The Last Of The Mohicans By James Fenimore Cooper

“The Indian presence precipitated the formation of an American identity” (Axtell 992). Ostracized by numerous citizens of the United States today, this quote epitomizes Axtell’s beliefs of the Indians contributing to our society. Unfortunately, Native Americans’ roles in history are often categorized as insignificant or trivial, when in actuality the Indians contributed greatly to Colonial America, in ways the ordinary person would have never deliberated. James Axtell discusses these ways, as well as what Colonial America may have looked like without the Indians’ presence. Throughout his article, his thesis stands clear by his persistence of alteration the Native Americans had on our nation. James Axtell’s bias delightfully enhances his thesis, he provides a copious amount of evidence establishing how Native Americans contributed critically to the Colonial culture, and he considers America as exceptional – largely due to the Native Americans.

There are many factors that made the West, from government, politics, wars, climate and geography. So why are all these factors matter, because when the people wanted to expand their settlements they have to deal with the consequences that they have to risk. Each part of this paper will give you history of each individual era from the expansion of the West, Civil War and the reconstruction of the nation, Home on the Ranch, and rise of the industrial America

Another important section of this chapter was simply called “Texas”. The author provides the context of the Great Plains in 1720 including the French-Spanish rivalry and the corresponding rivalry between the Pawnee and Wichita Indians and the Apache and Pueblo Indians. The Spanish colonies were populated mostly with unarmed missionaries, while the French-controlled regions

The crown depicted the Indians as intractable, only to find that settlers resorted to violence against the Indians precisely because of their supposed intractability. Indigenous peoples, for their part, fought among themselves and against advancing settlers. All groups sought to “territorialize” their societies to secure themselves against competitors. In the final chapters, Langfur extends and qualifies this complicated story. In the later eighteenth century, settler pressures grew, stressing crown policies and threatening indigenous social orders, until all-out war broke out after 1808. For Langfur this was no Manichean battle between European invaders and indigenous victims. To a dominant narrative of violence he juxtaposes a “parallel history of cooperation” among Europeans, Africans, and Indians, and he concludes that war itself must be understood in terms of “the relationship of cooperative enemies.”

“The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado” Written by Elliott West. I chose to write about this book because of the large range of events and transitions that occurred throughout the American West that the author includes in the text. Elliot West highlights the struggles that many endured while trying to create better circumstances for not only themselves but also their families by moving to the west. He chronicles the adaptations that many white settlers arriving in the west faced in order to be able to make a living for themselves. But another reason why I found the book interesting was because of the way Elliot West provided perspective for each side of the struggle over the American West. He gives us the

It must also be pointed out here that who was funding the early explorations and settlements played a role in the type of frontier that was created. In the case of the English, it was the joint stock company. The sole purpose of such a company was to make money and this impacted the style of settlement to a great degree. In contrast, the Spanish and French were financed by their respective crowns and although still in it to make money, the idea of conversion seems to play a much bigger role in their colonizing efforts. Another key ingredient in the creation of a "frontier of exclusion" is demonstrated by the way in which the English viewed the Indians as a people. Many of the English perceived a huge culture gap that saw the Indian as a savage and inferior race. The Indian male especially was seen as lazy and one that shirked his responsibility of providing for his family. Sexual relations between the two groups was minimal "partly because of English squeamishness about women of another culture..." The only way in which the Indian might have a part in the English way of life was through the fur trade, where they could act as trapper and hunter. But, keep in mind that the fur

There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough

Patricia Nelson Limerick describes the frontier as being a place of where racial tension predominately exists. In her essay, “The Frontier as a Place of Ethnic and Religion Conflict,” Limerick says that the frontier wasn’t the place where everyone got to escape from their problems from previous locations before; instead she suggested that it was the place in which we all met. The frontier gave many the opportunities to find a better life from all over the world. But because this chance for a new life attracted millions of people from different countries across the seas, the United States experienced an influx of immigrants. Since the east was already preoccupied by settlers, the west was available to new settlement and that

Faragher, John Mack. Re-reading Frederick Jackson Turner: “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”

The Frontier Thesis may play a heavy part in U.S. history, but there are implications for truly understanding the outlines of this thesis. Fredrick Jackson Tuner during a great meeting of American Historical Association on July 12th, 1893 in Chicago, a paper named “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” This paper introduced an innovative way of astonishment to understanding the construction of America. Turner envisioned that the history of America was not focused one the prominence of the Frontier and the America established many trades and accomplishments from this voyage. Such as Tuner laid out the foundation of his thesis, he also didn’t account for the flaws that were overlooked from his discernment of the Frontier. (Tuner, pg. 1-9)

The subject of tariff and internal improvement is the main question that had to do with the slavery struggle in the west. The first frontier had to meet “Indian questions,” and those questions dealt with the composition of the public domain, the intercourse with other older settlements, of the political extension organization. There were land policies such as having to know the mining experience in regions like Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, and the Indian policy had been a series of experiments on successive frontiers.

The frontier was the most line of rapidness and effective Americanization. When the masters of the colonist found him, an European, it stripped him and provided him with a hunting shirt and moccasin. It settles him in a log cabin of the Cherokee and Iroquois. It provided a planting job of Indian corn and plowing with a sharp stick. Before going to planting he shouted the war cry and took the scalp in Indian fashion. Little by little his transformation outcomes were not old Europe and not the development of Germanic germs.

Cooper challenges the assumption that white characters exhibit certain character traits simply because they' are white and Native Americans exhibit certain character traits simply because they are Native American. He does so by introducing the interracial friendship of Hawkeye, Chingachgook and Uncas who have a very different racial history but look past race and develop a bond that saves other and leads to unification between whites and Indians. The novel’s setting is three years into the French and Indian War, and the struggle over the unfamiliar Native frontier brings about tensions between an expanding national culture and a diminishing Native American population (Cooper 13). Chingachgook and his son Uncas are the last of the Mohican tribe who have an uncommon friendship with a white man named Hawkeye. While Hawkeye may identify as white, he most closely associates himself with the Indians, he is a

According to the frontier thesis, all the resources on the frontier as well as its lack of an established socio-political structure provided opportunities for the settlers. They could now pursue their dreams “of limitless wealth and self-betterment.”[6] Cheap or free land meant more opportunities for the self-made man, and provided a ‘safety valve’ for the ‘newcomers’:

Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in