Making a Living
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American bison hunting
Hunting of the American bison, also commonly known as the American buffalo, was an activity fundamental to the economy and society of the Plains Indians peoples who inhabited the vast grasslands on the Interior Plains of North America, before the animal's near-extinction in the late 19th century following United States expansion into the West.
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith).
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter in the United States is a private agent working for a bail bondsman who captures fugitives or criminals for a commission or bounty.
Circuit rider (religious)
Circuit riders, also known as horse preachers, were clergy assigned to travel around specific geographic territories to minister to settlers and organize congregations.
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks.
Droving
Droving is the practice of walking livestock over long distances. It is a type of herding, often associated with cattle, in which case it is a cattle drive (particularly in the US). Droving stock to market—usually on foot and often with the aid of dogs—has a very long history.
Gunfighter
Gunfighters, also called gunslingers (), were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a firearm and participated in deadly shootouts. The gunfighter can be a lawman, outlaw, cowboy, shooting exhibitionist, or a hired gun, who is quick on the draw with a handgun or highly-skilled with rifles and shotguns.
Homesteading
Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of food, and may also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craft work for household use or sale. Homesteading has been pursued in various ways around the world and throughout different historical eras.
List of Old West gunfighters
This is a list of Old West gunfighters, referring to outlaws or lawmen, of the American frontier who gained fame or notoriety during the American Wild West or Old West. Some listed were never gunfighters.
Lumberjack
Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled using hand tools and dragged by oxen to rivers.
Mountain man
A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness and makes his living from hunting, fishing and trapping. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s).
North American fur trade
The North American fur trade is the historical commercial trade of furs and other goods in North America between the 16th and 19th centuries, beginning in the eastern provinces of French Canada and the northeastern American colonies (eventually the United States).