Wild West

The American view of the west or the "wild west" derives from the Plains Indians resistance to white encroachment. America was trying to clear routes west over the Great Plains for white emigrants and to establish government control over the vast territory. However, as the country was trying to migrate west, the plain Indians were nothing but an obstacle that was in their way. The Plain Indians were using up the whites’ main source of money at that time which were the buffalo. This was another reason for the whites to remove them. What really happened was that the whites took over and killed the indians’ buffalo as well as “ravaging the indians by the white people’s diseases… Above all, the virtual extermination of the buffalo doomed the Plains Indians’ nomadic way of life” (599). The buffalo were one of the main sources of the indians’ life as their “flesh provided food; their dried dung provides fuel; their hides provided clothing, lariats, and harness” (599). But according to the whites that came trampling on the indians and their land, the indians were savages and animals for surviving off of nature herself. The whites could never understand why these indians did not wish to modernize.They were well adapted to the climates and did not want to change their way of life, especially for the newcomers. The Plain indians attempt to fight back had failed, however america's view of the west had radically changed as they transformed their view into a "wild" place.