The Fallacy of a Wild West

Written by: Annella Tucker 

The American West is not recognized for its diversity even though it is a melting pot of pioneer and Native American influences. These influences are still alive today and have taken new form.

The American West has long been depicted in terms of the American Cowboy who traverses her terrain on horseback, or the pioneers quarreling with the Indigenous people of the region. However, the story of the West sold to distant audiences through media, fashion, and tourism is incomplete and excludes the diverse experiences of Native Americans. The narrative of a Wild West popularized by colonizers contributes to the erasure of Native American cultures and histories.

The misrepresentation of the history of the West perpetuates dangerous assumptions. Long before the arrival of Europeans and the dispossession of Native land, huge populations and complex systems lived in the West. Popular depictions of the West portray the landscape as unclaimed and untouched. Early artistic representations of the West propagated this view. Albert Bierstadt, a German American painter, was fascinated by the beauty of the land, and he decided to share it with Americans in the east who didn’t have the privilege of experiencing it yet for themselves. Bierstadt painted large landscapes inspired by his participation in expeditions of the western expansion. Participation in these excursions put him in a unique position to mold perceptions of the new country. Many people east of the Mississippi river were faced with difficulties and found the romanticized portrayals of a vast, untouched land ripe with opportunity appealing. The works of Albert Bierstadt, such as the painting of Yosemite Valley in 1864, bred hope for and inspired the struggling colonialists.

Bierstadt was ultimately rewarded for his incomplete accounts. Bierstadt’s paintings brought in large amounts of money for the time, and he received international recognition for these works. The popularity of these enormous landscapes propelled the public’s fascination with the West as an opportunity for new beginnings. However, for the Native people of the West artworks like Bierstadt’s were a marker for the end of life as they knew it. Describing the West as uninhabited disregards the existence of the people who live and have always lived there. Albert Bierstadt’s works and others like it wrote the American Indian out of the story of the American West and inspired westward expansion, which is synonymous with the dispossession of Native lands.

As people started to move out west, a market to profit off the American Indians began to take form. The commodification of the American Indian and the story of the Wild West started with the rise of a western culture that was influenced by Native American culture. Colonialists moved out west to pursue greater freedoms and vast, wild lands. They were attracted to the idea of living without societal constraints as the Indians did, while simultaneously threatening the ability of the American Indians of the West to live freely. The American West was a novel concept, and a new cultural identity had to be developed for the people moving into the region. Westward moving colonialists looked to their environment for inspiration and began to incorporate American Indian materials into European style garments to develop western fashion. The environment was primed for the development of a market to profit off the Indian identity.

Western fashion can be identified by styles reminiscent of the cowboys and Indians of the Wild West popularized by print media and film. The style started by taking materials used by Native Americans such as buckskin and furs and repurposing them in European styles. The American Cowboy expanded upon Native American materials and European garments to create a distinct style. Western fashion was necessarily functional for long days in the saddle. The Cowboy hats were for protection from the elements, the boots were durable, and the denim was versatile and tough. As the Wild West emerged in pop–culture, American Indian-inspired designs re-emerged as popular design elements in the western style. Western fashion has taken many forms. Subcultures have emerged from contemporary western fashion, ranging from southwestern to coastal cowgirl. Commonalities amongst these modern subcultures include fringe, leathers, tribal prints, turquoise, and beaded jewelry. Some traits of the Indians are desirable, while the Indians themselves are left bereft at the loss of self-determination in their own home. Western fashion undeniably has Native American influences, but it is unclear whether this style mimics Native American cultures, appreciates it, or if the cultures are even acknowledged at all.

Tradition is important. Things are done or created in a particular way to express gratitude and honor those who came before you. Inaccurate and improper use of designs or traditional garments ignores the legitimacy of the meaning attributed by tribes. It degrades these sacred elements to mere costumery. Frustration over the appropriation of these items has little to do with concepts of ownership or property. Rather, it is rooted in respect for the existence of meaning and sacredness to these objects. Buffalo Bills Center of the West takes the position that Native Americans' influence on western fashion did not take effect until the “Indian troubles” were over, and the ‘noble savage’ became popular in the media. This sentiment evinces that the influence of Indians on western society was contingent upon their behavior and whether they were viewed as noble or merely just as savage.

