H102 Lecture 03: Which "Old West" and Whose?

Stanley K. Schultz, Professor of History
William P. Tishler, Producer

Lecture 03

Which "Old West" and Whose?

The American West played an increasingly significant role in United States' history between 1865 and 1890. During this period, Anglo-Americans settled 430 million acres of land and overwhelmed Native Americans in the so-called Indian Wars. Furthermore, ten new states entered the Union, bringing the total number of states to forty-eight by 1912. Finally, over the course of just a few decades, three commercial "empires" rose and fell: mining, especially gold and silver; farming; and cattle.

Some questions to keep in mind:

Where was the "Old West" between 1865 and 1890? Can you locate it on a map? Why or why not?

Who was Frederick Jackson Turner and why was he significant?

How did the United States deal with American Indians in the West?

Is the West still appealing today? Why or why not?

1. Space

There are three distinct environmental regions:

Trans-Mississippi West ( Middle West to 98 parallel )
Far West (Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains to Pacific Ocean)
Great Basin (Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains.)

"Great American Desert"
Stephen H. Long, an American explorer who surveyed a portion of the Louisiana Purchase in 1819, first coined the phrase "Great American Desert" to describe the area roughly between the 98th parallel and the Rocky Mountains. In a series of maps and journals, Long portrayed this region as "wholly unfit for cultivation and uninhabitable for those dependent on agriculture." Americans largely accepted Long's pessimistic description of the trans-Mississippi West as an inhospitable wasteland for decades and most did not become interested in settling there until after the Civil War.

The myth of the Garden
Western boosters popularized the myth of the Garden to encourage settlement during the second half of the nineteenth century. Charles Dana Wilber was one of the leading advocates of this myth. In The Great Valley, and Prairies of the Northeast and Northwest, Wilber described the trans-Mississippi West as a lush paradise. He based this claim on "scientific" evidence that purportedly proved that "rain follows the plow." The myth of the Garden undermined the idea that the West was the "Great American Desert" and convinced many American farmers that they could prosper on the Plains.

The credibility of the Garden myth was strengthened by the unusually high levels of rainfall recorded throughout the 1870s and early 1880s, which further encouraged settlement. But, by the mid 1880s, the Plains entered a period of low rainfall and massive out-migration. Families began to leave with signs on their wagons, "In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted."

Photograph of lithograph by Gaylord Watson, 1881, depicting a romantic land known as the "Great West"

2. Time

Warets and Shavano, of Utah

Many historians believe that the heyday of the "Old West" was from roughly 1865 to 1890. During this period, American migrants drove Indians from their homelands, and settled more than 430 million acres of land, which doubled the size of the nation. Furthermore, these settlers carved out ten new states. Finally, three western-based commercial "empires" rose and fell between 1865 and 1890; mining, especially gold and silver; farming; and the cattle industry.

3. Images
Americans continue to associate with the "Old West" a number of fictional characters who seem to embody rugged individualism and self-reliance, such as the yeoman farmer, the wealthy cattle baron, the lawless gunslinger, and the hardy cowboy.

Photograph of wood engraving, "Pilgrims of the Plains" by A. Bobbit after Alfred R. Waughn from Harper's Weekly

James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok (1837-1876)

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846-1917)

Color postcard of cowboys and cattle ranchers in Montana

Frederick Jackson Turner

Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932) with a group of UW-Madison seminar students in the WI Historical Library

"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893)
Turner's thesis generated tremendous interest in the western frontier. His work influenced academics as well as popular thought.

Major points:

Turner conceived of the West not as a particular geographic place, but as a frontier process - as a series of Wests on a receding frontier line - the point where savagery meets civilization.
For Turner, American history was largely a tale of people leaving settled areas for the frontier, and their struggle to survive in new lands. According to Turner, this epic struggle explained American development.
The frontier reproduces American democracy and individualism - the frontier requires Americans to develop new institutions and "free land makes free men."
Finally, Turner claimed that in 1890 the frontier had closed, ending the first stage of American development. Turner believed that the closing of the frontier created uncertainty, and he questioned how Americans could maintain their democratic traditions and institutions without access to free land.

Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932), UW-Madison historian

In sum, Turner argued that civilization is a process in which society becomes ever more complex. As complexity increases, opportunities become more limited, and civilization inevitably subordinates individuals to society.

Cowboys

Color postcard of cowboys and cattle ranchers in Montana

Approximately 35,000 men worked as cowboys between 1864 and 1884. Of the 35,000 men, approximately 25% were black, 12% Mexican, and 63% White. Cowboys working on cattle drives during this 20 year period of time moved more than 5,000,000 head of cattle from breeding grounds in Texas to railheads in Kansas. The railroads then allowed western ranchers to ship cattle to markets in the East and to Europe. The cowboy was the everyday laborer on the drives. The cowboy worked in close cooperation with others during the drive and under the supervision of the trail boss. He was hired by the owner and was under contract for the drive north. Most cowboys joined labor unions to protect their interests. The Knights of Labor was the largest such union. Cattle owners also joined together to form their own organizations called cattleman's associations. In fact, the last great cattle drive almost didn't happen due to a labor strike by the cowboys. The fact of life in the West was not independence and self-reliance, but rather cooperation and interdependence.

