Montana News
Montana Public Perception 1868-1877
The news articles examined in this section specifically come from Chronicling America . Their digital database is a part of the National Digital Newspaper Program which attempts to preserve and collect newspapers from throughout history. While there are many papers included in this archive it does not include every paper. Of those that are selected for the program, they receive an award to select and digitize approximately 100,000 newspaper pages representing that state's regional history, geographic coverage, and events of note. The following sections examine newspapers found using the search terms "Cavalry" and "Indian" in the states of New York, Montana, Illinois, and South Carolina from 1868 to 1877. When examining the search results Chronicling America, these states provided numerous results for this topic. Compared to other states in their region, these four states had more results than the others. Using the states with more publications on this topic will provide an insight into how the region reported on events at this time. The search on Chronicling America yielded a total of 147 articles in New York newspapers, 49 articles in South Carolina papers, 71 articles in Montana papers, and 105 articles in Illinois papers during this time period with the terms "Cavalry" and "Indian" appearing in the same issue. From these eleve from New York, nine from South Carolina, twelve from Montana, and fourteen from Illinois were selected from a variety of years and sources when available. This was in the hopes that these would show how the public opinion of this region and state was influenced by the newspapers and what the people were being told about the Cavalry and the Indians. The twelve articles from Montana come from a five different newspapers within the state and cover topics focused on the events of the mid-1870s. Being a populated state in the West and a hotbed of Indian conflict during the 1870, analysis of this newspaper coverage will demonstrate how the Americans in the West that were not a part of the military viewed the cavalry and the Native Americans. A list of these articles can be viewed at the Sources page.
If any of the Voyant Tools below do not load, please click on the tool title to see an image file of the results, or go to the Sources page where all the visuals for this project are listed on the left hand side of your screen.
Figure 35 is a Cirrus visual for the Montana News articles from 1868-1877 and contains some interesting results. The term "Men" is used the most and appears a total of 107 times across these documents. The cavalry is the second most used word and appears 90 times. As to be expected the Indian are referenced a fair amount in these Western newspapers. It is interesting however how frequently the term hostiles is used, 28, most likely referring to the Native Americans in these articles. Some officers in this region like General Terry and Colonel Miles appear numerous times in these articles by name and were commanding troops in this region during this time. Of these articles that discuss the Cavalry and the Indians, many of these are focused on the military campaigns taking place in Montana at this time and the battles between the Native Americans and the cavalry. This explains broadly why the initial results of this examination of articles emphasize local commanders. Since these attacks are local and not some distant threat, naturally the Montana papers are reporting on this situation more frequently. Since the cavalry are fighting in this state against the Native Americans, it will be interesting to see how the two are discussed in context in these articles. Since these reports are closer to the action, they should be able to report on these events more quickly and in greater detail than other publications throughout the country.
In the Context tool above, it can be seen that the cavalry and Indian are used in similar ways that other sources have used them. The cavalry are often used in reference to the type of troops or the unit that the article is referring to at the time and their involvement in the battles of this period. This includes the famous 7th Cavalry of George Custer and other references to the 2nd U.S. Cavalry as well. Their actions in the field are also talked about including their losses in battle which has not been seen to this extent before. Montana papers are providing the public with accurate casualty list for the troops fighting in the West. While the discussion of the cavalry in these newspaper articles is not as varied as the discussion that appears in military documents, the fact that the media is reporting largely on the cavalry's role in the plains against the Native Americans shows their importance to military success on the plains and how the public were being exposed and growing accustom to the cavalry as Indian fighters. In comparison the term Indians was used in the context of what Indian groups were being discussed, such as the Sioux or Modocs. They were also portrayed negatively in the form of the attacks that they committed and their behavior on the battlefield against the Army, often described as fleeing. Indians are also frequently described as hostile by the Montana press. This reinforces the national and local perception of the Native Americans as violent and lesser people to Americans.
What they thought in the West
As a state with numerous Indian attacks and campaigns in the 1870s, it is understandable that Montana news would cover the violent interactions between the cavalry and Indians that were taking place nearby relatively frequently in their publications. Montana, like other states in the West, was experiencing the conflicts with the Native Americans firsthand and reported on these interactions and how the Army fared in the field more so than other topics pertaining to the Native Americans like peace negotiations or the creation of reservations. The cavalry were being reported as the troops fighting and pursing the Native Americans in these articles which influenced the public to associate them with their safety from the Indians. The cavalry became the front line defenders of the West and their importance among the people would in turn increase with this role. In these newspapers the Native Americans were being continuously reported as violent groups during this period and hostile against Americans in the region which created an increasingly negative view of them in the public eye. These results and conclusions mirror those seen in Coward's analysis of Indians. While this state had a smaller population than states in the North at this time and the Western publications were smaller than those in the East, there is still value in analyzing smaller and lesser known presses and their influence on local opinion. The works of Miner and Coward both show the important role papers big and small played in shaping these views. While Montana had results similar to the conclusions of Coward, other states further east could yield different results considering the Native Americans were not fighting in their own back yards.