Table of Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
Timeline xxi
Glossary xxix
1 Domestic Life of American Indians in the American West 1
Domestic Life and Paleo-Indians 1
Daily Life for Indian Peoples at the Dawn of Contact 7
Daily Life of the Plains Indians in the 18th and 19th Centuries 13
The Central Role of the Bison in Daily Domestic Life 16
On the Cusp of Great Changes 25
2 Domestic Life on the Overland Trails 27
Into the West 27
A Message from the West 29
To Oregon! 31
Daily Life on the Oregon Trail 34
The Donner Party 39
Childhood on the Trail 45
3 Domestic Life on the Mining Frontier 49
Settling into the West 49
Daily Life in the Mining Camps 50
Women in the Mining Camps 57
Coal Mining in the Mountain West 70
The Legacy of Mining in the West 81
4 Economic Life in the American West 83
The Intrusion of Capitalism and the Fur Trade 84
The Destruction of the Bison 91
The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Industry 98
Railroads, Telegraphs, and Daily Life in a Shrinking World 116
Words Written on Lightning 126
From Frontier to Industrial Society 128
5 Political Life in the American West 131
Political Expansion 131
Lewis and Clark, the Fur Trade, and the Coming of the United States 132
Political Life for Plains Indians and the Challenge of American Expansion 138
Manifest Destiny 141
Northerners and the Shaping of the West 150
Conservation and Preservation 157
Conclusion: Political Life and the Rise of the Federal Government 167
6 Religious Life in the American West 169
American Indian Spirituality 169
Christian Missionaries and Conversion Efforts 178
The Mormons 185
Religion in the 19th-century American West 202
7 The Indian Wars and the Transformation of Daily Life for American Indians 205
The Grattan "Massacre" 206
The Bloody Texas Frontier 209
The Sand Creek Massacre 215
The Red River War 227
The Sioux Wars of 1876-1877 233
The Reservation System and the Dawes Act 244
The Ghost Dance and the Tragedy of Wounded Knee 251
8 Intellectual Life and the Myth of the West 263
Epilogue: The Future of the West 287
Bibliography 289
Index 297
