The West - A review of the PBS documentary series

Released: 1996

Executive Producer: Ken Burns

Directed by Stephen Ives

Recently I viewed the eight-part, twelve-hour Ken Burns documentary of The West. Like all Burns’ documentaries, this series has severe problems. However, I believe that the issues raised in The West deserve to be studied.

We can begin to look at a view of The West with a quotation from the pro-capitalist historian Frederick Jackson Turner: “westward expansion was the most important single process in American history.” “This at least is clear: American democracy is fundamentally the outcome of the experiences of the American people dealing with the West.”

Viewing the twelve hours of this Burns’ documentary, we can conclude that the expansion of the United States into the West was in no way “democratic.” In this series we see the genocide against Native Americans, the theft of land from Mexican Americans, the horrendous treatment of Chinese laborers who built the railroads, the gross exploitation of workers and settlers in the West, and finally the destruction of much of Western environment. One commentator of this process labeled it as “complicated.”

Another commentator on this documentary was Ann Richards who was the former governor of Texas. She acknowledged that there were many horrendous problems in the western expansion of this country. However, she identified with the struggles of the settlers of this region. Richards didn’t explain why she didn’t identify with the struggles of Native Americans, Mexican Americans, or Chinese laborers.

Another problem with this series is that it ignored the reasons for the initial United States expansion of The West.

After Napoleon’s defeat at the hands of an army of former slaves in Haiti, he needed money to finance his further ambitions. He received over fifteen million dollars from the United States government in the Louisiana Purchase. This sale doubled the size of the United States.

The cotton producing land in the eastern states had been over-harvested. As a result, this land was no longer suitable for growing the highly profitable crop of cotton. New Orleans became the second most important city in this country. The principal so-called business of New Orleans was the sale of human beings known as slaves.

So, the initial westward expansion of this country had nothing to do with “democracy.” This westward expansion was centered around the expansion of the slave trade. Matthew Desmond gave the history of how slavery was the foundation of the capitalist system in this country in the August 18, 2019 edition of the New York Times Magazine.

At the time of the westward expansion of the United States, the working class was not developed enough to overturn capitalism and to establish a workers government. This was the core reason why this expansion had horrendous consequences. We can begin to look at this largely horrendous history from the point of view of the First Nations who lived in that part of the world.

Native Americans

There were about 500 Native American nations in what is now the United States. Their cultures adopted to diverse environments in this country. The regions where they lived included: the Northeast, Southeast, the Plains, the Southwest, California, the North West coast, and the rest of the North West. The indigenous people who lived in each of these regions had similar cultures.

Today about half of the food we eat comes from crops that Native Americans developed. These include: corn, potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, and peppers. Europeans learned to grow these crops, but they used their own methods and didn’t think to learn the Native American techniques.

So, while there were potato blights in Ireland, the Incas used different farming techniques, and they never had those kinds of blights. This is just one example of how the settlers in the West could have learned valuable information from the indigenous people of this area.

The film The West showed how the city of San Francisco, California experienced huge growth because of the gold rush. During those years this documentary reported that about 100,000 California Indians lost their lives.

For the indigenous people, gold was merely a glittering rock. But for those who had been raised in the capitalist system, the possession of gold meant the possibility of freedom from a life of drudgery. So, while Native Americans worked to insure they had the means to live, thousands of workers became obsessed with obtaining a glittering rock.

The film The West also gave a history of the conflict in the plains states, like South Dakota. These conflicts accounted for one chapter in the over one-hundred years of war between Native Americans and the United States Army. This included the defeat of General George Armstrong Custer at the battle of  the Little Big Horn, or Greasy Grass.

We see how Custer didn’t feel that the Native people were capable of defeating the soldiers under his command. He paid for this mistake with his life.

Anyone who is familiar with the history of the war against Vietnam can see that the United States government never learned anything from the defeat of George Armstrong Custer. In this so-called war, the United States mobilized literally millions of soldiers, and felt that victory was inevitable. After several years of an all out war, and massive anti-war demonstrations around the world, the United States had to admit total defeat, and the U.S. armed forces left Vietnam.         

