Short History Of... - The Wild West

Episode Date: April 16, 2023

Think of the Wild West, and you’ll imagine cowboys, shootouts, bank robberies and saloons. But it was also a time of massive resettlement, new technology and communications. But what the white settlers’ westward migration mean for the native people who had lived on the land for centuries? What inspired so many to move west in the first place? And if the era only lasted a few decades, what makes it so iconic to Americans and the rest of the world?  This is a Short History of…The Wild West Written by Emma Christie. With thanks to Chris Wimmer, host and creator of the Legends of the Old West podcast. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the morning of December 29, 1890. A freezing mist hangs over a small Native American camp close to Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. Teepees and tents dot the cold ground, giving shelter to around 340 men, women, and children. They're Lakota people, belonging to the Sioux, an alliance of several large Native American tribes. For centuries they've lived on the Great Plains of America, west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains. These days, some call this area the Wild West. Inside one of the tents, two young sisters blink in the darkness, woken by movement outside. Creeping out to investigate, their breath turns to puffs of cloud in the cold air.

Last night, US soldiers rounded up their tribe and escorted them here. Now the girls can hear their voices and the snort of their horses as they surround the camp. The soldiers come in closer, and more members of the tribe start to emerge from their teepees. Yesterday, they had been on their way to rendezvous with others from the Ghost Dance Movement, which prophesies a dramatic change in their fortunes. The white man will fall. There will be no more wars. But as the first soldiers enter the camp, they look anything but peaceful. The girls hide behind a pile of firewood, huddling together as a white man shouts orders.

Then comes the click of metal on metal as rifles are loaded. The soldiers ride between the tipis. Soon everyone is outside, the warriors and elders, the women, children and babies. The youngest girl nudges her sister, pointing to a small hill at the edge of the camp. Beside more troops, there are guns so enormous they're carried on two big wheels. But then, there's a loud clatter coming from the center of the camp. clatter coming from the center of the camp. Peering around the wood pile, the girls see the men of their tribe step forward one by one and throw their guns into a heap. The soldiers search the camp, barging into the teepees and reappearing

with axes, knives, and tent stakes to add to the pile. Now the white men want to search the tribesmen themselves and though most comply, one refuses. The man, a healer, starts dancing, chanting a holy song to protect them from enemy bullets. But the girls can tell from the looks passing between the soldiers that they think it is a war song. Before they can react, another tribesman, Black Coyote, steps forward. Being deaf, maybe he hasn't heard the instructions.

But when he raises a rifle high above his head and shakes it, the soldiers don't give him the benefit of the doubt. They scrabble to take aim, but then there's a single shot from his weapon. For a moment, there is silence. Nobody moves. Then the shooting starts. The chaos of gunfire is deafening, and the air fills with smoke. Bullets fly over the sisters' heads, shredding the tipis all around.

They run to a hiding place in a nearby ravine and huddle there, watching from a distance, covering their ears against the din of rifle fire, the boom of the big guns on the hill, and the screaming. Stripped of their weapons, most tribe members attempt to flee too, but are shot in the back as they run. When the gunfire finally stops, hundreds of bodies litter the ground and the camp has been obliterated. And though the ghost dance movement will move underground, for now, the girls' hope of a future without conflict lies in tatters too.

Think of the Wild West, and chances are you'll picture scenes from Hollywood movies. Wide open prairies backed by rugged mountains, white cowboys, shootouts at dawn, daring bank robberies, and saloons packed with drunken gunslingers. But though this forms a part of the story, it was also a time of massive resettlement and of new technology. It was also a time of massive resettlement and of new technology. Gold mines brought fortunes. Train tracks linked the east and west coasts of the United States, while telegrams and telephones connected the thousands settling in new towns and cities. According to the movies, the common enemy is always the bare-chested Native American warrior on horseback, attacking European settlers or performing strange rituals

that white people don't understand. But what was the true nature of the relationship between white men and the Native American communities who'd lived on the land for centuries? What inspired so many to push West in the first place? And if the Wild West era only lasted a few decades, what makes it so iconic to Americans and the rest of the world? I'm John Hopkins, and this is A Short History of the Wild West. Historians generally refer to the Wild West period, otherwise known as the Old West, as taking place between 1865, the end of the American Civil War, and around the turn of the century. But the groundwork for this period of unprecedented