Western fashion and culture are heavily influenced by the concept of pan-Indian. The western aesthetic particularly draws from elements of the Southwestern and Plains regions. The fusion created envelops these regions and all other parts of the country into a pan-Indian narrative. The pan-Indian is a caricature that portrays Native Americans as a monolithic group when in fact there are over 574 federally recognized tribes alone in the United States today, each with their own cultural identities, practices, and histories. This figure does not even begin to reflect the true diversity of Indian Country, with many communities being denied federal acknowledgment. The danger of the pan-Indian is that it fails to recognize the rich diversity within the American Indian experience and consequently blocks individual groups from having agency over their narrative.

The pan-Indian fallacy has long been leveraged against Yosemite natives. Boyd Cothran's work (Working the Indian Field Days: The Economy of Authenticity and the Question of Agency in Yosemite Valley, 1916-1929) illuminates how dangerous the loss of agency can be for tribes. Cothran describes how organizers of the Yosemite field days based authenticity on physical appearance. Native people were incentivized to partake in the field days by the opportunity to sell goods at the high-traffic event. To participate, a person had to appear "Indian". The Park Service determined whether or not someone was Indian enough to participate. Through curation of this experience, the NPS dispersed an oversimplified narrative of Native people. The composition of the Yosemite Valley area was more complex than non-Native scholars believed a Native American tribe could be as they were limited by their belief in an American Indian monolith. This was a society where all inhabitants of the region were proud Yosemite Indians, hardly concerned with colonially fabricated classifications and boundaries. 

More recently, Indigenous people are becoming involved in the administration of the cultural tourism industry that has long profited from their cultures and histories. Indigenous groups are centering themselves in conversations about cultural tourism of the American West by taking a more active role in and starting new tourism ventures. This trend in the tourism industry has cultural preservation and sustainability benefits for Native people. By operating their own tourism ventures, the Native people of a region gain more leverage to effectively act as stewards of the land and their story. The non-Native public is slowly but surely gaining consciousness of the negative impacts of cultural tourism and appropriation. 

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Map of Indian tribes from the time of westward expansion. This visual highlights various Native American cultures and their stories, showing the effects of colonization. As settlers moved west, Indigenous lands changed and tested their strength. Learn how boundaries were created and identities formed during this fight for survival, which still influences American history today.

Pendleton Roundup

Increased Indigenous involvement in the operation of tourist attractions has improved the quality of historical and cultural accuracy. For example, in Oregon state, there is an annual Happy Canyon “Wild West Show” held in conjunction with the Pendleton Roundup. The Pendleton Roundup is a rodeo accompanied by additional programming including concerts and parades held in Pendleton, Oregon. Pendleton, Oregon is an old cow town said to embody the spirit of the Wild West. This Oregon town is on the ancestral land and home of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indians, or Umatilla. The Happy Canyon show is a production held in an amphitheater depicting the settling of the American West. This show is recognized by the Oregon state legislature as the “state’s official outdoor pageant and wild west show” and is often visited by both foreign and domestic individuals who “come to see real Indians”.

The ambassadors of the show are the Happy Canyon Princesses. The Pendleton Roundup has a rodeo queen, and the Happy Canyon show has their royalty as well. This role is highly esteemed and local Native American girls participate in a pageant in hopes of serving on the next court. Members of the Native community admire the Happy Canyon Princess who is an aspiration for young girls. While the position is esteemed, criticism by past royalty members suggests that the Princess can be treated as a prop. The Happy Canyon Princess is expected to be dressed “as an Indian always” and to play the role to promote the annual production. According to a local, the Happy Canyon Princess is “A well-respected position, not as glamourous or involved as the roundup court, which I think they should be,” While the Pendleton Roundup royalty serves the same function for the rodeo as the Happy Canyon Princess does the show, “nothing about the Happy Canyon Princesses and Roundup royalty experience was equal.”

The show takes viewers through the evolution of the West, starting with depictions of the Native American way of life before the arrival of white colonizers. Lewis and Clark and the pioneers of the Oregon Trail make an appearance in the show. Then, according to the official Happy Canyon ticket sales webpage, “Fighting breaks out, then peace comes and the scene changes to that of a wild frontier town.” The show incorporates modern scenes and trick riders; neither are historically accurate but are included for the sake of the skit. The production has oversimplified the tumultuous dispossession of Indian land into a Disney-esque production.

