June Tozzi
US History 1302
Robert Kennedy
2-14-14
The Wild West? The Old West frontier represents a land filled with opportunity, growth and new beginnings. Although new beginnings seemed like a blessing the opportunity came with harsh vices such as climate change, little resources, and little government influence. The West has been portrayed as frontier filled with violence and anarchy, but many young historians have come to challenge the glamorization of the Wild West stating that it was not as violent as the rest of the country as previously depicted. Though Robert Dykstra clarifies how low body count could skew homicide rates that illustrate high levels of violence in Dodge City, one city alone cannot discard the ferocity created between young transient males, crimes erupted between gangs, conflict and atrocities amongst Native Americans Professor David T. Courtright preserves the idea that the frontier was indeed very violent. Professor Courtright helps define the vague use of the West with the distinctions illustrated by Walter Nugent who defines two forms of frontiers. Type one was a frontier of farming and had a core of nuclear families, and the second focused on the industrial industries, such as mining, with a population almost entirely of young males. He agrees that type one frontiers had little violence due to the fact that they were family-based and elderly community. However, the counterpart type two frontiers where exponentially more volatile and what is read and seen in media developed from the young steaming hot headed males. Courtright points out the obvious that violent crimes tend to increase with the population of young males due to an overflowing of testosterone. He continues to bring out important sociological and psychological points that young males in the type two frontiers faced such as lack of attachments and intimacy. Not only did these young males no longer have maternal and paternal ties, but the absence of eligible women left many men further unattached, unable to act “as a brake on rambunctious male behavior.” Having a family resulted in frontiersman thinking twice before engaging in any risky situation which is exemplified by type one frontier.
Another vice that plagued these young naive "unattached laborers" were gamblers, pimps, prostitutes that followed the westward expansion. These hardened criminals used "violence and its threats to settle disputes over poker stakes and dance-hall girls." Courtright gives the example of Chinatowns within the frontier controlled by organized gangs called tongs. Tongs collected gambling debts and prevented prostitutes from running away. The power for control over the vices of gambling parlors and brothers lead to battles between other tongs. In Oregon the homicide arrest rate for the Chinese was "four times that of the general population." This illustrates the radical ration of Chinese men to women further proving the fact that crime rate rises in correlation to young males despite race. Not only did the population structure add to the frontier violence but also cultural influences. Men who come from cultures that “stress personal honor are more likely to become involved in fights those who do not. These men responded to any perceived insult with physical courage, such as a fight or due, so that they do not “lose face.” Cultural factor also expresses the pivotal conflict that occurred against Native Americans throughout the westward expansion. He addresses the racial superiority the white men claimed making Native Americans “diabolical obstacles to the advance of civilization.” Dehumanizing them made it easier in the justification to killing them and obtaining the land. Many shot the Native Americans “to try their pistols,” as one French missionary wrote. Of course, the natives fought back waging a war against the whites “matching and surpassing…their attacks.” They did not receive justice because of the bias in the legal system. Furthermore the tactic of destroying villages led to Native American defeats such as Sand Creek (1864), Washita (1868), and Wounded Knee (1890). Additionally, the trading of goods heightened conflict between tribes, setting them against each other. Trading goods also meant the trading of alcohol in which Native Americans were known to have extreme behaviors, making them vulnerable and dangerous. Although it was illegal to sell liquor to them, the U.S. government had inadequate man power to protect them from greedy settlers, and juries were unsympathetic to Native Americans in disputes taken to local courts. Courtwright equates inner-cities/ghettos to type two frontier. Many young males in the inner city delay marriage, raised by a single parent and experience little to no parental supervision. This leads them to join gangs in which they acquire guns and participate in organized crime. The environment is violent with many young men armed, high or drunk, as well as cause trouble between other gangs and local citizens much like that of the type two frontiersman. Other analogies can be seen in the twentieth