“The Friendly and Flowing Savage, Who Is He?”: Manifest Destiny, Native American Stereotypes, and How American Print Culture Closed the Western Frontier, 1865-1890

This article examines how 19th Century American print culture shaped white American perceptions of Amerindians. Between the close of the Civil War and the Wounded Knee Massacre, the American press, Indian captivity narratives, and fictional accounts reflect diverse white perspectives on and attitudes towards Native Americans’ past and future in a continental United States.