Natalie Merchant’s song “Gold Rush Brides” offers an impression of history, and also reflects on the one-sided nature of historiography. The song simultaneously evokes the myth and mystique of the wild west, of the days of frontier settlement when men and women ventured west seeking their fortunes and in the process encountered the native people who they would kill. Merchant draws interesting parallels between the frontier mentality and patriarchy, too, showing that the stories of women have vanished (“who were the homestead wives? Who were the gold rush brides?”) just as Native American stories and whole cultures were being obliterated, driven by nothing but a “lust for gold.” In fact, Merchant makes the connection between women and Native Americans even more direct in the line, “Dakota on the wall is a white-robed woman.” As Foner discusses the start of the gold rush in the Dakotas, Merchant mentions this lesser-known start of the gilded age and the zeitgeist of westward expansion. People were displaced, and lands reclaimed much in the way Eric Foner describes in his historical account of the gilded age and the transformation of the west.

Full of pathos, Merchant’s song also captures the lived experiences of those whose lives were lost. As many people “struck it rich,” (Foner 644), many others perished and the legacy of the gold rush and westward expansion included genocide. For example, Merchant refers to yellow fever and sings: “The land was free, yet it cost their lives.” History is, however, typically told by the victors and by men who control its narrative. Merchant opts for changing that narrative to include the voices of the oppressed. While the myth of the gold rush was crafted by white men who justified their exploitations with Manifest Destiny. However, the experiences of women and Native Americans expose the other side of the coin, revealing the tragedies that westward expansion unleashed upon large numbers of people. Both Foner’s text and Merchant’s song captures the bittersweet, dichotomous nature of human history.

Works Cited

Foner, Eric. “Toward a Global Presence.”

Merchant, Natalie. “Gold Rush Brides.”