The Railroads are BAD

In Ronald Takaki's A Different Mirror, he presents evidence on America's progress in the West. This includes details regarding the mistreatment of the Native Americans by the white settlers. One of the major factors that allowed the "civilized" Americans to settle the West, was the development of the railroad. "Senator Henry Dawes recounted an experience he had while traveling by train on a recently completed railroad track across five hundred miles of Indian territory. The potential of the terrain impressed Dawes. 'The land I passed through was as fine a wheat growing country as it could be.'" When looking at progress in the West by white settlers from a Native American's perspective, the railroad is a bad thing. It opened up and exposed the West to Americans. It fostered greed in Americans because they wanted to reap the benefits of the West at the cost of the Native Americans. Americans became willing to remove the Native Americans from their homes, convert them to the "correct" way of living, and even in some cases kill them.