New Nation: Westward Expansion How the West Became American Jay Gitlin, Yale University Development from a Teaching American History colloquium held on July 28-30, 2009 Timeline period: ​Expansion and Reform (1801-1861) Background:​ In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner presented his paper, The Significance of the American Frontier, at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He claimed that the American frontier was a meeting point between civilization and savagery and that this frontier experience shaped the American character. Today, historians are more apt to describe the frontier as a place in time characterized by the encounter of two (or more) cultures.

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In both cases, the West is often a synonym for the frontier. The story of the American West is the story of the meeting of French fur traders and a variety of Indian communities, of American settlers and soldiers and Mexican families, of black miners and Chinese laborers. The creation of the continental United States was made possible through the acquisition of vast tracts of land that were not, contrary to the opinions of many, simply an empty wilderness. Thus, the history of westward expansion is a history of accommodation and adaptation, of conquest and colonialism. Primary Sources: ●

George A. Crofutt. ​American Progress​. Chromolithograph, ca. 1873, after an 1872 painting by John Gast. Annotation​: John Gast, a painter and lithographer, painted ​American Progress​ in 1872 on commission for George Crofutt. Crofutt published a series of western travel guides

and included the engraving. The guidebooks were quite popular and many Americans viewed the image; it remains popular today, as an expression of American ideals about the frontier. 1. How is the frontier expressed? 2. Who is the woman in the image? 3. Why is the image called ​American Progress​? ●

Reminiscences of Frederick Chouteau.​ Kansas State Historical Society, Volume 8 (1903-04). Annotation​: In 1803, the purchase of the Louisiana Territory by the United States meant the acquisition of a vast area in Mid-America that contained the home places of French

and Indian communities. The Chouteaus were a prominent family of fur traders based in Saint Louis, one of many important families of French ancestry in the West. They dominated much of the trade network in the Missouri Valley and often served as the link between the French and American frontiers. 1. How does Frederick Chouteau describe the fur trade? 2. What is his relationship with the Kaw people? How does he describe other relationships between whites and Indians? 3. What is the role of people of mixed heritage?

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Charles Larpenteur, ​Forty Years a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri​, ed. Elliott Couer (1898). Annotation​: In 1828, the Fort Union trading post was established by the American Fur Company in present-day North Dakota. The post was established as a business and

Indian tribes, including the Crow, Assiniboine, Arikara, and Hidatsa, traded buffalo robes and other furs for trade goods such as beads, guns, cookware, and cloth. 1. How does Larpenteur describe the trading post? 2. What is a still? How does alcohol factor into the conduct of the fur trade? ●

Phoebe Goodell Judson, ​A Pioneer’s Search for an Ideal Home​ (Originally published in 1925), pp. 7-84. Annotation​: By the 1830s, Americans were pushing even further westward, looking for unclaimed land. Fifty thousand people traveled the Overland Trail to Oregon from the 1840s until the completion of the Trans-Continental Railroad in 1869. The trip, often undertaken by families and/or groups from similar towns in New England and the Midwest, acted as a powerful bonding experience. Many pioneers kept diaries; Phoebe Judson’s published memoirs, which describe her journey to Oregon in 1853 with her husband, are particularly evocative of the experience.

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John G. Burnett’ ​Story of the Removal of the Cherokees​, 1838-39 Annotation​: The Cherokee Nation, established in 1808, joined together a loose

confederation of villages in Tennessee and Georgia. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act threatened to remove this community from its ancestral lands. In 1838, after much disagreement among both Cherokees and whites about policy, the United States Army rounded Cherokees up into camps and marched them more than a thousand miles westward to Indian Territory. 1. How does John Burnett describe the Cherokee Trail of Tears? What role did he play? 2. How does he portray the Cherokee leadership? The Cherokee people? 3. How does he portray the American government? The United States Army? The American people? 4. How does Cherokee removal alter the narrative of westward expansion? 3

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Noah Smithwick, ​The Evolution of a State or Recollections of Old Texas Days​, Austin: Gammel Book Company, 1900, pps. 9-19. Annotation​: Just as American settlers were enticed by the prospect of land in Oregon, Texas seemed similarly appealing. In the 1820s and 1830s, 20,000 American settlers

arrived in Texas. Texas settlers were often perceived as unsavory characters, escaping bad debts and farming failures. 1. How does Noah Smithwick depict the Texas pioneer experience? 2. Why did Smithwick decide to move to Texas? Was his choice a success? Secondary Sources: ●

Robert V. Hine and John Mack Faragher, ​The American West: A New Interpretive History​ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), chs. 5-8. Annotation: ​This volume surveys the history of the American frontier, from first contact between Native Americans and Europeans to the 20​th​ century experience of the

American West. Look for individual narratives and contemporary illustrations which serve to tell the story of the development of the frontier through multiple perspectives. In the Classroom Present your students with two different maps. Have them compare and contrast what they see. – Compare three personal narratives: Frederick Chouteau, Phoebe Judson, and Noah Smithwick. How were their experiences similar or different? – What roles do ethnicity and gender play in their perceptions of the West? Enduring Understanding – How was the United States west of the Mississippi River shaped by different peoples and cultures? – How is the concept of manifest destiny relevant to the history of the American West?

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Relevant Standards: National History Standards (UCLA) – Expansion and Reform (1801-1861) ● ●

Standard 1​:​ United States territorial expansion between 1801 and 1861, and how it affected relations with external powers and Native Americans Standard 2​: How the industrial revolution, increasing immigration, the rapid expansion of slavery, and the westward movement changed the lives of Americans and led toward regional tensions

Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Frameworks Grade 5 The Growth of the Republic 5.29 Explain the events leading up to, and the significance of, the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. 5.30 Describe the expedition of Lewis and Clark from 1803 to 1806. (H, E, G) 5.34 Explain the reasons why pioneers moved west from the beginning to the middle of the19​th century, and describe their lives on the frontier. (H, G, C, E) A. wagon train journeys on the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails B. their settlements in the western territories 5.35 Identify the key issues that contributed to the onset of the Civil War. (H, E) A. the debate over slavery and westward expansion U.S. I Political Democratization, Westward Expansion, and Diplomatic Developments, 1790-1860 USI.24 Describe the election of 1828, the importance of Jacksonian democracy, and Jackson’s actions as President. (H) A. Jackson’s policy of Indian Removal

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USI.26 Describe the causes, course, and consequences of America’s westward expansion and its growing diplomatic assertiveness. Use a map of North America to trace America’s expansion to the Civil War, including the location of the Santa Fe and Oregon trails. (H, E, G) A. the War of 1812 B. the purchase of Florida in 1819 C. the 1823 Monroe Doctrine D. the Cherokees’ Trail of Tears E. the annexation of Texas in 1845 F. the concept of Manifest Destiny and its relationship to westward expansion G. the acquisition of the Oregon Territory in 1846 H. the territorial acquisitions resulting from the Mexican War I. the search for gold in California J. the Gadsden Purchase of 1854 US. II Industrial America and Its Emerging Role in International Affairs, 1870-1920 USII.4 Analyze the causes of the continuing westward expansion of the American people after the Civil War and the impact of this migration on the Indians. (H)

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