Webblog

Walter Webb's text The Great Plains lays out the importance of the Great Plains and how it has shaped its inhabitants. Webb introduces the Plains physically as windy and flat with little rain. From here he delves into the people starting with the Plains Indians and continuing forward through history to the American frontiersmen. Two such groups caught my attention specifically, the Plains Indians and the Spaniards.

The Plains Indians, Webb says, were very distinct from other types. They were truly in tune with their environment. Their nomadic lifestyle made it especially hard for settlers to defeat them at first because the Plains forced the Indians to specialize into fighters defending their buffalo hunting territories from competing tribes and later Europeans. Even though the introduction of the horse caused a huge revolution, they merely intensified their existing way of life instead of changing it. It is clear when reading the text that Webb admired the Plains Indians for their riding and survival skills but his biases prevented him from seeing them for more than an unsightly obstacle for the White settlers to overcome when "civilizing" the Plains.

Next, Webb goes into the Spanish expeditions of the Plains which were the first European look at the American Plains. Webb explains that though the terrain was familiar to their homeland making it aesthetically pleasing it lacked a populace that the Spaniards found necessary to colonize it; fore Webb explains that the Spaniards were unable to produce anything for themselves and required slaves to produce everything for them. Personally I think the reason was because the Conquistadors, being agents of the Crown, were on a mission for God, gold, and glory, none of which could be readily found in the Plains. I've spent time horseback riding on both the American and Spanish Plains and I didn't find many similarities between them. Granted I've spent a limited amount of time doing both and I wasn't specifically examining either so it's possible I missed something.

Overlooking Webb's blatant racism and Euro-centrism, The Great Plains points out many interesting facts about the Plains. Its layout focuses the reader in one direction at a time. Webb's choice to write each section as though it was a separate entity that could stand on their own causes the reader to become completely focused on that topic. This is very helpful while reading the dry and blatantly biased text. In the end Webb succeeds in proving that the Plains truly are an amazing place. It may be flat, windy, and dry, but it also has the power to shape its inhabitants into unique and hardy individuals