In America’s Wild West, life was—of course—wild. Right?
You might imagine old western life like this. White cowboys stroll down dusty streets. Their trusty six-shooters gleam at their sides. At any time, they have to be ready for a bank robbery, a shootout, or an attack by Native Americans. Those things happened almost every other day in the Wild West, right? And it’s no surprise! Almost no one there had respect for the law!
But was the Wild West really as wild as we think? History says “no.”
In the real Wild West, people didn’t kill each other nearly as often as TV and movies lead us to believe. It’s true that many settlers in the Wild West didn’t have government-given laws. But that doesn’t mean they had no rules! People who traveled on wagon trains agreed on rules before their journeys even started. Cattle ranchers joined cattlemen’s groups. Those protected their cows from being stolen. Land clubs made sure people’s property stayed safe. Bank robberies happened very rarely. In some places, people were not even allowed to carry guns.
Attacks from Native Americans didn’t happen that often either. Usually, Native Americans and white settlers worked together. They usually traded, not raided. It made no sense for the two groups to fight. After all, no one wants to offend a paying customer!
A little later in history, things in the Wild West did grow more violent. But it didn’t happen in the way you might think. Many people in power thought Native Americans weren’t as good as white people. That sinful idea led to many Native American deaths. But for the most part, settlers in the West weren’t at fault for that. The United States government was. The settlers wanted to keep up their peaceful trading.
What about the all-American cowboy? Cowboys actually existed before America as we know it even began. The original cowboys were Mexican. They called themselves vaqueros. Vaqueros taught white settlers everything they knew about cattle ranching in the West. Soon the white settlers changed the name to buckaroos.
What myths did you believe about the Wild West?
