Page 104 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

CHAPT E R THREE

prejudice. e achings about women's moral authority, white superiority,
T
Manifest Destiny, and European-style colonialism were so deeply
entrenched, they remained always at the back of women's minds. Even
though a significant number of white fe male migrants adjusted their
thinking toward Indians, they retained a great deal-which they passed
on to their children and grandchildren.

-- On the T r ails --

After 1 8 40, so many people went west that an industry sprouted, sup­
plying everything f r om wagons to guidebooks. Preparations might take
a few months or an entire year. By the time migrants reached their par­
ticular trail, they were already anxious and overwrought, only to find
themselves thrust into a climate of thought rife with rumors and alarms.
Pioneering was as much human adaptation to a new physical environ­
ment as anything else. In these new environments, where there were
not many people or the customary social institutions, white peoples
reacted in ways they would not have at home.2 Those who came f r om
lesser situations adj u sted better, but this was not the case fo r most white
migrants who were of the middle classes and had the financial where­
withal to migrate.
Women, as well as men, were convinced that they were about to
come f a ce to f a ce with the fiendish visages of creatures who were little
more than consorts of the devil. The specter of savages hung heavy
around them as they stepped gingerly upon the trail. Indian "sign" was
everywhere they looked-lurking beside the trail, hidden in every bush
and tree, or outlined along the horizon by the rays of the rising or set­
ting sun. If women's nerves were not already thoroughly f r azzled by the
time they turned westward, the gossip that enveloped them as they began
their trek was enough to bring them to the edge of terror in a very short
time. Aggravating the situation was the pettiness and meanness with
which whites and natives often treated each other; thus injecting an ele­
ment of truth into the awful tale-telling.
By translating their fe ars into ubiquitous rumors, migrants created