Major Problems in the History of the American West Y
DOCUMENTS AND ESSAYS
SECOND EDITION
EDITED BY CLYDE A. MILNER II UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY ANNE M. BUTLER UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY DAVID RICH LEWIS UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston New York Contents
CHAPTERl Defining the West and Its History Page 1 STATEMENTS Y Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American • X History 2 and The Problem of the West 4 Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains 5 Patricia Nelson Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest 8 and What on Earth Is the New Western History? 9 William Cronon, Revisiting the Vanishing Frontier: The Legacy of Frederick Jackson Turner 11 Donald Worster, New West, True West: Interpreting the Region's History 13 ESSAYS Walter Nugent • Where Is the American West? Report on a Survey 15 Clyde A. Milner II • America Only More So 33
CHAPTER 2 Spanish Borderlands and Native Homelands Page 42 DOCUMENTS Don Luis de Velasco's Extensive Manifest of Personal Property, 1597 43 Nicolas de Aguilar's Few Worldly Goods, 1663 46 The Count of Paredes' Report on the Pueblo Indians' Revolt, 1681 47 The Testimony of Pedro Naranjo, A Pueblo Indian, 1681 49 Bishop,,Tamaron Visits Santa Fe and Taos, 1760 51 Father Junipero Serra Asks Viceroy Antonio Bucareli for Leniency for the Indians, 1775 54 ESSAYS Ramon A. Gutierrez • Honor and Marriage in Colonial New Mexico 57 Albert L. Hurtado • Sexuality in Early California's Franciscan Missions: Cultural Perceptions and Sad Realities 69
IX X Contents
CHAPTER3 Cultural Contacts and Contracts Page 82 DOCUMENTS Buckskin Charlie Recounts Southern Ute Creation, Recorded 1912 83 Chippewa Contact Narrative, Recorded 1855 84 Wolf Calf (Piegan) Describes the Arrival of Horses, Recorded 1895 86 Francis Chardon Laments the Destruction of the Arikaras and Mandans by Smallpox, 1837 88 George Ruxton Depicts Life Among the Trappers, and the Trappers' View of Women, 1847-1849 93 ESSAYS Sylvia Van Kirk • Native Women in Canadian Fur Trade Society 96 Dan Flores • Bison Ecology and Bison Diplomacy on the Southern Plains 103
CHAPTER 4 Federal Support of Explorers and Emigrants Page 115 DOCUMENTS Meriwether Lewis Views the Great Falls of the Missouri, 1805 117 The Stephen Long Expedition's Report of a Frontier Barrier, 1821 120 George Gibbs with the Mounted Riflemen Observes Emigrants on the Overland Trails, 1849 122 Impressions of the Overland Journey from Vincent Geiger and Wakeman Bryarly, 1849 126 The Overland Trails: Three Tables of Statistics 128 E S'SA Y S William H. Goetzmann • From the Northwest Passage to the "Great Reconnaissance" 130 John D. Unruh, Jr. • The Federal Government's Aid to Overland Emigrants 142
CHAPTER 5 The Legacy of Acquisition Page 156 DOCUMENTS "x Mexican General Mariano Arista's Advice to the Soldiers of the U.S. Army, 1846 157 Anastasio Parrode, Commander-in-Chief of the Department of Tamaulipas, to His Troops, 1846 158 Contents XI
Charles DeMorse Gives a Texan's View of the War with Mexico, 1846 159 John C. Calhoun Opposes Incorporating Mexico, 1848 160 John A. Dix Advocates Expansion onto Mexican Lands, 1848 162 Queen Liliuokalani's Statement at Her Trial for Treason, 1895 164 From Haunani-Kay Trask, a Native Daughter in Colony Hawaii, 1993 166 ESSAYS Thomas R. Hietala • The Myths of Manifest Destiny 169 John Whitehead • Hawaii: The First and Last Far West? 182
CHAPTER 6 Cowboys, Outlaws, and Violence Page 195 1 DOCUMENTS A Popular Account of the Death of Jesse James, 1882 197 ' Granville Stuart Recalls Cattle Rustlers and Vigilantes, 1883-1884 198 I Helen Wiser Stewart Writes of Her Husband's Murder, 1884 201 i Theodore Roosevelt Describes Cowboy-Land, 1893 203 V An Arkansas Newspaper on the Killing of Bill Dalton, 1894 204 ESSAYS ./ Robert R. Dykstra • The Cattle Towns Adjust to Violence (with a / Postscript) 206 Richard White • Outlaw Gangs and Social Bandits 222
CHAPTER 7 Children, Marriage, and Families Page 238 PHOTO DOCUMENTS David Hilton Homestead, Custer County, Nebraska, 1887 239 Ira Watson House, Custer County, Nebraska, 1886 240 Stewart Family in Spokane, Washington, 1889 241 Alice Jasperson, Goshen, Utah, Sewing a Flag, c. 1917 242 Lincoln J. Smith and Margaret E. Breeden Smith with Their Children in California, date unknown 243 A Chinese Family in California, date unknown 244 Joseph F. Smith and His Polygamous Family in Utah, c. 1900 245 Chipeta and Her Family in Dragon, Utah, 1907 246 xii Contents
ESSAYS Elliott West • Children and the Frontier 247 Paula Petrik • Bordeaux v. Bordeaux: A Story of Divorce 255
