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Impact of westward expansion on natives
Impact of westward expansion on natives
Impact of westward expansion on natives
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The Great Plains were once home to a wide variety of nomadic Indian tribes. These tribes relied on buffalo for food, clothing, weapons and shelter. Eventually people from the east decided to move west with the hopes of securing new land and making more money. Buffalos became the pioneers’ source of food and fun. The settlers left the landscape littered with the decomposing remnants of their prey. Due to the mass hunting of buffalo, their population vastly decreased. In the image from Harper`s Weekly, the audience can see a white buffalo hunter, who is in the process of skinning his prey. This picture illustrates certain praised virtues and stereotypes of the American West.
Due to the popular idea, the Manifest Destiny, Americans decided to
expand west. The Manifest Destiny was a belief that white American citizens, had the God-given right to expand and conquer America`s land, west of the Mississippi. The people could do whatever was needed in order to accomplish this goal. This means that the mass killing of the buffalo was acceptable. Pioneers hunted buffalo because it was an uncostly source of meat, they could earn a profit from its hide and for leisure activity. The illustration from Harper`s Weekly shows a buffalo hunter victoriously standing over his latest kill while skinning it. In the background, one can see another buffalo that was recently killed by other hunters. This picture entails that the mass slaughtering of the buffalo is permitted because the settlers are doing what is needed to conquer the land and survive. By surviving, the pioneers are achieving the goal of the Manifest Destiny. When one thinks about the classic American West, he or she would picture the typical cowboy; a white man wearing a large cowboy hat and long collared shirt. Who later engages in an epic adventure, where he defeats his enemies and rescues the woman. However in reality, cowboys were a wide variety of races and they did not go on these grand, heroic journeys. In the image "Slaughtered for the Hide" the person shown is a white male dressed as a standard cowboy. This portrays what a typical cowboy looks like in the average person`s mind. The magazine is subtitled "Journal to Civilization." This subtitle suggests that the contents of the magazine are authentic articles about a wide range of important stories. These events are written about to show Americans what is really happening in their country. Hunters began killing a substantial number of buffalos in order to acquire a profit. Back east, buffalo hides were sold as luxury items. However, no one truly knew the destruction taking place in order to obtain the hide. Harper`s Weekly shows its readers how the hides are retrieved. A hunter will shoot the buffalo and skin it. Afterwards the body is left to decay. In the image, one can see another buffalo that was recently killed. The audience can understand that in order to make a decent profit and meet the needs of consumers, buffalos are being killed in mass quantities. Buffalos were an essential part of life to the Plain Indians. Every part of the animal was used to make clothing, food, tools and even shelter. No part of the animal was ever wasted. Unfortunately this changed with the western movement of pioneers. The settlers started to kill an abundant number of buffalo. This mass hunting caused a grave decrease in the buffalo population. These animals were killed because they provided inexpensive meat, and were a new source of sport. The benefits of killing buffalos were so great in the minds of the pioneers that they continually hunted them. Even though this meant the population would be devastated. In the picture from Harper`s Weekly the audience gets a peek into the mass hunting of the buffalo.
Weisiger’s narrative explains the relationship of “livestock grazing, environmental change, cultural identity, gender, and memory during the New Deal era of the 1930s and its aftermath” (p xv). Weisiger relies on oral histories, environmental science, and government documents. Weisiger begins by discussing the debate about the Stock Reduction Program from 1933-1934. She goes on then to detail the importance of livestock to Navajo cultural identity and way of life. Weisiger writes, “Dine knew nature not only through their connections with the physical environment but also
In The White Man’s Indian, Robert Berkhoffer analyzes how Native Americans have maintained a negative stereotype because of Whites. As a matter of fact, this book examines the evolution of Native Americans throughout American history by explaining the origin of the Indian stereotype, the change from religious justification to scientific racism to a modern anthropological viewpoint of Native Americans, the White portrayal of Native Americans through art, and the policies enacted to keep Native Americans as Whites perceive them to be. In the hope that Native Americans will be able to overcome how Whites have portrayed them, Berkhoffer is presenting
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 knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
Estimates are that at the turn of the twentieth century, over two million wild horses roamed free in the western United States. However, having no protection from their primary predator, man, by the 1970’s their numbers had dwindled to less than thirty thousand. In 1971, after a massive public uproar, Congress by a unanimous vote enacted the “Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act” (Act) that characterizes wild horses and burros as national treasures and provides for their protection. “Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people; and that these horses and burros are fast disappearing from the American scene. It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.”