expansion and change across North America was being laid much earlier. It's 1776, and George III sits on the throne of England. Across the Atlantic, 13 British colonies declare independence. Together, they'll create the United States of America. This new country stretches from the Atlantic coast to the crooked line of the 2,000-mile-long Mississippi River. Across the water, a vast expanse of wild and unexplored territory stretches out to the west, what is known as the American frontier. The politicians and pioneers of the nascent USA are determined to create a unified and progressive country, but that means taking full control over the land. To them, the problem is the thousands of Native American people who live within it. One of these tribes is the Cherokee.

They live, hunt, and farm on land that the founding fathers wished to integrate into their new country. But the plants, animals, and even the earth itself are cornerstones of their spiritual beliefs. Of course, this isn't the first time they've encountered white Europeans. For more than 200 years, they've fought, traded, and negotiated over land boundaries with incomers. But now, the new settlers have found gold out here, and they want it for themselves. In 1830, U.S. President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act. Native American tribes can now be legally moved

from desirable land in exchange for unsettled prairie land west of the Mississippi River, so long as both sides sign a treaty. Though some go willingly, appeased by promises of long-term financial support, others resist. By now, the Cherokee Nation has a clearly defined legislature and written constitution of its own. And even though gold is found on its lands, it has no interest in relocating.

When pushed, it takes the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, but they refuse to acknowledge it as a sovereign nation and dismiss the case. The message from the U.S. government is clear. Leave, or you'll be forced out. In 1838, soldiers round up any remaining tribe members and remove them from their ancient lands. Disease, hunger, and fierce weather kills more than a quarter of the 15,000 Cherokee driven west to

modern-day Oklahoma. But this forced removal, known as the Trail of Tears, is only the beginning. White settlers gain valuable land, but many believe that's still not enough. In an 1845 article, American journalist John Louis O'Sullivan coins a new phrase to justify the westward expansion. He calls it Manifest Destiny. It's an idea that, according to him, entitles his nation to keep on growing until white European settlers occupy and control all the land between the east and west coasts. The United States is destined for greatness. Chris Wimmer is host and creator of the Legends of the Old West podcast. Some people did buy into that romantic idea that we as a civilization are destined to take over

the entire landscape, but there were others who wanted to move west for much more, I would say, concrete, tangible reasons. They wanted to own land. They wanted to find gold. They wanted to live in a sense of in wide open spaces and with more freedom than they potentially enjoyed in the big cities and the claustrophobic areas of the east. As the concept of manifest destiny takes hold,

thousands of families pack up their lives and move west into unexplored territory. With government support, many pioneers claim a piece of what they see as empty territory for themselves. Some claim areas of Native American territory, disregarding the promises laid down in government treaties. The new settlers divide the open prairie into fields, then plow the land to cultivate crops like corn, wheat, and potatoes. Some breed pigs and build smokehouses to produce bacon. Others care for horses or work as blacksmiths and carpenters.

Out West, there's work for everybody. From this mass migration comes the iconic, romanticized image of the American pioneers, traveling through vast, empty plains on horse-drawn wagons. But in reality, the journey can last six months, and conditions on the road are extremely harsh. last six months, and conditions on the road are extremely harsh. There were areas where it was just flat prairie with no trees for shade, which could be brutal under the summer sun conditions. Then it could change into mountains, which were incredibly difficult to traverse. You could have freak blizzards, you could have hail, drenching rainstorms followed by scorching sun. It was an incredibly difficult journey.

In November 1846, a group of pioneers known as the Donner Party is trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Heavy snowfall makes progress impossible. As food and supplies dwindle, many die of hunger. Others are killed by disease and exposure to the fierce winter weather. As the snow thaws, rescue parties locate the 47 left alive of the original 87, but they also find evidence of the desperate measures they took to survive. Human bones dented with teeth marks, corpses with organs removed and cooked.

The terrible journey west has transformed this group of pioneers into cannibals. The horrifying story of the Donner Party makes for sensational headlines in the newspapers. It also highlights the need for innovation and investment if migration is to continue. The move west needs to be easier, faster, and safer. If the United States of America is to fulfill its manifest destiny, pioneers need more than just horses and wagons. In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act heralds the creation of a transcontinental railroad to link the United States from east to west. The government grants vast areas of land to investors.

