Buffalo Bill's Wild West Argumentative Analysis

As the United States population grew and whites continued to seize land from the American Indians, these Indians had to either adapt to these whites’ way of life or be isolated from all their traditional ways of living and be left to fend for themselves. In the nineteenth century, many commentators believed that these American Indians would find difficulty with modernization and adaptation. While this belief proved to be false, there are many sources that could possibly argue in favor of these commentators’ arguments. As more immigrants infiltrated the United States from Europe, there came an increased support for education in an attempt to establish cultural values that were shared by the majority of citizens. Americanization policies stated
“Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” depicts what seems to be an entire tribe of American Indians on horseback charging towards an enemy. On the other side of the picture is “Buffalo Bill” sitting calmly and peacefully atop his horse. This drawing seems to attack the American Indian way of life and represent them as a warlike people. The Indians on horseback are carrying guns, which some may argue is an example of the Indians modernizing and adapting to American life. However, guns are meant to be used for protection, and these American Indians are clearly using the guns as a means of enhancing their warring tendencies on neighboring nations. The ranking of civilization written by Lewis Henry Morgan also seems to support the idea that American Indians will not be able to adapt to the culture and traditions of citizens of the United States. In his source, Morgan ranks different American Indian tribes and regions based on their level of sophistication in comparison to the northern Europeans. None of these American Indian tribes ranked above the level of “Middle Status of Barbarism”, while the northern Europeans were ranked at “Civilization.” These rankings clearly suggest that Morgan believes that American Indians will be
Americanization policies said that indigenous peoples (American Indians) could continue practicing some of their own traditions as long as they have learned and become assimilated with American culture. This provided motivation for the American Indians to become educated with the American way of life. However, after the Indian Wars, the government outlawed the practice of these traditions and established Native American boarding schools that children obligated to attend. The children attending these schools were required to speak English, study the same subjects as American students, attend church ceremonies regularly, and leave behind their own traditional practices. This action forced American Indian children to assimilate themselves with American culture because they had no choice other than to do so. It also led to the gradual increased Americanization of each generation because as American Indian practices were outlawed, they became less common among the American Indian population. The Dawes Act of 1887 gave land to individual American Indians in return for these American Indians becoming United States citizens and giving up some of their traditional tribal leadership and institutions. This acted as a bribe for American Indians; they could have their own land as long as they assimilate