The Rural West

Thus the census of 1890 shows, in the Northwest, many counties in which there is an absolute or a relative decrease of population. These States have been sending farmers to advance the frontier on the Plains, and have themselves begun to turn to intensive farming and to manufacture. A decade before this, Ohio had shown the same transition stage. Thus the demand for land and the love of wilderness freedom drew the frontier ever onward.

There were two situations mentioned in the video that I found surprising. The video mentioned that the ranches were remote settlements that were hundreds of miles from town, so they often had their own set of rules. I never realized that being so secluded from other towns would actually create a community of its own. I found it surprising that the owner of the ranch lived in a home that also included the community chapel. Prior to this video, I assumed that a chapel would be separate or at least distinguished from the ranch owner's home. Furthermore, before fence laws were established, cowboys were required to round them up twice a year counting, separating, or branding. I was not aware that

There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough

The mustangs run with a spirit that makes them legendary here in the west. On a bitter cold morning, dozens of wild horses descend off the mountains of eastern Oregon, galloping miles across the rangeland. Stallions and mares, guiding their young. It is an incredible sight, but also one that infuriates many hard working Americans. Horse’s hoof prints in cattle grazing lands, drinking the water supply dry. Farmers are losing their grazing rights before their cattle even step foot on the property. There is another animal taking over the land. Wild horses.

Despite their efforts, they continued to be marginalized. In frustration, the Plains Cree chiefs had said, “the buffalo were our only dependence before the transfer of the country, and this and other wild animals are disappearing, and we must farm to enable us to live” (Carter 68). It was clear that the Plains Cree tried desperately to make an agricultural economy work. It was essential to their survival and well-being. Unfortunately, government intervention implemented restrictive policies, which created misconceptions of First Nations people being unmotivated to do well.

As over-population became an issue many people started to move away from mass populated cities and started to head to the open lands in the western frontier. As more people started to move west, they became reliant on farming and domesticating livestock to support their developing economy. This form of work

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

Sitton and Utley’s book is a compilation of interviews from small landowners in Texas, whose existence was a combination of subsistence farming and production of

In his book, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner’s main thesis is to show the inefficiency, greed, and inherent difficulty in the American West’s never-ending struggle to turn its unwelcoming desert into a lush garden. One of his main sub-points is that the West is not meant to support millions of people. It has a wide range of geographic challenges throughout the entire region. Its inconsistency and diversity is a primary cause of its water problems. For example, Reisner notes that the West consists of “plains so arid that they could barely support bunchgrass; deserts that were fiercely hot and fiercely cold; streams that flooded a few weeks each year and went dry the rest; forests with trees so large it might take days to bring one down; . . . hail followed by drought followed by hail;” (23).

The state led the nation in cattle and calves, beef cows, calves, cattle on feed, total value of cattle and calves, and cash receipts—1993 sales. Texas also has been number one in number of farms and ranches and total farm and ranch land. The Texas ranching industry has changed drastically from its early beginnings. The day of the longhorn and the sprawling King Ranch have been replaced by the rise of commercial feedlots, sophisticated slaughter and meat-packing industries, spreading use of computers, and an intensive search for export markets. On many ranches hunting leases have replaced cattle raising. King, Kenedy, and O'Connor would perhaps think it outlandish, as well as entrepreneurially interesting, that on some ranches, ostriches and zebras are now more plentiful than

After reviewing the article, “We were all Trespassers” written by Nathan B. Sanderson, the audience can contain a formal impression with the way the author portrayed the significance of this time period. When grasping the ideas and the main points of the article, many would agree that it was fluent and strategical on the government’s legal entity when correlating the expansion into the development of the range cattle industry presented on the Indian Reservations. The author made insight into the cowboys relations with the Sioux Indians on the northern Great Plains and used the credentials of the cowboys, George Edward Lemmon’s and Dave Clark as an example of the agricultural and environmental developmental build throughout the late 1800’s.

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.

The American Frontier, or as it was also known, the Wild West was a time between the 1770s and the late 1900s. The Wild West consisted of the and west of the Mississippi river. This time period lasted for about thirty years, and during this time there were a variety of people that roamed around the towns such as outlaws, lawmen, Native Americans, townspeople, and cowboys. Out in the Wild West the towns were small but, for the size of them, they were called 'home' for many people.

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

Most people who settled the Great Plains were ranchers. The western frontier was an idea place for grazing huge herds of cattle. Cowboys tended herds of cattle, branded them, and managed long cattle drives across the open prairies. In 1869 the building of the transcontinental railroad made it possible to ship the cattle market in large and profitable numbers (JRank Articles 2011). The experience of the