Culture Adopted By American Cowboys

After meeting the Europeans, the women wore wrap-around skirts and the men wore colorful shirts. These items were hand sewn,and the material had a diamond pattern. Everyone wore handmade leather moccasins, usually made from tanned deer or cow hide. Women would also wear some type of beaded Native American jewelry or ribbons in their hair,and the men would wear a wide-brimmed hat. Choctaw believed that flat heads were attractive.

The Comanches, exceptional horsemen who dominated the Southern Plains, played a prominent role in Texas frontier history throughout much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Anthropological evidence indicates that they were originally a mountain tribe, a branch of the Northern Shoshones, who roamed the Great Basin region of the western United States as crudely equipped hunters and gatherers. Both cultural and linguistic similarities confirm the Comanches' Shoshone origins. The Comanche language is derived from the Uto-Aztecan linguistic family and is virtually identical to the language of the Northern Shoshones. Sometime during the late seventeenth century, the Comanches acquired horses, and that acquisition

The cattle kingdom out west had hit its peak in the 1880 's. A steer could be purchased in Texas for eight dollars. They could be sold in the east for up to sixty dollars. In the 1880 's the open range is coming to an end. The farmers are fed up with the cattle tromping through his crops. The sheepherders also took away from the cattle kingdom. The sheep killed the grass when they ate it, unlike cows. The farmer and cowboy hated each other, and they were

Spanish weaponry consisted of swords, pikes, horses and early guns. The Spanish Conquistadors introduced a type of warfare never seen in the Americas, cavalry warfare. The soldiers on horseback were almost as intimating as the soldiers who used guns. The Aztecs thought horses were gods, which concerned the Aztec because they were sitting on top of these “gods”. [2] The Spanish also had the advantage of having steel armor, which protected them from the natives’ projectiles, and weakened hits against the Aztec obsidian swords.[3] Their wounds were limited to the limbs, of unarmed regions like their face and neck. Which lessened their risk of death, while the opposing natives were left vulnerable. The Spanish fired shots from their harquebus, an early musket, which stunned the natives and further intimidated them.

The Comanche were a fierce tribe who rivaled the Apaches and eventually ended up pushing them out of Texas. They originally lived in mountains until they acquired horses in the 1600s and became powerful and mobile, thus deciding to move southwest to find more mustangs, buffalo, and a warmer climate. Together with their exceptional fighting skills and horse riding skills, the Comanche quickly controlled most of the Plains region and became very wealthy. They were able to follow the buffalo as nomads and use this animal as a resource for almost everything. They also could trade their buffalo goods with other tribes and make a profit. The Comanche would skin the animal and use it for moccasins, leggings, breechcloths, teepee coverings, and skirts for men and women. The tribe was organized with a war chief and peace chief. The tribe believed in good and bad spirits including the Great Spirit which they would smoke a pipe to. Men in the tribe were warriors and would steal horses from other tribes and people. If they were killed the tribe would kill their horse also and put them in a trench.

The word cowboy brings to mind images of the old west, mostly movies. Ten gallon hats, boots, spurs, horses, revolvers and of course cows. In todays society the term cowboy or cowgirl isn’t always a favorable one. It can mean ignorant, country, reckless, or just refer to boots and hats. Are Cowboys even still around? Not the “wanna be” hat on the weekend’s type of person, the genuine article. The answer may surprise you. In today’s modern world, cowboys aren’t just still around; they have developed into the subculture in which I belong. The cowboy subculture can be found all across the United States and Hawaii. What is the Cowboy Culture and who belongs in it?

Drovers, people who herd large groups of cattle, heading up the Chisholm Trail toward the railroads the final stop for any last-minute supplies was Fort Worth, Texas. Beyond that you’d cross the Red River and into Indian Territory. During the years of 1866 and 1890, drovers herded over four million head of cattle through Fort Worth. The city soon became known as “Cowtown.” As the railroad arrived in 1876, Fort Worth developed into a shipping port for livestock, so the city built up the Union Stockyards. Despite the Union Stockyards lacking the essential funding to buy enough cattle to attract local ranchers, President Mike C. Hurley welcomed wealth Boston capitalist Greenleif Simpson into Fort Worth hoping he would find interest and invest

In warm climates men were mostly naked, but the women wore simple knee-length skirts and blouses. In the colder climates they would wear warm trousers and hooded anoraks. They would mostly wear animal skin from the animals they hunted or raised. The Navajo Indians would also wear paintings on their body, or permanent makings of a tattoo. The art on ones body would signify a persons age, social or material status, or for men, their level of skill as a warrior. The Navajo Indians would also wear many jewelry pieces. The Navajo Indians did not use silver jewelry until around 1870. The increase of silver jewelry among the Navajo’s at the time reflected the adaptation of these peoples to life as herds and silversmiths on the newly established reservations.

