The expansion of the frontier pushed Native American people out of their native lands, and continuously forced them back until opportunistic settlers seized and further occupied the lands. Cather grew up in Virginia and moved to Nebraska when she was eight years old in 1884 with her father, always fascinated by her immigrant neighbors (Cather 499). When she entered university in _____, she began exploring her zeal for writing, and eventually published her first novel, ___. Within this time, she also became deeply entrenched in Native American culture and history. Willa Cather explored the frontier in her novel, My Antonia, published in 1918, the third and final novel in her prairie trilogy. It became a success because of the beautiful story
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What she really achieves is a novel depicting white people — white immigrants, white settlers, white history — without facing the inevitable truth that other groups existed (Fischer 33). During the first book, Jim says, “I had been sleeping, curled up in a red plush seat, for a long while when we reached Black Hawk” (Cather 10). This is the first time we have seen the name of the town. Black Hawk, interestingly, is a reference to one of the former Native American chiefs of the Sauk tribe of the same name. Black Hawk and his party fought for their land that had been given up for resources by another tribal member to the government in the early 1830s. In an effort to secure the land back and drive white settlers away, he led his men against the U.S. Army (Andrews-Jones). To incorporate aspects of Native American existence, Cather named the town after the war chief (Fischer 35). Disappointingly, she achieved the exact opposite. Instead, it is a fraudulent symbol of recognition because it is the very thing that he fought against (Andrews-Jones). Although the real town that Cather grew up alongside influenced the fruition of Black Hawk in My Antonia shares a similar history, called Red Cloud, there is no excuse for repeating the same mistake. The same scenario played out for Chief Red Cloud and though it was supposed to be a peaceful treaty, settlers still pushed into Native territory, aggravating Native peoples (Gorman 34). Early in the novel, Jim and Antonia spend some time at a creek, “We raced off toward Squaw Creek and did not stop until the ground itself stopped” (Cather 20). The creek’s name comes from an extremely derogatory word that refers to Native American women. Recognized by many people of Native heritage as a racial slur, the
What she really achieves is a novel depicting white people — white immigrants, white settlers, white history — without facing the inevitable truth that other groups existed (Fischer 33). During the first book, Jim says, “I had been sleeping, curled up in a red plush seat, for a long while when we reached Black Hawk” (Cather 10). This is the first time we have seen the name of the town. Black Hawk, interestingly, is a reference to one of the former Native American chiefs of the Sauk tribe of the same name. Black Hawk and his party fought for their land that had been given up for resources by another tribal member to the government in the early 1830s. In an effort to secure the land back and drive white settlers away, he led his men against the U.S. Army (Andrews-Jones). To incorporate aspects of Native American existence, Cather named the town after the war chief (Fischer 35). Disappointingly, she achieved the exact opposite. Instead, it is a fraudulent symbol of recognition because it is the very thing that he fought against (Andrews-Jones). Although the real town that Cather grew up alongside influenced the fruition of Black Hawk in My Antonia shares a similar history, called Red Cloud, there is no excuse for repeating the same mistake. The same scenario played out for Chief Red Cloud and though it was supposed to be a peaceful treaty, settlers still pushed into Native territory, aggravating Native peoples (Gorman 34). Early in the novel, Jim and Antonia spend some time at a creek, “We raced off toward Squaw Creek and did not stop until the ground itself stopped” (Cather 20). The creek’s name comes from an extremely derogatory word that refers to Native American women. Recognized by many people of Native heritage as a racial slur, the