Southwestern United States - Origins of The Term and Historical/cultural Variations

Origins of The Term and Historical/cultural Variations

The term "Southwest" originally referred to a "major subregion" of the American South, literally being the western frontier of the larger region. This "Old Southwest" of the 19th century included, at varying points in time, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Louisiana. After its revolution and statehood, Texas became considered part of this designation. However, as territories and eventual states to the west were added after the Mexican War, the geographical "Southwest" expanded and the relationship of these new acquisitions to the South itself became "increasingly unclear."

Texas has long been the focal point of this dichotomy, and is often considered as such to be the "core area" of "the South's Southwest". While the Trans-Pecos area is generally acknowledged to be part of the "desert Southwest" most of Texas and large parts of Oklahoma are often placed into a sub-region of the South, which some consider Southwestern in the general framework of the original application, meaning the "Western South." This is an area containing the basic elements of Southern history, culture, politics, religion, and linguistic and settlement patterns, yet blended with traits of the frontier West. While this particular Southwest is notably different in many ways from the classic "Old South" or Southeast, these features are strong enough to give it a separate Southwestern identity quite different in nature from that of the Interior Southwestern states to the west.

One of these distinguishing characteristics in Texas—in addition to being a Confederate state during the Civil War—is that Native and Spanish American culture never played a central role in the development of this area in relative comparrison to the others, as the vast majority of settlers were Anglo and blacks from the South. Although the present day state of Oklahoma was Indian Territory until the early 20th Century, many of these Native-Americans were from the southeastern United States and became culturally assimilated early on. The majority of members of these tribes also allied themselves with the Confederacy during the Civil War. Combined with that once the territory was open for settlement, it was southeastern pioneers which made up a disporportionate number of these newcomers, all lent to the new state having a different character than other parts of the Southwest which also contained a large Indian population.

The fact that a majority of residents of Texas and Oklahoma—unlike those in other "Southwestern" states—self-identify as living in the South and considering themselves Southerners—rather than the West and Westerners—also lends to treating these two states as a somewhat distinct and separate entity in terms of regional classification.