American West and Native Americans
Articles on pre-Revolutionary American Indian and frontier Western culture
How a Rivalry Between Two Cherokee Chiefs Led to the Trail of Tears and the Collapse of Their Nation
A century-long blood feud between two Cherokee chiefs shaped the history of the Cherokee tribe far more than anyone, even the reviled President Andrew Jackson. They were John Ross and the Ridge. Today I’m talking with John Sedgwick about the fall of the Cherokee...Quackery: A Brief History of Quack Medicines & Peddlers
Quackery refers to unproven or fraudulent medical practices, often through the sale or application of “quack medicines”. The word “quack” derives from the archaic Dutch word “quacksalver,” meaning “boaster who applies a...What is Manifest Destiny?
Manifest Destiny refers to the attitude in America during the 1800’s when pioneers settled the country and believed that the U.S. was destined to stretch across the whole continent, from the one coast to the other. The phrase was used by politicians at the time...
Five Thanksgiving Facts that your History Teacher Left Out
Most Americans are familiar with the magic of Thanksgiving. A holiday associated with family reunions, football, Black Friday sales, turkeys, pumpkin pies, pilgrims, and Indians. However, not many are aware of its somewhat grimmer origins. Typically, what we are...What was the Oregon Trail?
The Oregon Trail (also known as the Oregon-California trial) was a 2,200 mile route stretching from Missouri to Oregon that was travelled by the early Wild West pioneers in the 1800s. The trail was the only way for settlers to reach the West Coast via land and over...
Reasons for Westward Expansion
What were the reasons for Westward expansion? Ever since the first pioneers settled in the United States at the East , the country has been expanding westward. When President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana territory from the French government in 1803, it...
Lost Treasures of the American West
The old American West was a wild place. It was an era full of cowboys, gunslingers, outlaws, and wars. The European settlers driving the expansion into the west faced many hardships. They had to force their way to the Pacific Ocean by driving the Native Americans away...
American West Timeline
American West Timeline This America West Timeline lists the critical years of the Western American territory’s discovery, colonization, and settlement. Date Summary Event 6th April 1830 Mormons founded Joseph Smith founded the Mormon religion. Smith...American West – The Cattle Industry
The cattle industry in the United States in the nineteenth century due to the young nation’s abundant land, wide-open spaces, and rapid development of railroad lines to transport the beef from western ranches to population centers in the Midwest and the East...About the Editor
Scott Michael Rank, Ph.D., is the editor of History on the Net and host of the History Unplugged podcast. A historian of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey, he is a publisher of popular history, a podcaster, and online course creator.
