The west

Vision

• Art, like that of the Rocky Mountain School created the visual of the West for Americans
• Albert Bierstadt was a key figure in this movement
• Captured in words; Mark Twain, "dime novels"
• Federal govt established natnl parks in 1872, with Yellowstone as the first
• Wild West shows traveled the world (Buffalo Bill)

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"American Primitive"

• "Cowboys and Indians" became eternal figures in Americana
• Charles Russell and Frederic Remington shaped perception
• Scholars like Lewis Henry Morgan and Alice Cunningham studied Indians and their culture
• Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts even incorporated tribal lore into their programs

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Transforming Indian societies

• Figures like Captain Richard Pratt and Helen Hunt Jackson advocated assimilation
• Assimilation was designed to eradicate tribal customs "kill the Indian, save the man"
• Boarding Schools & Dawes Act of 1887 were key tools
• Dawes Act did not recognize tribal nationhood
• Individuals given land if they left tribes; religions, clothing, lanuages, hair, stories banned

Ending the resistance

• Wounded Knee (Battle or Massacre?) in 1890 was one of the last key conflicts
• Followed the call by a Pauite prophet to participate in the Ghost Dance, and shooting of Sitting Bull
• US military attempted to disarm the Lakota, led to a scuffle
• Resulted in deaths of hundreds of Lakota and 25 soldiers
• Tribes that survived, lived on undesirable land; some disappeared while others adapted (Navajo)

Closing the Frontier

• Census of 1890 declared end of frontier line
• 1893: Frederick Jackson Turner issues "frontier thesis"
• Asserts that much of what made America, America was our constant edge of wilderness
• Analysis has proven controversial
• Seen as ignoring the group/govt effort involved with moving West, impact on environment and on native people

What would be the next frontier?