Page 128 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APTER THREE

gratitude fr om the womenfolk.These were the various traders who used
scares to fu rther their own economic ventures and who were considered
by some to be "as roguish and treacherous as the Indians themselves." 144
In some cases, they initiated alarms to draw cavalry to the area in order
to sell them their corn and other goods. In other instances, they stirred
up the natives themselves, intending to plunder their goods during the
ensuing confusion.145 Government agents, renegade Frenchmen, Union
and Confederate soldiers, Catholic priests, and Mormons were also often
accused of inciting Indian scares to enhance their own economic and
religious ends. 146
W o men's remarks reveal a gender-based tension regarding men's
and women's abilities to handle themselves in the f a ce of danger. The
men clearly expected the women to be nervous and silly. Surprisingly,
given nineteenth-century injunctions about male strength, many
women anticipated ineptness and even irrationality on the part of men.
Evidently, women did not meekly accept the role of helpless protectee
to courageous male protectors. Barred by social norms fr om taking mat­
ters into their own hands, they could express their dissatisfaction with
the lack of security through jibes directed toward the men. One might
even argue that if women had fe lt relatively safe and protected by their
men they would not have acted in the panic-stricken manner that they
so often displayed. In turn, the inability of both males and fe males to
grapple effectively with the threat of native violence contributed to
rumors and scares.

-- The Indian Perspective --

In the f a ce of invading whites, Indians initially went about their own
business. Because Indians had not been briefed regarding white migrants
and their sensibilities, they continued hunting buffalo and other game
animals, as well as pursuing petty infighting and more substantial wars
among tribes. On the Great Plains and in the Southwest, Indians were
effective hunters and fighters. Thanks to the Spanish reintroduction of
the horse to North America, these groups were mounted and highly

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