http://www.usfirearms.com/im/buffalobill_large.jpg
http://www.showmensleague.org/about_us/buffalo_bill.jpg
Frontier Myths
Angela Brown
The West by 1900
•A decline in the
amount of
unorganized
territory created the
sense that the
opportunities of the
frontier were fading.
•1872 the federal
government
established
Yellowstone
National Park to
preserve western
lands
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Gif/Yellowstone/Maps/map_yellowstone_caldera.gif
•Nations 1st
national park
Wyoming, Montana,
and Idaho
•1890 the
Superintendent of
the census
announced the end
of the frontier.
http://www.gorzow.mm.pl/~bebelebe/Yellowstone%20River%
20in%20Hayden%20Valley,%20Yellowstone%20National%20Park.jpg
Turner’s Frontier Thesis
•Fredrick Jackson
Turner 1893 –
claimed the frontier
had played a central
role in forming the
American character
•Forced settlers to
shed old ways and
adapt, innovate, and
invent
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TURNER/Turner.gif
•Created Americans
who were ready for
adventure, bent on
self-improvement
and committed to
democracy
•Disregarded
contributions of
women, African
Americans,
immigrants,
government, and big
business.
http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/FRONTIER/Image/fr-vista.jpg
Frontier Realities
•Diverse Western
settlers – women,
Chinese, Japanese,
and African
Americans
•“buffalo soldiers” –
Native Americans
called the all-black
ninth and tenth
cavalry regimen
http://www.allenscreations.com/images/fmcotbs.jpg
Limited View of Democracy
•gave women the
vote before eastern
counterparts but…
•ran over rights of
native Americans
and Asians
•Settlers treated
vast resources as
though they were
limitless
http://www.wwnorton.com/cover/032155.jpg
Creating the Myths
•1870 dime novels
of writers like
Edward Wheeler
•1883 William F.
Cody “Buffalo Bill”
Wild West Show
•1902 Frederic
Remington’s
painting The
Cowboy
http://images.replacements.com/images/images5/china/C/franciscan_
frederic_remington_western_series_no_box_P0000127210S0002T2.jpg
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/RET/rr_0058~The-Life-of-Buffalo-Bill-Po
•Stereotypes – fixed
ideas held by people
•strenuous life for
men
http://www.ethesis.net/buffalo_bill/buffalo_bill.jpg
http://www.nativeamericans.com/Sitting_Bull-Buffalo_Bill.jpg
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/media_content/m-3369.jpg
•1912 Juliette Low
founded the
American Girl Scouts
because she feared
civilization had
made girls too soft.
•She praised women
homesteaders for
strength and
intelligence.
•Made scouting
techniques for
tracking woodcrafts,
and wilderness
survival the core of
her program.
http://district185.macomb.com/~edison/images/2005%
20Wax%20Museum/Famous%20Women/images/Juliette-Low.jpg
•Reality is much
more complex than
the myths.
•It is balance
between the dream
of endless
opportunities and
the fact that
opportunities were
not equal for all.
http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/Frederic-Remington
/Arizona-Cowboy-Print-C10034065.jpeg