A New Era of Western Migration

A dozen or so years after the westward emigration had begun, the Trail had undergone significant changes.  There were trading posts, stagecoach stations, and travel no longer meant empty vast land and loneliness.    Travel had been reduced by almost a month.  Telegraph poles were strung along the entire length of the route by 1861, and messages could be sent from coast to coast in seconds. 

The fear of Indians was the new threat to this "second generation" western emigrants.  Their fear was
equaled only by their ignorance to Indian ways and customs.  A common custom of Indians, for example, was to offer strangers a token of hospitality and the Indians expected the same in return from the travelers, which resulted in reports of Indians "begging" the pioneer travelers.  If truth be told in most cases, the Indians had given their "tokens of hospitality" and were looking for the pioneers' return tokens.

This ignorance was more dangerous because it was usually accompanied by a show of arrogance by the pioneers.  Helen Curtis noted in her journal  that once the party had reached Pawnee Sioux territory:  "There was a white man who boasted that he would kill the first Indian he saw.  He soon had the opportunity of fulfilling his boast as he saw a squaw.  He shot her as he would a wild animal and the Indians came on and demanded the fellow be given up.  The Indians skinned him alive."

More on Indians on the Trail next time...

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Today in Pioneer History:  On February 9, 1864  Elizabeth Bacon marries George Armstrong Custer and would become his most dedicated champion.