     Hats were worn by all members of the bedwetters and each hat symbolized something about them. For Cotton his choice of headgear was a military helmet that he strapped under his chin when he was about to do something dangerous or “manly”. He chose this form of headgear because he was very interested in Vietnam, which was going on at the time that this book took place. Cotton also intended on enlisting when he turned 17 with dreams of becoming a general. The Lally brothers each had matching bulky cowboy hats, showing that the parents just got them matching everything to save time. Shecker wore a golfing hat signed by Arnold Palmer, obviously showing his family has very important friends and no time for him. Teft wore and Africa korps hat probably because he had dreams of being in the military as well but maybe not for the United States. Lastly, Goodenow wore a Hopi Headband. Much like with the radios, the hats are also thrown at the buffalo by the boys. They are obviously done with the hats and no longer want to bee thought of by them. They want to be known for being themselves and for setting all of the buffalo free from the preserve.

Longhorn Cattle have a long history to go with their long horns that they are known for which can grow up to seven feet wide. Their progenitors were acquainted with the New World in 1493 when Christopher Columbus arrived in the present-day Caribbean Islands. As Spanish moved north they carried the cows with them and in the eighteen - hundreds longhorns touched base in the zone that would get to be Texas. These cattle were viewed as wild until tamed in the nineteenth century. (Radke)

Cattle has a reliable significance by being the personification of the Native American people. Although white ranchers rejected the animals, Josiah has his faith and intuition that his cattle would be unique, not the ordinary which have lost touch with their lands. He demonstrates the animals as “any living thing” (Silko, 74), which illustrates that the cattle would lose their origins if they “separate from the land for too long” (Silko, 74). Silko highlights the dissimilarity of treatment of animals by the whites from the Laguna method of hunting animals since the Laguna people expresses their respects and appreciations for the prey through rituals and ceremonies. When the Herefords owned by the white ranchers are about to fall to death because of thirst, the spotted cattle can find water on their own. In other words, they are self-sufficient and close to the lands

The Navajo nation keeps the skin walker myth alive through artistic work, such as Navajo jewelry and art. These Navajo myths always have a connection to the sacred land of the Four Corners region in the American Southwest. Because it is believed that skin walkers wear the skins of the animals they transform into, it is considered taboo to wear the pelt of any animal. In fact, the Navajo are only known to wear two hides, sheepskin and buckskin, both of which are only used for ceremonial purposes. The Navajo people have a very strong emotional bond with the Earth and the plant and animal kingdoms that are so much a part of their everyday lives.[citation needed] Certain animals are more sacred to some individuals, families and tribes. They believe

In the early 1600s, American Indian horses were initially bred from Spanish horses that the Indians had acquired from the Spaniards – most likely by raiding Spanish missions and taking the horses

The attire a cowboy chose was very important to his job. Most things he wore had a definite purpose and suited the job well. ?Their usual gear consisted of a bridle, saddle, rawhide lariat, spurs, boots, heavy leather chaps, hat, tarp, buffalo robe, and blankets? (The Cowboys). He also had a woolen or cotton shirt, tight woolen pants and handkerchief. All of the clothing accessories were chosen for their usefulness. For example, ?A high-crowned, broad-brimmed felt hat, the sombrero, shielded him from the sun and rain. His soft-legged boots had high heels set far under the instep to hold his ankle clear of the heavy stirrup? (?Cowboy?). His handkerchief protected his face by shielding it from the sun and preventing dust from entering his mouth. The tight pants were worn for a reason; they protected his legs from brush and insects (?Cowboys?). The things a cowboy wore were essential to life and they always used these things. A cowboy?s job mainly involved the rounding up of cattle and driving the cattle to the destinations designated by the ranch owner. The first drives were short; they went over safe routes to locations in Texas and Louisiana (Java Script). Before moving the cattle, cowboys had to make sure that they were moving the right cattle from the herd. Cattle were branded to tell them apart from the others. The branding was done by having an expert roper catch the cattle by the

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.