Where is the Vaquero the essential element of the history of the American cowboy?

/in /by

Typically women and minorities are left out of the history of the west. Here are two interesting web sites that tells the story of women in the west. Your writing assignment for this unit is to characterize the daily life of a woman in the west. You may focus on any aspect of this topic as long as it is historically accurate. The sites themselves provide insight into the daily lives of women in the west.

I also thought I would throw you a little twist in the writing assignment. Here is one site I found that has some interesting stories about legendary women in the west. Take a look at it.

The Wild West: Cowboys & Legends

Legendary women

http://www.thewildwest.org/cowboys/wildwestlegendarywomen

Then… examine it further as it talks about cowboys, lawmen, outlaws, and other interesting facts about the west. This site is certainly entertaining; however, there seems to be a significant omission. Where are the Black folks?? Or, for that matter Where is the Vaquero the essential element of the history of the American cowboy? It all depends on your perspective and who is telling the story. Remember…“Study the historian before you study the history.”

Nearly one third of the cowboys in the West were Mexicans (Vaquero) and African Americans. But, sadly, there is often no mention of this fact in most history books. (I think the above site does have a short paragraph or so, on the Buffalo Soldiers.)

Here is another site that tells some interesting stories. It even tells about Black women in the Old West

African Americans and the Old West (Scroll down on the page and click on the link “Women of the Old West”.)

http://www.westchester.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/west/west.htm

Wikipedia also has an interesting article on cowboys and cowgirls in general and has more information about Vaqueros. It is argued that Anglo cowboys learned much of the trade from Vaqueros and Africans who had experience with horses and cattle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy

Your response should be at least 250 words in the text box. Your response will be graded on the basis of content (how well you respond to the question) and on the quality of your response (grammar, spelling, syntax, etc.)