Page 100 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

CHAPT E R Two

but equal. 2IIYet, to Indians, it was a matter of pride that men and women
had their appropriate duties, which they performed f a ithfully and well.
An Indian woman could insult another most severely by saying, "You
let your husband carry burthens." T o European ears, however, this
sounded like a complaint rather than an expression of pride in one's
duties. 212 Europeans could not understand that an American Indian male
walking in fr ont of a f e male did not signify the woman's inferiority, but
indicated that since the male was expendable he was placing himself in
the way of an attack and thereby protecting the more valuable f e male,
who would propagate and care f o r the race.213 Nor did they see that
separate dances and amusements did not automatically indicate male dis­
dain f o r women.214
In addition, European critics apparently f a iled to see the contra­
dictions in their descriptions of native women, who were portrayed as
beribboned and bedecked with ornaments, beads, and finely worked
clothing, which hardly signified contemptible and degraded slaves. They
also did not seem to see any problem in their accounts of love-struck
Indian swains, who went to great lengths to court their loved ones, or
their descriptions of elaborate marriage ceremonies, both of which indi­
cated esteem f o r women.Another paradox occurred in Europeans' com­
ments when they praised the exquisite basketry, ingenious quill work,
and fine weaving of the women.215 Europeans were apparently unaware
that such skills could not be achieved nor such crafts produced by slave­
like beasts of burden who had neither leisure time nor the necessary
status to develop the marks of a cultured and productive society.216
Evidently, the view of Native American women as unfortunate
workhorses, who became brutalized and cruel as a result of their hus­
bands' treatment, was more amenable to most Europeans than the depic­
tion of Indian women as skillful, respected, and well treated.
Consequently, travelers f r equently rendered accounts of "savage
women" who were "as insolent as the men were cruel."217 Novelists
too-even May-often portrayed native women as outrageous figures
capable of inflicting the worst kinds of tortures upon their victims.218
Occasionally a dissonant note challenged this account of American
Indian women. In 1859, a Norwegian traveler described a huge, respect­
fu l assemblage gathered around the pyre of an Indian woman.2I9 A

92