Notes from Lecture: Closing of the West, Ghost Dance, Turner, Adams, and 1893 Chicago World’s Fair

Exam Logistics and Study Setup

• Exam timing: This material is for the first exam (Thursday); the topic labeled as "closing of the West" is not on Thursday’s exam and will appear on the second exam (sometime in $ext{October}$, per the syllabus discussion).
• Accommodations (CEA): If you have an accommodations letter and need adjustments, tell the instructor ahead of time. Some accommodations (e.g., extra time) may not be feasible in this class session because of a following class. Communication options: in person or via email to arrange arrangements.
• Study guide: The study guide is available on Blackboard; several students have already consulted it.
• Course materials: Have your green book or blue book (or the edition stocked this semester). Availability examples mentioned:
  • Library had some; others reported at information desk/table setups on campus; the union also stocks them or university bookstore.
  • Multiple avenues exist to obtain the required exam book.
• Exam structure (two parts):
  • Part A: Short answer. Expect to identify or briefly respond to prompts with a few sentences.
  • Part B: Essay. You’ll be given a few essay prompts; you’ll choose one to answer. The study guide includes 5–6 example prompts; expect 2–3 prompts to choose from on the test.
  • Coverage and emphasis: The essay is the largest, most heavily weighted portion; plan to devote substantial time to it.
• Short answer specifics:
  • You will answer six prompts out of roughly nine presented.
  • Example prompt style: "Identify Henry Adams" and describe the chapter/idea, e.g., his chapter on the Dynamo and the Virgin.
• Essay specifics:
  • One essay prompt will be chosen for you to answer; you will be given two or three prompts to choose from.
  • Typical length guidance: about one and a half to two pages in the green book (wide-ruled).
• Administrative tips:
  • Put your name on the exam clearly.
  • I will provide general study recommendations and memory techniques.
• Study tips and methods:
  • Handwritten notes tend to improve retention more than notes taken on a computer or tablet. If you take notes digitally, consider rewriting or transcribing them by hand later.
  • Build a master list of likely topics: every person’s name and major events, plus the big ideas for essay prompts.
  • For essays, identify core ideas and how they relate to the broader themes of the course; be prepared to articulate your argument clearly.
  • Practice a thinking process that would allow you to discuss the topics confidently even if prompted broadly.
• Campus resources:
  • CORE Student Success Center offers help with studying and writing.
  • Do not rely on ChatGPT or similar chatbots to study for history exams.

Ghost Dance and Native Agency

• Ghost Dance overview:
  • A Native American cultural practice that spread in the late 19th to early 20th centuries across reservations.
  • Served as a means of intertribal communication, often using English as the common medium among diverse language groups.
  • Demonstrates Native American agency: ability to influence their own lives and maintain ties to past traditions despite subjugation.
• Context in the Indian Wars era:
  • The Ghost Dance emerged while the Indian Wars continued and while groups were being confined to reservations.
  • It reflected resistance to suppression of Native cultures and sought to preserve cultural continuity.
• Language and literacy shifts:
  • As some tribes were defeated and moved to reservations, many began learning English and literacy, enabling cross-reservation communication.
  • The shift toward literacy occurred over roughly a twenty-year window as subjugation intensified and tribes adapted.
• Significance:
  • Illustrates broader themes of cultural persistence, resistance, and adaptation within U.S. history.

Native Citizenship, Voting Rights, and the Law

• Citizenship pathways and ambiguity:
  • Native Americans gained U.S. citizenship at different times, depending on tribe and treaties.
  • Early citizenship was granted to some groups via treaties; a common example cited is the Cherokee (citizenship around $1810$, approximate reference in the lecture).
  • The Fourteenth Amendment (ratified in $1867$) granted birthright citizenship to those born in the United States but notably exempted Native Americans.
• The "Five Civilized Tribes" and citizenship:
  • The instructor mentioned Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Chippewa, and Iroquois as the five civilized tribes (note: historically, the five are typically Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole; the list in the lecture reflects a commonly cited but historically imperfect attribution and includes an alternate tribal set).
• Paths to citizenship after the treaty era:
  • Some groups received citizenship through later treaties with the federal government, often after removal to reservations.
  • A law in the early 20th century (the lecturer notes around $1920$) granted citizenship to remaining Native Americans; the exact law name given by the lecturer was not recalled. (Contextually, this area includes the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 in U.S. history.)
• Voting rights:
  • Native Americans generally could vote in areas without Jim Crow restrictions.
  • In Jim Crow South, many Native Americans were effectively disenfranchised by state laws targeting African Americans; e.g., Eastern Band of Choctaw in Mississippi faced voting barriers.
  • Native Americans in the West typically could vote, but those in the South (Jim Crow states) faced suppression until broader Civil Rights era changes in the 1960s.
• Summary of the complexity:
  • The citizenship and voting rights of Native Americans cannot be captured by a single date or simple rule; it varied by tribe, treaty history, and geography, and continued to evolve through the early 20th century into the Civil Rights era.

