Joe Rogan Experience #2058 - Elliott West

Joe Rogan talks with historian Elliott West about his decades-in-the-making book Continental Reckoning, exploring the staggering pace of change in the American West between 1850 and 1880. They cover the catastrophic role of disease in Native population collapse, the commodification and near-extinction of the bison, and the rise and fall of horse-based Native empires like the Comanche and Lakota. West argues that Western expansion was as important as the Civil War in making modern America. They also dissect how boarding schools inadvertently forged a pan-'Indian' identity, why gold triggered genuine genocide in California, and how romanticized Western movies whitewash the real history.

• Native delegations traveled to France and met King Louis XV in the 1720s, roughly 80 years before Lewis and Clark reached that region.
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• Native populations declined by as much as 90-94 percent, driven largely by diseases like smallpox to which Europeans had childhood-acquired immunity.
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• Boarding schools meant to 'kill the Indian' instead created a shared pan-Indian identity by forcing diverse tribes together under one language.
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• California's gold rush triggered one of the few clear cases of state-funded genocide, with militias paid by bond issues to kill Native people.
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• San Francisco's mint processed so much gold that dust blew out the smokestacks and crews swept it off nearby rooftops.
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• West argues Western expansion and the 1848 gold discovery were as decisive as the Civil War in forging modern industrial America.
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• The great Plains ranching empires were largely run by corporations, with stock sold in New York, Boston, and Edinburgh.
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• First documented syphilis cases appeared in Spain in 1493, suggesting Columbus's crews brought it back from the Americas.
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• The term 'bigwig' originated from French royals wearing ever-larger wigs to hide syphilis-related hair loss.
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• Horses evolved in North America over 50 million years, went extinct here, then were reintroduced by Europeans; zebras and asses descend from them.
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• Bison antiquus had horns so wide LeBron James could lie between the tips without touching either one.
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• Hunter-gatherer bands maxed out around 125 people, aligning with Dunbar's number for stable human relationships.
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• News of Custer's defeat at Little Bighorn reached the East on July 4th, 1876, America's 100th birthday.
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• The explosive spread of horses across the West followed the 1680 Pueblo Revolt that drove the Spanish out for 12 years.
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• Comanche warriors held multiple arrows between their fingers, firing far faster than a European could reload a single-shot musket.
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• More gold was mined in California in 1852 alone than in the entire world during the whole 18th century.
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