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Introduction for Students
When you think of the old American West what do you
think of? You might think of cowboys and in particular one loan cowboy.
Maybe he looks like Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, chances are he is tall
and strong, wears a six-gun revolver and rides a horse. He is also likely
alone, riding his horse into the sunset or perhaps fighting off Native
Americans, outlaws, or even other cowboys all by himself. This lone hero
of the American west is a part of a great many television shows, movies,
books, and other forms of popular entertainment. This old western hero is
a powerful symbol in America. This image has come to mean rugged
individualism, self-reliance, honesty, and simplicity.
But in truth the story of the American West is not so
much about single heroes as it is about groups of people and institutions
all of whom played major roles in the exploring, developing, and settling
of the continental United States.
To begin with when we talk of exploring and settling the
West, we are really talking about the migration of white Anglo-Saxon
peoples from the Eastern states into first the states along the
Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and then into those that border the Pacific
Ocean and then eventually throughout the West. Native Americans were
living in these regions and had thoroughly explored them for thousands of
years before this. Although Native Americans had extensive trade networks
that spanned the entire continent, they did not possess a written
language, this coupled with the fact that whites often did not understand
many of their languages, or value their cultures made Americans think they
were exploring a new or unsettled region.
Throughout American history Native Americans interacted
with white people in often complex and surprising ways. Some Native
American tribes such as the Cherokee even adopted white American systems
of written languages, laws, and politics to protect their land and their
native cultures. Usually these strategies failed to keep whites from
taking their lands and destroying their tribes.
One of the institutions that played a major role in the
development of the West was the United States government. Starting with
the Lewis and Clarke Expedition, the Federal government was a chief
sponsor of scientific and geographic explorations throughout the West.
These expeditions literally drew the first maps of the region, recorded
animal and plant life, described the climate, and detailed the cultures of
Native peoples. This information was essential to the whites that would
migrate from the East to settle in the West.
The United States Government was also instrumental
in making the land something that could be owned. First, by surveying the
land so that it was divided into clearly measured and identifiable
sections, and then by encouraging settlement through legislation like the
Homestead Act. The federal government also granted large tracts of land
to the railroads and other industries who would in turn increase the
number of people coming into the region and develop its natural resources.
Even our image of the lone pioneer family is not
completely accurate.
Although once settled, people often lived on isolated farms far from
neighbors and towns, the task of getting to these homesteads was a
communal one. Wagon trains were most often composed of formal
corporations with clear officers and rules and regulations. Frequently
they consisted of hundreds of individuals who helped each other throughout
the journey. Whether fighting hostile Indians and wild animals or fording
streams and pulling wagons over rough terrain the western pioneers worked
collaboratively to make their migrations successful. Like those in the
East, western communities also desired and required people with a
diversity of professions, skills and attributes. And like the rest of
America the western landscape attracted and eventually supported a wide
variety of people from throughout the world. Their struggles and
contributions to the development of the American west were just as heroic
as the lone cowboy riding off into the sunset.
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