Historical Research Capabilities: The student conducts historical research, US History Content Standards for Grades 5-12, Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945). She was an “Indian,” but in the Spanish colonial system race was more fluid. That is a pole taken from fifteen different states during a forty year time period (Nakamura). Even though there weren't local "governments" per se, there existed private organizations and clubs that helped adjudicate matters of property, theft, and crime, keeping things pretty orderly. Where there’s laughter in every streamlet flowing,

Why was the Old West so popular during the Great Depression? By Tricia Escobedo, CNN… Change ), Wyatt Earp Belongs On The Other Side Of The Law, The Symptoms of John Johnston’s Liver Eating. They were the ultimate outlaws of their day, when most criminals stuck with robbing trains or other things that were outside of town, these men were pulling off major heists of their day.

Recently, some historians have turned away from the traditional view of the West as a frontier, a "meeting point between civilization and savagery" in the words of historian Frederick Jackson Turner. Required fields are marked *. Most myths about the American West originated on the silver screen. How does Fred Goodwin describe the Old West? They also came “North” and “South” within the western hemisphere. ( Log Out /  Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | © 2003 - 2014 Oregon Public Broadcasting. Tim Richmond's fascination with the American West began as a boy in England, watching cowboy movies on TV.

In fact, they were considered a serious profession with the best players being initiated as professional sportsmen. We have heard the tales since grade school, but are any of them really true? They have begun writing about the West as a crossroads of cultures, where various groups struggled for property, profit, and cultural dominance. CCS.ELA-literacy.RH.11-12.1Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.

The first cowboys were Spanish vaqueros, who had introduced cattle to Mexico centuries earlier. Have students compare the original lyrics to with the final lyrics. We use cookies. This region of presumably “free land” provided opportunities for economic mobility and self-reinvention.

It has been both bad and good to me. If someone were to rely purely on stories and movies about western days, then it would be very easy for them to fall for the myth of bank robberies. 2013.

Out where a fresher breeze is blowing,

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was pushing westward, starting farms, creating settlements and founding cities. (Last Privacy Policy Update July 2020), Byways & Historic Trails – Great Drives in America, Soldiers and Officers in American History, See our Old West Photo Print Galleries HERE, Jolly Cholly Funland, North Attleborough, Massachusetts.

The more of … By the 1880s, most American Indians had been confined to reservations, often in areas of the West that appeared least desirable to white settlers. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem. Web. Let’s begin with one of those invisible, obvious facts of history: Women had been living in what became “the West” centuries before anyone arrived from “back East.” We have plenty of evidence of the ways they claimed homes and made communities, from the remnants of the Cahokia Mounds to the majestic ruins of Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon, where archaeologist Patricia Crown has found evidence of chocolate and macaws from the 12th century. First, lead a discussion about the Great Depression in 1930s America. The West gave women special opportunities as authors.

The biggest American myths might contain some of the country's biggest lies. But the frontier was also home to women whose stories don’t match the standard Hollywood Western script. An easy way to see all articles getting posted to social media is to look on the right hand side of most of our pages (or if you are on tablet or mobile device, look at the bottom, after the article page, for “What’s Happening”, which shows our Twitter Feed. As all this time goes by, the once rural and tough way of life starts to dwindle away.

Or ask students to brainstorm the ideas and places that are mythical now and rewrite a song to reflect these new myths. Old West Legends – Adventures in the American West Produced by Kathy Weiser-Alexander, narrated by Dave Alexander. White settlers from the East poured across the Mississippi to mine, farm, and ranch.

So we’re really talking about those recent immigrants who came from the eastern U.S. and from across the globe, particularly in the 19th century. The myth of the cowboy is only one of many myths that have shaped our views of the West in the late 19th century.

This is a long-standing belief in U.S. society that the West epitomizes the American dream and the basis of American identity. Victoria, however, did not remain a widow, and in September 1836 she married the Scottish trader Hugo Reid, who eventually squandered Victoria’s lands. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.7 Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts. An Era Ends As the Telegraph Passes Into History, Cemeteries – Outdoor Museums of the Forgotten Past, The Most Prolific Gunslingers of the Wild West, Outhouse Madness – Relics of Another Time, Patent Medicine & the Popular Medicine Show. The cattle industry rose in importance as the railroad provided a practical means for getting the cattle to market. Well there are some great facts behind the truth.

