The Exile Trains

During the 19th century, most settlers to the West held the common belief that the Indians had to give way to westward civilization by the white man.  There was no grand strategy to force the Indians out - no government law or military plan.  In fact, one of the legendary Indian-fighting generals, General Crook, reportedly told a West Point graduating class,  "with all his faults, the America Indian is not as half black as he has been painted.  He is cruel in war, treacherous at times, and not over cleanly.  But so were our forefathers."

It was believed, however, that two opposing lifestyles, could not exist in one nation, no matter how expansive that nation was.  There was no room for buffalo herds and nomadic tribes in the white's civilization.  The Indian had no concept of boundaries, private land ownership or progress...all things that was building the West.

It was the railroad that became the final destruction of the western Indians.  As rail lines grew, they give the Indian-fighting army a new and deadly ability to move over vast wilderness in great force in short period of times.  The railroad was singly responsible for the extinction of the buffalo/  The Plains Indians, who depended on the buffalo for food, clothing and lifestyle, were doomed. 

Railroads brought the great Indian war years and the last generation of Indian heroes trying to hold on to their lifestyle.  Even victories again the white settlers, the railroad men or the US Army could not bring back the buffalo.  The progress of the iron horse went on.

In 1872, the US Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who watched the building of the second transcontinental railroad said, "The progress of the Northern Pacific railroad will of itself leave 90,000 Indians ranging between two lines as incapable of resisting the Government as are the Indians of New York  and Massachusetts."

Indians were put on :"exile trains" to promised lands in the Black Hills and Florida.  Land taken, food source slaughtered, lifestyle stolen...they were resigned to ride the iron horse as their final attempt to survive.

Next time...Cowboys and Cattle Kings
__________________________________
Today in Pioneer History:  "On June 4, 1876,  a mere 83 hours after leaving New York City, the Transcontinental Express train arrives in San Francisco.  That any human being could travel across the entire nation in less than four days was inconceivable to previous generations of Americans.

Civilized Arizona?

Arizona had 1000 people at the Prescott diggings by1864.  Prescott was rough, even as mining camps go.  They prohibited Asians and Mexicans from filing claims, and  working or living in the district. A committee was established to determine who was and who was not a Mexican.  Bigotry was rampant, even in the 20th century.  Prescott prided itself as being the "Only White Man's Town in Arizona".  Without Joseph Walker, the Indian situation worsened and whites suffered from Indian attacks.  The Indians, who were used to someone fair and reasonable like Captain Walker, were lost.

The Arizona Miner, a weekly newspaper established in Prescott in 1864, pretty much told the mood:
"We see no other way than to eliminate the savage race on the Pacific Coast and the sooner the better for this country.  The Indian race has served its day and generation, and will eventually be studied as an extinct species of man, as naturalists now study the dinosaurs." 

What a sad thought that consumed these people - to exterminate a people and their culture because they didn't care to understand or integrate that culture.  What we lost to ignorance can never be regained. Is that what civilization is all about?  Civilized people don't exterminate another people - how is that civilized?  Gheesh...

Next time:  Prescott honors Captain Joe

 _________________________

Today in History:  On January 27, 1888, the National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, DC for "the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge."

Walker and Walkara

One story of this historical period tells of how the Snake Indians captured and planned to kill 2 Ute women, one with an infant still nursing.  Captain Walker purchased them and returned them to the Ute tribe.  Turns out they were the wife and daughter of the Walkara, a prominent chief who was to become the most famous and feared Indian leader of the Southwest.  The Utes were the best light cavalry west of the Sioux and had a genuine talent for guerrilla tactics.

Walkara was known to the rest of the Ute nation as the "Desert Napoleon" or the "Sagebrush Captain Kidd".  He rode against white and Indians for personal gain and glory, specializing in horse stealing and raiding other Indian and Mexican camps for women and children.  (Hmm - now the Snake incident makes more sense!)

Walkara's greatest exploit was a massive raid into the outskirts of Los Angeles where he stole 3000 horses, a rustling record.  Walkara had a Bedouin sense of humor, frequently demonstrating his high regard for Joseph Walker and as a result Joe traveled freely and peacefully throughout Ute territory. Only Joe Walker :)


Next time...What makes a good wife?

The Squaw - White Man Style

In the beginning women tended to see Indians as contemptible objects. They could be "civilized" only the a woman's influence.  Dating back to the colonial days, the Indian stereotype was savage, heathen, barbaric and infidel.

Indian women, especially seemed to fit into the white's man mold...dressed in deerskin, moccasins, ankle and wrist bracelets, jewelry, and of course crowned with a head of flowing, loose black hair, riding on bareback horses.

Indian squaws were thought to be promiscuous prior to marriage, and with the marital vows, bound to the rigid standards of an Indian marriage with the result of breaking those vows, brutal punishment including loss of body parts.


All Indians trace their ancestry only from the mother, but according to the white man this was due to the inability to ascertain for certain who the father really was.  It was believed that squaws were forced to bear their child alone in the woods and could only discipline their female children (no spanking allowed), when in actuality, it was considered a crime for a male son to disrespect his mother in any way.

Indians women were actually accomplished equestrians, warriors, medicine healers and religious centers of the tribes. 

Next time...the Indian Princess

Origin of Tall Tales

So, where did the tall tales and stereotypes of the Native Americans come from?

19th century "captivity narratives" were told and exaggerated into lore and legend that told the story of heroic American settlers.  The "good guy" was the white settler, and the "bad guy" was always the Red Man. The Indian female was always the unfortunate, exploited one who did all the work while the man fished, hunted and played at war games. 


Popular in pioneer times, the "dime novel" had a formula for Indian characters - savage, blood thirsty redskins.  A popular French writer claimed his novels were the details of his own American experience, but his novels were both highly stereotyped and written to his own needs and those of his audience.

The Spanish government in Texas, was accused of deliberately exaggerating Indian cannibalism and ferocity in order to discourage settlers from inhabiting the territory according to one Mary Austin Holley.

Swiss artist, Karl Bodmer, a member of German explorer Maximillian's 1833 expedition, attempted at least to bring ethnic accuracy and clarity to his Native American illustrations, but outside the states, most believed that the frontier's native population was doomed by its own primitive nature to eventual extinction.

In the time of the Western pioneer, what people THOUGHT was more important than what was actual fact - and what they THOUGHT became the TRUTH. 

Next time...The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...

Natives of the Western Frontier

We've talked about the image of the Western frontier depicted by the newspapers and magazines of the time - uncivilized, immoral, dangerous - but what about the picture painted of the Native Americans in the West, the Indian, the Red Man, the Savage?

Imagine for a moment that you and your family are about to set out for the open West, a new beginning, the chance to own land and experience the wide open spaces of an uncivilized country.  Along with that excitement is the fear of a people you have only heard about - those who inhabit that new land.  You and your family have been told they are barbaric heathens - dirty, mean, half naked, hostile and prone to attack defenseless pioneer families.  From all you have read about the Indian, he deserves to be destroyed by a progressive, civilized white society.

Let's look at the myths and "tall tales" carried back to the Eastern cities, and as we examine the true Indian (good and bad) that populated the Western frontier, we'll find, surprisingly,  that views were gradually changed by those we would least expect - the frontier women!!