The West
The People, the Place,
the Process
Major Questions (people, place, process)
What is “the west”? – Myths vs. Realities Who were major actors? What were their interests? What were main conflicts? How and why did “the west” change over
time? How did late-19th c. history of west affect later
history of region and nation?
Defining “The West”
“The West” can be defined as part of a longer historical process
Also an identifiable region and period Both were defined by particular people with
particular interests, vying with others for control of the region and future history
The long historical process of the West
John Gast, Manifest Destiny, 1872
Gast image
What does image represent?
The Real Place: region and environment
Donald Worster: “the story of men and women trying to wrest a living from a condition of severe natural scarcity and, paradoxically, of trying to survive in the midst of entrenched wealth.”
J.W. Powell (1878): arid, need irrigation to make region habitable and useful
Immense mineral and timber wealth Enviro. conditions necessitated new economic
techniques, new patterns of ownership, new social relations
Role of Railroads
Railroad-building made west accessible Transcontinental railroad finished 1869 Routes spurred development Profit motive – spurred new ways of thinking about
and exploiting land and region Led to diff. industries – cattle, towns, mining,
agriculture Necessitated diff. strategies of removal – Native
Americans and bison would interfere with white settlers’ goals
The American West “empty” for white settlement: the power of images/maps to shape imagination and ideas of the region
Government Role Question: when you think of “the west,” how visible is the power of fed. govt.? Govt. often perceived as absent from west – made
invisible Reality:
National imperial ambitions, goal/process of accession of new territories, then incorporation into nation
Loans and land grants to railroads Homestead Act, 1862, 160 acres to head of
household National war on Native Americans Govt. set up and administered reservations Provided Water – irrigation, dams, water rights Economic and immigration policies that benefited west
Making the West Safe for White Settlement Appropriation of Native American land;
crowding them out Part of longer process/history of taking land,
moving or killing Native Americans Change from borderlands relations (no clear
dominance = compromise/trade/better relationships) to dominance (killing/removal relationships)
Population pressure combined with highly-trained small military (27,000 soldiers)
Environmental pressures: killing of bison
Major Conflicts and Eventsbetween whites and N.A. Shift from removal before Civil War to reservation system Beginning of reservation system (1867) – N.A. were wards
of govt. until they changed their ways Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, Sioux/Cheyenne defeat
Custer at Little Big Horn (1876) - Link Plains Indian resistance – Nez Perce and Chief Joseph
fight, flee, then surrender (1877) Shrinking reservations in SD and Oklahoma (Sooners) Dawes Act, 1887 – carved up reservations, individual plots
of land, make N.A. become white 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, Ghost Dance, Sioux,
predicted whites would disappear in spring 1891 - Link
Assimilation into White Society
Whites pushed goal of making N.A. become white: private property, farming, Indian schools = civilization, new language, beliefs, way of life
Lakota Sioux boys at Carlisle (PA) Indian School
The West’s Major Economic Areas
Centrality of rail lines and new technologies Cattle – western long drives only lasted short
time (myth much longer); fencing and ranches
Agriculture – grain on Plains; fruits/vegs. in CA
Mining – from prospecting to industry – important to labor history
Women’s roles – western scarcity and life allowed women to break out of Victorian gender roles – worked outside home in non-trad. jobs (farming, merchants, prostitution)
The Real Frontier: Different Frontiers, Changing Class Relations
Three Frontiers: Mining, Cattle, Farming Short period of individual social mobility Each frontier quickly changed and
consolidated – high capital $$$ needs – companies took over all 3 areas
Need for cheap labor: former cowboys, prospectors, African Americans, Chinese, and other immigrants
As a result, the west became site of class and racial conflict – fought over the spoils
Economic and Environmental Problems Endangering native species – bison and others Unsustainable agriculture – wet years raised
expectations, then drought, stripping of native grasses
Ag. susceptible to world market, fluctuating prices for grain
Overexpansion; boom and bust in railroads, ag., and mining
Cattle and farming = monoculture, pestilence, introduction of invasive species
Conflicts over land and resources, labor conflicts Solutions: agricultural cooperation (Grange and
Populists); labor unions and parties
Ethnic and Racial Conflict West was place for whites to prove superiority Whites vs. Native Americans Similarities to Reconstruction South – white
supremacy, control of land, labor, resources Appropriation of Hispanic lands Use of migrant or immigrant labor – Irish, African
American, Chinese, Japanese, then Mexican Labor castes and control Labor conflict – CA, SanFran’s Workingman’s
Party in 1870s and 1880s – who has the right to earn a living? – republicanism/exclusion
Depicting the racial “other” – dehumanizing immigrant Chinese
Making Chinese immigrants expendable
Rationalizing exclusion (from nation, from work, etc.) –“they” don’t belong here
White Workers Feared the Chinese Worker “Horde”
Chinese Railroad Workers Erased from History of WestThomas Hill, "The Last Spike," c. 1881, completion of the transcontinental railroad
Early Conservation and Environmental Movements Beginnings of Conservation/ Environmental
Movement conflicted with prior visions/uses/methods
John Muir and Yosemite Park, 1864 Romantic wilderness ideals Conflicts over water and land – should
resources be used or preserved? – where does best “value” lie?
Conservation vs. Preservation Issues of public land use – who had right to use
lands?
Link to more info. on Buffalo Bill, myths and realities
Buffalo Bill and Early Films
Bucking Bronco, Edison Film, 1894 Buffalo Dance, Edison Film, 1894 Sioux Ghost Dance, Edison Film, 1894 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Parade, 1902
The West: Myth and Reality Case study: Columbian Exposition, 1893: a site
where American racial and frontier ideas were worked out, exhibited
Chicago: western city, railroad city, cattle, grain, immigration
1893 Exposition: 400th Anniv. of Columbus/New World – festival commemorating Euro. settlement
The White City – white progress, civilization – architecture, tech., arts
The Midway offered comparisons to other “races”, “primitives”
Expo. offered vision of what whites wanted the rest of the west to become
The White City
1893 Chicago World’s Fair
Staging the West: Turner and Buffalo Bill
2 versions, 2 men – enactment of western myth in 1893 F.J. Turner – historian, “frontier thesis”
Moving frontier, progress, farm families, Indians irrelevant, democracy, individualism, new Americans, econ./phys. mobility
Used images from history: free land, log cabins, stage coaches 1890 U.S. Census declared frontier closed – Turner wondered
about what that would mean for American character
Buffalo Bill – frontier conflict, whites and N.A., whites under attack, justified fight against N.A. Real and imaginary; used images of conflict, heroic martyr
(Custer) White frontier men “know” Indians, then beat them
Staging the West: Turner and Buffalo Bill (continued)
Similarities: Whites justified in taking over “empty” continent Conquest = a good thing A “clean” story of “progress” Use of prominent symbols and images, even if not
historically correct Turned attention away from Reconstruction and
‘nigger problem’
Chicago --The Frontier West Reenacted:Buffalo Bill, The White City, The Midway, and F.J. Turner
Frontier Myth in American History
If American west closed in 1890, and it meant so much to American psyche, then what?
Connections to Larger Themes
Connections to Reconstruction? Similar themes or issues?
Connections to later U.S. history?
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