Tragedy and Triumph in American Western Expansion

Located in the heart of California’s Tri-Valley region, the Blackhawk Museum in Danville was without a doubt my favorite place to visit in this spectacular Northern California wine region.  Yes, the wineries are fabulous, but the Blackhawk Museum was an entirely unexpected delight, a unique educational experience sporting five different and spectacular galleries: The Don Williams Automobile Gallery, The Spirit of the Old West, Into China, Art of Africa, and World of Nature.

I toured all exhibits except the Art of Africa as my time was limited and there was a lot to see here. While all were stunning in their own right, I was particularly captivated by The Spirit of the Old West.

The Spirit of the Old West

The Spirit of the Old West provides an unnuanced history of America’s western frontier from the perspective of both the Native Americans and pioneers ranging from pre-contact to America’s final westward expansion. Perhaps nothing sets the stage better than the massive bison in the middle of the exhibit and the two mounted figures dominating each end – one a stern and solemn Sitting Bull and the other, a sword-wielding General George Custer. 

The exhibition features authentic Native American and pioneer artifacts from this era, an impressive diorama showcasing the entire evolution of the frontier, and scenes depicting the rich wildlife that called the West home.

Native American Life

Highly dependent upon the buffalo they hunted, Native Americans across the Great Plains lived off the land in a nomadic lifestyle. The artifacts surviving from this bygone era reveal a wide array of complex tribal cultures rich in creativity and artistic expression.

Displays included tools, toys and games, weapons, ceremonial and everyday attire, and more. Elaborate headgear and spiritual items reflect Native American’s deep spiritual beliefs and their respect for the land that provided them sustenance.

Through its many displays, the Blackhawk revealed that Native Americans, far from being generically homogenous, were extremely diverse in language, culture, and habitat. Tribes had rivals, friends, and enemies. The most profound and serious threat to their existence was the unstoppable western advance of settler colonials that began as a trickle and built to a tidal wave of absolute doom.

The purposeful decimation and near extinction of the massive American Bison herds by the U.S. military and settlers, the animal so vital to the Native Americans’ existence, played a major role in the genocide. Photos of massive mountains of bison skulls document this unconscionable slaughter.

Ever expanding farms, ranches, cities, railroads, and industry did the rest.

Pioneer Equipment and Hardships

On the opposite side of the American coin, the opportunity to settle and carve out new and better lives in the West was a sirens’ call too difficult to resist for many Americans east of the Mississippi. This varied lot included the fool-hardy, the intrepid and determined, and everyone in between.

The journey was long and filled with a myriad of dangers. A full sized, fully rigged Prairie Schooner wagon and a list of food staples poignantly illustrated the challenges the hardy pioneers faced in their westward journey. 

Rapidly developing technology aided the conquest of the Wild West. Telegraph, railroad, barbed wire, iron ploughs and farming equipment slowly tamed the land. Some came to mine for riches, others as farmers or ranchers. Homesteads grew into towns and linking trails grew into transportation networks. This supported a rigorous supply-chain from the east that facilitated the nation’s westward expansion – much to the detriment of Indigenous people living there.

Western Wildlife

Throughout the exhibit, western wildlife and the majestic panorama of the Old West’s prairies, mountains, and deserts are realistically displayed. Teeming with a host of native birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, the land provided sustenance for both the original Native American inhabitants and the pioneers who followed.

The West in Miniature

As a boy, and even as an adult, I have always loved and built dioramas depicting everything from dinosaurs to the jungles of Africa and ancient to modern battlefields – all with exacting care and great attention to detail.

Here in the Spirit of the Old West sits the reigning champion of all dioramas. Stretching nearly the entire length of the exhibit hall, this gently arching display charts the entire history of the western frontier with multiple chronologically oriented scenes from early Native American buffalo hunts all the way to the turn of the century Buffalo Bill Wild West shows.

Rolling landscapes are filled with thousands of miniature figures and animals along with buffalo herds, tipi-filled villages, outposts, forts, buildings, mountains, streams, trees and more recreating a rich tapestry of key events in America’s westward expansion.

Highlights include wagon trains, trapper rendezvous, pitched battles including Custer’s Last Stand and other mainstays like the transcontinental railroads and the Pony Express.  

More than anything else, Blackhawk’s Spirit of the Old West galleries highlight the clash of two very different and incompatible civilizations.

Perhaps nothing tells this story more clearly than the series of maps chronicling the relentless western expansion of American pioneers at different milestones. The last shows that today, Native Americans possess only 2.3 percent of the land they once occupied. Despite losing the land, Native Americans shared these poignant words of wisdom. A quote attributed to the Apache people says, “Treat the Earth well, it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” 

In a time when forces are at work reinforcing one-sided concepts of Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism while dismissing the harsher realities of American history, the Blackhawk Museum should be commended.  Its Spirit of the Old West exhibit accurately portrays both the tragedy and triumph in the relentless expansion of America’s frontier and the terrible price paid by our fellow Native Americans. It is a story we should all be familiar with as we strive to do better for all Americans, Native or otherwise.

The Blackhawk Museum operates as a subsidiary of the Behring Global Educational Foundation, a non-profit organization. Open Friday through Sunday for the general public, the museum embraces its mission to educate and inspire audiences from all walks of life and provides free admission to school tour groups every Wednesday and Thursday.