American Frontier

Kill any race besides ours we are superior they are inequivilant to us. Those savage indians, cruel americans, those damn immigrants. bang bang boom boom! Any of this sound familiar? What about come on out west experience the frontier life come experience the land of prosperity where the grass couldn't be greener the water couldn't taste better and where God casts sunlight on those individuals who are willing to work hard. All of this is part of the Frontier life. Judging whether or not the Frontier life was good may vary from group to group east to west race to race, person to person. There is no way of defining that western life known as frontier life just mere thoughts feelings and keepsakes left behind by those who lived it. In this paper I will attempt to explain what life was like on the western frontier for Indians as well as settlers. I will explain how those documents left behind from the inhabitants of the west at that time were different from Frederick Jackson Turners idea of hard working whites conquering the lands of the indians. I will also attempt to explain how those documents viewed race, as well as ho the pioneer experience changed notions of property, land use, justice and social order. There is no single way or no right of wrong way of describing that good old west in the gilded age (1870-1900) therefore I will show exactly how this frontier experience transformed american life and yes indeed it did!

Were those indians and settlers happy with living on the frontier west? The answer to that question is simple, not really. in fact for those people occupying the west at that time it may have been the total opposite from living a happy life. That image of that perfect west was a falsity from day one. The notion of the western expansion guaranteeing prosperity and promoting the american dream was pure bologna, it wasn't true at all. I mean yes of course it may have offered some good things like a slightly better chance for most to manage and maintain their lives but the keyword is slightly. Settlers moved out west believing that the west was the promise of freedom and that they could do what they want. there was this rosy image that the west was beautiful and those indians and settlers found it to be atrocious. Weird huh? In actuality when these people got their there came nothing one might consider related to beauty, there were high death rates, racial tension, distraction of land, deprivation, property despair, guns, and believe it or not even forms of slave labor.

In order to understand the Indians and the settlers views of the west one most first gain knowledge of how they viewed life in general. The indians and the settlers looked at things a little differently you see. The indians felt that the the land was intangible and that it belonged to no one man. they believed that it belonged to the spirits above. The white american salters viewed the land as property and that it could be divided and negotiated upon on and spread out sparsely between humans. This defiantly created a problem between the two groups of people. one might even dare to say at one point there was even hatred toward one another. Wow!

Go live on reservations. lets divide the land. are you crazy? Land is not to be governed by God or any spirits man should control land. this was the mentality of the white setters of the west. We were here first. We were not bothering anybody. Our fathers fathers lived here with no problems until you people came. This may have been the attitude of the Indians. According to the documents from The American Past all of the chaos started after the civil war when american soldiers tried to confine indian tribes into reservations. There-The Indians were acceptant of whites at first and actually became found of them at first . They viewed lewis and clark as friends and would often trade with them things they had never seen like guns. After interacting with Lewis and Clark the indians decided give the whites a pass to travel to and through the land anytime they wanted. they were quite fascinated by the whites and wanted to gain an understanding for them and they also wanted the whites to understand them in return. In a way this fascination eventually turned into fear and became detrimental to the indian civilization. At first the Indians may have been known as friends, but then quickly turned into savages, incompetent people who had no types of understand of the "correct way of living." the whites also began to go to war and often rape an destruction native americans. Was this nescassarily accepted by the indians? No way.

the whites told the indians they could move onto plantations, and they could inhabit the land know as the country west of the Mississippi, divided by the great River. This was know as the Jefferson plan, because he inaugurated this. Chief Joseph said " The white man has no right to come here and take our country." ( 18-4pg 55) It is clear to see how this poses to be a problem to the indians because, according to their moral beliefs land is no mans property and it should be shared and not distributed amongst any individual. According to Richard Pratt the whites looked at the selves as being the higher race, and that the indians needed to be civilized. This theory was supposed to be carried out by sending the indians to reservations and basically Americanizing them. by doing so they would teach the indians english place them in school, change there native appearance ( things like the way they dressed and even there hair styles) to fit the american culture, and even try changing their beliefs. the white settlers would introduce things like alcohol to the indians who had not been know to them before. A tactic used was getting indians drunk then influencing them to make certain agreements or decisions. In a nut shell the indians were against all this and there was a lot of bloodshed over this. there were also things like peace treaties that didn't work because the whites went against their word. Basically the americans believed that the needed to teach these savage indians civilization, however "theorizing citizenship into people was a slow operation"(18-5 pg. 59), and the only way to for this idea or to work the indians wold have had to practice this day by day instead of just trying to encourage them to remain separate and apart from the rest. Had this thesis been exemplified the correct way those settlers would have recognized that the indians were capable in all respects and that if given equal opportunities they would have been more accepting of becoming civilized over time.

Speaking of thesis Fredrick Jackson Turner had an interesting theory himself! In furthering my research i found that he gave a speech in 1893 at the American historical Association's annual conference, and perhaps was the most influential readings ever read there.