Archive for June, 2009
Indian Pidgin English shaped the Old West
In his excellent reference work, “Dictionary of the American West,” writer Winfred Blevins has an interesting section in the introduction on Indian Pidgin English, a language of convenience which he says bridged a communications gap and traveled via explorers, traders, and mountain men across the entire continent.
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What do you call the guys with the pistols?
Most sources I’ve read suggest that “gunfighter,” and “gunman” were terms used in the later days of the Old West (probably after the 1870s or ’80s) for someone who was also known as a “shootist,” or in our post-Western movie times, the guy who had the pistol and wasn’t afraid or hesitant to use it.
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Native American cultures, alliances were always diverse
To speak of some pre-European “Native American lifestyle” is more myth than reality, when it comes to the cultures and allegiances of the many ethnic groups which inhabited North America before the Spanish, British, French, and other European colonizers came here.
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Many Southwest tribal groups descended from Anasazi ‘cliff dwellers’
An ancient group of Indians (Native Americans) who had a great impact on the history of the Old West, specifically in the Southwestern region of the U.S., was the Anasazi. They were ancestors of more well-known, modern tribal groups as the Zuni and Hopi. The Anasazi created the captivating Pueblo dwellings such as Mesa Verde and Kayenta.
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‘Float gold’ could make anyone rich or a pauper
“Float gold” or “floated gold” livened up life in the Old West with the ability to turn any man or woman rich — or turn any man or woman into a pauper. As the name implies, it was gold which had washed (floated) down from the mines in mountains into the streams and creeks. Mining float gold was done by “placer mining”: Using dredges, pans, sluices and other hydraulic methods to separate the grains and nuggets of gold from the sand and gravel along and inside of streams and rivers throughout the West.
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Western belt buckles blend utility, show
Belt buckles are a relatively modern invention, and Western style or cowboy style belt buckles blended utility with the desire to show off or “fancy up” things and dress for going out on the town. The utility of a belt and buckle was that it plain and simply cinched up the pants, while offering a convenient place to tuck in a sidearm, or wear a holster. The showmanship or dress-up aspect came about as silversmiths and other metal workers found ways to shape, carve, and engrave pictures and symbols into the buckle, turning it into a fancy ornament, a piece of acceptably “manly” jewelry for cowboys and others in the Old West.
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