The Myth of the Old West Essays -- American History, Cowboys

Over the years, the idea of the tungstenern frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the atomic number 74 to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode rancid on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the due west removed from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is dismantle present in the average citizens understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, Frederick Jackson Turners frontier thesis was as real as the romance of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of enthrall. The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the Worlds Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American chief 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 tend Jacksons 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 leafy vegetable beliefs that kine ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that oxen herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.In order to p... ...by the American government and rightfully rebelled. This rebellion, unlike the others, was successful, as Red Cloud forced the Bozeman Trail to be closed. Nonetheless, it demonstrat es the American presidencys oppression of Native Americans.All in all, the treatment of the American Indian during the expansion westward was cruel and harsh. Thus, A Century of Dishonor conveys the truth about the frontier more so than the frontier thesis. Additionally, the common beliefs about the old west are founded in lies and deception. The despair that comes with cognise that people will continue to believe in these false ideas is epitomized by Terrells statement, Perhaps nothing will ever penetrate the shock of puerile romance with which writers unfaithful to their profession and to themselves have surrounded the occidental who made a living in the saddle (Terrell 182).