The West's Reality and Myth

AP American History Monday-Wednesday
December 10, 2009

The West: A History of Myth and Fact
The history of the West is a story of contrasts.  The contrasts of the West exist between the people who inhabited the area, the lifestyles lived by those people, and the ideals they held.  Above all, there is a contrast between the reality and the myth of the history of the West.  There exists a widely held vision of the West, a flat and simplified view created by legends, novels, and the silver screen of Hollywood.  This vision of the West would have it painted in black and white, with cowboys and Indians representing good and evil.  But the reality of the West is much more mixed and muddled, with many different groups of people mixed in the scheme.  The false vision, the Myth of the West, would also have us see it as an simple society of unlawfulness and violence.  This is also an inaccurate view of the West.  The Myth of the American West gives us a simplified version of a history that was, in reality, much more complex and diverse.
Perhaps one of the best exemplifications of the diversity of the West was it's inhabitants.  The great Western myths, however, found this diversity much too ugly to be immortalized in lore.  Generations of Americans could not look to a convoluted story of grey areas for inspiration.  The Myth of the West solved this problem by glossing over the details and painting a history of good and evil.  The Myth chose whites and Indians as the two major sides of the conflict.   In the article "Debunking the Myth", in regards to this oversimplification, the author states: "The 'White Man' is usually either seen as the brutal force defeating Indians or as the democratic adventurer exploring our land.".  The Indians, portrayed as the opposing side, are alternately labeled as the victims or stubborn savages.  In order to be truly effective, the epic of the West required a clean cut bad guy and good guy.  The truth, however, is that this simplistic situation did not exist.  Hollywood is often more apt to display the falsified version of the West, but the film McClintock portrays in greater accuracy the true intercultural relations of the West.  The Native Americans of the film are both persecuted by some whites and treated with understanding and kindness by others, while they themselves act with violence to some settlers and befriend others.  There is also a younger Indian called Davy shown in the film who has successfully assimilated into American life, graduating from college and holding a position as book keeper for the local shop.  This more closely mirrors the reality of the Indians of the West.
Another reality of the West, one also displayed in the film McClintock, is that there were not just American whites and Indians inhabiting the Western regions.  Also shown in the film are Chinese and Hispanic characters.  On the stage of the real American West, the Chinese and Hispanic Westerners played an important role.  The Mexican population of the West was in many ways more native to the region than the white settlers, due to the former ownership of many Western regions by the Mexican Republic.  The United States did not acquire any of Mexico's most populous regions in the Mexican War, but there was a considerable number of Hispanics who became U.S. citizens as a result of the War.  Another major group thrown into the mix of the West, the Chinese began arriving in force after 1848 in response to the California Gold Rush.  Then, beginning in 1865, many of the Chinese who had lost mining as a source of income began to find work in the construction of the transcontinental railroad.
The interactions between the diverse cultural groups of the West were what truly added a layer of complexity to the story.  The Myth here again simplifies the facts to glorify them in the recollections of the countless Americans.  The main conflict examined in the Myth of the West is the constant battle for control between the white settlers and the Indians.  It is true that all tribes of the West were negatively effected by white settlement, but whites and Indians were often capable of living in harmony.  A unique new generation of mixed Indians was also created.  This generation adopted many of the customs of the settlers and was able to mediate between  the whites and the Indians.  The Myth of the West also makes little mention of the relations between whites and other ethnic groups besides the Indians.  The actual story has much more to reveal.  The impact of white settlement on the Hispanic population was less dramatic than that had on the Indians, but, even so, many Hispanics lost the positions of authority they had once held and were forced into a poor working class position.  On the other hand, the new white settlement created new opportunities to succeed for other Hispanics.  The situation of the Chinese was also double sided.  They were at first welcomed to the West as a hardworking new people, but later suffered racism and discrimination second to only the Indians because of the rivalry for jobs that they presented.  The Myth of the West chooses to gloss over these intricate interactions of cultures, just as it often glosses over the interactions of the different social positions of the Western Society.
