Analysis Of The Wild West

Year by year the farmers who lived on soil, whose returns were diminished by unrotated crops were offered the virgin soil of the frontier at nominal prices. Their growing families demanded more lands, and these were dear. The competition of the unexhausted, cheap, and easily tilled prairie lands compelled the farmer either to go west and continue the exhaustion of the soil on a new frontier, or to adopt intensive culture.

“Indians are like the weather.” With his opening words Vine Deloria Jr. sets up the basis for the rest of his witty yet substantial manifesto, Custer Died for Your Sins. The book, which describes the struggles and misrepresentation of the American Indian people in 1960s American culture, is written in a style that changes from ironic and humorous satire to serious notions, then back again. Through energetic dialogue that engages the reader in a clever and articulate presentation, Deloria advocates the dismissal of old stereotypes and shows a viewpoint that allows the general public to gain a deeper understanding of what it is to be an American Indian.

This last week in Professor Acebedo-Gonzalez’s class we read Chapter 1 in The Wilding of America: Money, Mayhem and the New American Dream. In the beginning of Chapter 1, Charles Derber gives us a clear idea of what “wilding” is and the different types of wilding that exist today. According to the book, wilding is “self-interested or self-indulgent behavior that hurts others and weakens the social fabric” (Derber, p.11). Also described in the book are four types of wilding: expressive, instrumental, incipient, and petty wilding. Derber however, focuses on one and is concerned with one in particular: instrumental wilding. It’s the type of wilding in which is most connected with Americans and the American Dream, and no one realizes what effect it can have on each other (Derber, p.7). Throughout the chapter, Derber provides stories as examples for each type of wilding that supports the definitions. On page 7 he states, “A wilding epidemic tears at the social fabric and threatens to unravel society itself, ultimately reflecting the erosion of the

Farmers came to the Great Plains is great abundance, as this was heavily encouraged by government land policies and cheap land that was readily available. One of these policies was The Homestead Act, which would provide free or inexpensive land to farmers. The ever-growing railroad industry also offered attractive deals to those wishing to move onto the plains. All of these incentives were very enticing at first for farmers, but when they arrived in their new land they were met with a few problems. This new environment was difficult and dry. The animal and plant life was strange to the farmers. Not only that, but the native inhabitants of this land were warlike. However, farmers soon adapted to their new environment by implementing a few solutions. Lack of wood was solved by sod houses and barbed wire. Windmills and dry farming techniques were used to overcome the lack of water, and new machinery was used for farming. But expensive machinery soon led to debt and this debt led to bankruptcy. Farmers were faced with the same issue as the cattleman and many had to sell out to corporate

After the Civil War there were many factors that contributed the changes that occurred in farming in America. Among them was the drive for the South to renew and regain what had been lost due to the war. Leaders saw it as a time to diversify and turn towards industrialization. The Industrial revolution was underway and with it brought many new inventions that would lead to growth in the farming industry. The wide open space between the East and the West called “The Frontier” was open for homesteading. New immigrants with their farming knowledge and ability were flooding the East and West gates of the U.S. This was a time in American history when Americans

Brown mainly relies on historical research while writing the manuscript for “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”. He studied personal descriptions, historical documents, and town council records to create a historically accurate account on how Americans conquered the West. While writing this book, Brown mainly writes about the events of the “Indian Wars”, which occurred during 1860’s through the 1890’s.

The book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, tells of Native American life on the reservation. In the story “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” symbolism is used to echo how Native Americans were mistreated by the United States government. Still to this day Native Americans are forced to live on reservations which were originally prisoner of war camps. Alexie uses the symbolism of Thomas Builds-the-Fire’s conviction to show how Native Americans pay the price for injustices committed by the United States of America.