Where there’s more of giving and less of buying, is a magazine of ideas from Arizona State University Knowledge Enterprise. Your email address will not be published. But if your husband has a mind to sell the farm and travel west, you cannot stop the sale, and up on the buckboard you go.

However, the truth behind the infamous fight is that it didn’t take place in the OK Corral at all and was instead carried out in the definitely-less-glamorous vacant lot behind it.

However, the region understood as the “West” was home to indigenous and Mexican women who lived here before Anglo-American and African-American settlers. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, what people believe Old West life was like, historic American westerners really experienced. She is the author most recently of Playing House in the American West: Western Women’s Life Narratives. The stereotype of the heroic white cowboy is far from true, however. Have students watch “The Poet Laureate of the West” video while taking notes on the following.

Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Chapter VI Agrarianism, Expansionism, and the Myth of the American West. By signing up you are agreeing to our, Angelina Jolie: Why Girls Deserve Love and Respect on International Women's Day, ‘You Bet Your Ass I've Got Regrets.’ As Election Day Nears, More of Trump’s Former Officials Are Speaking Out Against Him, Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know now on politics, health and more, © 2020 TIME USA, LLC. Web. This is because these crimes are so hard to commit, that very few men can become famous for being successful. PBS, n.d. Contrary to what many believe, the Stetson cowboy hat was not a popular choice for many early frontiersmen of the Old West. Also, it would've been pretty unsafe to wear a massive, white hat when you were really in the middle of a gun-battle, seeing as it would've made a perfect massive, white target for your enemies. African-American settlers also came West from the Deep South, convinced by promoters of all-black Western towns that prosperity could be found there.

By maintaining some familiar forms of work, such as farming, foraging, and needlework, women helped to mitigate new economic realities on the reservation. Where there’s more of reaping and less of sowing, That’s where the West begins; Consider the Old West in popular culture today. With the advent of European contact, Spanish and Mexican and indigenous women lived in—and came from—all directions. “10 Great Train Robberies.” Mental Floss. Poet Laureate of the West What ideas are too old-fashioned? Overwhelmingly large amounts of bank robberies are a false idea that has been instilled in society by old western movies and folktales over the years, when in reality they were far and few in between. Cracked.com. Yet women writers were just as likely to revise as support these mythologies, which centered on male endeavor, and they frequently portrayed western sites as not wild and liberating, but provincial and claustrophobic. Afterwards, use the following questions to assess comprehension and prompt discussion: After showing the video The Poet Laureate of the West from the History Detectives episode Tumbling Tumbleweeds, explain to students that they will be comparing and contrasting the world painted by the Sons of the Pioneers and the world of the Great Depression. The Story of Mary MacLane, for example, one of the most notorious books of 1902, depicted the 19-year-old author’s desperation to escape her middle-class home in the copper boomtown of Butte: “Can I be possessed of a peculiar rare genius,” she demands, “and yet drag my life out in obscurity in this uncouth, warped, Montana town!” Nevertheless, the city MacLane denounced was key to her literary success: Readers would have been far less intrigued by the thoughts and experience of a girl hailing from a more familiar place. In what ways do you see the ideas of the Old West represented in today’s pop culture? Black cowboys also rode the range. Out where the world is in the making, What ideas about the Old West fit into the song? But here in the West, women continue to lag behind men in too many areas to declare the “Woman Problem” solved. This factual evidence turns out to be very shocking to some people, and a lot would probably just deny it. Where the bonds of home are a wee bit tighter, The survival and success of tribes in 21st-century America is due to the ability of these native women to hold their families together during the era of the “American West.”. 16 Oct. 2015. As a property owner and hispanicized woman, Victoria interacted and was socially accepted by the other local elite Californio families. Where the snows that fall are a trifle whiter, Fred Goodwin, a collector of Western memorabilia, gives his theory as to why the song was so popular during the Great Depression.

When we talk about “the American West” and the women who made it their home, what do we really mean?