Shifting borders. On Texas independence ; A foreigner in my own land ; Mexican denunciations of the United States ; The Treaty of Hidalgo ; On seizing land from native Californians ; Walt Whitman : The Spanish element in our nationality -- Westward movement. The Fremont Expedition across the Sierra Nevada range ; Across the Plains in 1844 ; Donner Party diary ; The discovery of gold in California ; A woman's trip across the Plains ; Observations regarding the transcontinental railroad ; The rush to Oklahoma ; Mormon disavowal of plural marriage -- Indian wars and woes. Accounts of the Sand Creek massacre ; Status report on the condition of the Navajos ; Trouble on the Paiute reservation ; Treaty of Fort Laramie ; Accounts of the battle of Little Bighorn ; Speech by Chief Joseph on a visit to Washington, DC ; President Chester Arthur : Indian policy reform ; The surrender of Geronimo ; Dawes Act ; Wovoka : The messiah letter ; The ghost dance among the Lakota ; Eyewitness to the massacre at Wounded Knee ; Lakota accounts of the massacre at Wounded Knee -- Asian American affairs. A Chinese American protest ; People v. Hall ; Chinese Exclusion Act -- Cowboys and outlaws. On being a Pony Express rider ; Jesse James in his own defense ; On Billy the Kid ; Shootout at the O.K. corral ; Theodore Roosevelt in cowboy-land ; A scout with the Buffalo Soldiers -- Environmental actions. The Alaska purchase ; From Canyons of the Colorado ; The establishment of Yellowstone National Park ; The extermination of the American bison ; Features of the proposed Yosemite National Park ; Letters to John Muir -- Beyond the West. Buffalo Bill's Wild West show ; The significance of the frontier in American history ; The march of the flag -- Appendixes. Chronological list ; Web resources ; Bibliography ; Index.