century US presence in Pacific wars. And if Dykstra’s theory of violence, which disqualifies homicides that involved law enforcement, as the set definition we could compare the Westward expansion to that of the Expansion of the Germany during 1933-1945. Not only for the mass killing of a specific race, but also because most murders were committed by Nazi law enforcement, thus it could be said that homicide rate was low in Germany during the Holocaust. Dykstra provides ample evidence on how homicide rates can be radically skewed compared to body count explaining that body counts correlates with population. She gives the example that though Miami had over 500 homicides whereas Bodie, California and London had merely 29 and 18 homicides, respectively “it was London’s modest population (estimated 35,000-50,000) and Bodie’s small population (no more than 5,000 in a year) that caused their homicides rates to surpass modern Miami’s.” However, Courtright argues the fact by using homicide rates in proportional terms, “type two frontier communities had rates that were at least an order of magnitude greater than those prevailing in eastern cities…” Dykstra fails to provide a comparison to other parts of the country providing indications that the West was less violent. Furthermore Dykstra’s homicides depend exclusively on local newspapers, thus we must assume that the media covered every homicide. Depending on the newspaper lacks viability due to the fact that many of the homicides could have been left out and covered up furthermore many lesser crimes such as assaults were most likely not included.
Miami (1980) was what Dykstra claimed to be very violent which was reflected in the citizen’s mood of urgency within the political and economic leadership. The community came together asking something be done about the frequent homicides and violence occurring in liquor establishment, pressuring “state and local legislators to bolster programs to counter Dade’s rising crime rate.” Dykstra argues that the contrasted mood of Dodge City (1880) proved that there was no sense of alarm in the time of a ‘high’ homicide rate. However the frontier was vast and “legal institutions were either lacking or inadequate” and this lead to the establishment of vigilante. This means Miami being a century older than Dodge City had a better developed local government leadership that cannot be comparable to Dodge because the nation as a whole during 1980 did not experience the same complications of expanding and establishing the country. Further, Courtright points out that by this time the homicide "rate had subsided to a range of 4 to 13 per 100,000 during the 1860’s” after the boisterous years 1849-1856, the start of the Westward expansion (within San Francisco). This was because the shift of high youthful males had balanced out with the rest of the population. Apply this to Dodge City by 1880, a decade before America was considered a fully landed frontier, the city would be established with a balanced population of nuclear families. We can infer that Dodge City was aware of the mass violence taking place in the West when Robert Dykstra states “with an expectation of the cattle trade’s coming to Dodge, local businessmen foresaw that the influx of new transients would only magnify all problems related to law and order.” Thus Dodge City took precautions and established a municipal court (not federal) and criminalized concealed gun handling, furthermore, business posted warning signs of the prohibition of carrying weapons. If the West wasn’t as violent as the rest of America then there would be no need for heavy law enforcement surrounding saloons or need to prohibit guns.
Although Dykstra adequately shows compelling evidence that Dodge City was no the Violent ridden town it was portrayed to be he ultimately fails to address the topic, “Was the Wild West More Violent Than the REST of the United State?” by epitomizing Dodge City alone to match the rest of the frontier. Whereas Courtright not only addresses the west as a whole, but makes a distinction of two types of frontiers. Dykstra’s comparison between the city’s responses to violence in Miami 1980 vs. Dodge 1880 is inadequate, for the reason that there is too much of a generation gap. Dykstra further ignores the atrocities that developed from the impacts culture and development of gangs in the frontier. Not only is America better established economically and government wise, when the West was first developing there was a lack of government and social order, as Courtright reasoned the government was spread too thin and focused more on property clams. Dykstra furthermore ignores the genocide of Native Americans which make up a great deal of Western history, the Trail of Tears alone killed off about 4,500 Indians. Courtright was able to present the variation of violence that occurred through the diversity within the frontier, but also had common variable within the violent type two frontiers. Media may romance the Wild West era, however it is not far from what it may have been in its early years.