Frontier Theory and the Omission of Native Americans

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the issues and implications of Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Theory” proposed at the 1893 World Fair, and research the long-term effects that this theory has carried into the modern century. Through content analysis, this paper will examine the role that Native Americans currently and historically have in American Textbooks and literature, as well as the differential treatment of Native Americans at the hands of this thesis. This paper will examine the retelling of American history and the United States’ involvement with Native American tribes during the expansion of the nation. This paper will use this content analysis to effectively describe and detail the aftermath of Turner’s assertion, and if the Frontier Thesis played a role in scrubbing Native American contributions from the face of United States history.