Despite a hiatus during the four-year civil war, soon the two ends of the railroad are only a few miles apart. It is May 9, 1869. A team of railroad workers chat as they make the final adjustments to a stretch of unfinished track in the promontory mountains of Utah State. To the south lies the Great Salt Lake, the largest in the Western Hemisphere. To the north, the grassy ground rises higher as it stretches towards Canada. Here they're at 5,000 feet. as it stretches towards Canada. Here they're at 5,000 feet.

A cool breeze creeps down from the distant peaks. A man, one of the 15,000 Chinese immigrants working on the project, pauses hammering these last few spikes to wipe the sweat from under his wide-brimmed hat. He's exhausted. They all are. He catches his breath, watching two men climb up a ladder leaning against a wooden telegraph pole, each carrying a bag of tools.

Once they're up, they set about fixing the wires cut by a band of Native Americans, angry about the trespass onto their traditional hunting grounds. A bell rings for a break, and along with the others, the worker downs tools for a moment to take a drink of water and rest. It's backbreaking work, but it's almost over. Aided by US government grants of land and money, the railroad companies have been tasked with building a continuous new track connecting the East and West coasts.

Over months of grueling 12-hour days, these men have built bridges over rivers and ravines. They've blasted tunnels through the Sierra Nevada mountains. As they rest, the sounds of the east coast crew, just half a mile away, drifts over to them on a breeze. Made up of Irish workers and former soldiers, they have been laying the track from the opposite direction, inching towards the meeting point in the middle. But today, there's other work going on too.

Between the two teams, there's a group of white men hammering stakes into the ground and pulling guy ropes to erect a temporary village of canvas tents. Others lay out neat rows of chairs ahead of tomorrow's ceremony with railroad company bosses. The smell of roasting meat drifts over to the Chinese worker whose empty stomach growls. He knows it's not for him though. He is here to work and nothing else. It's time to get back to it, but after another couple of hours work, there comes a shout from the foreman. It's time. The men straighten up, peering along the track. What starts as a whisper grows to a rumble, and soon the ground beneath them is trembling.

Looking east, there's just over a thousand miles of track to the coast. Looking west, there's almost another 700. And now, on both, there's a train approaching. The mighty steam engines roar and puff until they come to a halt just meters apart. The track is all but done, but it won't be Chinese or Irish workers who finish the job. Tomorrow, railway bosses will drive in a final golden spike and bring both tracks together. After six years of grueling work, they've done it. The transcontinental railway is complete. Pioneers can now travel from east to west in a matter of days.

Against the backdrop of the brutal civil war, in 1862, Congress passes the Homestead Act. Any settler traveling west can claim 160 acres of land in the largely unsettled territories that will eventually become incorporated into the USA as states. Successful applicants pay a small administration fee of $18, the equivalent of around $500 today, and commit to improving the land for a period of five years. Anyone who hasn't taken up arms against the government can apply, even women and immigrants. As the war draws to a close in 1865, homesteaders take up the offer in massive numbers, and

the period of the Wild West truly begins. By 1870, almost 500,000 migrants have moved west. The train travel is quicker and safer than the arduous journey by wagon. But there are other dangers. As well as bringing white settlers, the trains carry payroll money and gold from the mines. And it is only a matter of time before a payload like that starts attracting the wrong kind of attention. only a matter of time before a payload like that starts attracting the wrong kind of attention. On July 21, 1873, embittered civil warfighter Jesse James makes history with his gang of outlaws. They have successfully robbed banks in the past, but now, rumor reaches them that the Rock Island Express train is carrying gold worth $75,000, more than $1.5

million in today's money. Jesse and his men vandalize a stretch of track near the town of Adair in Iowa. Then they wait. When they hear an approaching locomotive, they slip into their disguises, the long, white hoods of the Ku Klux Klan. They slip into their disguises, the long, white hoods of the Ku Klux Klan. When the train reaches the tampered track, it derails, toppling into a creek and killing several of its staff and passengers.

