The concept of settler colonialism offers an invaluable lens to reframe early westerns and travel films as re-enactments of this country’s repressed past. In short, these films stage a remarkable vision of white settlers’ westward expansion that reveals a transformation in what “American Progress” came to mean. Two interconnected pathways structure this book. The primary path links five chapters devoted to early westerns from the early 1900s to the late 1910s. A crucial shift occurs between the third and fourth chapters, coinciding with the outbreak of the Great War. The second path links four “side bars” that examine early travel films the often form close links with westerns. These films offered virtual tours in conjunction with the “See America First” movement. Both argue that early westerns and travel films were crucial to the ideological foundation of “our country.”