Westward Expansion

While reading John Sedgwick’s article (“Whistle Down the Line,” July/August 2021), I was waiting for a mention that the construction of the railroad across the American West was the death knell for the Indigenous people who had lived there for millennia. He describes Colorado in 1873 as “empty.” Talking about the history of the westward expansion of the railroad without mentioning its effects on the Native people is like talking about the history of the Second World War without mentioning the Holocaust.

— David Singer | Fairfax, Virginia