Who were the real cowboys? (Part 2)

The history of the cowboy is a story that begins long ago. What we now think of as a uniquely American tradition is not solely American at all. Cowboy tradition first originated in mediæval Spain with the hacienda, or estate. The haciendas belonged to wealthy landowners and were generally, but not always, located on vast cattle ranches. Because of the dry climate on the Iberian Peninsula (and subsequently the dry climate of Mexico and the American southwest), a huge amount of land was required to sustain a herd of cattle due to lack of water and of sufficient forage. The need to traverse these large cattle ranches gave birth to the tradition of cattle herding on horseback. Thus the vaquero (literally, cow-man) was born.

When the Spanish conquistadores, or conquerors, arrived on the North American continent in the fifteenth century and later colonized what is now Mexico and the southwestern United States, they brought with them this tradition as well as cattle and horses. Horses had disappeared in North America long before the arrival of the Spanish at the end of the prehistoric ice age. The cattle they brought with them would eventually evolve into today’s Texas Longhorn cattle (see the picture on the right).

The vaqueros evolved further in North America bringing into it traditions from the natives as well as adaptations to the new climate of the new continent. One such difference is that in North America, the vaqueros tended to be of native origin while the hacendados (owners of the haciendas) tended to be of Spanish origin. The Mexican vaqueros were hired by the hacendados to drive cattle between New Mexico and Mexico city and later between Texas and Mexico City.

In the eighteenth century, the first English-speaking traders and settlers began trickling westward from what would become the United States. The beginning of trade between Mexico and the United States also brought with it a trade in culture and language. In 1821, the first group of American settlers arrived in Texas under the leadership of Stephen F. Austin. The group wanted to take advantage of the cattle free for the taking in Texas. By that time, the Texas Longhorn had become a feral group and had multiplied until its numbers swelled. The new arrivals turned to the Mexican tradition of the vaquero to help them in their undertaking.

By the 1840’s, the Santa Fe trail leading from Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico was a well-established and well-used route for traders and settlers alike. The route would later be used by the American Army of the West during the Mexican-American War in their quest to capture New Mexico for the United States. All along the trail, the Americans encountered the Mexican vaqueros and soon began to adopt the vaquero tradition in their own manner. Thus, the American cowboy was born.

Part 3

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Indians and the Imperial Powers of Europe

At the university library, I came across a book by the title A Companion to The American West, edited by William Deverell, and have been slowly working my way through it. The book is a series of essays that talk about what the American west is, how the west is defined and how the definition of the American west has changed throughout the course of American history, starting of course with the landing and settlement of the first colonists from Europe.

The first essay, “The Making of the First American West and the Unmaking of Other Realms” by Dr. Stephen Aron, professor at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), gives a basic overview of what the “first American west” was and the repercussions the settlement of the first American west had on the native Indian population. Dr. Aron discusses the breaking of the threshold that was the Appalachian Mountains into the wild countries of what is now Kentucky and Tennessee. The Native Americans were naturally opposed to this violation of their territory and to help fend off settlers and other men, such as Daniel Boone, the Indians turned to the competing European imperial powers for help.

After the American Revolution, Britain was a key ally for the Native Americans despite the dishonesty that plagued their relationship and the eventual abandonment of the Indians by the British. They not only supplied the Indians with resources and firearms, but they were a confidence booster for the Indians. Some of the more fortunate Indian groups, such as the Iroquois in northwestern New York, were able to take full advantage of competing European interests in the Americans. The Iroquois were situated between the French interests in the north (what is today Quebec) and English interests in the south. This strategic positioning meant that they were effectively immune from domination by one European power or the other. This “borderland geography”, as Dr. Aron calls it, gave the Iroquois a militaristic advantage as well as a natural economic advantage. The fur trading industry blossomed to the point that the population of animals that supplied the fur began to significantly dwindle to dangerously low levels.

Indeed, these were most certainly positives for the native peoples, but an unseen enemy wiped out nearly half of the Iroquois population by the seventeenth century. The exposure to so many of the Europeans left the Indians vulnerable to diseases and plagues that brought the Iroquois to their knees faster than any European power could have.

The French Revolution also had an impact on the Native Americans. Western tribes such as the displaced Shawnees who had come to reply on British and Spanish support for their cause against the ever-encroaching Americans were suddenly left to fend for themselves. Both the British and Spanish monarchies were engaged in conflict with the new French regime and consequently decided to abandon their position against the American government and concentrate their efforts closer to home in Europe. The Indians suddenly found themselves alone in their fight and, without a strong confederacy amongst the Indian groups, were quickly succumbed by American forces. Led by General Anthony Wayne, the Americans forced the Indians to give up much of what is Ohio today.

The European abandonment of the Native Americans was a crucial turning point in American history. The Indians would never again have such an advantage against the Americans.

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