Ch.17

While reading about the conflicts of the Natives and the miners and settlers into the High Plains, what shocked me was how animals killed were acceptable and encouraged by the settlers and the Army. Especially when they said that in just one year, 430 bison were killed to feed the workers building the Unions Pacific Railroad. What surprised me even more it that the buffalo were seen as a tool to undermine Native resistance.  

The frontier life was hard for settlers as there was little rainfall and psychological troubles that surfaced. It was hard enough to build a house but such dry lands for even harder to grow crops. If I was living in the time, as a woman, I would also go crazy with the limited supplies and the sod houses that was described to be like the ones hogs would live in. I think I would be like the other who just gave up their land and moved on to somewhere that had more rich soil.

As for the new land that the US seceded from Mexico, even though they promised to protect the Mexicans residence but it never really happened. They were pushed out of their land and the Spanish people were expected to adapt to the Anglo American concept. This is really like the situation we have now where it is ironic that the land we lived in used to be from the Spaniards but we are dealing with immigration issues to keep them out of US borders. This issue still exist since Spanish speaking residents are either expected to go back south of the border or assimilate into the Anglo American concept.