Editing Southwestern United States (section)

==Origins of the term and historical/cultural variations==
While this article deals with the core definition for the American Southwest, there are many others. The various definitions can be broken down into four main categories: Historical/Archeological; Geological/Topographical; Ecological; and Cultural. In the 1930s and 1940s, many definitions of the Southwest included all or part of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, and Utah. As time has gone on, the definition of the Southwest has become more solidified and more compact. For example, in 1948 the [[National Geographic Society]] defined the American Southwest as all of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, and the southernmost sections of Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming, as well as parts of southwest Nebraska, western Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. By 1977, the Society's definition had narrowed to only the four states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico; and by 1982 the portion of the Southwest in the United States, as defined by the Society, had shrunk to Arizona and New Mexico, with the southernmost strip of Utah and Colorado, as well as the Mojave and Colorado deserts in California.<ref name=UAtpncd /> Other individuals who focus on Southwest studies who favored a more limited extent of the area to center on Arizona and New Mexico, with small parts of surrounding areas, include [[Erna Fergusson]], [[Charles Lummis]] (who claimed to have coined the term, the Southwest), and cultural geographer [[Raymond Gastil]], and ethnologist [[Miguel León-Portilla]].<ref name=UAtpncd />

Geographer [[D. W. Meinig]] defines the Southwest in a very similar fashion to Reed: the portion of New Mexico west of the [[Llano Estacado]] and the portion of Arizona east of the [[Mojave Desert|Mojave]]-[[Sonoran Desert]] and south of the "canyon lands" and also including the [[El Paso, Texas|El Paso]] district of western Texas and the southernmost part of Colorado.<ref>''Meinig'', pp. 3–8</ref> Meinig breaks the Southwest down into four distinct subregions. He calls the first subregion "[[Northern New Mexico]]," and describes it as focused on [[Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque]] and [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]]. It extends from the [[San Luis Valley]] of southern Colorado to south of [[Socorro, New Mexico|Socorro]] and including the [[Sandia-Manzano Mountains]], with an east–west breadth in the north stretching from the upper [[Canadian River]] to the upper [[San Juan River (Colorado River)|San Juan River]]. The area around Albuquerque is sometimes called [[Central New Mexico]].

"Central Arizona" is a vast metropolitan area spread across one contiguous sprawling oasis, essentially equivalent to the [[Phoenix metropolitan area]]. The city of [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] is the largest urban center, and located in the approximate center of the area that includes [[Tempe, Arizona|Tempe]], [[Mesa, Arizona|Mesa]], and many others.<ref>''Meinig'', pp. 103–106</ref>

Meinig calls the third subregion "El Paso, Tucson, and the Southern Borderlands." While [[El Paso, Texas|El Paso]] and [[Tucson, Arizona|Tucson]] are distinctly different cities, they serve as anchor points to the hinterland between them. [[Tucson, Arizona|Tucson]] occupies a large oasis at the western end of the El Paso-Tucson corridor. The region between the two cities is a major transportation trunk with settlements serving both highway and railway needs. There are also large mining operations, ranches, and agricultural oases. Both El Paso and Tucson have large military installations nearby; [[Fort Bliss]] and [[White Sands Missile Range]] north of El Paso in New Mexico, and, near Tucson, the [[Davis-Monthan Air Force Base]]. About {{convert|70|mi|km}} to the southeast are the research facilities at [[Fort Huachuca]]. These military installations form a kind of hinterland around the El Paso-Tucson region, and are served by scientific and residential communities such as [[Sierra Vista, Arizona|Sierra Vista]], [[Las Cruces, New Mexico|Las Cruces]], and [[Alamogordo, New Mexico|Alamogordo]]. El Paso's influence extends north into the [[Mesilla Valley]], and southeast along the Rio Grande into the [[Trans-Pecos]] region of Texas.<ref>''Meinig'', pp. 112–114</ref>

The fourth subregion Meinig calls the "Northern Corridor and Navajolands," a major highway and railway trunk which connects Albuquerque and [[Flagstaff, Arizona|Flagstaff]]. Just north of the transportation trunk are large blocks of American Indian land.<ref>''Meinig'', pp. 114–119</ref>

===Historical/archeological===
{{See also|Oasisamerica}}
As the [[Territorial evolution of the United States|US expanded westward]], the country's [[American frontier|western border]] also shifted westward, and consequently, so did the location of the Southwestern and [[Northwestern United States]]. In the early years of the United States, [[Overmountain Men|newly colonized lands]] lying immediately west of the Appalachian Mountains were [[State cessions|detached]] from North Carolina and given the name [[Southwest Territory]]. During the decades that followed, the [[Old Southwest|region known as "the Southwestern United States"]] covered much of the [[Deep South]] east of the Mississippi River.