Jesse James and his men climb aboard and force the guard to open the safe, but find only $2,000 inside. Disappointed, they demand money from passengers and escape with a further thousand. It's the first time a moving train has been targeted by robbers, but it won't be the last. Jesse James paved the way for notorious bank and train robbers such as Butch Cassidy and his gang, known as the Wild Bunch. Armed outlaws cause problems off the rails as well. New villages and towns spring up rapidly across the West,

and settlers build homes, shops, schools, churches, banks, and saloons. But what's often missing in these settlements is effective law enforcement. The people in town quickly realized that civilization in these towns was not going to be sustainable if everyone was drunk and everyone had guns. That was quickly going to spiral out of control. Law enforcement in a lot of the towns in the Old West was, it was a really interesting kind of mixed bag where one person could hold multiple offices at the same time. There was no training for law enforcement. It was just, if you could be tough and stand up to the challenge, you could be a marshal or a sheriff.

So if you didn't have those tough qualities, you were almost certainly going to get run over by the outlaw element. One notorious gunslinger, Billy the Kid, is linked to the rapidly expanding cattle industry. When the businessman who employs him as a gunman is murdered, he joins a group of cowboys, ranchers, and outlaws to avenge the killing. He joins a group of cowboys, ranchers, and outlaws to avenge the killing. His escapades capture the imagination of the press, and soon he's a living legend, the perfect image of a rebellious cowboy. But he's an exception to the rule. The reality of that life is very different. As demand for beef booms after the Civil War, many men are drawn to the cattle industry.

The new cowboys look to Mexico for guidance. Mexican cowboys are renowned in the industry for their exceptional horsemanship and known as vaqueros, from the Spanish vaca, meaning cow. The white Europeans struggle with the word, pronouncing it vacarú. But while the language is difficult, the style of dress makes a lot of sense to them. Out on the trail, driving cattle to markets, their days are long, hot, dusty, and physically demanding. The Mexican sombrero, meaning a hat that provides shade, becomes typical of the white cowboys. As they ride through the prairie, their trousers are protected from wear and damage by thick leather chaps.

The spurs on their boots click and rattle against the ground when they walk, but when they're in the saddle, the metal tips help them to guide their horses more precisely. And when their herd passes over dusty ground, kicking up clouds of dirt, the cowboys tug a cloth bandana over their nose and mouth. And, at the end of another grueling 15-hour day, they use the bandana as a warming scarf once the heat of their campfire subsides. The growing number of cowboys creates opportunities for entrepreneurs as well. A young German-born American businessman arrives in San Francisco

to sell durable canvas tents and wagon covers. When that venture fails, he designs a new style of work trousers, able to withstand the rough labor of miners and cowboys. In the 1870s, he produced his first pair of blue jeans.

They prove hugely popular, and the young immigrant, named Levi Levi Strauss becomes a household name. Advertisements for his jeans often feature white cowboys. The image of the cowboy, I think, evolved into the ideal or quintessential American persona because he represented a lot of different things that merge a lot of the principles and values of a typical American. You know, a cowboy spent weeks riding out on the open range. So he had to be self-sufficient. He had a sense of freedom that very few people had and most people longed for. He had to be tough. He had to be self-reliant. He had to handle just about anything that could come at him. And so I think that job ended up becoming emblematic

of what every American wanted to be, even if they didn't literally want to be a cowboy. The idea of self-sufficiency, self-reliance, toughness, endurance, those kinds of things, and certainly freedom above all those others, personal freedom to just get on your horse and go wherever you wanted to go, whenever you wanted to go.

That sense really appeals to everyone. Following the abolition of slavery, black cowboys work alongside their white and Mexican counterparts. Whatever their background, life as a cowboy is far from idyllic. Weather isn't the only danger they face on the open plain. They drive herds over rivers and through wild exposed landscapes, but their greatest fear is attack. If you think of a cowboy as a rugged, rough guy who's riding on a horse next to a herd of cattle and trying to drive a herd of cattle to a market, his number one fear while he was doing

