10 Proofs That The Wild West Was Really Wild

The western genre has existed, by and large, as long as the movie itself. The era of cowboys, reckless bandits, ruthless and uncompromising wars with the redskins, etc. lasted only about half a century (from the 1830s to the 1880s), but now it is part of the big American myth on which – and it really is – all American culture is based.

Western is a true American classic. And, in fact, everything we know about the Wild West is gleaned from those same films about courageous and fearless cowboys and their determined spouses. But was that really the case? Let’s try to figure it out.

10 Most of what we know about the Wild West is not true

Yes, a good half (maybe more) of what we’ve seen in westerns is pure fiction. If we also take into account that a significant part of them were filmed not by Americans, but by Italians (have you heard such a term – “spaghetti western”?), It becomes clear that there are big problems with real historical images.

American cowboys were not any heroes who masterfully owned all types of firearms. A cowboy is an ordinary shepherd who drives large herds of cows back and forth across the prairies.

And they did not enter into battles with the Indians (for the most trivial reasons: firstly, there were always not so many cowboys in the herd – obviously less than the Indians who entered the warpath; secondly, there were no showdowns with the Redskins, so to speak, in their “duties”, and indeed, you will get involved in a shootout that no one really needs – goodbye, herd; and thirdly, it makes no sense to quarrel with the Indians, on whose lands you constantly drive cattle, in principle, there is no).

And the cowboys did not arrange any duels on the main streets of the towns (they rarely used weapons at all).

9. A man without a weapon was not considered a full-fledged man.

Yes, the tradition of keeping weapons in the house (just in case) appeared in the United States during the Wild West. Then there was a real need for this: a man should be able to get game to feed his family, and also protect it (family) if necessary.

Therefore, every self-respecting cowboy or farmer, of course, had the very famous Colt or any other firearm.

But about the phenomenal accuracy of literally every American from the Wild West (including women), one can reasonably doubt. Not everyone was an excellent shooter, hitting a coin from a distance of 200 meters.

8. Laws established private offices

In the major cities of the Wild West, there were fairly large police departments that did a good job of maintaining public order and ensuring security. That is why the bandits tried not to meddle there: they turned their dark deeds, mainly in rural areas.

Rob a bank, steal and sell someone else’s cattle, “slow down” and rob an entire train – easily! But just don’t be offended if you are shot without trial or investigation right there, at the crime scene.

The fact is that since there were almost no official representatives of the authorities in the “wild prairies”, their functions were performed by various private security and detective agencies (or “land offices”), which “customized” existing laws to their own methods.

They usually did not arrest criminals – they shot to kill without warning (why bother with them?). By the way, the founder of one of the most famous such agencies was the famous Alan Pinkerton – the prototype of the “king of detectives” Nat Pinkerton.

7. Bandits intimidated sheriffs with possible revenge

You will say: “But in the small towns of the Wild West there were sheriffs? Is not it so? Why didn’t they fight crime in their territory?” In fact, they fought (as far as they could with only two or three assistants).

But in the countryside everyone knows everyone. And if the sheriff was fond of pursuing any local gang, then he was very quickly hinted that the bandits were aware of where his family lived or with whom he was connected by friendly and other ties.

And if he does not stop preventing them from “doing the job”, then these people may suffer (up to death). And the sheriff knew for sure – these are not just words.

6. Whites do not always win in battles with the Indians.

The wars of the white aliens with the Indians, the indigenous inhabitants of the American continent, continued for a total of three and a half centuries: almost from the beginning of the colonization of North America and until 1890 (before the massacre at Wounded Knee).

But they took on the most fierce character just in the era of the Wild West – by that time the Indians, uncompromisingly forced out to the most barren lands, were already literally fighting for their survival.

And, judging by the westerns, it is easy to believe that the American army almost always defeated the redskins (of course, wild and bloodthirsty) with ease.

In fact, of course, this is absolutely not true. So, in the summer of 1876, the combined forces of the Lakota and Cheyenne Indians during the so-called “Sioux Wars” practically destroyed George Custer’s 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Little Bighorn (moreover, Custer himself attacked the Indian camp, despite the fact that many women were present there and children).

And 10 years before this major event, in 1866, all the same Lakota and Cheyenne (as well as Arapaho) killed the detachment of Captain William Futterman (81 people). And these are far from isolated cases.

