Page 126 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APTE R TH R E E

century, they intensified around the turn o f the twentieth century.
Between Wild Bill Cody's parade of Rough Riders, which he intro­
duced in 1 8 93, and Theodore Roosevelt's military Rough Riders in the
W a r of 1898, expectations of men to be brave and even invincible
intensified notably. 1} 2 Whether early or late in the era, however, west­
ering men often showed themselves to be human beings. Predictably,
there were instances of outright cowardice, as in the case of the English­
man who took refuge under a wagon during a threatened siege and
loudly proclaimed himself an alien while invoking the protection of
King George. 133 But most men maintained that they did not f e ar Native
Americans and would route them through strength of arms. Such asser­
tions led to the organization of protective associations, in the appoint­
ment of military "captains" to lead trains, in arming and drilling by men,
and in the posting of many guards. 134 Often such precautions were
fo und to be what migrant Fancher Stimson described as "cumbersome
and undesirable," especially as the f e ar of Indians was quickly dispelled.
T y pically, they not only disbanded but became a "subject of merri­
ment."135 In other instances, such measures remained very much in fo rce
so that white people were always prepared f o r an Indian attack. 13 6
These military efforts by fr ontiersmen etched in sharp relief the
differences between the men and women of an expedition. While
Samuel Newcomb described the ineffective actions of women, his wife
Susan noted in her 1 8 67 diary that "the men over hauled the Indians
yesterday." At another point she recorded that some men hunting Indians
to locate their camps had returned with three native scalps. Stuck at
home, unable to take any action herself, and f e arful f o r her husband's
safety, Susan retaliated with invective, the only way available to her to
cope with the f r ustrating situation. She railed against the U.S. govern­
ment, which she fe lt did not supply whites with adequate protection,
and against American Indians. In her view, President Ulysses S. Grant
should personally battle Indians until he was willing to order out enough
military power "to scalp every red skin in the universe."When soldiers
were finally sent after the "red imps of the earth" she hoped that the
army would "scalp the last one of them, f o r they are too bad to be
endured."137 Her husband Samuel, while also vitriolic in his complaints
against the government and the natives, was much more capable of

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