that was being attacked by Native American warriors. So I think generally it was a view of fear. It was a fearful relationship that when you were out on the plains with nothing around you, you could be attacked at any time. The last thing they wanted to see was, you know, a war party coming at them with the horrifying screams and the galloping riders. And Native Americans were generally viewed as the best horsemen. We were talking about cowboys and Mexican vaqueros being very good horsemen. They were almost nothing compared to Native American warriors who virtually lived on horseback. But for all their fears of attack, it's not the Native Americans who pose the biggest threat. Up until now, fencing has been scarce,

with livestock from different ranches grazing freely on open landscapes. When a farmer invents barbed wire in 1874, all of that changes. It's cheap, lightweight, and effective at keeping animals in place. Good news for farmers, but bad news for cowboys. The new railways are another nail in the cowboy coffin. There's little need for driving cattle over long distances to market when there are trains crisscrossing the country. The 2,000-mile journey from east coast to west can now be completed in around four days, instead of the six months it took by wagon.

Though the railroad means fewer cowboys passing through Native American territory, it also signals a huge leap in the number of white settlers. And they don't just cross the land. They claim it for themselves. To try to say it pretty simply, Native Americans absolutely viewed white migration West as an invasion. People who were moving West, those who really bought into the concept of manifest destiny,

believed that the Native Americans should move aside or were just simply destined to be overrun because the European white civilization was just simply better, more advanced. Pioneers had this idea of Native Americans as lesser and therefore they should be moved out of the way or simply killed. Their ideas of who Native Americans were would have been largely influenced by whatever they were able to read or stories that moved eastward. And so those

were largely very negative stereotypes. The word that was most often used was savages. very negative stereotypes, the word that was most often used was savages. In 1874, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an expedition into the uncharted Black Hills in Dakota Territory. According to a treaty signed six years earlier, this land will belong forever to the Sioux people. But their chief, Red Cloud, knows only too well how easily the white men break their promises. Only a few years ago, he led the resistance against a new road development slicing through the heart of their supposedly protected territory towards the Montana gold mines. Red Cloud eventually defeated the US troops with the help of younger warrior chiefs Sitting

Bull and Crazy Horse, and the controversial road project was abandoned. A new treaty was signed, but now it seems history is repeating itself. Virtually every promise the American government made to every Native American group was either not lived up to or quite simply just broken or ignored. or ignored. And so quickly Native Americans realized, even if we want to sign an agreement, we probably shouldn't have any hope that it's actually going to work out the way it was explained to us. And of course, the way it was explained may or may not have been accurate anyway. They tried to make these overarching agreements that they hoped would apply to all the peoples in a certain area, all the while knowing that those people could never possibly grasp the complex language and the legal jargon and the doublespeak

that was actually in the written agreement, Native Americans realized they had no reason to trust the U.S. government. Now the U.S. military wants to build a fort here in the sacred Black Hills. Castor has been tasked with finding the best location and to investigate the possibility of gold mining. The Native Americans know from past experience that white men will do

anything to get their hands on the precious metal, digging great scars into the earth, polluting the rivers, fighting anyone who gets in their way. To begin with, representatives from the US government try negotiation. They summon the chiefs to a meeting, where they offer them money and land further south if they agree to hand over the Black Hills for development. And if they don't agree? Food supplies will be cut, their horses and guns will be removed, and they'll be forced to relocate. Left with little choice, legendary leader Red Cloud and

others relent, but Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull refuse. Inspired by their resistance, thousands of Native Americans join them at a camp by the Little Bighorn River. The U.S. military issues threats. Either they return peacefully to the land they've been moved to, or they'll be set upon by soldiers and forced to go there anyway. But Sitting Bull has a vision of the upcoming battle. He sees many soldiers falling upside down at their camp. Word spreads quickly. This is a vision of victory. It's around 9 a.m. on June 25, 1876, This is a vision of victory.

It's around 9 a.m. on June 25, 1876, in the mountains of southeastern Montana. Lieutenant Colonel Custer climbs on his horse to a natural viewpoint called Crow's Nest. It overlooks the valley of the Little Bighorn River. Sun-scorched grasses and shrubs shift and rustle on the gentle hills. The tree-lined river cuts like a knife through the vast open plain. Next to him are the scouts who first spotted this Native American camp. They bring their horses close to his and point it out. They say it's the biggest encampment they've ever seen, maybe 3,000 strong, vastly outnumbering Custer's 600 or so men. His leather saddle creaks as he swings down from his horse and stares into the thick mist rising over the valley.