CHAPTER 8 Contested Reforms Page 268 DOCUMENTS Sir Richard Burton Examines Mormon Polygamy, 1860 270 Helen Mar Whitney Defends Plural Marriage, 1884 271 "Brigham, Brigham Young," An Anti-Mormon Folk Song, Collected in 1932 272 Testimonies Designed to Limit Chinese Immigration, 1876 274 Augustus Layres Endorses Chinese Immigration, 1876 276 Huang Zunxian Expresses the Chinese Perspective in Poetry, c. 1884 278 Carrie Chapman Catt Encourages Idaho Suffragists, 1896 280 Newspaper Account of Idaho Suffrage Vote, 1896 282 ESSAYS Carol Cornwall Madsen • Utah Law and the Plural Wives, 1850-1900 285 Margaret K. Holden • Gender, Protest, and the Anti-Chinese Movement 294
CHAPTER 9 Railroad and Mining Labor "" Page 303 DOCUMENTS Albert D. Richardson Writes on Building the Great Railroad, 1865 304 William A. Bell Describes the Engineering of the Railroad, 1867 306 Daughters of Charity Comment on Life in Virginia City, Nevada, c. 1875 308 Chinese Accounts of the Killings at Rock Springs, 1885 309 Frank A. Crampton on the Ludlow Massacre, 1914 312 Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Calls Women to Labor Action, 1915 316 ESSAYS W. Thomas White • Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Northwest Railroad Work Force, 1893-1912 318 Gunther Peck • "Old" Radicals and "New" Immigrants in Bingham, Utah, 1905-1912 328 Contents xiii
CHAPTER 10 Living on the Land, Leaving the Land Page 341 DOCUMENTS Northern Utes Respond to the Break-up of Their Reservation, 1903 342 John Stands-in-Timber and Ella C. Deloria Recall the Early Days of Reservation Farming, 1877-1900 349 Martin Chariot Speaks to the Futility of Flathead-Salish Farming, 1890-1910 352 Jorgen and Otto Jorgensen Remember the Decision to Homestead in Montana, 1906 354 Elinore Stewart Advocates Homesteading for Women, 1913 356 The Bell Family Tries Dry Farming, 1911-1923 357 ESSAYS David Rich Lewis • Farming and the Northern Ute Experience 359 Gilbert C. Fite • A Family Farm Chronicle 370
CHAPTER 11 Dam Water, Damn Dust Page 379 DOCUMENTS John Wesley Powell Demands Reclamation of the Arid Lands, 1878 380 William E. Smythe Envisions Conquest of Arid America, 1900 384 An Excerpt from the Reclamation Act, 1902 386 Voices of Those Who Built Hoover Dam, 1929-1935 387 Caroline A. Henderson Sends a Letter from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma, 1935 391 "The Plow That Broke the Plains": The Film Narrative, 1936 394 High Hammond Bennett Insists on Soil Conservation, 1939 396 ESSAYS Wallace Stegner • Striking the Rock—Water and the Arid West 398 Donald Worster • The Black Blizzards Roll In—The Dust Bowl Begins 406
CHAPTER 12 The Other Western Homefront Page 416 DOCUMENTS Roger Daniels Quantifies the Forced Migrations of Japanese Americans, 1942-1946 417 Yoshiko Uchida Remembers a Desert Exile in Utah, 1942 420 XIV Contents
Italian Voices from the Unknown Internment, 1942 423 Flore Lekanof, Sr., Lambasts the Government Evacuation of Alaska's Aleuts, 1942 425 Charles M. Smith Praises Farm Workers from Mexico, 1943 427 Daniel L. Schorr Decries the Exploitation of Mexican Americans, 1946 429 ESSAYS Terrence M. Cole • Jim Crow Segregation in Alaska 431 Erasmo Gamboa • Mexican Laborers in the Pacific Northwest 442
CHAPTER 13 yf New Cities, New Lives Page 454 PHOTO DOCUMENTS Second Street Cable Railway, Looking West, 1888 455 Jawbone Siphon Construction Site, c. 1910 456 Construction of the Harbor Freeway, 1956 457 Disneyland, 1955 458 Disneyland, 1967 459 Burning Building in Watts Uprising, 1965 460 A Korean American Stands Guard During the Los Angeles Riots, 1992 461 Dodger Stadium, 1962 462 ESSAYS Quintard Taylor • Blacks and Asians in a White City 463 Carl Abbott • The Urban West and the Twenty-First Century 476
CHAPTER 14 y Owning the West Page 485 DOCUMENTS Report of the Committee on the Conservation and Administration of the Public Domain, 1931 486 Utah Governor George Dern Responds to the Public Lands Debate, 1932 488 _ Two Statements from Nevada on the Sagebrush Rebellion, 1979 490 James Coates Asks, Is the Sagebrush Rebellion Dead? 1986 494 Return of the Sagebrush Rebels, 1995 495 Four Editorial Cartoons Capture the Angry West 498 Contents XV
ESSAYS R. McGreggor Cawley • The Sagebrush Rebellion and Environmental Politics 500 Bruce Babbitt • Public Use and the Future of the Federal Lands 518
CHAPTER 15 "X Imagining the West Page 526 DOCUMENTS John Wayne Receives a Congressional Gold Medal, 1979 527 The Duke: "More Than Just a Hero," 1979 528 High Country News Spoofs Real Estate Development, 1994 529 Ralph Lauren Builds His Ranch in Colorado, 1988 530 Dennis Quaid Dines Out in Montana, 1989 533 Pat Bagley Lampoons the New Western Lifestyles, 1993 534 Marshal Matt Dillon Has His Last Showdown, 1995 535 ESSAYS Julian Crandall Hollick • The American West in the European Imagination 536 Anne M. Butler • Selling the Popular Myth 541