Jackson Turner Frontier Thesis

In 1893, Historian Frederick Jackson Turner expressed his feeling on the frontier thesis. He explained that the frontier influenced the American culture by promoting individualistic democracy. “The frontier,” he asserted, "is the line of most rapid Americanization." He also expressed that expansion to the American West changed people’s view of their own culture. The western frontier, however, did not appear to be what it seemed like. Turner described in his frontier thesis that the West was a “land of the free”. This was not true for the Native Americans that inhabited the West. At the end of the civil war, Native Americans inhabited nearly half of the United States. The Native Americans lived on the Great Plains. The Plains tribes would divide …show more content…
In 1834 the American government passed what is known as the Indian Intercourse Act, this prohibited white people from entering Indian territory without a license. In the 1850’s it all changed. Wagons made their way into the West to reach the goldfields. Tribes were then given boundaries but they refused to stay within them so they can better hunt for buffalo. White settlers decided to pour into the Indian lands. Native Americans did not settle peacefully to the reservations, they were in isolation. Minor chiefs and young warriors became agitated and ignored any treaties that were in effect, they made their way into open countryside. In late 1864, warfare broke out. It took more than a decade for the Natives to be put back into submission. This was possible through violent acts of beating. The “Americanization” would apply to the above. The Americans wanted to basically purify the land of Native Americans and other settlers that were not White. They did this by setting boundaries for the settlers that were already there which the settlers had refused to follow but at the end were not left with much of a choice but to follow the orders and were basically chased away from their