforce law and order before a regularly constituted government could b...

Bonneville, Benjamin Louis Eulalie de

(Encyclopedia)Bonneville, Benjamin Louis Eulalie de bŏnˈvĭl [key], 1796–1878, American army officer and trader who blazed portions of the Oregon Trail, b. France, grad. West Point, 1815. Acquainted with the fu...

cinquefoil

(Encyclopedia)cinquefoil sĭngkˈfoil [key] [O.Fr.,=five leaves], name for any plant of the widely distributed genus Potentilla of the family Rosaceae (rose family), chiefly herbs of north temperate and subarctic r...

Fens, the

(Encyclopedia)Fens, the, district, E England, a flat lowland, W and S of The Wash. Extending c.70 mi (110 km) from north to south and c.35 mi (60 km) from east to west, it is traversed by numerous streams. The area...

Overland Trail

(Encyclopedia)Overland Trail, any of several trails of westward migration in the United States. The term is sometimes used to mean all the trails westward from the Missouri to the Pacific and sometimes for the cent...

Fraser, Simon, Canadian explorer

(Encyclopedia)Fraser, Simon, 1776–1862, Canadian explorer and fur trader. Born in Bennington, Vt., he was taken to Canada as a child. He entered the service of the North West Company in 1792, and in 1801 he was m...

calumet, peace pipe

(Encyclopedia)calumet [Fr.,=reed], name given by the French to the peace pipe used by the indigenous people of North America for smoking tobacco; it consisted of a long, feathered stem, with or without a pipe bowl....

Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region

(Encyclopedia)Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, Mandarin Nei Monggol zizhiqu, autonomous region, c.455,000 sq mi (1,178,755 sq km), NE China. It is bounded on the no...

Gansu

(Encyclopedia)Gansu or Kansu both: gänˈso͞oˈ [key], province, 141,000 sq mi (365,284 sq km), NW China. The capital is ...