Talk:American frontier

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This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (center, color, defense, realize, traveled) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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Text or other creative content from this version of American frontier was copied or moved into Bibliography of the American frontier with this edit on 05:16, 2 December 2023 UTC. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted as long as the latter page exists.

On 27 March 2025, it was proposed that this article be moved to Wild West. The result of the discussion was not moved.

Section sizes

Section size for American frontier (84 sections)
Section name	Byte count		Prose size (words)
Section name	Header	Total	Header	Total
(Top)	5,165	5,165	128	128
Periodization	10,627	14,274	721	945
Terms West and frontier	3,647	3,647	224	224
Maps of United States territories	723	723	43	43
History	13	198,860	0	18,490
Colonial frontier	4,258	8,393	387	757
From British peasants to American farmers	1,607	1,607	116	116
Wars with French and with natives	1,372	1,372	142	142
Steady migration to frontier lands	1,156	1,156	112	112
New nation	1,874	27,694	157	2,509
Land policy	3,638	3,638	374	374
Acquisition of native lands	3,359	3,359	200	200
New territories and states	1,226	1,226	120	120
Louisiana Purchase	4,410	4,410	410	410
Fur trade	2,456	2,456	221	221
Federal government and westward expansion	5,782	5,782	592	592
Scientists, artists, and explorers	4,949	4,949	435	435
Antebellum West	23	41,083	0	3,833
Religion	3,328	3,328	222	222
Democracy in the Midwest	1,682	1,682	205	205
Southwest	3,818	3,818	115	115
Manifest destiny	2,332	2,332	210	210
Mexico and Texas	3,367	3,367	367	367
Mexican–American War	3,763	3,763	363	363
Growth of Texas	1,510	1,510	95	95
California gold rush	6,254	6,254	722	722
Oregon Trail	4,537	4,537	478	478
Mormons and Utah	5,895	5,895	550	550
Pony Express and the telegraph	2,145	2,145	213	213
Bleeding Kansas	2,429	2,429	293	293
Civil War in the West	616	6,489	44	663
Trans-Mississippi theater	3,085	3,085	305	305
Peacekeeping	2,788	2,788	314	314
Postwar West	20	23,576	0	2,397
Territorial governance after the Civil War	2,888	2,888	304	304
Federal land system	4,926	4,926	523	523
Transcontinental railroads	9,369	9,369	922	922
Migration after the Civil War	2,512	2,512	239	239
Alaska Purchase	2,528	2,528	271	271
Oklahoma Land Rush	1,333	1,333	138	138
Indian Wars	3,010	26,419	166	2,428
Indian Wars east of the Mississippi	1,771	1,771	199	199
Indian Wars west of the Mississippi	13,227	13,227	1,255	1,255
Forts and outposts	2,042	2,042	209	209
Indian reservations	6,369	6,369	599	599
Social history	22	51,147	0	4,701
Democratic society	1,420	1,420	158	158
Urban frontier	4,293	4,293	404	404
Race and ethnicity	28	9,871	0	1,107
European immigrants	1,047	1,047	79	79
African Americans	3,701	3,701	515	515
Asians	3,485	3,485	347	347
Hispanics	1,610	1,610	166	166
Family life	2,144	3,492	217	332
Childhood	1,348	1,348	115	115
Prostitution and gambling	4,153	4,153	401	401
Law and order	9,622	21,479	731	1,646
Banditry	7,597	7,597	592	592
Feuds	4,260	4,260	323	323
Cattle	5,329	6,417	520	653
Cowtowns	1,088	1,088	133	133
Conservation and environmentalism	4,272	6,275	425	589
Buffalo	2,003	2,003	164	164
Government	1,038	1,038	117	117
End of the frontier	6,733	6,733	496	496
American frontier in popular culture	2,304	16,961	155	1,370
Popularizing Western lore	3,153	3,153	310	310
20th-century imagery	2,147	8,541	152	748
Cowboy images	6,394	6,394	596	596
Code of the West	2,963	2,963	157	157
Historiography	6,255	6,255	448	448
See also	39	3,349	0	0
General	1,357	1,357	0	0
People	648	648	0	0
Study	132	132	0	0
Literature	481	481	0	0
Games	692	692	0	0
Explanatory notes	44	44	0	0
References	28	28	0	0
Further reading	5,021	5,021	0	0
External links	75	2,029	0	40
Culture	75	75	0	0
History	868	868	0	0
Media	1,011	1,011	40	40
Total	252,709	252,709	21,464	21,464

Should there be made a page for the Albertan stampede wild west?

Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Alberta in Canada had a old/wild west era as well with stampedes. Shouldn't there be made a page talking about that era? Leikstjórinn (talk) 14:10, 22 June 2025 (UTC)Reply

this doesn’t read as relevant (development of democracy)

Latest comment: 9 months ago4 comments4 people in discussion

the paragraph about the development of democracy that has this as it's second line "Selwyn Troen has made the comparison with Israel…" doesn't read as relevant. It doesn't accurately account for or analyze the development of democracy in either settler colonies, and is reading like its doing something political rather than informative. If the paragraph described the development of democratic processes or institutions, it might be relevant, though here it reads as awkward, unnecessary and politically motivated. Also, it doesn't problematize indigenous genocide in either colony, so the actual points of comparison are ignored. Can we remove it? Kikila mai Tawhiti (talk) 17:56, 19 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Keep this is a major scholarly article in a leading scholarly journal that covers the methods of comparing frontiers. The article spends about a third of its space on negative aspects of US and Israel. Rjensen (talk) 19:02, 19 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Support removal as not relevant. Nikkimaria (talk) 03:59, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

Support removal as well. Scholarly or not, it's not relevant to the article. Intothat darkness 11:50, 20 October 2025 (UTC)Reply

"Wild West" redirects here and it really shouldn't

Latest comment: 2 months ago4 comments3 people in discussion

The term "Wild West" references a fictional, hyper-violent version of the actual American Frontier when the actual frontier was, well, boring.

Should a new "Wild West" article be created specifically for the Hollywood version? - Immigrant laborer (talk) 20:53, 19 May 2026 (UTC)Reply

No. The term "wild west" was actually a contemporary one in addition to the later stuff. And I don't think you can call the frontier boring. Intothat darkness 00:48, 20 May 2026 (UTC)Reply

Is the term "Wild West" a reference to violence? I was under the impression that the term simply depicted the Western United States as a vast wilderness. Dimadick (talk) 04:08, 20 May 2026 (UTC)Reply

It's a broader term encompassing both the wilderness and the perceived level of violence there. Wild can also mean "untamed," which was applied to both the land and the people who settled there. Intothat darkness 11:44, 20 May 2026 (UTC)Reply