What is "the West?"
Whenever I’ve heard about “western expansion” or “the West,” I’ve always thought of the same stereotypical idea of what that looked like in history from social studies classes in elementary school. Pioneers packing up their covered wagons and moving far west, to Kansas, Texas, Utah, and Oklahoma. As a child, I never thought of “the West” as Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, or even Pennsylvania. It wasn’t until I was older and did more research on Native American history that I realized how vague the term “western expansion” is. “The west,” which is anything west of the original 13 colonies and Appalachian Mountains, when thinking of the time-period at play, consisted of various regions, cultures, communities, and ecosystems. All three authors provide their own definition of what “the West” was which impacted the Native Americans they studied.
Different authors of Native American history choose to focus on specific locations, regions, and groups of people in books, rather than speaking generally about “the West.” For example, Richard White in the Middle Ground, decides to focus his study on what the French traders and explores of the 17th and 18th centuries called the pays d’en haut (White, p. x). White defined this geographic location the “upper country” where the lands included were around Lake Erie, but not the lands near southern Lake Ontario, and stretched passed these lands to the Mississippi River (White, p. x). White focuses primarily on Algonquian-speaking Native Americans, as well as other Native Americans who lived in this area of the Great Lakes region that also interacted with fur traders.
Susan Sleeper-Smith in Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792, focuses on a geographic location similar and different to White’s study. She focuses on parts of the Ohio River Valley: primarily on fertile agrarian villages along the Wabash River and extended across the Maumee, Miami, and Sandusky River
valleys (Sleeper-Smith, p. 6). Sleeper-Smith dedicated her discussion on Native American communities and villages that lived in this area. Sleeper-Smith identifies the Native American groups commonly residing in the Ohio River valley: Miami, Delaware, Shawnee, Wea, Kickapoo, Seneca, Mascouten: different communities and different cultures (Sleeper-Smith, p. 9).
James Joseph Buss in Winning the West with Words also defined “the West” in the Midwest region similar to White and Sleeper-Smith. However, while White focused on the upper Great Lakes region and Sleeper-Smith on parts of the Ohio River valley, Buss focuses on the lower Great Lakes region, primarily what would eventually be the states of Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. Rather than focusing on specific communities, villages, and tribes of Native Americans, Buss speaks more generally about Native Americans who lived in the lower Great Lakes region.
While all three authors focused on the Midwest region, they chose to focus on different aspects, cultures, communities, and geographic locations. When teaching your high school class western expansion and the conflict and politics that went along with it, make sure you're specifically identifying what geographic location you're discussing. Many high school students, let alone Americans, aren't aware of the complexity of western expansion. It wasn't just loading up covered wagons and heading as far as Texas. Much of western expansion started in the Midwest. Many of these settlers interacted with and lived among Native American communities with different religions, cultures, and legal and political systems.
Resources and Activities for the Classroom
To help in your planning, I've cited specific chapters from each of the books where the authors discuss their definition of the Midwest:
Richard White, The Middle Ground: Defines the west in Introduction.
Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest, Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792, Susan Sleeper-Smith: Defines the west in Introduction and Chapter 1, "The Agrarian Village World of the Ohio Valley Indians."
James Buss, Winning the West with Words: Defines the west in parts of the Introduction, but identifies the lands more specifically in "Epilogue: Centennial Celebrations."
Something Fun for the Classroom
Want an entertaining way to summarize western expansion and its impacts on Native Americans and the country? Check out this crash course video on Western Expansion:
Class Activity: Essay Prompt
To help your students better comprehend western expansion, have them write two separate essay prompts. For both, they are answering the question, "What do you think of when you hear 'Native American and western expansion?'"
For the first prompt, have them reflect on what they think of before turning them to sources for research. Give them the 10 minutes for reflection and writing. After they write this first reflection, have them share what they wrote.
Next, divide the class into teams and give them 2-3 excerpts from the list of sources I provide below. Give them 20 minutes to look through these sources. After they read through them, give them 15 minutes in their teams to write their response to, "What do you think of when you hear 'Native American and western expansion?'"
Reflect as a class on biases and stereotypes about Native Americans and western expansion. What did they learn from this activity? How have their opinions changed on this topic? What has this exercise taught them about thorough research?
Sources for Writing Prompt
Richard White, The Middle Ground:
-Chapter 2, "The Middle Ground,"(pp. 50-93)- In this portion, White discusses alliances between Algonquian-speaking Native Americans and French fur traders and how both parties benefited in this symbiotic relationship.
-Chapter 3, "The Fur Trade," (pp. 94-141)- In this chapter, White dicusses how both the French and Algonquin-speaking Native Americans partook in the fur trade. For his time, White provides a more realistic view of Native Americans' major role in the fur trade with the French.
Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792:
-Chapter 2, "The Evolution of the Indian Fur Trade," (pp. 67-104). Chapter delves into Native American involvement as fur traders explaining how they led the fur trade in Ohio River valley. Also discusses heavy female involvement and independence.
-Chapter 5, "Picturing Prosperity," (pp. 162-209). Breaks stereotypes of Native Americans being "savages."
James J. Buss, Winning the West with Words:
-Chapter 1, "Treaties and the Eroding Language of the Middle Ground," (pp. 17-41). Chapter explains how Native Americans used legal language to and words to fight for their right to keep their lands.