However, as territories and eventual states to the west were added after the [[Mexican–American War]], the geographical "Southwest" expanded, and the relationship of these new acquisitions to the South itself became "increasingly unclear."<ref name="ReferenceA">"Encyclopedia of Southern Culture". Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris. University of North Carolina Press 1989</ref>

However, archeologist, Erik Reed, gives a description which is the most widely accepted as defining the American Southwest, which runs from Durango, Colorado in the north, to Durango, Mexico, in the south, and from Las Vegas, Nevada in the west to Las Vegas, New Mexico in the East. Reed's definition is roughly equivalent to the western half of the Learning Center of the American Southwest's definition, leaving out any portion of Kansas and Oklahoma, and much of Texas, as well as the eastern half of New Mexico. Since this article is about the Southwestern United States, the areas of Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico will be excluded. The portion left includes Arizona and western New Mexico, the very southernmost part of Utah, southwestern Colorado, the very tip of west Texas, and triangle formed by the southern tip of Nevada. This will be the defined scope that is used in this article unless otherwise specified in a particular area.<ref name=LCASDefine />

===Geological/topographical===
[[File:LCASMapoftheSouthwest.jpg|225px|thumb|upright=1.35|Map of the Southwestern United States as defined by the Learning Center of the American Southwest<ref name=LCASDefine/>]]
Parts of the other states make up the various areas that can be included in the Southwest, depending on the source. The Learning Center of the American Southwest (LCAS){{efn|Quote:"The Learning Center of the American Southwest is a collaboration among 48 national park units in four NPS Inventory and Monitoring Networks, three Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs), and several nonprofit partners. This partnership is dedicated to understanding and preserving the unique resources of the American Southwest through science and education."}} does not rely on current state boundaries, and defines the American Southwest as parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah.<ref name=LCASDefine>{{cite web | url=http://www.southwestlearning.org/topics/defining-southwest | publisher=Learning Center of the American Southwest | title=Defining the Southwest | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701090148/http://www.southwestlearning.org/topics/defining-southwest | archive-date=July 1, 2017 | url-status=usurped }}</ref>
From this perspective, almost all of the region's physiographical traits, geological formations, and weather are contained within a box between 26° and 38° northern latitude, and 98° 30' and 124° western longitude.<ref name=UAtsd>{{cite web | url=http://jsw.library.arizona.edu/3403/defined.html | publisher=University of Arizona | title=The Southwest Defined | editor-last=Wilder | editor-first=Joseph Carlton | access-date=July 11, 2015}}</ref>

===Ecological===
When looking at the fauna of the region, there is a broader definition of the American Southwest. The Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research defines the Southwest as being only the states of Arizona, New Mexico, with parts of California, Nevada, Texas, and Utah; although they include all of those six states in their map of the region, solely for ease of defining the border.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://southwesternherp.com/americansouthwestdefined.html | publisher=Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research | title=The American Southwest Defined | access-date=July 13, 2015}}</ref>

===Cultural===
[[File:Apache Wickiup, Edward Curtis, 1903.jpg|thumb|The [[Wigwam]]. A dwelling used by various Native American tribes among the Southwestern US.]]
[[File:Drawing of a country store by Marguerite Martyn.jpg|thumb|Fanciful drawing by [[Marguerite Martyn]] in the ''[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]'' of October 21, 1906, headed "Passing of the Country Store in the Southwest"]]
Lawrence Clark Powell, a major bibliographer whose emphasis is on the Southwest, defined the American Southwest in a 1958 ''[[Arizona Highways]]'' article as, "the lands lying west of the Pecos, north of the [Mexican] Border, south of the Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon, and east of the mountains which wall off Southern California and make it a land in itself."<ref name=UAtpncd>{{cite web | url=http://jsw.library.arizona.edu/3403/problem.html | publisher=University of Arizona | title=Land, Sky, and People: The Southwest Defined – The Problem: No Consistent Definition | last=Byrkit | first=James W. | editor-last=Wilder | editor-first=Joseph Carlton | year=1992 | access-date=July 11, 2015}}</ref>

Texas has long been the focal point of this dichotomy, and is often considered, as such, the ''core area'' of "the South's Southwest."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> While the [[Trans-Pecos]] area is generally acknowledged as part of the ''desert Southwest'',<ref>"The Southwest Defined. Edited by Joseph Carlton Wilder. University of Arizona Press</ref> most of Texas and large parts of Oklahoma are often placed into a sub-region of the [[Southern United States|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 [[Confederate States of America|history]], [[Culture of the Southern United States|culture]], [[Solid South|politics]], [[Bible Belt|religion]], and [[Southern American English|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 [[Southeastern United States|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 having been a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate state]] during the Civil War—is that Indigenous and Spanish American culture never played a central role in the development of this area in relative comparison to the others, as the vast majority of settlers were Anglo and blacks from the South.<ref name="ReferenceB">Cultural Regions of the United States. Raymond Gastil. University of Washington Press 1975</ref> Although the present-day state of Oklahoma was [[Indian Territory]] until the early 20th century, many of these American Indians 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, southeastern pioneers made up a disproportionate number of these newcomers. All this contributed to the new state having a character that differed from other parts of the Southwest with large American Indian populations.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

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 consider 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.<ref>Southern Focus Poll 1992–1999. Odom Institute; Center for the Study of the American South.</ref>

[[File:A026, Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA, 1998.jpg|thumb|upright|A Joshua tree (''[[Yucca brevifolia]]'')]]