However, the Happy Canyon show is evolving. Long-time attendees and tribal affiliates of the show testify that over time the show has incorporated “a lot more of the tribal story” because of “negative feedback and asking for the tribe to be more involved”. A Native did help write the plot of the show, but members of the Native community believe that the show could do a better job highlighting the dispossession of the land and involuntary relocation of Native people onto a reservation.

Nez Perce Tourism

Nez Perce homelands, including Saqánma (Hells Canyon)

Another example of the impacts of increasing market share for Native-led operations in the American West can be observed in the homelands of the Nez Perce tribe. The Nez Perce call themselves the Nimiipuu, meaning the people. The Nez Perce Reservation, located in north-central Idaho, continues to be a vital connection to these lands and their enduring legacy. The ancestral homelands of the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) people originally spanned over 19 million acres across what is now known as Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Wyoming. However, through the treaties of 1836 and 1877, the Nimiipuu land base was drastically reduced. Despite this loss, the Nimiipuu homelands remain some of the most breathtaking landscapes in North America. Among these treasures is Saqánma (Hells Canyon), the deepest river gorge in the United States, plunging to depths of over 7,900 feet. This awe-inspiring canyon, carved by the Snake River, showcases rugged cliffs, dramatic vistas, and rich cultural significance, making it a cherished location within the Nimiipuu homelands. A $4 million riverboat tour industry traverses the canyon and includes guided tours that claim to incorporate the history of the canyon. “A lot of companies play off the history of this area,” says the owner of the company Nez Perce Tourism, “but there was no tribal member taking advantage of that” (Washington Post). The Nez Perce's history has been commodified by these river boat tours, and unfortunately, these experiences provide largely inaccurate or incomplete accounts of tribal stories and practices.

In 2019, a young Nez Perce woman took back the narrative by opening her own, Indigenous-led tourism enterprise, Nez Perce Tourism. The motivation behind the launch of this company was to accept responsibility. "For the last two hundred years, we have allowed our colonizers to share our history from their perspective" and thus "it’s our inherent responsibility to utilize the tourism platform to share our stories from our own voices." Nez Perce Tourism is built on three foundational pillars: cultural identity, land reclamation, and education. Through culturally immersive experiences such as jet boat tours into Saqánma (Hells Canyon), Appaloosa horse riding sessions, and traditional dinners, Nez Perce Tourism fosters a deeper connection to the Nimiipuu way of life. Each experience, guided by Nimiipuu people, highlights the tribe’s enduring cultural identity, reinforces the importance of reclaiming and honoring their ancestral lands, and educates visitors about the traditional and contemporary ways of the Nez Perce people.

Operating the tours and leading culturally immersive experiences for visitors to the homeland of the Nimiipuu has allowed the people to not only clarify the past but to shape the future for the tribe. Nez Perce Tourism has employed more than 55 tribal members to expose visitors to traditional storytelling, drumming, singing, and dancing. The experiences offered by Nez Perce Tourism involve multiple generations ranging from the youth to the elders. The tourism platform has allowed the people of the Nez Perce tribe to represent themselves in the modern era and realize a share of the cultural tourism market that had emerged in their homelands.

Visiting and engaging with authentic, Native-led tourism mitigates the effects of cultural erasure by allowing the cultures to live, take new forms, and fully represent itself. Forget the idea of a Wild West that was untouched and uninhabited. Instead, seek to acknowledge the rich diversity of the lands. Don’t think of the American Indian in terms of something that once was, as the illusion of the vanishing Indian has been weaponized against Indigenous peoples throughout the American West.

Albert Bierstadt's depictions of vast open plains sowed seeds of hope in the hearts of colonialists. But art is incomplete, idealistic, and rather a projection of our inner world and desires than truly reflective of reality. Bierstadt and others were able to define what is now the western United States to the old world, and Natives were increasingly left out of the picture. These early ideologies drove expansion into the West. There is irony in claims that western fashion is being appropriated by the mainstream, but also an unwillingness to recognize the dynamic nature of the culture and fashion of the American West. There is no "owning" western culture. We are merely beneficiaries of it, and the challenge is tastefully combining its gifts to honor the cultural pieces you are borrowing.