The Role of the Traitor
"The traitor-whose presence will be foregrounded if he exists, and invented if he does not-serves at least two purposes. First, he is a foil created to further heighten the noble…
The Gratification of Slaying an Enemy
"In his correspondence with Einstein, Freud argued that each of us derives a very basic and profound gratification from slaying an enemy, however imaginary the act, and from viewing him…
The Custer Paradigm
"The Custer paradigm has nearly twenty segments, or motifs, within it. Yet the likelihood is that the creation of this paradigm was polygenetic; that is, each society, each author or…
The Vehicle of Liminality
"The train had other dramatic possibilities for use in folk and popular culture. It seems to have been for some observers in the nineteenth century in many ways like the…
Trail Narratives Celebrate Triumph
"But such exotica as Indians (exotic when not at war) and Mormons were not what Overland Trail stories were really about. What emerges is the danger, hardship, loneliness, and boredom…
Indians in Trail Narratives
"The Indians couldn't win. They were the "best light cavalry in the world" as one army officer praised them, but they had to resort to stealth and the cover of…
Typical Trail Narratives
"But Wilkins, as we said, differed from most of the diarists, whose experiences seemed almost predictable. 4 Many seem to have read other personal experience accounts of the trail, or…
Women’s Trail Diaries
"Another important distinction to be made in Overland Trail narrative – almost as significant as that between diary and memoir – is that between narratives written by men and those…
Infinite Wealth of the Land
"The idea that the wealth of the American West was inexhaustible drove prospectors back and forth across the plains, and fostered these legends about the life of the gold-hunters: their…
Pony Bob’s Silver Strike
"Often through pure dumb luck a rich strike is made. Pony Expressman Bob Haslam's horse unintentionally kicked a chip of silver from the Reese River field while fleeing from Indians.…
Two Can Keep a Secret
"In a great many tales of the same type the "curse" on the treasure is human greed. An old proverb, common among prospectors as well as others, reminds us that…
Whore With a Heart of Gold
"A superficial look at women in the West did not reveal very much: the "whore with the heart of gold" (Julia Bulette in Virginia City, "Silverheels" in Montana, Mattie Silks…
Meaning of the Plains in American Life
"This problem may best be approached through a brief resume. It has been pointed out that the ninety-eighth meridian separates the United States into two equal parts, that the Anglo-Americans…
Women on the Plains
"Since practically this whole study has been devoted to the men, they will receive scant attention here. The Great Plains in the early period was strictly a man's country –…
Horse Stealing
"There was no greater crime than to steal a man's horse, to set him afoot. It was like stealing the sailor's ship or the wings of the bird. There were…