Conversations Ongoing: Let's Meet at the Frontier

The frontier in North America is the consummate example of the potential of human envisioning. Though the frontier never truly existed in the sense most people view it, a clear border between wild untamed lands and civilization, it does give us an excellent view of the power of human imagination. Though ideas don't guarantee success they do spur movement and with an ocean separating thousands of years of divergent developing peoples, the effects of change were drastic on the frontier. Just as people came to dominate the plains when first arriving across the Bering land bridge, so did Europeans when traveling across the Atlantic Ocean.

"The place, its resources, its alignment of peoples, and especially of timing of the frontiers' arrival made for a volatile combination." -Elliot West

Forces outside of ourselves can shape our lives. Events, peoples, things outside of our perception and knowledge can shape our decisions before we even make them. The fact that we are tied to the world and vice versa can cause some to lament their dependent situation or give comfort to others, knowing they are never truly alone. Try as we might to disown our place in the grand narrative we cannot escape it.

When studying the History of the frontier in America we find that many different people had many different reasons for being there. The culture of the gold seekers, settlers, and other Americans pushed them to search for riches. The ideas of individual wealth, freedom, and self-reliance as well as economic hardship made the frontier the perfect place to find that future, especially once gold was found. The culture of the Native Americans ran much deeper and requires less explanation, not because of any simple nature, but rather, they had been there for thousands of years. Though the exact tribes that occupied the areas had changed many times over many thousands of years, their culture was not bellicose in nature and did not necessarily cause any disruption. They are key however in understanding and viewing the massive change that occurred to their lands, their peoples, and their perceptions of themselves.



Manifest destiny, the idea that white settlers were the obvious heirs to the lands that lay west in America, did not come to fruition until after the west was already "won". More of a justification than a cattle cry, Turner's thesis shaped the ideas Americans had about themselves and others. Our views coalesced about ourselves, our values, and our rightful place among the world. More to the point, the main reason for westward expansion was the vision of the people, the situation on the ground, and the quest for power imagined.