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This essay examines Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff (2010) as an example of ‘slow’ and feminist western film. In particular, it shows how, by applying an “austere” aesthetics (Gorfinkel 2015) and by giving prominence to the act of migrating rather than the act of settling, the movie rewrites pioneer history, offering an example of what Catherine Russel defines “migrant cinema” (2017). Because of the visual centrality given to the act of migration, with its feeling of geographical displacement and psychological apprehension, the movie situates itself alongside other contemporary films representing present-day migration, and questions the traditional western movement as a travel of self-confident expansion and colonization. In this sense, Meek’s Cutoff can be rather read as a “decolonizing” (Trimble Young and Veracini 2017) rendition of white migration in the West, mostly achieved by including two destabilizing characters within the group of white settlers, Emily Tetherow and a Cayuse Indian, who trigger reflections on matters of knowledge and alliances.

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A forgotten late-19th-century cemetery (ca. 1854-1879) with 12 graves was discovered in early 2008 during a construction project in western Oregon. Eight graves had been previously opened during a 1901 disinterment, but four remained intact. All provided information on burial patterns during the decades following American settlement of the Willamette Valley by Oregon Trail pioneers. Although the timeline is both slightly delayed and compressed, trends in burial ornamentation and hardware generally follow those noted in American cemeteries in the East. The unadorned graves of the 1850s are most similar to those of earlier decades on the eastern seaboard. By the end of the 1870s, rail lines had been built through the Willamette Valley, and within a few years the valley was linked to a growing national rail network. A relative immediacy of bicoastal contact was achieved at this time, allowing a measure of synchronicity in funerary trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a dearth in historical memory concerning the life and contributions of John Montgomery, the first white settler of Spanaway, Washington. Montgomery's experiences in the area as a cattle drover for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) are analyzed. The author discusses celebrations of the opening of the Naches Pass, part of the Oregon Trail, that failed to honor Montgomery's historical contributions. The contentious relationship between the HBC and pioneers is discussed. Montgomery's experiences traveling from Scotland, his homeland, to the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest are described.

The article explores the history of U.S. Indian wars and the Battle of Platte Bridge in Wyoming in 1865. The author reflects on an alliance of Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapahoe Indians. Emphasis is given to the perspective and experience of Southern Cheyenne soldier George Bent and the article presents excerpts from Bent's letters. Topics discussed include positions of soldiers, battle plans of the Indians, combat conditions in the wilderness, attacks on wagon trains and settlers, and locations of encampments of the raiding parties.

The Sacawee block is a narrow belt of Paleo- to Mesoarchean crust that extends for ~70 km across the northern Granite Mountains. It is composed of the ~3.3 Ga Sacawee orthogneiss, additional calc-alkalic and tonalitic orthogneisses, and the ~2.86 Ga Barlow Gap Group. The Sacawee block basement is characterized by negative εNd values and Paleoarchean Nd crustal residence model ages. A broad east–west-trending zone of Neoarchean high strain, which is part of the Oregon Trail structural belt, transects the Sacawee block and was studied at two locations, the Beulah Belle Lake area and West Sage Hen Rocks. U–Pb analyses of magmatic zircon from a sheared amphibolite within the high-strain zone of the Beulah Belle Lake area constrain the age of the Neoarchean deformation to be later than 2688 ± 5 Ma. At West Sage Hen Rocks, metamorphic zircons in a sheared amphibolite provide a direct date on the shear zone of 2649 ± 2.8 Ma. These data, combined with similar ages of deformation from two other shear zones, are interpreted to suggest that the Neoarchean Oregon Trail structural belt is a pervasive feature of the Sacawee block and may represent a deformation front related to accretion. Multiple east–west-trending shear zones within the Sacawee block are evidence for tectonic modification of the crust between ~2.65 and 2.63 Ga and horizontal convergence analogous to modern plate tectonics processes. The Sacawee block is either a rare exposure of ancient basement typical of that which originally underlay much of the Wyoming Province or it is an exotic block that was accreted to the core of the Wyoming Province in Neoarchean time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local preservation of 3.6–3.0 Ga gneisses and widespread isotopic evidence for crust of this age incorporated into younger plutons indicates that the Wyoming Province was a >= 100 000 km2 middle Archean craton, which was modified by late Archean magmatism and tectonism and Proterozoic extension and rifting. On the basis of differences in late Archean histories, the Wyoming Province is subdivided into five subprovinces: three in the Archean core, (1) the Montana metasedimentary province, (2) the Bighorn subprovince, and (3) the Sweetwater subprovince, and two Archean terrains that may be allochthonous to the 3.0 Ga craton, (4) the Sierra Madre – Medicine Bow block, and (5) the Black Hills – Hartville block. A thick, fast lower crustal layer, imaged by Deep Probe, corresponds geographically with the Bighorn subprovince and may be an underplate associated with ca. 2.70 Ga mafic magmatism. The Sweetwater subprovince is characterized by an east–west tectonic grain that was established by three or more temporally related, late Archean, pulses of basin development, shortening, and arc magmatism. This tectonic grain, including the 2.62 Ga Oregon Trail structure, controlled the locations and orientations of Proterozoic rifting and Laramide uplifts. The present-day lithospheric architecture of the Wyoming Province is the result of cumulative processes of crustal growth and tectonic modification; lithospheric contrasts have apparently persisted for billions of years. If there has been any net crustal growth of the Wyoming Province since 3.0 Ga, it has involved a combination of mafic underplating and arc magmatism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the usefulness of Oregon Trail and the reason for its abandonment in the U.S. Use of the trail by American Indians for traveling; Cause in the shift in the location of the route; Purpose of traveling.

This article focuses on the commemoration of the pioneers who founded the U.S. and the role of a school in Americanizing education in the U.S. On February 21, 1930, U.S. President Herbert Hoover appreciated the heroism of those pioneers who crossed the Oregon Trail to the Far West. Edith A. Ford, an English educator, was surprised by a school that Americanized forty-seven nationalities.

The article focuses on the 100th anniversary of the covered wagons in the United States. On April 10, 1930, the first covered wagon had its journey from St. Louis, Missouri to the Rocky Mountains. In 1930, the role of the covered wagon and the Oregon Trail should be explained in schools, churches, clubs and societies.

The article focuses on the success of Howard R. Driggs, a professor at New York University and president of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association, in making the Ox-team Trail the best known of all modern pioneering. Driggs used the principles of organization, infinite patience and patriotic appeal to promote and Oregon Trail.