Mexican Americans

The entire Southwest of the United States once belonged to Mexico. The United States took that land through military conquest. However, there were many people of Mexican descent who continued to live in this vast area. The film The West showed how Mexican people, who’s ancestors had lived in that area for centuries, saw land stolen by the new settlers.

We might also think about the fact that the Mexican people are overwhelmingly of Native American decent. The Aztecs were one of many indigenous nations who lived in this region.

The Aztec capital was Tenochtitlan and was located on a lake. The indigenous people used boats to travel from one place to another. There were floating gardens and a highly advanced agricultural system.

The Aztecs also used sophisticated medical procedures. They actually performed brain surgery using a sterile field. The Spanish understood that the Aztec doctors were more advanced than the doctors from Spain. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s that medicine in the United States began to use some of the Aztec procedures.

However, the United States government wasn’t interested in any of this. They were only interested in gold and in using the land in the west to obtain profits for the affluent.

Chinese

The Chinese came to this country because of the instability of their homeland. During the 1800s, China was ruled by a monarchy of the Manchus who were a minority nationality. The Manchu Emperor understood that the British imports of opium had a horrendous effect on the country. He responded by outlawing opium imports. The British responded to this law by doubling their shipments of opium to China.

The Chinese enforced the law prohibiting opium imports by commandeering a British ship, and throwing the opium shipment overboard. The British responded to this act by conducting three Opium Wars against the Chinese.

We might consider that before the revolution that created the United States, colonists commandeered a British ship and threw the tea overboard in an event known as the Boston Tea Party. Britain never asked the United States to pay for that tea.

The Manchu monarchy was more interested in maintaining their power, rather than mobilizing the nation to defeat the British. As a result the Manchu monarchy agreed to the British demands. These included: payment for the destroyed opium, payment for the cost of the war, and the British annexation of Hong Kong.

This agreement had disastrous consequences in China. As a result the Taiping Rebellion erupted. Women supported the Taipings and fought in the war along with the men. Millions of Chinese lost their lives or left the country as a result of this civil war. The Manchus were able to maintain their power because of British support.

We might also consider that the Chinese constructed their 1,500 mile Grand Canal. This canal connected the north of the country with the south. So, in times of drought, food was transported to areas in need.

The British were only interested in Chinese exports and allowed the Grand Canal to deteriorate. Because of this, when there was a drought in Northern China, tens of millions of Chinese starved to death.  

Chinese immigration

Most Chinese came to this country in search of gold. Because of the racism of those days, the government prohibited Chinese from mining the most productive areas. In spite of this, the Chinese worked diligently to find gold in these least productive areas.

Then, an immigration tax was levied on the Chinese. Revenue from this tax accounted for half of the income of the government of California.

The film The West also documented how Chinese labor was indispensable to the construction of the railroads in this country. Tunnels needed to be created through the mountains. Roadways needed to be constructed on the steep cliffs of these mountains. Many Chinese lost their lives because of the extremely dangerous conditions of this work.

We might also consider that the workers who were born in this country in those days had a very limited diet. With their paltry salary, Chinese workers actually imported food from their homeland. This diversified the diet in this country.

During the 1800s the health care system in this country was poor. Doctors had a very basic education, and patients oftentimes didn’t see improvements with medical care.

The Chinese studied medicine for hundreds of years. This study enabled Chinese doctors to proscribe effective treatments for many ailments. So, the Chinese doctors who came here became popular in many communities.

The United States government responded to this reality with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. This law was the only one in U.S. history that prevented citizens of a specific nation from immigrating to the United States. Opening up Chinese restaurants became the only work that was available to the Chinese who lived here.  

Settlers

When I was a child, I became addicted to television. I was especially fascinated by the shows known as “Westerns.” These shows portrayed settlers who experienced difficult conditions on the plains of the West.

One feature of these shows, that was repeated over, and over again, was the conflicts between Native Americans and these settlers. I can’t remember ever viewing a single episode where Native Americans were portrayed as human beings.

However, there was a scene that was repeated many times. This was of a circled wagon train, with Indians riding on horseback around it. Settlers would then shoot down Indians as if they were target practice.

