Vanishing Indian Summary

Putting It All Together “Vanishing Indian” was a myth that was made up by European settlers upon arriving in America. The term was used again when The United States of America began their westward expansion. American’s believed that Native Americans were disappearing once again because of their inability to adapt to the contemporary living style. Indians may not have been as advanced as American’s, but they did make advances at their own pace that would help them stay alive with all the changes going on around them. Many people believed that the Indians were truly vanishing during the late nineteenth century. There were various types of propaganda going around trying to prove that the Indians were truly disappearing. Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West advertisement from 1899 showed the Indians fighting against the Americans moving west and acting like savages. The Americans were fighting back obviously, but the Americans had the latest guns while the Indians had weapons they had made themselves. The Americans had a technological advantage which led them to kill more Indians than Indians killing Americans. Native Americans didn’t adapt their weapons to fit the evolving war weaponry, but they did have a bit of advancement from what they had previously, but it wasn’t …show more content…
For example, Gertrude Kasebier was “One of the first women to become a professional photographer, Kasebier here depicts Joe Black Fox relaxing with a cigarette” (America’s History 530) a believer of the Native Americans and how they were evolving. Native Americans were one of the main photo subjects. In the photograph Joe Black Fox is smoking a cigarette, which proves that Indians were not dying off and they were adapting to new changes. Cigarettes were and advancement, and the Indians were using them which proves they were