Page 123 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

T
FRON I E R PROCESS: VILIFYING
they not only conducted themselves admirably in the f a ce of real danger
but aided other women whose nerves were not quite so steady. It was
remarkable that at least a f e w women retained their sanity when
confronted with an authentic siege. By being constantly reminded that
they were by nature weak and nervous, women were told that they were
expected to behave in a panic-prone f a shion when danger appeared
and that it was acceptable f o r them to do so. That such cowardly
behavior was expected and allowed created a situation in which even
the most self-possessed woman could easily succumb to the
pandemonium created by her sisters. T o maintain one's composure as
Native Americans were about to invade was difficult enough; to remain
calm as one's companions were creating bedlam was nearly impossible.
After an r853 f r ay, Harriet a rd explained that "I hardly think we ever
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suffer quite as much when anything of this kind really happens as we
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do in the anticipation." 7
In all fairness to fr ontierswomen, it should be noted that they had
two gender-related reasons to be concerned about native assaults. One
of these was the dread that almost every woman harbored of being
raped, or, to use the nineteenth-century euphemism, of being "passed
over the prairie" by Indian molesters. lI8 T e rrifying accounts of such
occurrences intimidated generations of f r o ntierswomen, keeping them
close to wagon, home, or f o rt. As Susan Newcomb phrased it in r865,
she was leery of going very f a r f r om Fort Davis, T e xas, in this "Indian
world." lI9 The other danger that alarmed women was the possible
seizure of their children by American Indian captors. Charged with child
care and lectured on maternal sensibilities, women reacted with horror
to stories of Indians who not only stole children but supposedly per­
petrated all manner of atrocities upon them. In an r876 attack on Fort
Lapwai that never materialized, Emily Fitzgerald stated that "for a fe w
moments, I think, we women with our helpless little children suffered
as much as if the Indians had really come." 120
Because men were cognizant of these menaces to women, some
avoided leaving women and children alone f o r long periods or alone at
all if they could avoid it. 121 If necessity dictated their absence, men fr e­
quently left their women with a last resort should Indians appear. One
woman's husband, who was about to defend her f r om approaching

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