Frederick Jackson Turner and the Frontier Thesis

• Turner’s core idea:
  • Frontier/Westward expansion defined American character and political culture; the frontier represented a space where settlers could create new social orders beyond existing institutions.
  • Frontier is the source of American differences from Europe: opportunity, self-reliance, and individualism.
• Frontier as a closing concept:
  • Turner argued the frontier effectively ended around the turn of the 20th century (late 1800s to 1890 in many maps), with railroads pushing the boundary inward and converting wilderness into settled land.
  • He tied this closing to a perceived loss of unique American qualities; with the end of the frontier, American exceptionalism faced an uncertain future.
• Problems with the frontier idea:
  • The lecture notes that Turner’s thesis ignores Native American presence and dispossession in the West.
  • A modern counterview asks where the frontier exists today; students speculated about spaces like entrepreneurship and large business as contemporary frontiers rather than a physical line.
• Expanding the concept of the West:
  • The West is not a fixed line but a set of ideas that change over time.
  • The geographic scope of the West has shifted: early on, it included Ohio and Illinois; by the 19th century, it included California and beyond.
  • Jefferson’s early notion of “free land” fed expansionist beliefs that the West would be empty and available for settlement, an idea tied to the myth of virgin land.
• The critique and the safety valve idea:
  • The West functioned as a safety valve to absorb population, resource pressures, and immigrant influxes from Eastern cities.
• Modern reinterpretation:
  • The West is continually redefined by historians; there is no single, universal definition of what the West is or where it ends.

The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893: Technology, Architecture, and Culture

• The Columbian Exposition (1893):
  • Commemorated the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage (the event is tied to the Columbus figure and the era of American nationalism).
  • Chicago was presented as the center of American architecture and progress.
• Architecture and engineering breakthroughs:
  • The fair showcased the use of steel-and-concrete construction in the largest indoor space ever built at the time (the American Pavilion concept and surrounding structures).
  • It popularized and demonstrated new construction techniques and materials that would dominate 20th-century architecture.
• Early electrical revolution:
  • It marked the first large-scale public display of electric lighting in a major urban space; electric lamps illuminated the fair, representing a cutting-edge technology of the era.
• Inventions and tech expos:
  • The fair debuted several technologies, including electricity-based innovations, and highlights from the Technology Pavilion.
  • Notably, the electric chair was introduced as part of the fair’s technology showcase.
• Henry Adams and the dynamo/virgin juxtaposition:
  • Henry Adams wrote The Education of Henry Adams, including a famous chapter titled "The Virgin and the Dynamo." He describes walking through the technology pavilion, witnessing a dynamo in action (generating sparks) beside a statue of the Virgin Mary.
  • This juxtaposition (placing the old religious symbol next to a modern generator) served as a meditation on the clash between religion and technology, tradition and progress.
  • Adams used this encounter to argue that society must choose between forward progress (technology, education) and backward superstition (religion), though the speaker notes Adams’s atheism and abrasive personality as context for his critique.
• Henry Adams and the broader message:
  • The fair becomes a lens to view the late 19th/early 20th-century tensions between science, religion, and national identity.
• Chicago and American progress:
  • The fair framed Chicago as a symbol of American ingenuity and the nation’s urban and industrial future.

Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, and the Semiotics of Modernity

• About the work:
  • The Education of Henry Adams is a renowned non-fiction work that traces, over decades, the author's perspective on the transformation of the United States from the Reconstruction era into the 1920s.
• Notable chapter: "The Virgin and the Dynamo":
  • A narrative juxtaposition (placing two things side by side) that explores the tension between religion (Virgin Mary) and mechanized modernity (dynamo).
  • Adams uses this juxtaposition to argue that modern American culture faces a choice between embracing progress (education and technology) and clinging to traditional religious beliefs.
• The author’s persona:
  • Adams is described as brilliant but abrasive and contemptuous of religion, reflecting a broader cultural debate of his era.
• The broader historical argument:
  • The late 19th century was marked by a struggle over what America would become: a nation of scientific progress and secular modernity versus a society rooted in religious tradition and superstition.

The West, the South, and the Evolution of American Regional Identity

• The idea of the West as a movable concept:
  • The West is not a fixed geographic region; its boundaries and meaning shift with time and analysis.
  • The historical discourse links the West to broader questions about expansion, population movements, and resource use.
• The romance of the frontier and its critiques:
  • Frederick Jackson Turner popularized the frontier as a defining element of American character, but modern historians critique this view for erasing Native dispossession and for relying on a mythic narrative.
• The West as a safety valve:
  • Some historians view the West as a release valve for urban growth pressures, immigration, and social strains in the East.
• The changing geography of the West:
  • In Jefferson’s era the West was seen as distant Virginia/Ohio–era territories; by the late 19th century, it encompassed California and other territories reachable via railroads.
• The three-way tension (progress vs. retention):
  • The West, like the national psyche, alternates between celebrating progress and worrying about the costs of rapid modernization and land/resource depletion.
• Arkansas and the regional debate:
  • The instructor playfully questions whether Arkansas belongs to the Midwest or the South, illustrating the fluidity and satire of regional definitions.

Study Strategy and Exam Preparation (Instructor's Final Notes)

• Exam structure recap:
  • Short answer: identify or briefly explain key topics; about $6$ prompts out of roughly $9$ total.
  • Essay: choose from $2$–$3$ prompts; answer one in detail; length targets around 1.5–2 pages in the green book.
• Effective study techniques:
  • Handwritten notes tend to improve recall and understanding; if you take notes digitally, rewrite them by hand later.
  • Create a master list of likely identifications (names, events) and practice with them.
  • For essays, extract the big ideas and how they interrelate; practice articulating argument structures.
• Practical exam tips:
  • Bring and label your green book or blue book; ensure your name is on the exam.
  • Expect a total of six short answers and one essay, with several potential prompts available for each section.
• Campus resources and study aids:
  • CORE Student Success Center can assist with studying and writing.
  • Avoid relying on ChatGPT or other chatbots for studying or producing historical analysis.

Connections to Previous Lectures and Real-World Relevance

• Westward expansion and Indian Wars (referenced earlier in the course):
  • Ghost Dance case study enriches the narrative about Native agency and cultural persistence amid US expansion.
• Foundational themes in US history:
  • The frontier question connects to broader themes of modernization, national identity, and the tension between progress and tradition.
  • The Chicago World’s Fair serves as a historical touchstone for technology, urban development, and the diffusion of innovations into daily life.
• Ethical and philosophical implications:
  • Debates over citizenship, voting rights, and Indigenous sovereignty reveal long-standing tensions between inclusion, exclusion, and assimilation in American political culture.
  • The Frontier Thesis raises questions about how history is interpreted and who gets to tell a nation’s story.

Quick Reference Key Dates and Concepts (for test-ready recall)

• $1810$ (approximate): Cherokee citizenship via treaty (one of the early instances cited for citizenship by treaty)
• $1867$: Fourteenth Amendment ratified; birthright citizenship granted but Native Americans exempted from citizenship under this amendment
• $1877$ / Election of 1876: Voter suppression incidents cited (Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina) involving ballot destruction targeted at African Americans; noted as a rare example of voter fraud in US history (as discussed in class)
• $1890$: Turner’s frontier thesis situates the closing of the American frontier around this period; maps show railroads expanding into the West
• $1893$: Chicago World’s Fair (Columbian Exposition) held to celebrate Columbus’s voyage; highlights include electric lighting, steel-and-concrete indoor spaces, and the debut of the electric chair
• $1920$ / 1924: Speaker references an early 20th-century law granting citizenship to remaining Native Americans; historically, this is related to the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
• $400$th anniversary: Columbus’s voyage (as celebrated by the 1893 World’s Fair; the Columbian Exposition’s framing)