Page 127 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONTIER P R O CESS: VILIFYING

taking such action as negotiating treaties, redeeming captives, chasing
Indians, and protecting the stock.138
Seemingly, such an aggressive stance on the part of f r ontiersmen
Y
should have allayed much of the women's distress. e t women were not
always impressed with either the good sense or the physical abilities of
their men. Instead, they were often doubtful, even caustic, in their state­
ments regarding the protection f r om American Indians afforded them
by their menfolk. There seemed to be too much braggadocio in the air
to indicate the possibility of reasoned and effective response by men.As
W
Lydia a ters phrased it: "I should say we had some mighty men of valor
with us. The Indians would die of r ight as soon as they saw them! These
f
mighty men could fire f o rty shots out of their wagons without reload­
ing!"139 Other women joked about their men's military might.
Surveying her well-armed husband with his bowie knife and pistols,
Lucy Cooke remarked, "Hope he won't hurt himself."140 And after
watching the men of her f a mily fire fifty shots to kill one cow, Maria
Schrode wryly observed, "We think the Indians would be in great danger
if they should attack us."141
White women also suspected white men of causing alarms to gain
something f o r themselves. After enduring several traumatic scares with
other terrified women and children, the T e xan settler Julia Sinks
concluded that they were largely the work of "ladies' men," who had
created the threat of siege to excite "a host of fe ars f o r the pleasure of
allaying them." According to Sinks, there were several men in Austin
"who f o ught windmills diligently, bringing in their somber visages as if
laden with the news of terrible calamity." Once the women were
sufficiently alarmed, these men would pass among them, "assiduously"
offering their protection." 142 Even more than ladies' men, Sinks dis­
trusted the influential white leader Samuel Houston, especially when he
took the part of American Indians.Julia Sinks emphasized that although
Houston was a charismatic figure with a widespread f o llowing, his elo­
quence on behalf of Indians was wasted. According to her, most T e xans
"hardly classed" Indians "with the people in its usual sense," and
Houston's "sympathies were outside the common pale of thought." 143
As evil as Sinks's men appear, there were other f r ontiersmen whose
motives were more devious than the solicitation of attention and

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