Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) ferret, name for a domesticated polecat, Mustela putorius, common in the Old World. It has been used for centuries to hunt rats, mice, and rabbits. Domestic ferrets are found in many color types inclu...

(Encyclopedia) Shoshone or Shoshoni shəshōˈnē [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Shoshonean group of the Uto-Aztecan branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock (see Native American lang...

(Encyclopedia) Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, c.13,500 sq mi (35,000 sq km; roughly the size of Belgium), the largest multinational park in S Africa and one of the largest parks in the world, in NE South Africa, ...

(Encyclopedia) Santa Fe Trail, important caravan route of the W United States, extending c.780 mi (1,260 km) from Independence, Mo., SW to Santa Fe, N.Mex. Independence and Westport, Mo., were the chief points where...

(Encyclopedia) Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park: see National Parks and Monuments (table)national parks and monuments (table). ...

(Encyclopedia) mammoth, name for several large prehistoric relatives (genus Mammuthus) of modern elephants which ranged over Eurasia and North America in the Pleistocene epoch. The shoulder height of the Siberian, o...

(Encyclopedia) Fletcher, Alice Cunningham, 1838–1923, American anthropologist, b. Havana, Cuba. Originally interested in archaeology, she turned to the study of the Plains tribes. After studying informally with Fr...

(Encyclopedia) Red Deer, river, 385 mi (620 km) long, rising in the Rocky Mts. in Banff National Park, SW Alta., Canada, and flowing NE past Red Deer city, then SE and E across the plains to the South Saskatchewan R...

(Encyclopedia) frontier, in U.S. history, the border area of settlement of Europeans and their descendants; it was vital in the conquest of the land between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The importance of the westwa...

(Encyclopedia) cavalry, a military force consisting of mounted troops trained to fight from horseback. Horseback riding probably evolved independently in the Eurasian steppes and the mountains above the Mesopotamian...