Page 102 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APTER Two

The willingness of Europeans to see white women as near saints and
Indian women as total savages was the logical outcome of the belief that
white people were destined to inherit the earth and, most immediately,
the American W e st. This message was surely not lost on generations of
European and American women who, when migrating westward, f o und
themselves cast as "natural" opponents of American Indians.

These European perceptions greatly influenced European and American
philosophies regarding fe male migrants and American Indians. European
writers encouraged the idea that the mettle and moral powers of white
women were to be tested on western fr ontiers. Although men were
physically stronger, women possessed exceptional virtue.Women's moral
f o rtitude would not only carry them through, it would enable them to
help the throngs of native peoples they encountered. But would Native
Americans want what these women had to offer, namely white moral­
ity and virtue? The stories white women heard regarding debased and
rapacious Indians suggested that Indians might reject women's gifts, yet
this circumstance made "helping " the Indians more challenging. Even
those white women who had little interest in aiding the Indians believed
that their very existence in the West would be a civilizing fo rce.
f
Thus, the philosophy phase of r ontier migration was strong, ration­
alizing whites' entry into someone else's domain. W o men especially
believed they were doing the right thing, especially if Indians were as
"bad" as depicted. Naturally, danger was involved, but women's genteel
nature could overcome almost anything. The next step was to set fr on­
tier process in motion by venturing out onto a trail, whether by land or
sea, thus testing the validity of frontiering ideology. Confused by inac­
curate beliefs about themselves and American Indians, westering women
were soon thrust into a climate of rumor and alarmism. Primed to
believe the worst, many f r ontierswomen would need time before they
could replace the attitudes they had learned with more accurate per­
ceptions derived f r om their own day-to-day experiences in the W e st.

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