In James Loewen’s book “Lies My Teacher Told Me” he argued that of the 200,000 settlers that travelled west, about 350 settlers and 450 Native Americans died in these conflicts. So, all those television shows that I watched as a child were a gross distortion of reality.

The film The West gave evidence that most of the settlers who died on their way to the west, died from illnesses like cholera. They also died from exposure to the harsh winter conditions. The question is: What was the real cause of all these deaths of settlers?

The documentary The West argues that settlers went to the west seeking a better life. There were few opportunities in the east and they were led to believe that the opportunities in the West were unlimited.

These settlers discovered that life was extremely difficult in the West, and they had little or no support from the government or the moneyed interests of those days. Those who managed to survive in this harsh environment usually were barely able to make a living. But as in all capitalist societies, a small percentage gouged out most of the wealth.

In the Westerns that I viewed as a child there was always a “lawman.” As we see in the series The West, the murder of Native Americans was perfectly legal. The theft of the wealth of the settlers by the affluent was normal, and continues to be routine in the world today. So, we can conclude that the primary responsibility of these so-called “lawmen” was to defend the interests of the affluent.    

Workers

Part of this documentary reported on the conditions of copper miners who toiled for the corporation known as Anaconda. While these workers experienced horrendous conditions underground, they also provided the necessary materials for the electrification of this country. Their compensation was meager. However, the work they did was essential for all the corporate profits in the history of the United States.

William Dudley “Big Bill” Haywood was born in 1868 in Salt Lake City in the Utah Territory before Utah became a state. Haywood worked as a miner and a cowboy and became a leader of the Western Federation of Miners. He also became a leader in the labor federation known as the International Workers of the World. In 1912 he led a successful strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts of textile workers.

The government responded to Haywood’s efforts to improve the lives of workers by placing him on trial twice. The first trial was for murder and the jury made a clear decision that this was nothing but a frame-up. Haywood was found not guilty of those charges.

Then, the government placed Haywood and many others on trial. This was for interfering with the government effort to draft workers into their holocaust known as the First World War.

Alice Paul also severed time in prison for participating in a demonstration. She argued that it was wrong to claim the WWI was a war for democracy, while women didn’t have the right to vote. Gene Debs served three years in prison for giving a speech in Canton, Ohio in opposition to the war. While Haywood was out on bail awaiting his appeal, he fled the country and lived the rest of his life in the Soviet Union.

Then, in 1983 there was a copper miners strike against the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Arizona. The strike lasted three years.

So, this story gives clear evidence that the statement by Frederick Jackson Turner reflected more fantasy than reality. The facts are that many who struggled to achieve some democracy in The West found themselves placed in prison, murdered, or worked so the fruits of their labor went to the affluent. However, this struggle continues.

The Environment

Some of the biggest copper mines were in Montana and Arizona. The film The West showed how the area around Butte, Montana was completely destroyed because of copper mining. This documentary also showed how areas throughout the West also became victims of the drive to maximize profits.

The first city planners of Los Angeles, California understood that there wasn’t a sufficient amount of water to sustain the city. Two-hundred miles away, there was a flourishing agricultural area where water was plentiful. This area was protected by federal legislation.

The problem was that the power brokers of Los Angeles had more influence in Washington than the farmers who relied on this water. So, those power brokers went to Washington and convinced legislators to allow Los Angeles to have access to water that was two-hundred miles away.

As a result, one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the history of this country became a reality. Water was transported two-hundred miles to Los Angeles, and the once prosperous agricultural land was ruined.  

Legacy

The foundations of inequality in The West continued with the wars against the Black community in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921, and in East St. Louis, Illinois in 1917. The National Guard was called in to suppress a rebellion in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts in 1966.

Recently, the state of California has been the sight of uncontrollable wildfires. While much of the food we eat comes from that state, the water needed to grow this food is becoming more and more difficult to find.

I believe that this state of affairs is reaching a tipping point. Sooner or later the deteriorating conditions of capitalism will force working people to develop a new way of thinking.

When this happens, perhaps we will begin to learn some of the lessons of the first inhabitants of this land. The lives of every single human being is important. An injury to one is an injury to all. We live on land that provides us with both sustenance, and the beauty of the environment. When we learn these lessons, then I believe working people will begin to have the dignity that we deserve.