When people started to see the declining of wildlife animals include bison and many colorful birds; it cause a rise of conservation. A cause of the extermination of bison is “From the Great Slave Lake to the Rio Grande, the home of the buffalo was everywhere overrun by the man with a gun; and, as had ever been the case, the wild creatures were gradually swept away, the largest and most conspicuous forms being the first to go.”(Doc.2) And the new information about the number of beautiful birds used to furnish women’s hats caused further conservation movement. “It if high time for the whole civilized world to know that many of the most beautiful and remarkable birds of the world are now being exterminated to furnish millinery ornaments for womenswear. The mass of the new information that we have recently secured on this
In the introduction, Hämäläinen introduces how Plains Indians horse culture is so often romanticized in the image of the “mounted warrior,” and how this romanticized image is frequently juxtaposed with the hardships of disease, death, and destruction brought on by the Europeans. It is also mentioned that many historians depict Plains Indians equestrianism as a typical success story, usually because such a depiction is an appealing story to use in textbooks. However, Plains Indians equestrianism is far from a basic story of success. Plains equestrianism was a double-edged sword: it both helped tribes complete their quotidian tasks more efficiently, but also gave rise to social issues, weakened the customary political system, created problems between other tribes, and was detrimental to the environment.
Global competition and Manifest Destiny on the Cusp of the 20th Century 1. Describe the so-called “civilized world” at this time. Answer: It was the time of imperialism where one quarter of the world was claimed as a colony. European countries claimed all of Africa and parts of Asia as a colony, mostly for territory rather than raw materials and commerce.
Imperialism is when a mother nation takes over another nation and become its colony for political, social, and economical reasons. Imperialism is a progressive force for both the oppressors (mother country) and the oppressed (colony), majorly occurring during the late 19th and early 20th century. It had more negative effects than positive effects due to its domination to other nations.
Westward movement is the populating of lands, by the Europeans, in what is now known as the United States. The chief resolution of the westward expansion is economic betterment. The United States story begins with westward expansion and even before the Revolutionary war, early settlers were migrating westward into what is now known as the states of Kentucky,Tennessee, parts of the Ohio Valley and the South. Westward Expansion was slowed down by the French and the Native Americans, however the Louisiana Purchase significantly improved the expansion efforts. Westward expansion was enabled because of wars, the displacement of Native American Indians, buying land, and treaties. This paper will discuss the effects of westward expansion on domestic politics and on American relations with other nations.
The Manifest Destiny was a progressive movement starting in the 1840's. John O'Sullivan, a democratic leader, named the movement in 1845. Manifest Destiny meant that westward expansion was America's destiny. The land that was added to the U.S. after 1840 (the start of Manifest Destiny) includes The Texas Annexation (1845), The Oregon Country (1846), The Mexican Cession (1848), The Gadsden Purchase (1853), Alaska (1867), and Hawaii (1898). Although this movement would take several years to accomplish fully, things started changing before we knew it. New technology took off right away!
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 fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
One of the largest and most wealthy countries in the world, the United States of America, has gone through many changes in its long history. From winning its independence from Great Britain to present day, America has changed dramatically and continues to change. A term first coined in the 1840s, "Manifest Destiny" helped push America into the next century and make the country part of what it is today. The ideas behind Manifest Destiny played an important role in the development of the United States by allowing the territorial expansion of the 1800s. Without the expansion of the era, America would not have most of the western part of the country it does now.
The cowboys of the frontier have long captured the imagination of the American public. Americans, faced with the reality of an increasingly industrialized society, love the image of a man living out in the wilderness fending for himself against the dangers of the unknown. By the end of the 19th century there were few renegade Indians left in the country and the vast expanse of open land to the west of the Mississippi was rapidly filling with settlers.
For example, in the local school, stereotypes such as the image of the ‘wild man’ are consolidated by claiming that there was cannibalism among the indigenous people of the northwest coast (Soper-Jones 2009, 20; Robinson 2010, 68f.). Moreover, native people are still considered to be second-class citizens, which is pointed out by Lisamarie’s aunt Trudy, when she has been harassed by some white guys in a car: “[Y]ou’re a mouthy Indian, and everyone thinks we’re born sluts. Those guys would have said you were asking for it and got off scot-free”
“Evolution” is a poem written by Sherman Alexie that shows how the white American man, Buffalo Bill here, took all the Native American Indian had and made it his own. The white man not only took their land, he took their very existence. Sadly, to say, to this day still does. Buffalo Bill who used his knowledge of the Native American and their need for cash flow. To his advantage, he used the needed to drink and the means to do so, very much to his advantage. He was cold and slick when he intentionally saw a profit to be made right off the reservation across from the new liquor store (Hayatali, 2011). Buffalo Bill was one that is known to have tamed the wild, wild west, even done so crudely.