Yes. It wasn’t exactly my area of expertise, but IIRC, US policy started to change in 1836, when Jackson (who hated Indians) was president. Things really got rolling after the Civil War and the Homestead Act, and then the discovery of gold in the Black Hills.
For those who are interested, British historian John Keegan goes in detail into the Colonial and US military presence on the frontier in his book Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America.
I enjoyed that book, too! A and this coming from someone who wore her hair in two braids all through grade school. So, I know what I’m talking about. 
IIRC even Queen Victoria included the promise to obey in her wedding vows to Prince Albert, against the advice of her ministers and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Thank you thank you choie! I have been swamped this week and wanted to comment on some of these more, um, interesting interpretations. Just wondering, have you been to or are you planning on going to Laurapalooza? I am super excited for the next one!!
All of the rest of you want to meet some real die-hard fans – try going to one of the Conferences!!!
And if they’d had kid’s of their own, they’d have treated them the same way.
To be fair though, in Aus at that time, if you’re living in a one-room house, the girls sleep on the front porch, and boy sleep in the shed out back, the parents and the baby sleep in the kitchen/room.
Now that’s something I don’t remember learning in high school Australian history class six years ago!
I got that from the grand-son of a central-victoria farmer. He also told me that if you looked at pictures of the local football teams, you could see the change when the local ‘aboriginals’ disappeared because they were forced off the land.
Perversely, that illustrates that race relations were better in Vic than in some parts of Aus: local aboriginals played the local football game (and, arguably, contributed to the local rules and style of play).
[quote=“terentii, post:40, topic:685088”]
And they would have seen absolutely nothing wrong with it; such were the times. That sort of thing was perfectly acceptable for a lot longer than you probably think:
[/QUOTE] I'll match that any day with[this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Y2Ll24GRU).The illustrator is Garth Williams, who was well known for his illustrations in Stuart Little before he worked on the Little House books; his illustrations in Charlotte’s Web are also noteworthy.
As the quote below shows, he had read the books carefully.
"Williams received the commission to illustrate the new Little House edition in about 1947. To know the worlds of Laura’s childhood, Williams, who had never been west of the Hudson River, traveled the American Midwest to the places the Ingalls family had lived 70 years before, photographing and sketching landscapes, trees, birds and wildlife, buildings and towns. “The trip culminated in a search along the riverbank along Plum Creek where the family had built their dugout home, so long ago.
I did not expect to find the house, but I felt certain that it would have left an indentation in the bank. A light rain did not help my search, and I was about to give up when ahead of me I saw exactly what I was looking for, a hollow in the east bank of Plum Creek. I felt very well rewarded, for the scene fitted Mrs Wilder’s description perfectly.”
Probably not; this is the only known photograph of the young Laura and Almanzo together, taken a few months their wedding.