He can't see the camp in any detail, and the only sound he can hear is birdsong. The men turn their horses and ride back to their own base, where smoke rises from fires on which breakfasts are cooking. It's Custer's job to make the decision of what to do next. Maybe he should wait for reinforcements, but he's proven his skill before, and his good fortune. He's survived so many battles, in the Civil War and against Native Americans, that others talk about Custer's luck, his uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time.

A hush descends on the camp when he shouts his commands. They are to prepare for immediate departure. Tents are quickly taken down, provisions are packed away, saddles are tightened. His soldiers stamp out the campfires, climb onto their horses, and sling their rifles over the shoulders of their blue uniforms. And then they descend into the valley of the Little Bighorn. The mist is cleared by the time they close in. Beyond the village of Tepees, women gather wild turnips, and young men whoop and splash in the river a group of mothers sit by campfires holding babies while older children play at their feet

it looks like an ordinary morning custer smiles to himself he and his men will win this one custer now rides among the men, splitting his regiment into three. One group will guard the supplies, the others will surround the encampment, then wait for the final group to ride in and reinforce them. Orders are given, rifles are loaded, bugles are sounded. Custer moves to the front, leading 210 soldiers. He grips the saddle with his thighs, kicks his horse's flank, and pushes it into a gallop. The Native American camp responds immediately. Sitting Bull helps women and children escape to safety.

Crazy Horse raises the alarm among the warriors, who sprint to their mounts. Soon he's leading a force of two or three thousand to meet Custer and his men head on. The world quickly becomes the thunder of hooves, the cracks of gunfire. Wounded men cry out as they fall from horses, but today it isn't Native Americans who are falling in the greatest numbers. Within an hour, Custer and his entire battalion are dead.

The war hero is found with two gunshot wounds, one to his chest and the other to his head. His famous luck has finally run out. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, is the most decisive Native American victory over the U.S. Army to date. It cements Crazy Horse's reputation as the bravest and most skilled of warriors. But it has little impact in the long term. Sitting Bull and his followers flee to Canada after the battle to avoid the wrath of U.S. troops. Bull and his followers flee to Canada after the battle to avoid the wrath of U.S. troops. Crazy Horse and his tribe spend almost a year evading U.S. soldiers.

But the weather is fierce, food supplies are dwindling, and their hunting grounds have all been but destroyed. In May 1877, he surrenders, hoping for food and shelter. Instead, he is taken to jail, where he is bayoneted to death by a U.S. soldier. For many white settlers, the battle cements the negative view of Native Americans as bloodthirsty people who need to be brought under control. Within five years of the victory at Little Bighorn, the majority of Sioux tribes are forced to give up valuable ancestral territory. The majority of Sioux tribes are forced to give up valuable ancestral territory. They are moved onto reservations, tracts of less desirable land chosen by the US government. They're confined to the boundaries of these zones and banned from returning to their old hunting grounds.

Though farming is encouraged, the land they're moved to is often poor and infertile. As a result, many Native Americans go hungry and grow increasingly dependent on the U.S. government to provide food rations and other supplies. They're encouraged to abandon their spiritual beliefs and adopt the culture and religion of white people instead. To make matters worse, tribes with historic rivalries are often placed on the same reservation, which inevitably leads to conflict. In 1879, the US government takes a further step in its quest to destroy Native American culture when it opens a new school for Native children. The founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania believes the government must kill the Indian to save the man.

Soon, thousands of Native American children are forced to attend one of 150 segregated facilities across the country. Pupils must cut their hair, wear American clothes, speak English, and embrace the values of the white European settlers. The human cost of European migration westward is immense, but indigenous animals are also in the crosshairs. One of the Native American people's most treasured resources is the buffalo. These 600-kilogram animals, also known as bison, are the largest land mammals in North America. For Native American communities, they're revered but also essential to survival. Tribes hunt them for food, clothing, shelter, jewelry, medicines, and rituals. Almost every part of the animal is used.

