Who Is Josiah Gregg's Across The Great Western Prairies?

the western half of the United States of America. On their journey they drew maps and made

“The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado” Written by Elliott West. I chose to write about this book because of the large range of events and transitions that occurred throughout the American West that the author includes in the text. Elliot West highlights the struggles that many endured while trying to create better circumstances for not only themselves but also their families by moving to the west. He chronicles the adaptations that many white settlers arriving in the west faced in order to be able to make a living for themselves. But another reason why I found the book interesting was because of the way Elliot West provided perspective for each side of the struggle over the American West. He gives us the

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.

Faragher, John Mack. Re-reading Frederick Jackson Turner: “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”

Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Illinois Prairie, a monograph written by John Mack Faragher discusses the life of settlers in Sugar Creek a town of Sagaman county, Illinois. Faragher argues the discoveries of the environment, society, culture, and economy in Sugar Creek throughout the nineteenth century and the changes, development, improvements with it. There are four common themes throughout the monograph: First, the kicking out of the Kickapoo and other Indians in place of Anglo-Americans. Second, the relationship and changes between men and women’s roles throughout the nineteenth century. Third, the community life and the sensibility of bringing the town together. Finally, the transition of agriculture and the innovations that changed the town. Faragher uses many censuses, charts, and records to get an idea of the transition of life in Sugar Creek and the affects it had on the community. Although Faragher presents many arguments he does not entirely discuss the men’s involvement in contrast to women’s roles in the household and town.

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

Have you ever been in a place of green with forests and animals everywhere? Well, where some of the Native Americans lived, there were such things. Native American tribes such as the Crow lived in the Great Plains. The Crow tribe of the Great Plains were nomadic and followed the buffalo migrations which provided their food. This tribe spent a good part of the year living in camps that could easily be dismantled and moved to follow the buffalo migrations. Other tribes of the plains were more sedentary. These tribes lived in permanent villages year round.

Thomas Jefferson, one of the greatest men in American history, described his vision for the United States of America as a land of agrarian people. However, now, over two centuries later, the US faces a very different reality dominated by the growth of the urban metropolis, by industry, by the stoic bankers of Wall Street. Despite this, the poetry of Ted Kooser immortalizes a quickly vanishing lifestyle of rustic America on the vast expanses of the Great Plains. Kooser was born in a small Iowa town in April 1939 and received a degree from Iowa State University. After working at Lincoln Benefit Life, an insurance corporation, for over three decades, he made history by becoming the first poet from the Great Plains to be named the U.S. Poet

“The Navajo reservation begins over there”. He pointed to the east. “The Pueblo boundaries are over there”. He looked below us to the south, where the narrow trail seemed to come from. “The Texans have their ranches over there, starting with that valley, the Concho Valley. The Mexicans run some cattle over there too” (Silko 765).

In 1893, at the 400th anniversary of the appearance of Columbus in the Americas celebrated in Chicago , Frederick Jackson Turner presented an academic paper entitled, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” In this essay, Turner proposes that, “The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development.” The group dynamic that Turner champions is the farmer. More directly it is white, male farmers. While the expansion of the west by white male farmers was a factor in the development of America, it is not the only explanation for this progression. Turner fails to incorporate all of the demographics present during this expansion which were essential to the evolution of America.

The subject of this chapter summary will be the eighteenth chapter of Alan Taylor’s American Colonies. The chapter is called “The Great Plains” and discusses the history of that geographical region from 1680-1800. Taylor begins by explaining how warfare both sustained and weakened New Mexico. It maintained unity, because without an external enemy to focus on, the Pueblo people would rise up in revolt against Mexico. However, the constant warfare discouraged any new settlers from putting down roots there. Spain's holdings in North America were weakened by the foreign policy of the motherland, which focused on the colonial core of the territory, not the exterior regions. For Mexico, New Mexico was just a buffer zone between itself and other

Turner states in the first chapter that “The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development. When America decided to colonize west its isolation led to the need of communication,legislation and transportation. As America developed it started to move away from the influence of Europe. He points out that west of America is one of the most important features of shaping America. The frontier lands also gave a way for the government to provide economic benefits without raising taxes.Fredrick Jackson Turner changed the way Historians were thinking about the United States by arguing that the Frontier had a major impact on the way America was shaped . He

The great plains are a vast region of North America that spreads from Canada nearly down to the Coast of Texas. This region is comprised of primarily flat grounds with the exceptions of the larger mountain ranges including the Rockies. Within this region is the Little Bison Basin, a stretch of the Great Plains where glacial rivers feed into the larger Whiskey River. Nevin Feneman in his 1916 study defines this region as, "The term "Great Plains", for the region west of about the 96th or 98th meridian and east of the Rocky Mountains, was not generally used before the early 20th century." As vast as the region is, there are many trends that run throughout not the least of which is the obvious glacial carving.

This text is a sampling of times, places, and people of the Westward Expansion. A teacher teaching the Westward Expansion will find historical images and stories behind the historical times and the sheet music that correlates to the topics. This cross-curricular resource allows for the stories to be read and the pictures to study, and ultimately the music to be incorporated into the classroom learning. Ultimately this book can be utilized to bring adventure, danger, dreams, and the realities of American life during the Westward Expansion to come alive for students. This will make history fun for all students, allowing students to build more of a connection to the past. This is another great resource but because I don’t teach Western Expansion

The emergence of western history as an important field of scholarship started with Frederick Jackson Turner’s (1861-1932) famous essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American history.”[1] This thesis shaped both popular and scholarly views of the West for the next two generations. In his thesis, Turner argued that the West had to be taken seriously. He felt that up to his time there had not been enough research of what he in his essay call “the fundamental, dominating fact in the U.S. history”: the territorial expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. The frontier past was, according to Turner, the best way to describe the distinctive American history and character.