Anachronisms?


As several onscreen titles say, The Oregon Trail happens in 1846.

The wagon master for the wagon train was grizzled old former mountain man George Seton, portrayed by Henry Hull (1890-1977). If George Seton was 69, the same age as Henry Hull, he would have been born in 1776 or 1777.

George Seton told Neal Harris how he had married a Sioux woman and had a family, but Arapahoes had attacked the village they lived in while George was away and massacred his family.

Most people are ignorant of Indian Wars history, but in the Indian Wars era the Cheyenne and Arapaho were allies. According to Indian year counts and oral history they allied with each other about 1811. The Sioux were enemies of the Cheyenne, and drove them out of the Black Hills before 1800.

So if the Arapaho allied with the Cheyenne about 1811 that would make them enemies of the Sioux after 1811, even if they weren't enemies before. So if Araphos massacred a Sioux village sometime between 1811 and 1820, it would be a long time ago by 1846, and yet George Seton could have been in his thirties and married with children at the time.

So why did I suspect that there might be an anachronism with Arapahos massacring a Sioux camp when George Seton was young? Because by the 1860s the Sioux were allied with the northern Cheyenne and northern Arapaho and so warriors from the three nations sometimes fought together against the US army.

In fact, by 1846 the process of the northern Cheyenne and northern Arapaho allying with the Sioux should have begun. So the Arapaho wouldn't have much reason to continue the war of previous decades by trying to kill George Seton. But George Seton's last words are that revenge is no good for anyone. They suggest that George Seton sought revenge against the Arapaho for decades, like "Liver Eating" Johnson did against the Crows for similar reasons, and thus the Arapahos tried for decades to kill him in revenge for his revenge.

Aha! I did find an anachronism! The book The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life, by Francis Parkman, is mentioned several times and at least 2 copies are seen. It was serialized in Knickerbocker's Magazine in 1847-1849, and published as a book in 1849, three years after the movie's fictional events.

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