Before Europeans arrived to the Americas, more than 30 million buffalo roamed the land. By the end of the 1800s, the animal is on the brink of extinction, with less than 1,000 left alive. White hunters strip the beasts of their hide and horns, then leave the body to rot. then leave the body to rot. The slaughter of the buffalo is one of the most significant factors when it came to the conflict between Native American society and American society. As the buffalo dwindled, the food source dwindled, Native Americans became more reliant on American outposts for food and clothing

and everything else, and you can see how it just became a huge downward spiral. One of the most famous buffalo hunters is U.S. soldier William Frederick Cody. He builds his reputation fighting in both the Civil War and conflicts with Native Americans. Then he wins a contract to supply Kansas rail workers with buffalo meat. He excels at the task. In 18 months, he claims to have killed more than 4,000 buffalo. But he soon transforms his fortune yet again with a very different kind of job. He becomes one of the world's most famous entertainers. Changing his name to Buffalo Bill, he travels the U.S. with a spectacular Wild West show. The massive outdoor event is cleverly advertised

with brightly colored posters depicting iconic western landscapes and battles between cowboys and Native Americans. His performers wow the crowds with recreations of buffalo hunts and wagon attacks and famous battles all tied into a narrative boomed over a loudspeaker. The eclectic cast includes numerous Native Americans, a menagerie of animals from the plains and plenty of white cowboys and soldiers to ride in and save the day. But one of the most unexpected stars is legendary Sioux chief Sitting Bull. When starvation forced him to return from his four-year exile in Canada, the chief moved to a reservation in the USA. There, railroad bosses invite him to speak at an event to celebrate another completed railway, and he finds himself in demand. at an event to celebrate another completed railway, and he finds himself in demand.

White people want to take his photograph and hear his stories. The old chief believes the publicity will help his people's cause. Buffalo Bill is sure a figure like Sitting Bull will draw in the crowds, and U.S. officials are happy to know the troublesome leader is temporarily out of the way. U.S. officials are happy to know the troublesome leader is temporarily out of the way. Buffalo Bill's Wild West show romanticizes the stereotypical sounds and sights of the Wild West and cements the misconceptions and myths associated with it. Buffalo Bill staged wild, elaborate shows that portrayed very slanted views of how conflict between American society and Native American society happened in the West. They were great drama, they were incredibly fun to watch, but they were not reflective necessarily of reality.

In 1887, Buffalo Bill takes his show to Europe, even performing a private show for Queen Victoria in London. But Sitting Bull stays in the US. He leaves his acting role and returns home to his tribe's reservation in South Dakota, where once again there are problems on his land. In a recent meeting with Native American chiefs, a US military leader showed his true feelings in an insult which will be repeated for years to come. feelings in an insult which will be repeated for years to come. The only good Indian, he says, is a dead Indian. It's clear the hostilities are showing no sign of abating. Now US soldiers are rounding up supporters of the Ghost Dance, a rapidly growing religious

movement that foresees the resurgence of Native Americans and the eradication of white men. The US authorities wrongly believe Sitting Bull is a driving force behind the movement. In December 1890, he is arrested at his cabin. Violence breaks out and Sitting Bull is killed, shot in the head and chest. Two weeks later, US troops attack and kill hundreds of ghost dance followers at Wounded Knee Creek. According to one version of events, 300 unarmed Native Americans are slaughtered, then tossed into a mass grave. Other accounts say it is a bravely fought battle by U.S. soldiers in the face of a clear threat from aggressive tribes. Weeks later, 20 U.S. soldiers in the face of a clear threat from aggressive tribes.

Weeks later, 20 U.S. soldiers are awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions at Wounded Knee, the U.S. military's most prestigious commendation. Whatever name it's given, the killings at Wounded Knee in 1890 mark a key moment in U.S. history. After decades of bloodshed, it is the last major armed conflict between Native American tribes and the U.S. history. After decades of bloodshed, it is the last major armed conflict between Native American tribes and the U.S. government. Finally, after 35 years of constant movement, conflict, and upheaval, the Wild West is almost tamed. By the start of the 20th century, around 200,000 Native Americans survive, around half of their population a hundred years earlier. With the land now under the control of the government,

