I think it’s really important to recognize that the way we view the “West” is problematic. More than anything, it has been romanticized into something that it absolutely is not. As stated in the slideshow presented on October 2nd, the vision adopted for the west was, in practically all ways, “mythological”. I’ll get to how Fredrick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” cemented this, but I’d like to point out that this wasn’t caused by just one thing. If we want to change our perception of something, we need to understand and recognize all the factors that lead to that way of thinking. As far as things studied in class go, I’d say that “Custer’s last stand” and the press associated with it, which was featured on the slideshow presented on the 18th of September, is a great example of how the “West” was romanticized. It transformed the battle of Little Bighorn, which was something rooted in reality, which, like all instances of war, was absolutely serious in all accounts, into something practically fictitious. Into the final moments of some valiant and honorable hero, one straight out of an epic. An example from content that we have not covered, but I suspect we will in the future, are Western movies. They stereotype and dramatize the west and particularly Native Americans. Similar to “Custer’s Last Stand”, it completely removes the seriousness of the topic. This is the point I’m getting to; when one does not take something seriously, they are more likely to disregard it. This is why the “Frontier Thesis” so handily determined the cut-off for when we look at Native American History. The American public did not take the Native American struggle seriously and therefore were quick to avert their minds from the West and native Americans. I’d imagine this was the same for scholars and historians. All this just to say that, the best way to look beyond “frontier history” is to take it seriously. Try to engage with what comes beyond. That is all. It isn’t complicated.