American Indians

Massive reduction in the indigenous population of North America has been a defining factor in American Indian history. Historians estimate that the Indian population stood at 10 million during the 1600s. By 1865, however, just 300,000 remained. Disease and near-constant warfare among Indian tribes and between native peoples and the United States decimated indigenous tribes during this period.

After the Civil War, the United States relocated most American Indians west of the Mississippi River. In the West, the federal government maintained armed forts and other posts to protect white settlers and travelers. The federal government recalled most of these troops to fight in the Civil War. As a result, there was an increase in Indian attacks against the posts.

Group of Native Americans near Laramie, Wyoming

Boarding house for "assimilating" young Native American girls

The 1867 Peace Commission
The 1867 Peace Commission was a federal effort to "civilize" and "pacify" western Indians by moving them to reservations. Federal officials established major reservations in present day South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Leaders of various tribes agreed to reservations in an attempt to preserve their way of life and to ensure peace. However, despite treaties and peace policy, white settlers continued to encroach on Indian lands in direct violation of the treaties. From 1870-1890, white settlers put extreme pressure on reservation lands, which sometimes exploded in bloody conflict. One of the first such conflicts was the "Red River War," in which American troops defeated the Comanche Indians in 1874.

Indian Policy

Federal agents formulated an Indian Policy that had several key elements during this period. First, they encouraged the destruction of the buffalo as a way to both weaken Indian tribes and to attract tourists to the West. In 1865, there were approximately 12 to 15 million buffalo on the Plains. By 1885, however, this number had fallen to just a few hundred. Reservation policy also led to rampant government corruption. Many Indian agents, for example, stole supplies intended for American Indians and confined tribes to the poorest reservation lands. This corruption fueled angry Indian rebellion and, eventually, sparked open warfare. The United States government attempted "pacification" of the Indian tribes in a number of cases:

Red River Way (1874) defeat of Comanche
1877 defeat of Chief Joseph and-the Nez Perce
1886 defeat of Geronimo and the Apache
1876-1890 Sioux battle government

Ouray and chiefs, from Utah

Sitting Bull (1831?-1890), Sioux Chief

Battle of Little Big Horn
In 1876, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse fled their federal reservation to protest Indian agent corruption and white encroachment on reservation lands following the discover of silver and gold in the Black Hills. The United States ordered George Armstrong Custer and his Seventh Cavalry to pursue the two Indian leaders. In the Battle of Little Big Horn, often known as "Custer's Last Stand," the Indian forces overwhelmed and killed Custer and all of his soldiers. This crushing defeat outraged many white Americans.

General George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876)

Wounded Knee

During the 1880s, the Sioux Indians practiced a new religion called the "Ghost Dance." Its followers believed that their faith would drive away white Americans and restore Sioux society. In 1889, a group of Sioux warriors, women, and children, again left their reservation and tried to flee to Canada. Government troops soon surrounded the Sioux at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. Soldiers opened fire on the Indian camp using Gatling (machine) guns. The attack left 300 innocent people dead (including 170 women and children) and the American soldiers left the wounded to die in the snow.

Sac and Fox chiefs pose for a photograph

There are two differing ways to view the battle of Wounded Knee; it can be interpreted as a final triumph over the "Indian Problem" or as the slaughter of innocents out of revenge. Nevertheless, Wounded Knee was the last military confrontation between the United States and the Indian tribes.

Dawes Severalty Act (1887)
The Dawes Severalty Act (1887) was the major federal law that shaped Indian policy until the 1930s. Congress enacted the law in an attempt to transform Indians into independent farmers. The federal government pledged to provide Indian families with farming tools and 160 acres of reservation land. If Indians accepted this grant of (their own) land they could then become full American citizens. To limit exploitation of Indians by unscrupulous whites, the government would act as a trustee, insuring that Indians could not sell their land for 25 years.

On its face the Dawes Act was well-intentioned but impossible to enforce. From the 1880s until the 1930s, Indians sold or lost nearly two-thirds of their total land holdings (approx. 86 million acres). Those that remained in their hands were not good for agricultural development. The Dawes Act nearly destroyed the reservations.

Chief of the Northern Arapahos

The "Old West" did not last for long. As the nineteenth century wore on, the increased pace of industrialization transformed economics, politics, and society in the United States. While Americans had once headed west looking for gold in streams and mines, politicians and leaders of industry began to look for gold in factories and through corrupt business and political practices. The story of these new "gold mines" is an incredibly fascinating aspect of American history; so important, in fact, that we'll take it up in the next lecture: The Gilded Age and the Politics of Corruption.

Lecture 03	*Related Web Links*
Content	Presentation	Audience	Link	Info
		College	"The Problem of the West," by Frederick Jackson Turner
		High School	The Autobiography of Geronimo
		College	Indigenous People's Literature
		High School	The West (with Ken Burns)
		College	Black [African-American] Cowboys
		High School	Western and Cowboy Poetry

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