the era of the Wild West comes to an end. The majority of tribe members live inside the strict boundaries of reservations. In 1909, the last of the great chiefs, Red Cloud, dies aged 87. But before he does so, he sums up the experience of Native Americans at the hands of the white man's westward expansion. They made us many promises, he says, than I can remember But they never kept but one They promised to take our land And they took it As the era closes, Buffalo Bill's Wild West show

enters its third decade on the road There's still a great hunger for the tales of rugged and rebellious cowboys And writers and Hollywood film producers are just getting started There's still a great hunger for the tales of rugged and rebellious cowboys, and writers and Hollywood film producers are just getting started. Authors produce thousands of short books, known as dime novels, which romanticize the age of the cowboys. In 1912, Zane Gray, a dentist from the Midwest, writes a Western novel called Riders of the Purple Sage.

It's a huge bestseller. In the years that follow, Gray writes another 55 full-length Western novels. Heroic cowboys and gunslingers dominate the lead roles in his books that sell more than 17 million copies worldwide. In addition, more than 100 films and TV series are created based on his characters. Westerns prove hugely popular in Hollywood's fledgling movie industry. Hundreds of short adventure films are created, often on a low budget. Known as B-Westerns, they're screened in movie theaters before the main film.

But soon there's demand for longer movies, too. theaters before the main film. But soon there's demand for longer movies, too. Multi-award-winning filmmaker John Ford makes classic Western movies like Stagecoach, featuring a young John Wayne. It's the first of many Western movies filmed on location in Monument Valley, part of a Native American reservation. Locals take on the role of warriors attacking a white man's stagecoach before the cavalry arrives and saves the day. For 60, 70, 80 years, Native Americans were largely portrayed as the enemy on film. There are exceptions without question, but they were largely portrayed as the enemy. I think it's really difficult to change a perception once it's been rooted in decades of history.

These epic westerns attract massive worldwide audiences, generating billions of dollars for the movie industry. Iconic actor John Wayne appears in 80 western movies during his lifetime, more than half of his total. Today, the genre continues to attract the biggest directors and actors in Hollywood, including Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, and Brad Pitt. But modern movies often take a different approach to the story of the Wild West. There has been a shift. It's hard to identify exactly why it happened, but I think luckily it

has happened. And we're now in maybe 20 or maybe approaching our 30-year period of trying to fight against the previous 80 years. And so it's slowly changing. But if it took 80 years to build up the perception that Native Americans were the bad guys, almost always, it's going to take time to reverse that the way it should be. Hollywood is not alone in trying to redress the balance. In 2010, the U.S. government publishes an act that apologizes for the violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native people. Nine years later, members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduce the

Remove the Stain Act, a bill to rescind medals of honor awarded to the soldiers involved in the Wounded Knee Massacre. Many of today's Native American people continue to live on reservations based on those marked out more than a century ago. While some flourish, statistics show that many live in poverty, which negatively impacts their health and educational achievements. Across the U.S., Native Americans are still battling to be heard and improve their quality of life. In 2021, Deb Haaland becomes the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

Leading the Department of the Interior, she manages over 500 million acres of public land, much of which was once seized from indigenous people. She also oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs. These days, the department promotes policies to support the Native Americans that it once worked to assimilate or worse. But there's still a long way to go. worse. But there's still a long way to go. Separating the fact from the fiction and acknowledging the dark side of that era of American history has to be just as important as holding up the good things and the ideals. So I think you have to be able to do both. You can't simply ignore the tragedies that happened with the Native American society and everything else,

and the discrimination and the abject horrors that lots of people experienced in the West, while mythologizing and romanticizing the idea of the cowboy or anything else, or even the outlaw. I think you've got to take the good with the bad and try to put both together and realize that the truth of the era is much more in the gray area in the middle. in the middle. Next time on Short History Of we'll bring you a short history of the Blitz. Another thing that people

started to do quite instinctively was to leave the towns and cities at night and basically start sleeping in the countryside, sleeping under hedges and sleeping outside. Sometimes you had hundreds of thousands of people just leaving the cities. Now, the

government viewed this as cowardice, very against it. I think it's a sign of immense toughness and resilience. They came back into the cities during the day and they worked and they got on with their lives and they were functioning and useful members of society, which I find absolutely amazing. That's next time on Short History.