5. Scalping was not invented by the Indians

And since we started talking about the Indians, they didn’t start the barbaric tradition of scalping a defeated enemy either. In fact, this is an “invention” of whites.

The fact is that when a real war began to exterminate the redskins (who did not want to move from their ancestral lands and sometimes massively died out in whole tribes thanks to the “kind” white people who sold them cheap blankets infected with fatal diseases for the Indians), they were allowed to literally shoot like animals.

Moreover, the mercenaries who willingly took part in this genocide were also paid $ 25 for each redskin.

But in order to prove the fact of the murder, it was necessary to provide some kind of “trophy”, and carrying, for example, a whole head with you, was somehow not very convenient.

Therefore, it was invented to simply remove the skin from the head along with the hair, because the scalp fits perfectly into any bag. And the Indians just started doing the same thing.

4. Decent people didn’t wear jeans

Now jeans are universal clothing, we put them on, as they say, “both in a feast and in the world.” Everyone knows that they appeared in America.

Well, who heard that initially these comfortable pants were just a kind of work uniform, that is, clothes for dirty work?

They were worn exclusively by cowboys, farmers, gold diggers, and slaves on plantations in the southern states. No decent gentleman would even think of wearing “this.”

By the way, blue jeans were also unknown in the Wild West – then they were off-white, and until the 1870s. no one saw any practical need to paint them.

3. Cowboys had an unwritten “code of honor”

As we already know, cowboys were the most common hired workers, and, often, also extremely poor. They found “vacancies” on the surrounding ranches and pastures and herded someone else’s cattle (sometimes not even having their own horse) for very modest pay.

But these “workers of saddle and whip” nevertheless had something of a code of correct behavior. So, a cowboy would never shoot an unarmed person (shooting women and children was all the more strictly prohibited).

They also did not have the right to put on someone else’s hat, and jumping on someone else’s horse without the permission of the owner in their community was literally the same as “seducing someone else’s wife” (respectively, horse thieves were hanged without question).

Well, when leaving the city after a successful weekend, it was necessary to smack into the air and yell louder (as if in gratitude for the pleasures received).

2. Bison destroyed almost without exception

Far from the last reason for the cruelest Indian wars was the destruction of a huge number of bison by white people. For the Prairie Indians, these wild bulls were the main source of life – they ate their meat, made household tools, clothes and dwellings (teepee and wigwams) from their skins, bones and veins.

At the same time, the Indians never killed bison without special need, hunting them as much as was necessary for the tribe at the moment.

But when the whites came to the lands of the Indians (and especially when they began to build railroads here), the number of bison began to rapidly decrease.

They were rapaciously beaten out not even by hundreds of thousands, but by millions – so, if in 1800 the number of bison, according to approximate estimates, was about 30 million, then by the end of the XNUMXth century there were less than a thousand (!) Heads left.

The skins and meat of bison were supplied to the American army, in addition, a significant part of the “booty” was profitably sold to Europe.

1. Some of the pioneers of the Wild West had to eat people

In the winter of 1846-1847. there was a terrible story connected with immigrants to the West. It later became known as the Donner Party.

George Donner, 62, and James Reid, 46, who lived in Springfield, Illinois, were too inspired by the book of a certain Mr. Hastings, a lawyer who visited California and urged everyone to immediately go to this God-blessed place.

Moreover, Hastings assured that he knew a shorter way to California (shorter by as much as 600 kilometers compared to the one that most settlers go to). As it turned out later, Hastings himself had not yet walked this path.

Reed and Donner loaded their families into wagons and set off. On the way, several more large families joined them, as a result, the total number of group members reached 87 people (on 23 wagons).

They were in a hurry to get to the first cold weather. But, having already covered almost a full 4 thousand kilometers (only 200 km remained to be overcome through the Sierra Nevada mountains), the group suddenly got stuck on a pass impassable for wagons due to early snow and breakdowns.

In a matter of days, the pass was covered with snow so that in some places the snowdrifts reached a height of 6 meters. As a result, Donner and his people had to spend the winter in the mountains, trying for 4 long months to survive and get out of the trap. (Reed had been kicked out of the group long before for killing one of the drivers, and made it safely to California on his own.)

When the first expedition of rescuers found them at the end of February 1847, only 48 people remained from the group, extremely exhausted and almost distraught. As it turned out, many of them survived, mostly by eating the corpses of their dead comrades. (But only one man openly admitted this).