Thousands of families journeyed to California, settling in San Joaquin Valley. From 1930 to 1936, the Dust Bowl caused damages in agriculture in the Central Valleys all the way to the East Coast of the U.S. At the time, the majority of the farmers were from Oklahoma, in other words, they were American. Although most of the farmers fleeing the Dust Bowl were U.S born, some were Mexican-Americans living in Texas, Arizona and the states closer to the border (Gregory). However, this event did not fully give rise to the Mexican Migrant Farm Workers’ community. It was instead, the beginnings of successful farm labor in the valleys of California, which transformed California’s view towards farming. California seemed perfect, the climate was good for a diversity of crops and it promised a lot to the desolated farmers from the East. Why was this significant to the formation of the Mexican Migrant community? In other words, if the Dust Bowl would not have happened, then farm labor would have not been as significant in California as it is. Californians would have continued mining and building factories in soils that today, are used primarily for agriculture. James N. Gregory, professor at the University of Washington argues that “The twentieth century drained rural Americans from the land as surely as it improved the technology and efficiency of farming” as he discusses the effects of the

According to the film critic, Phillip French, “The Western has always been about America rewriting and reinterpreting her own past,” if this is indeed the case, then the two most popular Westerns of the early 1990s reveal that many Americans had rejected the traditional interpretation of the Old West. The critically and commercially successful, Dances with Wolves and Unforgiven, repudiated the patriotic frontier myth that had characterised the Western when it was the preeminent genre in American cinema. Informed by new Western historiography, itself an expression of political concerns that had been moving into the American mainstream since the 1960s, the movies display a complex and nuanced understanding of the frontier experience. Dances with Wolves rejected the traditional narrative of the inherent superiority of the Anglo-American hero conquering both Native Americans and the wilderness, and also focused on the environmental destruction that accompanied the ideology of Manifest Destiny. Unforgiven would similarly reject the frontier myth, replacing the democratic, civilised frontier town, with a brutal regime in which white men’s property rights prevail over any sense of justice. The film is noted for its self-reflexive nature, with a writer documenting and embellishing the tales of the Old West before the viewer’s eyes. This self-reflexion indicates that Americans were re-evaluating the myths of the frontier, and seeing them for what they were, creations by the

The book Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee was written by Dee Brown. Dee Brown wrote a handful of books and the central theme around those books were tales of Native Americans and civil war stories. He spent a long time studying different tribes all around the United States. He has brought out the voice of the Native Americans which was muffled and silenced by the army and government. This book brought much awareness to a cause many had forgotten about, and to the shock of many when they realized he was not a Native American. Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee tells the stories of many Native American tribes and their hardships when facing the government, army, and settlers. While reading this book, I came to quite a shock. I learned the point of view that was hidden in history books, the loss instead of the win, and the sadness felt throughout the book that made it unpleasant to read. I believe this book has brought to light the mistreatment of Native Americans in the past, the main hardships including countless false treaties, harsh treatments from the settlers, and the unjust massacres. I found this book to be quite a difficult read but incredibly worth it. It is written in such a manner that you feel immersed, you feel the all the emotions and imagine how everything came to be. It is figurative, but also incredibly factual. In the beginning of almost every chapter, before the actual start, there is small paragraph with the year and the events in that following year, a quote, or

The Sand Creek massacre, known as “Chivington massacre,” that began on November 29, 1864, in Colorado Territory. This massacre, was stricken by a Colorado U.S Volunteer Cavalry led by John M. Chivington, attacked and easily destroyed a village of the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Native Americans death totaled in an estimate of 70-160 deaths. Mostly, it was women and children who took part of these casualties. As the people wonder, why all of this just for a piece of the Great Plains of the Eastern Colorado. As the west wins, a step closer to Manifest

The removal and building the railroad process created great conflict between both the Native’s and Americans, battles such as Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado territory which resulted in 163 Indians killed, and the Battle of Julesburg that included Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota in where the Natives defeated the U.S army

Western, a genre of short stories that are set in the American west, primarily in the late of the 19th century (“Western” 598), and still being told until today by films, televisions, radio, and other art works. The major of moving to the west was because of the Homestead Act, 1862 (“U.S. Statues at Large” 392) which would give lands to people who stayed there for five years. This lead to a huge wave of immigrants moved to the West, and they had to face to many hardships and conflicts such as Indian attacks, tornadoes, blizzards, and illnesses.

Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in

As the twentieth century approached, America was experiencing a time of considerable expansion. All eyes were looking for ways to make the United States a larger, more powerful, and more efficient country. Because of this wave in American society, there was no movement given more devotion than the settling of the West. The range-cattle industry in its various aspects, and in its importance to the United States and particularly to the Great Plains, has been a subject of focus to Americans since its origin in the mid 1800's. This industry was rendered possible by such factors as vast sections of fertile land, the rise of heavy industry involving the great demand for beef, and