Why Is The Wild West Bad

Jack Lipanovski

Mr. Clark

U.S. History

28th September, 2015

The Mild West The Wild West is home to some of the most epic and daring tales of adventure and excitement, however, as history will tell, these stories may not be as fantastic as some might believe. For example, violence was drastically less common in the West than it is told in stories and movies, since fighting was simply all around counter-productive in those times, and crimes such as bank robberies were extremely rare. Relations towards the Native Americans were very more misunderstood, and the heroic, good-guy image of a cowboy is completely fabricated, since they were actually dirty working class men who were generally thought of as rude and obnoxious. Violence is the West

“Trade and cooperation with the Indians were much more common than conflict and violence during the first half of the nineteenth century.” (Thomas J. DiLorenzo). In fact, the natives rarely ever attacked pioneers traveling in wagon groups. Towards the latter half of the century however, government policies harshened the relationship, and eventually causing a war against the Plains Indians. After the war, the idea of using the indians as workers on the railroads was proposed, however, the final decision was to order the army to kill any Indian on sight and they would often eradicate entire villages at a time. ““raid” replaced “trade” in white–Indian relations. Congress even voted in 1871 not to ratify any more Indian treaties, effectively announcing that it no longer sought peaceful relations with the Plains Indians.” (Thomas J. DiLorenzo). Orders were given to kill everything in the villages, including dogs, and burned down any remaining structures to minimize the chance of survivors recovering. Not only did the army attack the Indians head on, they also hunted down as many buffalo as they could, since buffalo was the main animal hunted by the indians. This proved to be effective in making survival even

These drives would move large amounts of animals, usually cows, to markets and other farms. Work days were long and hot and nights rests were short and cold, having only a blanket for warmth. Most started in Texas, where the cattle were moved north to various locations, depending on what time period it occurred in. For example, in the 1830s when cattle driving first became a popular job, drives would mostly end in New Orleans and even farther west to Oregon. In the 1940s, the cows would be led to California, where the beef would be used to feed the miners of The Gold Rush of 1849. During the Civil War, cowboys would take the cattle towards the south, providing meals for the soldiers of the Confederate