Burton’s Racism
Sir Richard Burton's City of Saints is often quoted as a primary source for conditions along the emigrant/stagecoach trail in 1860. No one I've read, however, remarks on his casual racism,…
The Mustang
"The mustang is the Spanish mesteño. The animal was introduced by the first colonists, and allowed to run at large. Its great variety of coat proves the mustang's degeneracy from the tame…
American Desert
"We had now [at the forks pf the Platte] entered upon the outskirts of the American wilderness, which has not one feature in common with the deserts of the Old World. In…
Forks of the Platte
"The Platte River divides at N. lat. 40 05' 05", and W. long. (G.) 101 21' 24". The northern, by virtue of dimensions, claims to be the main stream. The southern, which…
Theft
"The politeness of the savages did not throw us off our guard; the Dakotah of these regions are expert and daring kleptomaniacs; they only laughed, however, a little knowingly as we raised the…
Description of Native Americans
"The braves were armed with small tomahawks or iron hatchets, which they carried with the powder-horn, in the belt, on the right side, while the long tobacco-pouch of antelope skin hung by…
Native Description of Whites
"Their scanty beard was removed; they compare the bushy-faced European to a dog running away with a squirrel in its mouth."
Denigrating Indians
"Besides the injustice to the manes and memories of the dead, this depreciation of the Indians tends to serious practical evils. Those who see the savage lying drunk about stations, or eaten up…
Wild Sage
"This hideous growth, which is to weary our eyes as far as central valleys of the Sierra Nevada, will require a few words of notice. The artemisia, absinthe, or wild sage differs…
Buffalo
"The morning brought with it no joy. We had arrived at the westernmost limit of the 'gigantic Leicestershire' to which buffalo at this season extend, and could hope to see no trace…
Bones for Fires
"Buffalo herds were behind the hills, but we were too full of sleep to follow them. The plain was dotted with blanched skulls and bones, which would have made a splendid bonfire.…
Platte River
"The Canadian voyageurs first named it La Platte, the Flat River, discarding, or rather translating after their fashion, the musical and picturesque aboriginal term, 'Nebraska,' the 'shallow stream:' the word has happily been…
Mile 278: Spring Ranch
"We then resumed our journey over a desert, waterless save after rain, for twenty-three miles; it is the divide between the Little Blue and the Platte rivers, a broken table-land rising gradually toward…
Cottonwood Trees
"In the centre of the bottom flows the brownish stream, about twenty yards wide, between two dense lines of tall sweet cottonwood. The tree which was fated to become familiar to us…
Mile 197: Big Sandy Station
"A little after midnight we resumed our way, and in the state which Mohammed described when he made his famous night journey to heaven—bayni 'Z naumi wa 'I yakzan—we crossed the deep shingles,…