Let us not forget that between 1865-1890 the federal government
and the American people became fixated on the Far West--espec-
ially homesteading, transcontinental railroad building, and "pacifying"
(eradicating/transforming) the last and most powerful Indian nations
across the Mississippi.  Very soon after Appomattox, the U.S. army
presence jumped from 11,000 to 20,000 soldiers on the "wild frontier,"
including the 9th & 10th U.S. Cavalry units of black troopers known
as "Buffalo Soldiers." President Grant and his old buddies, Generals
Sheridan and Sherman, aggressively promoted conquest through the
ecocide of the bison herds, massacres of Indian non-combatants, and
internment on reservations, using veteran troops and hi-tech weaponry to
"solve the Indian Problem."  It has been estimated that the USA spent
$1 million per Indian killed--or $4 billion altogether--to occupy and pacify
the Louisiana Purchase Territory that had only cost $27 million (count-
ing mortgage interest) in the first place.  The preoccupation with (and
actual occupation of) an expanding West of abundant resources, and
the rampaging industrialization in the urban North being flooded with
new immigrants, filled the government's plate to overflowing, replacing
Southern Reconstruction and equitable race relations as dominant
agenda items.  With the Massacre of Sioux women and children at
Wounded Knee in December 1890 that ended the Indian wars (for which
Custer's old 7th Cavalry received 27 Medals of Honor), the near-simul-
taneous official "closing of the frontier," and the celebration of the
Columbian Exposition in 1893--all coinciding with the Jim Crow era--the
nation reveled in the dominance of the white race from coast to coast
and prepared to export its imperialistic caucasian capitalism (enhanced
by territorial conquest and class inequality in the labor force) to lands
outside of our borders. That broader focus helps us interpret the US role
in the first half of the 20th century, when our military and industrial
might,
fueling and fueled by the cultural arrogance of the ruling class, made us
a prominent player on the international stage.  No wonder our searing
domestic crises in ethnic and economic relations got put on the back
burner for generations.

Happy Thanksgiving (aka National Day of Native American Mourning)

Fred Fausz
St. Louis--Virginianized by Jefferson as the Capital of Western Conquest

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