Western history is filled with many conflicts between the different cultures of the region as well as conflicts between the different social standings.  There were conflicts as well that were based on race and occupation, such as the conflicts between Irish and Cornish miners.  According to the documentary "The Legendary West", there were a series of mineral rushes throughout the nineteenth century which caused a large influx of miners into the Western territories.  The miners of the West often fought amongst themselves because of the nature of the inhabitants of the mining towns.  Most of the residents were young men in search of adventure and quick riches, and when they met in bars, brothels, and saloons, problems arose.  Another conflict was caused by the western Brothels: the plight of the prostitute.  In the article "Debunking the Myth" the author explains that the prostitutes were "…not the happy, go lucky people in the movies.".  Hollywood paints a whimsical image of the Western prostitute, but in reality prostitution was created by the necessity of women who were unmarried to earn an income.  The life of the prostitute was a hard one, and they often conflicted with the married women of the settlements, who persecuted them.  The Myth covers up the sad fates of Western prostitutes, who often committed suicide to escape their fate, in order to further romanticize the Western history.  The Myth would not be nearly as effective in mesmerizing the nation if the prostitutes, the women of good times and pleasure, were revealed to have led tragic lives.  Many women of the West led very different ways of lives than portrayed in popular media; they were often far more independent and had to rely on their own work for an income.  This self reliance, like the conflict between prostitutes and the married women of the west, remains unmentioned in the popular view of the West.  Another less mentioned conflict was that between the homestead farmer and the cowboy.  The cowboys of movies and novels have for generations fought their great enemy, the Indians. As pointed out by the documentary "The Legendary West", Indian Wars became a popular subject of movies on the West.  According to the documentary, cowboy heroes such as Buffalo were also introduced during this time in the East by dime novels.  But the true enemy of the Western cowboy, if included in the myth, would give him a far less heroic appearance.  The bane of the cowboy was actually the homestead farmers who began to settle the Western territories after the passage of the Homestead act of 1862.  The cowboys, though portrayed by the Myth as adventurous heroes, were actually cattle herders who were responsible for the care of their livestock.  This was the root of the conflict between the cowboy and the homestead farmer.  In the article "The Wild West of Myth and Reality", Earl Hunsinger provides a summation of the disagreement: "Cattlemen often claimed large areas of open range, using it for grazing and for driving their cattle to market….,they felt that having come first gave then the fight to do whatever it took to drive the homesteaders out.  This was especially true when homesteaders fenced off their land, limiting access to already scarce sources of water.".  It was in this way that the cowboy fought not against savage Indians, but against simple farmers for the simple necessities, like land and water, that were needed to raise livestock.  There is little wonder that the Western Myth chose to bend the truth of the cowboy in order to produce in him a more heroic figure.
Perhaps one of the largest parts of the Western Myth pertains to the identity of the cowboy.  No other figure of the American Western story has been more immortalized in literature, movies, and even song.  The cowboy of legend has a unique and ever changing façade; the importance and identity of this hero seems to differ from person to person.  The Hollywood directors of films such as McClintock portray the cowboy as either adventurous or, as exemplified by the previously mentioned film, as strong and wise from the hardships of the west.  Perhaps one of the greatest mediums for the worship of the cowboy is Country music.  The popular song "Cowboy Take Me Away" by the Dixie Chicks associates the life of a cowboy with nature, closely tying in the time cowboys spent out on the land to the singer's own desire to escape city life for a life on the land.  The song "Should Have Been a Cowboy" exalts the adventures and fun supposedly had by cowboys and the singer's own dreams of leading a similar lifestyle.  The song "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" is similar to the other songs worshipping the lifestyle of the cowboy, but while it also presents and idealized version of the cowboy, it also attests to some of the misery of loneliness that cowboys actually would have experienced.  The Myth of the cowboy can be twisted to match the ideals of each individual, but the actual reality of cowboy life is much more set in stone, and much more harsh.  Cowboys spent long months alone on the range, suffering the effects of solitude and the elements.  It was in no way a glamorous life.  There is one characteristic of the cowboy, however, that is not as set in stone as the Myth would suggest.  This is the race of the cowboy.  The ideal image of a cowboy would have us believe all cowboys were white, when a great many of them were actually black.  The real cowboy could be considered substantially different from the cowboy of legend.
The final part of the Myth of the West ties in to all the others because it is the basis for all the great legends of the West: the lawlessness and violence of the West.  In order for the great epic story of the winning of the West to take place, a proper stage had to be set.  For this purpose, legend created the Wild West, the West of few laws and constant, enthralling conflict.  Desperados and bandits wage war against cowboys and sheriffs in this West of Myth.  This part of the Western Myth could be considered true on a certain level.  The quick rush of settlers into the Western territories had prevented the formation of a proper justice system.  The federal and state governments were eventually successful in establishing proper order, however.  It is popularly believed that all Westerners toted pistols to all occasions.  Many Westerners did carry firearms, but there were also strict gun laws in place in many towns, often requiring firearms be surrendered before entry would be allowed into the town.  There is violence in the history of the West, but nothing like what the legends would have the listener believe.  The Myth, in order to retain it's interest, has upheld version of the West filled with death and violence and heroics, while reality in comparison would seem dull.  
So what is the Myth of the West?  Upon a closer examination, the Myth of the West is a simplification of the truth of the West.  Each generation has its own myth in order to immortalize the morals and ideals held at the time.  A story like that of the true West, one of multicultural conflict and complex personal motivations, is certainly very entertaining in it's own way, but would not serve to reflect the core values of that generation of Americans.  The Myth of the West edits the facts and produces a story of the West that is more easily understood and supported.  The Myth of the West is the version of the History of the West created to entertain and inspire the future generations of Americans.