American Progress John Gast Analysis

When the fighting of the American Civil War had come to an end, the US saw the west as their future, liberating them from the turmoil and conflict of today and giving them a new tomorrow where they could develop themselves in new lands of financial and civil independence from the government. Unfortunately, while motivated by paintings and advertisements for this new tomorrow, Americans coming to the west still faced turmoil and conflict as people had to compete to build something of their own with other settlers and Native Americans who already lived there.
Initially, when it came to the settling of the west, one of the most captivating images that kept convincing people to join was John Gast’s “American Progress.” In Gast’s piece, Americans …show more content…
In Gast’s piece, Native Americans are represented as practically naked savages cowardly running away from the holy light of the angel, abandoning their homes in the west; however, this couldn’t be farther from the truth as they were either paid or even forced to leave their homes. Chief Young Joseph’s depiction of In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat’s (Thunder traveling over the Mountains) experiences in “An Indian’s View of Indian Affairs” perfectly represents this aspect of developing the west which was mainly ignored by Gast as instead of a bright tomorrow, Joseph reveals in his excerpts the dark days native tribes had to face as their land was rapidly being taken over by the Americans. Throughout his story, Joseph shows how dealing with the “white men” progressed over time, from peaceful negotiations to rebellion and surrendering to the “law chiefs (Congressmen),” who destroyed the tribe in just his lifetime. His story begins, as many did for Native Americans, with In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat’s father, the chief of his tribe, rejecting the bribes of the government which lead to constant pressure from them to leave the home of his ancestors. By the time In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat took over as chief, he was forced to fight against them to protect his tribe until he had to give up his land and forget his father’s dying wish to “‘[n]ever sell the bones of your father and your mother’” to save the lives of his tribe. Even then, they were all forced to move constantly to other locations, causing even more deaths in his tribe. While Gast’s painting hints at the effects the American Progress had on Native Americans, In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat’s first-hand experience with it proves how much these “white men” negatively impacted the land they were encroaching,