The Navajo Nation, made up of only 8,000 people in the 1860s, is now 210,000 members strong. Monument Valley (above) is part Navajo land in Utah and is one of the most famous Native American landmarks.

Wild Wild West

By 1900, the West already symbolized the rugged spirit of adventure on which Americans prided themselves.

True, the frontier had always symbolized hope and expansion for Americans. And also true as Turner had insisted, that the pioneer American was "cheerful, optimistic, busy and buoyant." What would the closing of the frontier do to this positive spirit? And how would Americans react to the "new order?" As they searched for explanations of "what was best in America's contribution to history and to progress," the predominantly white power structure found "reasons" for the problems in the nation. Too often, they didn't find answers, but found scapegoats for the difficulties. And these scapegoats for problems were politically weak people like Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and foreign immigrants.

Turner's thesis, almost completely ignored at first, slowly gained acceptance until one scholar called it "the single most influential piece of writing in the history of America." Others strongly disagreed. Critics argued that for many — women, Asians, Mexicans, and Indians — the West was no promised land, nor did it offer the opportunity of freedom and democracy that Turner believed was so essential in defining American character. However, the continued debate over the significance of the West meant that it was a distinctive region with important contributions to American identity, especially some unique writers.

Literature Beyond the Mississippi

Josefina Niggli wrote stories that exposed readers to her beloved world of Mexican-American culture.

Since the settlers in the West were all at one time migrants or immigrants, it was not surprising that writing about their hopes, dreams, trials and tribulations was left to an author who grew up living in and understanding their America. John Steinbeck focused his most important works, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, on the migrant experience. Born in California and dedicated to writing social protest literature, Steinbeck allowed his own passion and anger to spill over in trying to create an authentic portrait of broken lives and dashed hopes that were too often part of the Western experience.

The Western landscape continued to change. The great buffalo herds, which roamed freely from Canada to Mexico, began to dwindle and eventually disappear, and so did the Native American tribes who depended on them for food, clothing, shelter, and even religious inspiration. Restricted to reservations, the Great Plains Indians already suffered the heartbreak of lost land and freedom. It was not surprising that they were open to the Ghost Dance movement. With hypnotic trances and songs of deliverance and inspiration, the Ghost Dances prophesied the end of white expansion westward and the return of land to Native Americans.

Other Native American writers, like Gertrude Bonin and Charles Eastman, would eventually raise awareness of how Indians had lost "the freest life in the world." Their works demonstrated how Native Americans had been denigrated and betrayed by the white men's social and educational institutions

Other conflict literature emerged from the West when overnight many Mexicans had their citizen status changed with the annexation of Texas in 1848. Now "Mexican-Americans," they felt uneasy in Anglo America. Considering the centuries of bitter, shared history, it was not easy for Mexican-Americans to coexist with the dominant white culture. Again, the trouble was rooted in the appropriation of land in the West. Particular bad feelings arose along the Texas-Mexican border; outrageous clashes were documented in ballads called corridos — poems which reflect history and hostility in equal measures.

By the 1900s Mexican-American literary contributions slowly began to reflect a desire to reach a larger community than those who spoke only Spanish. Pioneers like Maria Cristina Mena and Josephina Niggli published landmark works that signaled the emergence of a new generation of writers. They sought to soften public stereotypes — of both Anglo and Mexican people — while keeping the flavor of their culture alive.

The West's Awake