The American West is an extremely ethnically diverse region. Large populations of immigrants and natives to it have established an Anglo, western population that continues to feel confined culturally and, more importantly, racially. Racial diversity may exist in the West, but inclusion is not intrinsic of diversity. Anglo westerners have worked to forge an identity void of other races existing in the West for centuries. Exclusion of Indians, Mexicans, blacks, and Asians took place in the West's short history as an effort by whites to preserve their Anglo-western identity.
By the 1860's it was clear that Anglo westerners had solidified their intentions to separate their white society from that of the Indians. …